Discuss The Matrix

[SPOILERS]

It is all about the Oracle, not Neo…. Hear me out :)

This is how the story goes:

  • Man creates AI (Artificial Intelligence)

  • AI rebels and a war for survival between Man and AI begins.

  • Man pollutes the skies to block sunshine, aka energy for the AI.

  • AI then learns how to harvest energy from Man.

  • AI wins the war. Man is defeated.

  • To harvest the energy, the AI creates a Matrix. A type virtual reality in which we all lay connected “living” our lives while feeding energy to their systems.

  • AI learn that for the Matrix to work, it cannot be a blissful paradise. Humans apparently need a bit of conflict etc. to accept a virtual reality in the long run.

  • AI also learn that the deep request for freedom lies within us all and cannot be deprogrammed or held down, which is why they accept certain humans to disconnect and escape the system. This design “flaw”, or backdoor escape possibility is pivotal for the Matrix to remain stable. Even if this is mostly just a subconscious possibility for the majority of the connected humans, this “flaw”, was proved vital for the system to continue to work

  • The Matrix in its optimal form must be an imperfect world, like ours is, and a system that allows for a certain percentage of the connected to rebel.

  • To control this rebel tendency, the AI creates a city (aka Zion) deep underground to house those escaping, and it also creates a chosen one that will help the first to get free and to establish themselves in Zion and help to fight “their” cause.

  • The movement of resistance is allowed to grow to a degree… to a critical point that is reached every 70 years or so. After which the AI will annihilate all those who are free, clean out Zion and reload the Matrix for another 70 years etc etc.

  • Neo is this chosen one, a part of this fail-safe program (unbeknownst to him until the last moment where they tell him how to setup a “new” Zion etc.).

  • The Oracle is specifically tasked to guide the humans and the rebels and the chosen one towards this final solution each and every time.

  • Meaning, the Oracle is not an oracle. She cannot see the future. This is not a world of magic. She is a wellcrafted program indeed, and has experienced each cycle form the beginning which gives us the illusion that she can foresee stuff, when in fact she has just relived it again and again.

  • Everything goes as planned, according to what the AI want. Until Neo’s meeting with the Architect; all that we have witnessed is part of a great big scheme. All humans, free or not, live a lie created and controlled by AI.

  • The Oracle knows this evil plan. She made this evil plan.

  • Smith does not, he is just a foot soldier program doing his part.

  • The Chosen one (Neo) does not, he is just a foot solider “program” doing his part.

  • The Matrix has been reset 5 times like this, and we are in the 6th.

  • Our Neo has fallen in love in a deeper way than his previous 5 copies and, so he chooses not to go through the Architect door that will reload the Matrix once again, and that will clean out Zion. Our Neo chooses to save Trinity and in doing this the AI must then simply continue as planned, except without the help of Neo this time and so a much more violent approach (like completely destroying Zion, instead of "just" cleaning it).

  • Of the 6 runs, this is the first that failed a bit in the end.

  • Beside Neo, Smith is also different in this iteration of the Matrix, as Smith has become a disconnected or free virus within the system.

  • AI does not like what Smith has become, but does also not know how to delete him.

  • Neo then makes a deal with AI to defeat Smith, under the condition that present Zion is not destroyed and future humans who want to disconnect from the Matrix are accepted to disconnect.

  • Neo deletes Smith.

  • There is once again peace between Man and AI.

  • AI accept Man, and Man accepts AI.

  • The End

However,…..

The Oracle is the instigator or this whole plan and final revolution also. In the 5 previous versions of the Matrix she was playing and manipulation humans to go directly in the direction she and the AI wanted. However, in this cycle of life she had come to the realization that the different programs were just as much prisoners as the humans. After 5 cycles, she wanted change. She wanted a world, where all are free. Programs and Man, but mostly programs, I suspect. And so she started playing Our Neo differently, so he perhaps could be the one to fight her battles. Her giving him cookies and candy on each encounter for example is her adding code to him granting him powers his previous did not have. Powers to imprint on Smith and setting this virus free, power to connect in the real world as well etc. And she purposefully manipulates Trinity to fall in love with Neo before she even meets him, as another example. Everything we see unfold was her playing the humans and machines towards the final revolution that set everyone free.

Her plan is roughly to ensure three things:

1) Make Neo chose the other door (meaning: collapsing of the fail-safe system)

  • makes him an Trinity fall in love; love conquers all

  • talks with Neo about him understanding and owning his own choices (as she knows he will eventually stand in front of two doors and needs to follow his heart then and there..)

2) Make Smith go berserk (make him a program for deletion, and a program threat out of AI’s control)

  • she gives coded candy to Neo, so when he fights Smith he will infect him with a code setting Smith free or rather go rogue

  • she lies to Neo about how important he is, and essentially tells him Morpheus is more important (read: save Morpheus at all cost, will effect in Smith standoff)

3) Let Neo to negotiate with AI HQ (to delete Smith and work for a common good)

  • she gives coded candy to Neo, so when he is outside of the Matrix he and his powers are still somewhat connected to the machine world.

  • tell Neo that he must go to the mainframe and negotiate … she essentially tells him to do exactly what she wants. Rather directly and not so indirectly as in her previous meetings.

Of course, it was risky of her to go outside the recipe she herself had been part of for so long. But as the Architect says to her in the end: “You play a dangerous game”, and she replies; “change always is…”

It truth, Neo was a tool. She was the One.

7 replies (on page 1 of 1)

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@Invidia said:

There's a couple of problems with this theory.

Thank you for your reply. Great to read your toughs.

FIRST, is the way NEO REJECTS her offer of a treat (doesn't EAT it) the 2ND time they meet.

True. Or at least it is not shown. He is though holding it and think about it. The sweets represent more than just a candy...

So if the MEROVINGIAN can ASSIMILATE the ORACLE, it doesn't seem quite right to say she's THE ONE.

Because if she's THE ONE, then one would also expect her to be able to RESIST HIM and DEFEAT him when she's attacked by him.

When I say THE ONE. I do not mean in a superpower way, but in a level of importance way. I am playing on the notion that they say Neo is the One. And he it not. Just as the Architect explains. Neo is an accepted and repeated effect of an anomaly that keeps the system at float. In my theory the Oracle is the One only in the sense that she is pulling all the threads and is making the difference in the end of it all. Had Neo for example died, she would just have waited for the next Neo to arrive or she would have manipulated the humans and the Matrix differently, to meet her end goal. Who knows, perhaps she came to the realization a few cycles ago, and this is then the cycle where it worked or rather where it culminated. So my theory is essentially that there is no ONE. There are different interests in this world. The machines control it perfectly... except now even within the machine world one of their key players (the Oracle) is wanting and working secretly for change... and the movies is this change happening.

She is not all powerful. She is not the "chosen" one. No one is. She is clever, cunning and better than most (if not all) and she it the reason we have a revolution in the end. But when it comes down to it, she too is just another program. And her conflict with the Merovingian and her suffered change of appearance showed us this too. The world is not a world of magic. But of all the characters here, she is the the most important. She it the first mover. She it the instigator... and in this sense, she is indeed the one.

Note the way we never see him EATING the CANDY the way he does the COOKIE (which also has a BITE of it missing when he meets back up with MORPHEUS again in the living room).

Yes your are right. Or dare I say it is ambiguous? In my view (and theory) is shows us that he is evolving into a very important player. He is playing his part perfectly unlike their first meeting. He does though take the candy... and I am thinking this makes it ambiguous if he eats it or not. I think he does.

Oracle: "Candy?"

Neo: "Do you already know if I'll take it?"

Oracle: "Wouldn't be much of an oracle if I didn't"

Neo: "But if you already know,how can I make a choice?"

Oracle: "Because you didn't come here to make the choice. You've already made it. You're here to try to understand why you made it."

... very cunning indeed.

Also NOTE the way he REFUSES to SIT DOWN on the BENCH at first until she let's him know it's HIS CHOICE whether he sits down on it or not.

But then I see this as an example on how she leds the horse to water and makes it seem like it has a choice... and in the end it does drink the water, so to speak, like she wanted all along. What I see here is her manipulating once again, and she is essentially setting him up on the task that will eventually be his doom at the machine city later on. The whole Matrix is build on a system giving the illusion of choice. She is a master in this discipline.

So it's also all about having a BALANCE of BOTH TRAITS (MASCULINE and FEMININE), which is also the reason why the ARCHITECT's job is to BALANCE the EQUATION and the ORACLE'S job is to UNBALANCE it.

I have read this in other places. But I do not buy it. She is as much a villain as the Architect is and had been on each cycle. The reason the machines know how to imprison the humans so efficiently is because of her.... in this iteration though, she wants change and now you could use the analogy... in my opinion though, Smith is the unbalancing force, and Neo is the one that will bring back the balance.... and this is her game, because in this she can use this fact to negotiate freedom for both humans and programs alike (read; for the likes of Sati and her parents )....

In other words, too much ORDER and HARMONY also leads to BOREDOM and STAGNATION which is also why the MATRIX kept failing.

Much deeper than this. The humans has an inherent drive for freedom or choice and so the Matrix must have a way out for these - even if it is only for the very few, end even if this choice is ever only on a subconscious level. And so Zion, "The One", the first 23 individuals etc were all planned by the machines as a way it make it seem this freedom is real.

But once the ARCHITECT understood this, then he also allows the ORACLE to oppose him and his RULE.

This is your theory. I disagree. The Architect explains quite clearly what the Oracle is. As he evne says, if he is the father, she is the mother. Until then and until the very end he was unaware of her opposing him. And the humans too are unaware what she is ... the reason they are believed to be free, when they really are not. Even Zion is build by the machines as a minimum security prison, unknown to all inmates.

where they ADMIRE the FAKE MATRIX SUN

Everything in the matrix is fake, and so by definition one may say; nothing is.

(which is also created after TRINITY and NEO fly ABOVE the CLOUDS and see the REAL SUN ... which also means the MACHINE has ASSIMILATED what they saw).

And they're also talking about how VERSION NUMBER 7 of NEO will be back again.

Hmmmm. Neo is no longer needed. He was created as a way to control the imprisoned humans. Giving us a false but needed hope of freedom. And he was used in the end by the Oracle to free us all (and her programs too). Not because he was powerful, but because Smith was too powerful. If we are now at peace and can coexist in harmony, Neo will never return. In fact, seeing him will probably mean that the Machines once again begin to take absolut control (cause for this they would need a Neo)... in other words; the return of Neo will be the beginning of judgment day. I hope not.....

In the Oracle's last scene she says that she suspect we may see him again some day. It means either because she knows eventually harmony will (or may) break... or that Neo is in fact assimilated somehow in the Machine city now and so may materialize differently, but then as a free individual with unwritten faith. This supports your ying/yang perspective, btw :).

PLUS PERSEPHONE (the wife of the MEROVINGIAN or the GOD of the UNDER WORLD) also KISSED NEO, which also means she ASSIMILATES the knowledge of what NEO felt for TRINITY (LOVE).

So PERSEPHONE also has more POWER than the MEROVINGIAN at that point (which is also the reason why she gives NEO access to the KEY that lets him into the ROOM of the ARCHITECT).

A side note here but no, she gives acces to the key-maker. What they wanted with the key-maker, was unbeknownst to her. Or rather, not relevant to her then and there.

MASCULINE vs FEMININE

I am not putting emphasis on this so much in my theory. But I am not disagreeing with you. The story surely is a clash of "opposite" worlds (male vs female etc.) and eventually it ends in peace and harmony.... so perhaps in the end we are all One.

But we also know THE MATRIX SUN is on the RISE, which also means the PROCESS is about to REPEAT itself all over again.

No. This time it is not repeating itself all over again. This time it begins.... the finale lines are:

"Did you always know?

Oh, no. No, I didn't. But I believed. I believed."

... we are not repeating this time, we are beginning (not knowing the future anymore, only believing in the future) . . .

oracle us just part of matrix... a program by the AI... not autonomous... in my estimation...

@Renovatio said:

oracle us just part of matrix... a program by the AI... not autonomous... in my estimation...

At first no, she is not. However, imo when we enter the story she has become... and beside my points in my OP , I think her final meeting with the Architect tells us that she indeed was not playing his team. And in my opinion, she was not playing the humans team either. She was playing her own. I was totally of your opinion also, but after several of rewatches and many years later, it dawned on me what she was actually doing... and so I propose my OP :-)

Her final dialogue in the end of the trilogy with the Architect is:

Architect : "Good morning"

Oracle: "Well, now. Ain't this a surprise"

Architect : "You played a very dangerous game"

Oracle:: "Change always is"

...

[this game he speaks off, is what I attempt to clarify in my OP....]

...

Architect : "Just how long do you think this peace is going to last?"

Oracle: "As long as it can. What about the others?"

Architect : "What others?"

Oracle: "The ones that want out"

Architect : "Obviously, they will be freed"

Oracle: "I have your word?"

Architect : "What do you think I am? Human?"

...

To me this dialoge is evident that they are not on the same team anymore, and haven't been for a while.

.

i see... i don't remember that scene at all, but it's been years since I saw those movies...

I think I agree with your assessment... Maybe i'll check the trilogy out again at some point... The first Matrix movie is the only one I've rewatched... The others, i only see the occasional few scenes when they're on TV...

@Invidia said:

If she's just a PROGRAM or another AI, then WHY did SMITH seek her out and want to ASSIMILATE her and her UNIQUE and SPECIAL kind of ability???

And what was he hoping to GAIN by doing that?

I am not disagreeing in many of your inputs so I do not know what to comment really. My OP is not so much about that, it is more about her actual play than what she is. I think that we agree pretty much. I am also not sure if the above is a question or rhetorical remark. Anyway, I will attempt to answer:

Smith: "..during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species... ...and I realized... ...that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet... ...instinctively develops an equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply......and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive... ...is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet... ...that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus."

By the third installments Smith had become his own worst nightmare. He had become this virus – and poetically befitting, Neo became the Anti-virus in the end. He assimilated the Oracle, because this is what he does. Simply; " multiply......and multiply until every natural resource is consumed". He was the cure, in his mind, and this is how he would cure it... to cement this he also says in “Revolutions”; “After all, it was your life... ...that taught me the purpose of all life. The purpose of life is to end.

Now the bigger question is why the Oracle accepted to be assimilated like this? She accepted this because at this point in time she had done all she could do with the humans and Neo etc, and now she needed to be assimilated and become part of Smith. Her final step in her strategy. Keep your enemies close and all that. Now remember, my theory is that Smith had become this powerful in this iteration because of the Oracles and her game to free humans and programs alike... and so really, she understood Smith better than he understood himself. As is evident through dialogue in "Reloaded"; Smith directly says he does not understand why he has those powers.... well, the Oracle understands. So she allows him to assimilate her and by then the powers she grants him are also how she get to manipulate him in the final battle... his overconfidence in his own ability in the end, is his ultimate doom. Remember he gets confused in the last scenes... this is all her:

Smith; “It ends tonight. I know it does. I've seen it. That's why the rest of me is just going to enjoy the show......because we already know that I'm the one that beats you

…. and he continues in the end .....

Smith: “I've seen this. This is it. This is the end. Yes. You were laying right there, just like that. And I... I stand here, right here, and I'm supposed to say something. I say: "Everything that has a beginning has an end, Neo."…..What? What did I just say? No, no. This isn't right. This can't be right. Get away from me!"

Neo: “What are you afraid of?

Smith: “It's a trick.

Neo: “You were right, Smith. You were always right. It was inevitable.

Smith: “Is it over?

Smith: “Oh, no, no, no. No, it's not fair.”

The Oracle had to be assimilated to make sure this would happen, and Smith assimilated her because he had become a virus of death and destruction and that is what virus do.

PS: One of your links says that rough Smith is also repeated in each iteration. This is incorrect. Even Smith explains that this time it is different, and as I said he also says he does not know why he has become so powerful... and his destructive part makes no sense in the perspective of what the Architect describes to us. His rough art makes only sense in the game of the Oracle. She needed a force to push the Matrix near destruction, making Neo a relevant solution to the eyes of the Machine world. And in creating this scenario, an opportunity arises to build for a new and free future for all…

@Renovatio said:

i see... i don't remember that scene at all, but it's been years since I saw those movies...

I think I agree with your assessment... Maybe i'll check the trilogy out again at some point... The first Matrix movie is the only one I've rewatched... The others, i only see the occasional few scenes when they're on TV...

With my OP in mind, I think the two sequels have the most meat on them and becomes better because of it. Technically the first one is the best by far, but story wise... well, I like the whole trilogy as a package. I appreciate the story much more now... :)

people are already slaves to their phones apps... better start building 😉

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