prillalar | Reloaded, again

On Saturday, I re-watched The Matrix and this afternoon I went back to see Reloaded again. I've been discussing with reenka here. So, now here's a tiny bit of analysis.

In The Matrix, Neo learns that everything he knows is wrong. In The Matrix Reloaded, Neo learns that everything he knows is wrong. There's recursion here, like false awakenings in a dream. And so, we learn, it is with the Matrix, cycle after cycle, rebirth after rebirth.

Neo is an expected anomaly in the Matrix. He signifies a critical level of instability in the system. And the system is not just the Matrix -- the system includes all of humanity, both in the Matrix and in Zion.

And that is, I think, the biggest revelation: the system is RL as well as VR. The Architect tells Neo that he's carrying code inside of him. I took that to be the seeds of the next Matrix, but I'm not really sure.

As I said, Neo is an expected anomaly. Everywhere he goes, people are only to happy to tell him that they've been expecting him. But no one seems to be expecting Smith.

Smith is the true anomaly, the unplanned-for variable. Even in The Matrix, you can see that. While he's torturing Morpheus, he takes the plug out of his ear, becomes personal, talks about his fear that he's become infected by humanity. And so he has -- he's emotional and it causes him to act irrationally.

Neo destroys Smith by merging with him. (In my obsession with The Coat, I've been watching Neo's outfits through the two movies and it struck me that one of the things he wears is Smith.) Diving inside of him and taking him apart from the inside. In this way, he must have learned Smith's program, absorbed it.

Then we find in Reloaded that Smith -- back from the dead, just like Neo -- has absorbed something from Neo and he can now manipulate the system too. Not to the same extent, but he's no longer bound by his former programming. And, like Neo, he's found a way to jump out and affect the world beyond the boundaries of the Matrix.

Smith is Neo's shadow, his dark self. But he is also necessary to Neo's power and knowledge.

Perhaps that's what makes Neo different from those that came before him -- that it's his connection with Smith that lets him see beyond the Matrix into the whole system -- the VR, the RL, the humans and the machines. (Possibly I'd just like to think that so I can continue to obsess over Hugo *g* but I don't think it's an implausible theory.)

This is all about the power of the mind, really. In The Matrix, Neo finds that he can affect the Matrix with his mind -- that believing makes it so. In Reloaded, he finds that he can affect other machines with his mind. In Revolutions, will he be able to affect other humans?

Maybe Neo will learn to share his power, not like Smith's vampiric reproduction, but opening the minds of others so he's no longer the One, but one of many.

The Matrix was about knowledge. The Matrix Reloaded is about understanding. And it's that understanding that lets Neo see beyond the dichotomy the Architect offers him.

And I've more, so much more to say, but this is enough blather for today.

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whoa, man, you make me want to see it again. i mean, i was always going to see it again, but it feels like i need another dose of revelation, or something. *laughs* the last time, i was mostly content with using what i'd gotten from the viewing-- not really expecting it to be the best it -could- be.
i really love the contrast between knowledge and understanding. that was also rather majorly what i noticed about the second movie (and mind you, now i'm feeling way behind, since i saw the matrix just once, and that was years ago).

the One of Many thing is really brilliant, because in a way it invokes smith (the one of many thing seems obvious with him, and yet in a different sense)-- and makes me wonder what sort of use he'll eventually make of smith, and this means there -will- be a use. (as an aside, it's funny to be discussing meta that's completely separate from shipping. wow, it's been awhile.)
in a way, neo is already one of many, though. heh.

also, the bit about smith being his dark self-- i haven't thought of that, but that is once again, clear as day once i think about it. he rather is a mirror, isn't he. like a house of mirrors, even. oooh, flash to the scene with the architect, there ~:)

But no one seems to be expecting Smith.
that is really rather creepy, isn't it? i mean, so true, and so creepy! man. i've never found smith creepy before, but that's his power!! my -god-, that's his -power-!! to be unexpected!! wow. wow.
like, when he showed up right before they got to the architect. and he showed up right after the oracle. this mirror aspect is really intense. right when there's a delicate moment, something in the balance, neo about to gain in knowledge, rise to a new level-- smith is there. man. creepy. yet understandable!

i don't think it's just smith that makes neo different. neo was different to start with, probably.
i still think it's neo's questioning of the system that's a big part of it, his openness even when it seems like things are all set to be simple.

"vampiric reproduction"-- i love that. the idea that smith reproduces-- ie, creates, -changes-. attains a sort of machine-god creative power by copying, like asexual reproduction. whereas neo is all about sexual mutation. DUDE!! cool!!

i don't think neo chooses the third option because he -understands-. i don't think he -has- achieved understanding, he's just realized he needed it.
he was just being stubborn. -very- stubborn. power of will, all that. it's like that classic villain mistake of underestimating the power of the Will of the Hero, you know? like, "muwahahah! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE MY TRAP OF DOOOOM", but he can 'cause you know, he's the hero. ahah.

he rather is a mirror, isn't he. like a house of mirrors, even.

Yeah, and when he vamps someone they are covered in a shiny metal surface before they turn into him. There are a lot of reflective surfaces in both movies, though more in the first: sunglasses, mirrors, windows, the spoon -- even the screens are, as you noted, like mirrors.

I think it's to emphasize that you can't believe what your eyes tell you. And to that end, both the Heroes and Agents hide their eyes with sunglasses. It protects them, at least symbolically. Keeps people from seeing into them as well.

In Reloaded, after Neo has brought Trinity back, they embrace. And in front of them, lying on the concrete slab, are Neo's sunglasses. That says it all, really.

Other stuff:

Somebody suggested that Persephone's kiss might have changed Neo in some way, which is interesting.

Also, my partner's theory is that the "real world" is actually another layer of VR, which is why Neo's powers work there. I think this theory is supportable, but I'll be ticked off if it's true.

i don't think neo chooses the third option because he -understands-. i don't think he -has- achieved understanding, he's just realized he needed it.

I'm probably giving him too much credit. But I think he has attained *some* understanding. Of the system, if not of himself.

... for such an insightful post. Partiularly the bits about Smith. As I was watching Reloaded, it hit me, during their first extended scene, that Smith is to Neo what Joker is to Batman, what Luthor is to Superman - the countervailing arch-nemesis every hero *must* have to keep him *balanced*. Without their dark twins - popping up unexpectedly, throwing spanners in the works at whim - heroes often have nothing to keep them in check. And when you have gifts like Neo's or Superman's, the possibility of becoming a beneficent tyrant, a 'good' dictator, is far, far too real. But in order for the villains to be that balance, they have to be as strong in some ways; they must be akin to their corresponding heroic enemy. Thus, Joker and Batman are psychologically unhinged to a similar degree, Luthor and Superman command corresponding levels of respect from the world's populace that makes it possible for each to be revered in ways that make them powerful, and Smith, like Neo, now has the ability to manipulate the Matrix. He's definitely Neo's Other Side, the flip-side of the coin, if you will.

Mmmmm, Niobe.

The dark twins are always very *personal* enemies, too.

The thing that's the most unnerving to me about the idea of Neo as a beneficent tyrant is that the tyrant would really be *Morpheus* -- as much as Neo is the One, he still defers to Morpheus. (And Morpheus, bless him, is fucking insane.)

Neo hasn't had to rebel against his mentor yet, which seems like a step he has to take before the end.

Reloaded, again

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