»Seven Matrix Thoughts«

Merovingian - The Damned

We're generally agreed that Merv could have been a previous One. As a One, he had presence both in the real world and the machine world. But, we are presumed to believe that his flesh and blood body died and his code was inserted into the Source before creating the Second Matrix as the Architect intimated. What we are left with is the half that existed in the machine world and apparently did not wish to be deleted since he had lost his purpose for existence. Thus, he became the first Exile from the System and created his own reality. But, since he has lost his sense of purpose, he has devolved into a boorish despot who is supremely convinced of his own superiority. He says that he traffics in information and provides a conduit and place of residence for exiled System programs to maintain their own level of existence. Ultimately, he comes off as the worst type of Roman emperor and has descended to the level of the Hell Club. This is also ironic since Persephone is the goddess of the underworld as well - they are a perfect match for each other. Thus, we have seen one path to the future which is the one of the damned.

Sati - The Creation

Here he have the first mention of a child program. Rama Kandra and Kamala both have key roles in the System for maintaining the Matrix. Rama handles recycling of dead Matrix residents into nutrients to be fed to the current inhabitants, and Kamala must come up with continued and creative ways to keep the Matrix inhabitants engaged in the program. Even as Rama Kandra's name implies, he is a fierce protector of caste systems and dharma while Kamala embodies beauty. Sati was apparently created by Rama Kandra and Kamala, and not the System, so she is truly their child. The name Sati implies female saintliness and virtuous motherhood, but ultimately she will be doomed to self-sacrifice by being expected to jump into her husband's funeral pyre. Once her purpose was fulfilled, she was destined for deletion. But, because of her parents' close association with the humans of the Matrix, Rama Kandra began to know the true nature of love, and he risked everything in his being to protect Sati. Now Sati is a new symbol for machine evolution which is evoked by her involvement with the creation of that beautiful sunrise in the Seventh Matrix. So, we have another path to the future which is one of creation.

Smith - The Anti-One

Agent Smith has gone through a remarkable series of evolutions. First, of course, was his time as a very efficient System Agent and he went to great lengths with the other two Agents to eliminate any challenges to the order of the Matrix. It's imagined that since he didn't have any knowledge of the prior Matrices, he was created at the beginning of the Sixth Matrix. When he was seemingly destroyed at the end of M1, we were unaware that he was beginning the next step in his evolution. But, when he comes back in M2, he goes on about purpose. But, to regain that purpose he has to take it back from Neo. So begins his megamaniacal quest to do whatever it takes to get it. He found that he couldn't get it by fighting him singly, or even in multiply in the Burly Brawl. So, to achieve his aims he has to overwrite himself onto every denizen and exile of the Matrix. Thus, with the combined knowledge of every one he has merged with he hopes to ultimately win the contest with Neo. He has become the Anti-One. The Oracle knows this and accepts that her merger is a way to control Smith and direct the path to re-balance the Matrix. But, Smith is so blinded by his drive for purpose that he can't see the way to resolve his need and grows out of control. When the One is merged into the Anti-One, they cancel each other out. Again, here is another path to the future which is doomed because of a blinding sense of rigid purpose without choice.

The Oracle and The Architect - The Yin and Yang

The Oracle and The Architect are two very different halves of the same puzzle. How do you keep the brains of those enslaved as batteries in the Matrix happy. The Architect behaves in a logical and predictable fashion, and everything has to balance the equation. However, he is locked into a fixed set of rules. The Oracle was created as a way to allow a semblance of choice to be introduced to the Matrix denizens. For those who were unhappy, there was a way out. But, she still played into the Architect's plans up until the end of M2. In M3, she was somehow punished by the Merovingian for her role in delivering the Keymaker to Neo. In her resurrection, things aren't nearly as clear as they used to be. Even her earrings with the Yin/Yang symbols show that there is something different. Neo played by a different set of rules, and she saw that there was possibly a different way then what she was doing before. So, the Architect is locked into his path to the future while the Oracle is unbound by belief in the unknown.

Trinity - The Lover

Trinity plays a special role by showing Neo the power of Love. She brought him back with her love at the end of M1. Neo brought her back because of his love for her at the end of M2. In M3, she was going to sacrifice everything to get Neo out of the train station. Their love for each other was a way of completing Neo, but in the end was holding him back from making his ultimate sacrifice. So, I suspect that the three implied in her name are the three deaths. So, her path is to guide Neo to his destiny by showing him what love can accomplish.

Morpheus - The Prophet

Morpheus plays two roles in the movies. The machines, through selective breeding, have sown the seeds for creating The One. But, they don't have the intuition for being able to find him. Morpheus is given the assignment by the Oracle to eventually find Neo, because even though she's an intuitive program she doesn't have the emotional capacity to not only find The One. Also, she needs a prophet to whip up the residents of Zion into a religious fervor of belief when the time of The One finally comes. Ultimately, he loses his faith when it's revealed that he's been deceived about the true nature of his calling. But, Neo helps to rekindle that faith when he shows that he is more than a creation from the machine world that will follow the dictates of his so-called masters. He is shown the path of the true believer.

Neo - The One

Neo is an unlikely hero. He didn't ask for the job of salvation of humanity, and wasn't ready to accept the idea when it was forced upon him by Morpheus. There were intuitions that he was going to have to discover, but at times he was not ready for them. So, he had to struggle his way through his own misconceptions to reach each level of enlightenment. He was told that he was not the One and that there was no spoon. In time, he began to realize his role and that the spoon and his power existed both in the Matrix and the real world. But, he was initially taught that the only means of dealing with the machines was through conflict. Thus, Smith the Anti-One was created. Through each revelation came new levels of understanding. He needed choice, guidance and love. But, it wasn't until his ultimate fight with Smith that he realized the futility of fighting. There was no resolution in this path of action. But, when he gave himself up to be absorbed with Smith he also completed his evolution to become both human and machine. And, in so doing, he allowed the creation of a new world that was based on a new set of variables which could never have been created by a machine mind or a human mind alone. This is the true path.

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It's imagined that since he didn't have any knowledge of the prior Matrices, he was created at the beginning of the Sixth Matrix

smith does have prior knowledge of the matrixes, at least the choice versions..."it's all happened as before, well not exactly" i think proves this..and proves your points as well...it's different this time...

sorry, not trying to poke holes..

Sorry, but I've only got this far so far;


"Merovingian - The Damned

We're generally agreed that Merv could have been a previous One. "

Erm... nope. Not generally, no evidence, not even close.

A- Merovingian

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We're generally agreed that Merv could have been a previous One.

Not really. Not many people here believe that anymore. That is, if they ever did.

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his code was inserted into the Source before creating the Second Matrix as the Architect intimated.

This makes me think that you are saying that Merv is the One from the 1st Matrix version. Is that correct? But this cannot be. There was no One in the first Matrix version. The One appeared only in version 3. The One emerges only because of the unbalance in the equation which is due to the choice aspect. The choice aspect is only initiated in version 3. Therefore the 1st One appeared in version 3.

B- Sati

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Kamala must come up with continued and creative ways to keep the Matrix inhabitants engaged in the program

Not really. It is said that she is a creative interactive software programmer. It doesn't say what type of software she writes. Not that it matters alot. Just wanted to point it out.

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Once her purpose was fulfilled, she was destined for deletion

How can you say that? You just said that she wasn't created by the System but only by her parents. That means she never had a purpose in the first place. Her purpose was not fulfilled because she never had one. So she is marked for deletion.

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her involvement with the creation of that beautiful sunrise in the Seventh Matrix

Thats good stuff. You see the significance. But its the 9th Matrix. 9th. Its the 7th Matrix with the choice aspect. But there were 2 versions before without the choice aspect. That brings to a total of 9 versions. If you are confused by the whole, `how many versions' thing, try watching the Architect's dialouge again.

C- Smith

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It's imagined that since he didn't have any knowledge of the prior Matrices, he was created at the beginning of the Sixth Matrix

Very good. Many people fail to recognize that. I believe that every new version has new agents with no knowledge of the past except what the Architect wants to tell them. How does Agent Smith know about the 1st Matrix version if he wasn't there? The Architect must have told him. But Smith doesn't know about any of the others. Again, you wrote 6th Matrix when you should have written 8th Matrix. It is the 6th Matrix with choice, and the 8th total Matrix.

The rest of your stuff on Smith is very good.

D- The Architect and the Oracle

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In M3, she was somehow punished by the Merovingian for her role in delivering the Keymaker to Neo

Actually she was punished for something else. I will PM you and tell you about it. Check your message box.

Otherwise good stuff on both the Architect and the Oracle. Remember that they are the Father of the Matrix and the Mother of the Matrix, the balancer and the unbalancer, logic/reason and choas/uncertainty, mathematical perfection and human emotion, the A and the O, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

E- Trinity

All good. I agree wholeheartedly.

F- Morpheus

Cool. Makes sense to me.

G- Neo

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he allowed the creation of a new world that was based on a new set of variables which could never have been created by a machine mind or a human mind alone. This is the true path.

Excellent.

d-bearhug-nc wrote:

Merovingian - The Damned We're generally agreed that Merv could have been a previous One. As a One, he had presence both in the real world and the machine world. But, we are presumed to believe that his flesh and blood body died and his code was inserted into the Source before creating the Second Matrix as the Architect intimated. What we are left with is the half that existed in the machine world and apparently did not wish to be deleted since he had lost his purpose for existence. Thus, he became the first Exile from the System and created his own reality. But, since he has lost his sense of purpose, he has devolved into a boorish despot who is supremely convinced of his own superiority. He says that he traffics in information and provides a conduit and place of residence for exiled System programs to maintain their own level of existence. Ultimately, he comes off as the worst type of Roman emperor and has descended to the level of the Hell Club. This is also ironic since Persephone is the goddess of the underworld as well - they are a perfect match for each other. Thus, we have seen one path to the future which is the one of the damned.

It would've been easier to delete him at the time of reinserting his code back into The Matrix. Not giving him a chance to run away.

I suppose there's going to be some level of disagreement about Merv's general origins, and I'm sure I probably stuck myself out on a limb by being out of the discussion loop for a few months. But, my feeling about him ultimately rests on his representation of damnation in the Matrix. Even Lucifer started out on a good footing until he fell from grace.

But, as Persephone indicated, they were once like Neo and Trinity when they first came to the Matrix. Something was lost along the way (his humanity?) and now he's self-absorbed in his own importance. Instead of making any form of positive contribution to his petty existence, he indulges himself in sampling languages and fine wines while raping unwitting women with orgasm cakes. He is loathsome, despicable and his path will come to no good end. But, bastards like him hang around to make life miserable around them for any other lost souls caught in their web.

dang it.... I should know better than to hit the 'back' button so quickly.... Sorry! Ignore this one; see below (what a moron i am...)

On Merv -
Yeah, the Merovingian was NOT 'a previous One.' In my view, however, he MAY have been the FIRST One - that is, the original program created to choose the first 23 individuals to form the first Zion. It didn't have to be a 'man born inside' the first time; in fact, I don't see how it could have been. Morpheus only could have been talking about what he knows, and he does not know that there were 5 Ones before Neo. The machines can't program humans' brains from birth, otherwise, matrix v.1 would not have failed, because programmed humans would not have rejected it - correct me here if I am missing something. Therefore, the One to free the very first humans to form Zion the very first time in matrix v.3 was most likely not a human at all, but a program! (Assuming, of course, that Zion #1 was created at the beginning of matrix v.3... if there was no Zion for many years after v.3 was first launched, then it blows this theory out of the water.)

This also sits well with his tendency to 'free' programs who are on the verge of deletion, if his original purpose was to do the same for humans. However, this doesn't explain why Merv was able to save so many programs from matrix v.2 from deletion (which is undoubtedly where Cain, Abel, the Twins, etc. come from). Only if Merv was created before v.3 could he have done this.

He calls himself 'a trafficker of information.' There is probably something to that. Perhaps this was his original purpose, in v.1 or v.2... but how? Between humans and machines? Between programs? I don't know, but I don't think the Merovingian's whole story can be deduced from the 5-10 measly minutes of screen time he has.

I disagree with Merv as 'the Damned.' I think 'the Fallen' would be more appropriate.

On Sati-
There are some who believe that Sati, not the Oracle, is actually the 'Mother' of the matrix. Sadly, I cannot find sufficient evidence to quell this argument, so I am forced to admit its possibility. For the full argument, see various posts by JamesWI. It is actually quite interesting.

I disagree with your inferrence of Kamala's duties/purpose as a program. I cannot deny that it is possible. However, Rama Kandra says only that she 'is an interactive software programmer; she is highly creative.' That does not necessarily mean she has anything to do with humans at all; in fact, her only two lines seem to indicate a kind of fear, directed at Neo. Interactive software could be the matrix itself, or it could be agents; it could refer to the abilities that allowed her to 'bear' Sati. It could even refer to software that interacts with other software! I think that to say she 'must come up with continued and creative ways to keep the Matrix inhabitants engaged in the program,' is to jump to a conclusion that has no solid evidence.

Sati's purpose sort of depends on when Sati was created. If she was created recently, within the last few years, say, then RK probably went to Merv shortly thereafter, to save Sati from deletion, because Sati was created without purpose. However, if Sati has been around awhile (because why would programs age?) then RK's meeting with the Frenchman is a little late coming for that; it means that Sati DID have purpose, but has purpose no longer.

On Smith-
It does seem that Smith is aware, at least, of the previous versions of the matrix; whether he actually witnessed them is up for debate. I happen to think that Agents Smith, Brown and Jones were agents for some time, before Neo's version, even. Jackson, Thompson and Johnson came in as upgrades after Neo whipped Smith's butt. This could still mean that there are new agents in each version, though.... At the beginning of M2, Smith might be referring to when he, Jones and Brown infiltrated the last rebels' meeting, in which the One prior to Neo beat them....

Hm. I seem to have changed my own mind.

Smith and Neo do not exactly 'cancel each other out,' although, that is one way to look at it. In fact, Neo allows Smith to take him over, merging the Many (not so much 'Anti-One;' ask me later what I mean) with the One. When the One and the Many merge, they become One again. This is enlightenment.

On Trinity-
The '3' implicit in her name is symbolic of many things, not just one. Whatever you think her name symbolizes, you are probably right.

I would call Trinity 'the Goddess,' and Neo 'the Godman.' The characters' bond is like the Mystical Marriage; in fact, the whole story has loads of parallels to existing mythical stories and symbols, but the symbols are juggled around a bit to make something new and exciting for today's zeitgeist.

On Morpheus-
I agree that he has two roles, but I disagree with your description of them. Morpheus is first a herald, like John the Baptist. He comes before, to usher in and initiate the One. Secondly, he is a guide, or heirophant. He shows this in his training of Neo as well as his apparent position of renown in Zion. Anything beyond that presumes that the Oracle has more control over the situation than she actually has. She may be ominscient, but she's not omnipotent.

On Neo-
Neo is the perfect Initiate. He doesn't become a machine, except in the sense that he is already a machine, just as we all are machines, made of carbon-based machinery materials, flesh and blood. If anything, he becomes truly human, shedding all pretense of physicality, to become a being of Light. You said, 'Through each revelation came new levels of understanding.' This is correct. Each of Neo's Initiations took him to another level of awareness. This is the path we all follow, in our quest for understanding. Neo is a model for us all.

akshat wrote:

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C- Smith Quote: It's imagined that since he didn't have any knowledge of the prior Matrices, he was created at the beginning of the Sixth Matrix Very good. Many people fail to recognize that. I believe that every new version has new agents with no knowledge of the past except what the Architect wants to tell them. How does Agent Smith know about the 1st Matrix version if he wasn't there? The Architect must have told him. But Smith doesn't know about any of the others. Again, you wrote 6th Matrix when you should have written 8th Matrix. It is the 6th Matrix with choice, and the 8th total Matrix

how do you explain him knowing its happeneing exactly as before? woudl smith have had to experience the time before to know he was doing something else? i don't think the architect could have explained to him the intracacies of how everything exactly happened the last time...well i guess he could have, he is a program after all...i think smiths been around for a few matrices, if not all of them(excluding the perfect ones) but thats just me..