Tron: Legacy, the perfect name for a Sequel that introduced a new generation to a Gem.

As I said in the precious Blog post, Tron since the beginning has had themes of Religion and Authoritarianism, and also since the very beginning, it has had the reputation of saying and doind things that are far beyond its purview in the time it was released in and as a result was Massively misunderstood and much maligned.

I think the response to this movie was less that and more of a meh? I guess the times are finally starting to catch up with tron, and certainly that is the case with Tron: Ares(I mean if anything the fact that they are using Jared Leto makes it a little dated so people might hate it for that now... Goddammit Disney, cant you do anything right?)

But seriously, every review that I see about this movie is questioning why this movie isn't saying something about the world of Gaming or something, not realising that, thats not the point of this franchise at all? This Franchise is meant to, in a sci fi way, deal with the question of Humans playing God and subtle ideas of Religion.

But yeah, given how Dumb General audiences are I dont put it past them to miss the fucking point, I mean the Ten Rings of the Mandarin were Changed to Arm Rings from Finger Rings because the Average Joe popcorn would be Confused with the Infinity Stones and be like huh? Thanos Asian?

But for once this seemed to be the case with almost every reviewer all over the scene, everyone went in expecting something entirely different from what the movie was offering and as a result got Disappointed.

I mean seriously, did no one see the Parallels between Clu 2 and Kratos? Which yeah, this is Clu 2, the first one died in the first 10 minutes of Tron after being Tortured by the MCP.

Now Regardless, while the first movie touched on the MCP's desire to get rid of/punish all those who would follow the Users instead of him, to the point of calling them a defunct religion, one thing they never touched upon was the need of almost every would be Dictator to have a common enemy they can unite their followers against, I mean why do you think Hitles hated the Jews so much? Or Maximillian Robespierre was Such an Anti-Royal?

Now granted in the case of the French revolution, tje Royal Family actually was Shit and needed to be overthrown, the best way to hide evil, is often to pretend as if you are fighting another Evil, and if you jabe played Tron: Evolution/ seen my video on it then you would know exactly how clu Achieved that.

Regardless of whether you did that or not, the existence and Concept of Isos was explained pretty well.

In Any other movie the Isos would have been our worst fears come to life, I think especially with the new Trailers for Tron: Ares many people have realised that the "programs" in Tron Ares akin to an Artifical Intelligence.

The Isos then, are an example of a Spontaneous Artificial Intelligence, most if not all Programs have a preordained function that they must fulfill everyday till their cycles are complete and they are either discarded or replaced with a better one.

The idea of a Spontaneous Artificial Intelligence is that AI can begin to show human like characteristics without being specifically Trained or programmed for it, in this case they didnt just do that, these guys just came into existence, no one made them, they weren't planned.

Can you even call them Artificial at that point?

So yeah, the idea of a Conputer System giving rise to human like organisms with their own free will is a pretty scary concept.

And I guess once again people wanted them to "do something with it" or in otherwords confirm their fears and show the Isos as scary.

Strange how people decry the use of AI for not being Human enough in situations where human emotion is required while simultaneously when they begin to show human like characteristics such as self preservation, no thats too far!

Much like Clu we see the Isos as flaws in our perfect System, but not Flynn, Flynn understands the value of the power he has as an user in tje Grid, given how in the previous movie he had his taken away by ed dillinger and had to then fight for it with his spy program Clu 1 and actually get digitized to team up with Tron and Yori to defeat the MCP and find proof of Dillingers manipulation.

Speaking of, where the fuck is Yori? I mean given the way this movie actually treats Tron, the namesake of this Franchise, you woild think they woild at least show his girlfriend some respect, but we will get to that dont you worry.

Hey! I just realized this line even applies to the whole franchise.... Idk what to do with that...

So yeah, Flynn understands his power and he understands the power of unintended miracles and as such is enamored by the Isos, he wanted to bring them into our world and Revolutionize the world.

With their Digital DNA combined with the Humans, everything would change, disease war Religion, everything would be history.

At least so ge thought

But like Every good thing, its existence is not tolerated by everyone, Many see it as a threat to their world view, an imposition against their will.

Strangely enough it was Flynn who was Naive to not see it coming, or maybe he did, he just didnt see it coming from Clu, amd more strangely still, Clu truly believes he is fighting for the freedom of himself and those like him.

The Basics, the ones written by users.

The thing is, once you believe yourself to be working for the Greater good, you truly can even Justify Genocide.

Because that is what Clu did to the Isos, he killed them all.

All in the name of creating the perfect System.

And now that he has conquered the Grid, he wishes to take the War to the heavens, to the Users, which, yeah for them we are Gods.

Strangely though as programs they are far more powerful than we could ever hope to be, their arms and legs once derezzed can regenerate, they can crate new technology in an instant, they are only weak so long as they are inside the grid.

And especially for someone like Clu, once he gets out, its Game over, the guy doesn't dig imperfection, and what's more imperfect than our world?

Yeah, I know this is the funny line but seriously it applies here.

But Flynn is smart enough to not let Clu get out, even if it means living in exile for the rest of his life, trapped in his own creation.

And that is why Clu needs a new piece on the Game.

Sam Flynn, the protagonist of this movie and the son of Kevin Flynn, the one who made the Grid.

I believe since this movie was released back in the 80s they thought that Jeff bridges would go on to lead an entire franchise but then that did not happen and then 28 years passed, an entire human being was born and had children of their own in that time.

I guess it is no coincidence that Sam Flynn is 27 years old, he was supposedly born right after the events of the first movie and grew up to be Clu's one hope to getting Flynn's Identity disk.

Granted, there is no way to identify a user right away and he is misidentified and sent to the games, now while these do serve a narrative purpose, I believe the real reason this section exists is to show the new deregulation effects and as a call back to the gladiators games in the first one that MCP put programs through.

And also to show this awesome shot with Sam framed in an activated Identity disk no doubt.

This scene also introduces the idea of stray programs, something which is expanded on later in Tron: Uprising, basically they are programs with no identity disc, who then slowly loose all their memories, their Identity and their purpose, until given a new one.

Basically loosing an id disc makes programs loose their minds.

Sam is mistaken for a stray upon entry into the Grid.

In the games that he partakes in he is finally faced with a corrupted version of Tron called Rinzler.

Well I should say Repurposed really because the tie in Game had a completely different meaning for corrupted.

It is Rinzler who sees the blood and Recognizes Sam as a User.

Sam has one role in the story, being the one unknowable variable in the middle of everything that works on its own, is unpredictable and advances the plot.

Sam's actions directly advance the plot forwards, he is quite literally a plot device when it comes to looking at it from Clu's perspective, although in a certain sense the film does have a McGuffin that being Flynn's Disc, but Sam is basically the perfect Protagonist... and Quorra... Uh why did this film not succeed again?

Anyways.

After this we get yet another call back to the original 1982 movie in the Light Cycle battle between Clu with his Black Guards and Sam with some other condemned programs.

Obviously this is a massively skewed competition with the Black Guard Light Cycles being much faster than the one's of the condemned programs.

And the regulars are dying at a high rate with Clu using his disc repeatedly and not relying on the Light Ribbon like he is supposed to.

This obviously wasn't an option in the previous models as they were properly closed off and had a cockpit with the pilot's hands completely locked inside.

But regardless, Clu is cheating and the sky is still black, I mean it would be blue except there is never a Sun in the Grid, which is a whole plot point.

The Solar Sailer scene like in the previous movie is the place where all the characters decide to have the religious talks.

I guess its meant to be kind of poetic in a way, there is often nothing much to do when sailing a boat, especially when much of it is automated like the Solar Sailer.

Conversations naturally edge towards philosophy as you take in the amazing sights.

At first it is Flynn trying to tell Sam about the wonder of The Isos and how their Digitized DNA is the key to everything, he does this as he rewrites some of her code to make her regrow a previously De-Rezzed Arm.

This happens during a rescue attempt, the second one in this movie by Quorra for Sam, the first one being in the Game Grids from the Light Cycles, after which Father and son meet for the first time in almost seventeen years from the looks of it(Longer for Flynn because time runs Slower in the Grid)

And Sam after learning that his father would rather sit here and do nothing in Fear that Sam's presence here is proof of Clu's Manipulation and eventual Win in the "Game", than actually do something About it, decides to go on his own, to a club called the End of Line, which is run by a an Old Friend of Quorra, Zuse, who if you played the game previously gave ger control to the Solar Sailer Simulations.

Yeah he dies.

And after the fixing Quorra up stage of the philosophy talks is Done, Sam and Quorra Bond over seeing the beautiful scene created by the Light of the Portal.

This scene is really something because it Simultaneously has appreciation for a much lesser version of a Light From Heaven in the portals light signifying Flynn's Arrival to the Programs and also Simultaneously makes the viewer realize how lucky they are to have an actual light from Heaven in the Sun.

And right after this moment of Tranquility we get to see the True horror of Clu's Reign as one realizes that the Solar Sailer wasn't headed for the Portal, but instead takes a detour to Clu's Palace(I guess we can call it that right?).

It is filled with Programs held in temporary Stasis taken over to be "repurposed" an idea which is built upon in the Tie in show Uprising.

It is quite literal Brainwashing.

As Everyday Programs are put in pods to extract their core code and replace it with one that serves Clu Better.

Clu cannot create new programs, he can only repurpose them.

Quorra is captured by Clu and it just so happens that Clu has Flynn's Disk in storage at the same place as he prepares to give his Hitler Speech.

I guess the original Plan was to wait there at the portals for Clu to attempt using the Disk and then take it from him, but this works too I guess.

We then run into another scene with a Light Vehicle, this time the Light Jet, which is honestly one of the best scenes in this movie, not just because of the Visually gorgeous action but also because of the fact that we are finally able to see the limits of Clu's Repurposing, as Flynn asks his old friend what he has become and Tron snaps out of it.

Making it possible for them to escape and reverting his colours to his original White as he falls into the Sea of Simulation.

Flynn, Sam and Quorra finally arrive at the Potal but Flynn foresaw something, and he was correct, as Clu comes in at the same time he does.

And while he tries one of the cheapest tactics to get to Flynn's Disk, I do believe that the words escaping his mouth are Genuine.

The ultimate Irony is for Clu he sees his God, his Friend in front of him and tries to rub it in his face that he won, that he is the better man, and in the process doesn't see what's right in front of him.

I wonder if its a coincidence that what's in front of him currently is none other than Clu himself.

And he also doesn't see that in his final Act of Sacrifice Flynn is able to give up his only chance of Freedom and give his Disk to Quorra, so that the two best things to ever result from all his work can get to see the world as it is.

The last of the Iso and his Son.

The movie ends with Sam taking over Encom and taking the entire system in a pen-drive around his neck, and then Taking Quorra to see her first ever sunrise.

And you see the ending is another thing I like about this movie, this is the ending of a coming of Age story, and yet, the guy at its center is twenty seven years old, which is Older than me, goes to show, it is never too late to come of Age.

And I have thought long and hard about why this amazing movie with these gorgeous visuals and a banger concept wasn't able to catch everyone's imagination like it was mine?

Like I mean come on, you gotta like it for the Aesthetics alone right?

But then I realized that this is because it is an Isekai, there is a reason why so few of those reach great heights, we are seeing from the perspective of the one entering the new world, and while exploration is certainly a very interesting plot point, I mean people literally saw five movies about an archeologist fighting Nazi's while raiding tombs.(Indiana Jones everyone.)

But for that what is being explored needs to connect with the Audience, and that is difficult to do when it is so fictionalized, a better way to do it would be to look at it from the point of view of a character in the foreign world and see how the arrival of a Stranger and in this case a creator literally shatters their world view.

But I guess Hollywood hasn't reached that point yet, wait what do you mean they did that in the Show?