History Fridge / TRONLegacy

* Another Yori-related bit of brilliance. Her SequelNonEntity status is one of the reasons that things got so bad in the first place! Her function, hinted at in her EarlyBirdCameo, is helping to run the laser. So if she had been there, Flynn might not have had his foolish ass trapped in the system. And while Tron is an amazing warrior, he has a CripplingOverspecialization issue where he's not very good at much else. Yori's diplomatic talents could have gone a long way towards negotiating the Program-Iso conflict. They also could have been very helpful for [[WesternAnimation/TronUprising growing a revolt in Argon]] instead of merely teaching one Program how to fight. And you can bet her not being around wasn't helping Tron's shaky grasp on mental stability. [[spoiler: BrainwashedAndCrazy and ReforgedIntoAMinion also has a bad habit of failing when a loved one gets involved]]. But for one reason or another, she wasn't there, and ForWantOfANail...

** Yet another piece of brilliance if you're inclined to import certain aspects of the discredited ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh''. A standard disc in 2.0 doesn't carry an energy cost. A Sequencer upgrade, which will allow splitting a disc into multiple copies like Rinzler, uses a small amount of energy with every shot...small, that is, for a User like Jet. For a Program, the energy cost would be much more adverse, but it would still be en effective weapon for short skirmishes. Clu saddling his brainwashed {{Dragon}} with an energy-draining weapon would both make Rinzler a deadlier combatant, ''and'' further Rinzler's dependence on him.

** For that [[IncrediblyLamePun matter]], does the digitizer distinguish between the molecules that make up you, and the molecules that make up your clothes? Does it even store multiple people as individual collections of molecules? Sam and Quorra may be made up of a perfect blend of Sam's molecules, Kevin's molecules, and the molecules of their clothes.

* And [[BlatantLies now for something completely different...]] Whenever a human went into the Grid, his or her matter was stored away in the machine. Since Kevin Flynn sacrificed himself in the end, the machine recycled his matter to make a physical version of Quorra. So, if [[OfficialCouple Sam and Quorra]] [[CoitusEnsues "did it,"]] Sam's technically [[{{Squick}} doing the matter that used to be his father.]]

[[WMG:FridgeHorror]]
* [[TheydCutYouUp How are they going to get all the wonderful secrets that Flynn said the ISO programs represented out of Quorra in the real world?]]
** Genetic analysis. Remember, Sam is rich and smart enough to do it himself. Let's see if ''Tron: Upgrade'' or whatever has Quorra with special powers. And it's not like he wouldn't fight tooth and nail to keep the woman he loves safe. Also, destroying rare creatures, in real life, tends to be a very bad idea, since they're rare creatures.
*** If it absolutely cannot be done in the real world, then she'll take a sabbatical, go live life in the analogue world, then get herself and Sam digitized into a computer program of a laboratory, where she can be studied for a while.
** If ENCOM is supposed to be the Tron world's answer to Microsoft, Sam isn't just rich, he's so mind-blowingly, incomprehensibly rich that he can set up an entire new science department and fund it himself ''just'' for the purpose of studying Quorra without harming her. His wealth, and status as head of the company, also puts him at the kind of social level where if he objects to the Government's proposed treatment of her (if they want to run things), they'll damn well back down and follow his suggestions for a better path. TheydCutYouUp is all about heroes being threatened by huge government forces that stop for no-one, but Flynn is lucky enough to be one of the few people who can actually interact with the Feds on something approaching equal terms.
** Plus, you never know - part of the way they were supposed to change humanity might come from [[InterspeciesRomance her (ahem) relationship]] with Sam, in the form of [[HalfHumanHybrid a human-ISO hybrid.]]
* And yet more FridgeHorror: Yori doesn't show up because she probably tried to take on Clu after he repurposed Tron, and got rectified herself or derezzed.
** Nope. The Grid is on a different server entirely from the Encom one. Which means that she's been without Tron for over 1,000 years.
*** But Tron's a digital program. It would have been a simple matter for Kevin Flynn to copy Tron so that one copy gets to stay on the original server with Yori.
*** That's assuming Flynn had the foresight to do it, but he probably expected for the original Tron to come back home eventually.
*** Good End. Of course, since Sam copies The Grid onto the chip at the end, what's that like, existentially? Is it actually frozen and moved, with no one really noticing, or does everyone just see pieces of the Grid vanishing in beams of light?
*** More horrible than that. When you move files from one computer to another, you're not actually moving anything. What happens is that the computer creates a duplicate of the file and erases the original. So basically, insta-Apocalypse combined with insta-Big Bang.
*** Nope. He copied the file, not moved it. So nothing changed at all except that now there was a new version that he could study in any computer.
** Actually, it would make sense for Yori to be de-rezzed. Lora was one of the people controlling the laser, and Yori was a navigation program that got Flynn back to the portal out of Encom's system. This means Yori was likely one of the Programs controlling the laser, and therefore Flynn's ability to get in and out of the system. Also, like Tron, she knew too much about the Users (Flynn) and had a rebellious streak (as shown in her actions against the MCP in the first film). Clu would ''have'' to destroy her if he wanted to trap Flynn. Yori's compassion and rebellion would also make her very likely to side with the Isos against Clu...and Clu would be just the type of bastard to send "Rinzler" to kill her, because if Yori was de-rezzed, then Tron would be under his complete control.
** Even worse? Factor in that Flynn and Lora (Yori's creator) are AmicableExes and BetterAsFriends, but Lora clearly initiated the breakup (because Flynn is still hung up on her in the first film) and went on to marry Alan. Flip it to the Programs. Tron and Yori are an established RoboRomance, just like the Bradleys. Now add some ugly residual jealousy on Clu's part and the situation is likely to go to an operatic level of hell very quickly.
** Good news: WordOfGod says she's still alive, and judging from the publicity stuff they're doing for the sequel, Cindy Morgan's aboard.
* Another Yori-related bit of brilliance. Her SequelNonEntity status is one of the reasons that things got so bad in the first place! Her function, hinted at in her EarlyBirdCameo, is helping to run the laser. So if she had been there, Flynn might not have had his foolish ass trapped in the system. And while Tron is an amazing warrior, he has a CripplingOverspecialization issue where he's not very good at much else. Yori's diplomatic talents could have gone a long way towards negotiating the Program-Iso conflict. They also could have been very helpful for [[WesternAnimation/TronUprising growing a revolt in Argon]] instead of merely teaching one Program how to fight. And you can bet her not being around wasn't helping Tron's shaky grasp on mental stability. [[spoiler: BrainwashedAndCrazy and ReforgedIntoAMinion also has a bad habit of failing when a loved one gets involved]]. But for one reason or another, she wasn't there, and ForWantOfANail...
* And [[BlatantLies now for something completely different...]] Whenever a human went into the Grid, his or her matter was stored away in the machine. Since Kevin Flynn sacrificed himself in the end, the machine recycled his matter to make a physical version of Quorra. So, if [[OfficialCouple Sam and Quorra]] [[CoitusEnsues "did it,"]] Sam's technically [[{{Squick}} doing the matter that used to be his father.]]
** Nope. The digitiser doesn't somehow "store" the matter, it converts it into two things: energy and data. The energy is constantly being replaced, since the computer is on a mains line. And the data is her's (obviously) since his father's data (right up to the point of him removing his own disc) is stored on the "master-key identity disc program".
** Even if it is a bit more line-of-sight, logic and common sense would lead to the conclusion that a portion of the matter most people are made of, at some point, was crapped out by an animal. The matter is organized in such a radically different fashion that it is no longer his father.
*** Heck, (almost) all matter was crapped out by dying stars. There's lame puns abounding.
** For that [[IncrediblyLamePun matter]], does the digitizer distinguish between the molecules that make up you, and the molecules that make up your clothes? Does it even store multiple people as individual collections of molecules? Sam and Quorra may be made up of a perfect blend of Sam's molecules, Kevin's molecules, and the molecules of their clothes.
** Matter does not work that way. Yes, Quorra is made of the same atoms as Kevin was. She is also made of the same atoms as Sam, and everything else made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. If there was an electron that wasn't the same one as all the other ones, it wouldn't obey the Pauli exclusion principle. If every electron was unique, matter as we know it could not exist.
** Your dog takes a leak in your vegetable garden. Your significant other harvests the next crop of vegetables and eats them for dinner. You and your significant other - who now contains some nitrogen atoms absorbed into your garden plants from your dog's pee - have sex. Does that mean you just had sex with Fido?
*** This statement is wrong on many levels. Basic biology will show how nutrients are absorbed by plants as molecules, not whole pieces of material. So, yes, Fido's pee is in there. As well as nitrogen from decaying matter. Due to the Law of Conservation of Matter, technically everything you have ever eaten has pee and corpses in it. Enjoy your lunch.
* This crosses over into WMG/PoisonOakEpilepticTrees because I'd ''really'' like to think better of the fellow, but was Flynn Sr. ''trying'' to set his son and apprentice up for an InterspeciesRomance with the intent of [[SuperBreedingProgram mixing the species]], so to speak? And even if it was just a happy accident that Sam and Quorra took a shine to each other, then we still have the question of [[GooGooGodlike potential]] [[HalfHumanHybrid grandkids]]...
** If you look at the little smirk on his face when he sees Sam and Quorra talking, I'd say that yes, he was.
** And what of it? They seem good for one another, and he's hardly forcing them into an arranged marriage.
** Why assume Iso reproduction is the same as human? There were no onscreen Iso children. This could lead to an incredibly awkward moment when Quorra decides to be intimate with Sam, and reveals her sexy USB port.
*** Even if it wasn't before, we assume she's more or less human now that she's in the real world.
* The explosion at the end seemed to destroy the Rectifier... and all the thousands of [[BrainwashedAndCrazy rectified]] programs onboard.
** Admittedly, there wasn't much else that Flynn could have done about that. Rectified programs are implied to be beyond saving (or at least, beyond saving quickly) and rezzing them may be a MercyKill. Tron seems to be the only exception.
* Speaking of "rectifying," Clu cannot create his own programs. He can only destroy and re-purpose them from programs that already exist. Now, children, [[PainfulTransformation how do you think that feels]]?
* You should really think twice [[ParanoiaFuel before you click that Delete button.]]
** The franchise has gone here, but not in this timeline. The ''Ghost in the Machine'' comic based on ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh'' opens with the game's protagonist having a massive HeroicBSOD once he realized what being a User ''means'' in that universe, and explicitly mentions deleting software and reformatting hard drives as akin to the actions of a cruel or incompetent god.
* Though a lot of flak has been given for Clu's not-so-well-thought-out plan, consider he is the spitting image of the long-disappeared Kevin Flynn, aka the guy who could take back Encom in the time it takes to BS his non-aging. With Clu in charge of Encom, and the possibilities opened up by the internet, suddenly that plan becomes a lot more threatening.
** He wouldn't even need to take over Encom, he could just have some rectified programs insert themselves into the internet as soon as he figured out what it was, with the takeover complete before anyone knew what was happening. It would be like the opening to ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', where the Cylons hack the Colonial network, cripple all their networked ships, and nuke everything before the Colonies know what's going on. Plus, Clu seems to have had every intention of bringing the Rectifier into the real world.
* The digitiser copies people by scanning them at high speed with a laser. The shots of the laser show that the lens is very dusty with disuse... how long will it take before Sam starts suffering from multiple cancers from all of the little translation errors when being digitised and restored?
** Luckily the Grid can cure cancer by simply correcting the programming, though.
*** FridgeBrilliance: that's what the correction algorithms mentioned in Tron 2.0 were for, and why the digitization process never worked right for fCon employees!
* ISO and Programs don't age, but now Quorra is living in the Real World with Sam. Will she stay static in her age [[WhoWantsToLiveForever while Sam and any new friends she makes slowly grow older and die around her?]] Or will she now be subjected to the process of aging, [[PainfulTransformation and how will she react?]] Bearing in mind that up until now, she's never had to deal with any types of major long lasting changes to her body.
** Her youth can be restored by simply digitizing her and altering the code that dictates her physical appearance. As can anybody's youth. [[FridgeBrilliance That's one aspect of the revolution Kevin Flynn was talking about]].
* When a disc hits a program clean, he derezzes by basically exploding into a mass of voxels. During his fight with Rinzler, Sam gets cut by one of his discs and bleeds like a normal human, not getting program-like voxel damage, so it means humans get hurt in the Grid the same way they do in real life. [[LudicrousGibs Now imagine a human getting hit square in the chest by a disc... Eek.]]
** Of course, it's possible, even likely, that despite looking human on the outside, programs have a completely different internal makeup. The hit that derezzes a program would probably leave a human with three inches of laser disc embedded into his sternum. Not pleasant, but not quite a LudicrousGibs stuation, either.
* One that straddles the line between horror and brilliance. Due to several {{Mythology Gag}}s from Horowitz and Kitsis, ''Series/OnceUponATime'' has been established as being in the ''same'' universe. What is the first rule? ''"Magic always comes with a price."'' User abilities pretty much ''are'' magic, and given Flynn's careless use of then in the first film and Betrayal era, he must have figured out the "price" part well after it was too late.
* One which seems as yet unmentioned. CLU cannot create programs, thus he needs to rectify them. It has been an extremely long time inside the machine. Assuming a derezzed program is permanently lost - how many programs can still exist if a large number of them have been rectified or derezzed? Eventually, they would run out of programs to rectify/game, possibly leading to the system itself crashing. How long have the games been going on?
* So, Sam Flynn. From the age of birth to six, he learned his dad's fantastic tales of digital wonderlands and BenevolentAI. Then, his dad vanished. He still believed in his father's message and became a PlayfulHacker, but unwilling to take a larger role in Encom. Then, down the digital rabbit hole and his childhood stories are nothing but a nightmare. His father betrayed by Clu, thousands of Programs cheering for his messy death in the arena, Zues and Gem turning out to be scheming bastards, Quorra's tale of narrow escape from genocide, Clu's regime threatening to take over Earth, and his father being killed right in front of him by Clu. Remember, the elder Flynn had to deal with Master Control, but saw more benevolent and benign Programs like Ram, Tron, Yori, and Dumont. Sam saw a never-ending parade of hostile AI; even Tron was warped into an attack dog that nearly slit his throat in front of cheering crowds. Now, he's trudged off into taking the throne at Encom - ''a software company.'' [[HeWhoFightsMonsters He has a position and]] [[GodandSatanAreBothJerks very good reason to become]] [[GodIsEvil a tyrant to the Programs.]]
* Worse, if you got the PatchworkFic route? Sam and Jet Bradley would have been something like cousins or brothers, but their respective trips down the cyberspace rabbit hole were ''very'' different, with Sam seeing nothing but hostile AI and Jet seeing mostly sympathetic Programs and HumansAreTheRealMonsters. Jet also may have ''killed'' humans (the Wraiths' survival is questionable, he contributed to Thorne's death, and the F-con trio isn't coming back anytime soon) to protect those Programs. If Sam sees Jet as a traitor to humanity for protecting Programs, and Jet sees Sam as going down the path of people like Crown or Thorne, that could be a tragic and ugly confrontation akin to Marvel's Civil War or the whole Xavier and Magneto frenemy dynamic.
* Remember what kicked off the plot of [[{{Film/Tron}} the first movie]]? Dillinger steals Flynn's life's work, takes credit for it, and Flynn is trying desperately to get it back. Lora convinces Alan to warn Flynn that his hacking attempts are being noticed. Queue a six-felony night to break into corporate HQ and expose Dillinger's fraud, which escalates to trying to stop Master Control from controlling both sides of the Cold War. Now, ''Lora'' was the co-inventor of the Shiva Laser and expressly calls it her "life's work." But come the events of the ''Betrayal'' comic, she's PutOnABus, apparently knowing ''nothing'' about what her "life's work" can ''really'' do. Meanwhile, her ex appropriates one for his own use and is taking joyrides with it in the arcade basement where he gets all the credit and glory for his "digital frontier," and Lora's LockedOutOfTheLoop. {{Hypocrite}}, much?
* Another "cross the timelines and cringe": In ''[[VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh Tron 2.0]]'''s continuity, Tron is viewed as Encom's greatest hero, the focus of a KingInTheMountain style myth stating he will return to defend the system (and, by extension, all of {{Cyberspace}}) in its DarkestHour. It's not a stretch to think that it's probably true in this continuity as well. However, think of what would happen in a ''Legacy''-compliant timeline; at best, Clu could manipulate that legend to his own ends by demonstrating the legendary hero's on ''his'' side. Even if he told the full truth (and this is Clu we're talking about - the guy might give [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Loki]] a run for his money), the truth would be enough to ''severely'' demoralize any opposing systems, especially if Clu invokes DarkestHour, and ''then'' reveals the KingInTheMountain as a rectified drone.
* Quorra's defiant statement to Clu that she "knows" what Users are capable of is pure PatrickStewartSpeech, but it's coming out of the mouth of someone who has only read about humans in a carefully-curated selection of literature, and has plenty of reasons to overlook [[HumansAreFlawed Flynn the Elder's]] ''[[GodIsFlawed many]]'' [[WhatTheHellHero questionable decisions]]. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of history books in Flynn's stash. Sooner or later, she's going to read about [[PostHistoricalTrauma all the ways]] humans can and have done much worse things than Clu ever dreamed about, including the fact that ''modern computers themselves'' were designed primarily as a way for humans to hurl missiles at one another for maximum death for minimal effort, and modern-day cyberwarfare and cybercrime. How much is she going to want to help humans after all that?
* A related bit of Fridge Horror to above. Okay, Clu succeeds in invading. But he has next to no idea about how nasty humans are capable of being. [[PuttingOnTheReich We've seen dozens like him in the past]] and we'll no doubt see dozens like him in the future. [[RobotWar So he comes out of cyberspace with an army]], proving AIIsACrapshoot. Even if we have to go back to slide rules and pre-World War 2 tech to nail his butt we will do so with extreme prejudice. Maybe a lot of humans die in the process, but we're still likely to win...even if there's two of us and none of them, we'll still call it a win. [[WhatMeasureIsANonhuman And after that,]] [[JustAMachine humans will systematically destroy our computers]] [[GuiltFreeExterminationWar and every Program on them down to Ada Lovelace's punch cards without losing a wink of sleep]].
* Per the ARG, one of the reasons Flynn was so enamored with the Isos, and all but cast the Programs aside as a dead end was that he believed Isos and humans had true free will, where the Programs still had directives that they had to follow (see Ram's inappropriate insurance sales pitch in the Gaming cells and Tron's inability to act against Users). The horror? How much actual choice do Sam and Quorra get in their destiny? Sam resisted as much as he could, but he was always "fated" to take the proverbial throne at Encom as a proxy for his "earlier version," and Quorra was supposed to "change the world" (a world that isn't her own, and a species she doesn't belong to). Their fates and their functions were just as pre-programmed as any "Basic's," with just as much say in the matter.
* In a bonus feature on the Tron: Legacy Blu-ray, a text conversation occurs between Edward Dillinger Jr. and an unnamed individual, implied to be either Edward Dillinger Sr. (as he calls it "Dad") or the Master Control Program (as it ends the conversation with "End of Line"). The conversation suggests the two have some mysterious plan. As Edward Dillinger Jr. is credited with the development of the new Encom OS which is leaked in the beginning of the film, this raises a question: what else might have been programmed into that OS?
* A sharp-eyed fan on Website/{{Tumblr}} pointed out that the [[http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/Nervous_Program traumatized Program]] on the Recognizer babbling ''Not the Games. Not the Games!"'' looks a lot like [[http://tron.wikia.com/wiki/Zed Zed]] from WesternAnimation/TronUprising. We had confirmation that some of the ''Uprising'' characters survived the BolivianArmyEnding when Bartik got killed at the End of Line. But given the dim survival odds of everyone and Zed's [[ButtMonkey chronic lack of luck]], that very likely ''was'' Zed jumping to his messy de-rez instead of being sent to the Games.
* A potentially messy thought; Flynn Sr. was making regular trips back and forth with the laser well before Jordan and Sam came into the picture. We have ''no'' idea what that laser might have been doing to his DNA. Sam may be in for some very unpleasant surprises down the road.

** This also borderlines on FridgeHorror when you think about it: Had Flynn said "No," there's a good chance that the events in the film and tie-in media (the comic and game included) could have been avoided. The way Flynn says "Yeah" sounds like he was unsure of his response. Him saying "yes" pretty much instigated the genocide of the ISO's, his being trapped in the Grid and Sam growing up without a father.

* The first movie ended with a night-time cityscape, lit up with neon and TronLines, indicating that we were NotSoDifferent from the Programs. Legacy ends with Sam and Quorra turning off the computer, getting outside, and into the natural world to see a sunrise... reversing the message and reminding us Users that we really are quite different.

* CLU didn't start his mutiny until after Flynn said "Yes" to his question of "Am I still to create the perfect system?" When you take into account that CLU is a program, when he asks the question, it's a command prompt question, like when a program asks if you want to install/uninstall/modify/save/etc when you do something. Think about it: the question was a yes/no question, the typical kind that would come up on any OS, even DOS. Despite revolting against Flynn, he is still following his programming.

* ''Franchise/{{Tron}}'' is very much a product of the [[http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Disney_Dark_Age Disney Dark Age]] (1982), when the company was trying out DarkerAndEdgier material or more experimental films, struggling to compete with ''Franchise/StarWars'', Creator/StevenSpielberg, and Creator/DonBluth (who used to be Disney's best and brightest). Flynn vanishing in 1989 coincides with the release of ''Disney/TheLittleMermaid'', the film that ended the Disney Dark Age.