Line #8 YMMV/TheAnimatrix


1	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Judging for how cartoonishly biased against mankind the entire chronicle is, many interpret the Instructor from the ''Second Renaissance'' segments as an UnreliableNarrator who built the whole thing as pro-machine propaganda. Then again, she at least has the common sense to recognise what the machines have done.
2	-->"May Man and Machine be forgiven for their sins. Bless all forms of intelligence."
3	** It's equally possible to interpret the Instructor's bias as an ''understatement'', considering the fact that 1. many of the scenes pictured in the short are recreations of historical incidents, indicating that 2. people are capable of the same level of barbarism ''towards each other'' that they subjected to the machines. For anyone who is more familiar with how utterly cruel human beings can be over the pettiest of differences, nothing about the premise of this short can be far-fetched. Making this TruthInTelevision.
4	** Another point in doubt of the notion that the Instructor is peddling pro-machine propaganda is the amount of sympathy she displays for humanity's fate - but even more pertinently, she is introduced as a digital avatar for the Zion Archives - meaning that she represents the collation of ''humanity's'' knowledge of what preceded the eventual founding of Zion, as (presumably) determined by the academic bodies of Earth's last human settlement.
5	* AluminumChristmasTrees: While the idea of [[BatmanGrabsAGun Tibetan monks supporting war against the machines]] seems absolutely absurd at first blush, Tibetan Buddhists [[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32929855 have, in fact, been involved in a number of controversial and violent actions that would indicate that this is, in fact, plausible.]]
6	* {{Anvilicious}}:
7	** The first part "The Second Renaissance" beats the HumansAreBastards message into the audience's brains so much (humans murder robots in several direct parallels of real-life acts of genocide, humans engage in moments of StupidEvil like permanently blotting out the sun, all the major world religions sanction war against the machines, ''including Tibetan monks''[[note]]Beats [[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32929855 neo-nazism]], at least[[/note]]) that it comes off as unbelievable hyperbole, hence the idea that the narrator is an UnreliableNarrator. It may also come across as a form of RealityIsUnrealistic - militant Buddhists DO exist - and in the animated sequence the monks in question are not presented as active participants to the war (in fact, there's no evidence given that they even ''condone'' what's happening); they're simply shown praying for the wellbeing of the soldiers. By extension, no religious representative of any denomination shown in the film is shown to support the motion to fight the machines, but they ''are'' shown offering spiritual advice and moral support to the fighters who stake their faith in them - something which religious services would provide ''in almost any circumstance.''
8	** "The Second Renaissance" also pre-emptively drops quite a few anvils in favor of granting sentient machines civil rights. Comparisons are made to other civil rights struggles, like the Amistad, ThoseWackyNazis, the Chinese democracy movement, and ''[[Literature/BookOfExodus Exodus]]''. And as a counterpoint to the overwhelming amount of smack humanity's image receives for its actions in the short, it IS emphatically stressed that there were plenty of humans who were highly sympathetic to the idea of AI sentience, quoted almost verbatim as dissenting voices that questioned: "who was to say [the] machine, endowed with the spirit of man, was not as deserving of a fair hearing?" This could potentially explain how the machines were eventually allowed territory to found their own settlement without any dispute.
9	** Another anvil dropped at the expense of humanity's actions is the folly of greed and pride. The final act of the first part has the machine Ambassadors' plea to join the UN and foster a stable global economic system that benefits man and machine alike be soundly and ''violently'' rejected, because human leaders couldn't fathom co-operating with what they still regarded as their creations, plus they resented that so much leverage over humanity's livelihood was already under machine control. This is what finally motivates human nations to make an attempt at eradicating the machines, and it doesn't take a massive stretch to make a parallel with the 20th century arms race as a very convenient example of what unchecked competitiveness and paranoia can do to the human collective.
10	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fxVRTGjUJw Supermoves remix]]" during the RobotWar of "The Second Renaissance" segment. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jtU2mz3cfU Virus]]" from the ''World Record'' segment.
11	* HeartwarmingInHindsight: ''Matriculated'' focuses on a group of humans trying to convince a machine to swap sides and fight for the rebels. While their attempts ultimately fail, ''Film/TheMatrixResurrections'' shows that some machines did legitimately end up swapping over to the side of the humans following the events of ''Revolutions'', meaning that their efforts weren't for naught.
12	* HilariousInHindsight: The Wachowskis being trans women is made slightly funny with the presence of an ActionGirl named "Cis".
13	* MagnificentBastard:
14	** "Program": [[TricksterMentor Kaiser]] is a human rebel who puts his recruits through [[TrainingFromHell grueling simulations]] to test their mettle. After Cis chooses the red pill, Kaiser has a simulated LoveInterest try to sway her into betraying the team, congratulating her on passing when she "kills" the man, even laughing off her punching him in the face in a rage.
15	** "A Detective Story": While evading the machines, [[ActionGirl Trinity]] scouts for humans with the willpower to learn the truth of the simulation. After one is driven to insanity, Trinity draws in protagonist [[HardboiledDetective Ash]] and debugs him but has to [[MercyKill fatally wound]] him when he's taken by an Agent, complimenting his strength before escaping her pursuers.
16	* MorePopularSpinOff: This anthology of animated shorts enjoyed a much better critical reception compared to the rest of the Blitz of ''Franchise/TheMatrix'' content released in 2003 (''Film/TheMatrixReloaded'', ''Film/TheMatrixRevolutions'' and ''VideoGame/EnterTheMatrix'').
17	* RootingForTheEmpire: ''The Second Renaissance'' can easily make the machines look like the good guys of the series. To wit, they are created as a slave race (and are severely punished for disobeying their "masters"), they make a number of attempts at peaceful coexistence, all of which are mucked up by [[HumansAreBastards a violent and uncaring humanity]], and they more or less are forced into warfare and subjugating the human race after the human military cuts off their main power supply. Based on this short, and the fact that -- when you think about it -- the machines more or less created the Matrix as a mercy to their former masters (they could just have easily left them chained to their power-pods, considering that the original idea of having the Matrix powered by human neural activity got axed by ExecutiveMeddling), the viewer could be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that they've spent the series rooting for the wrong side.
18	* SignatureScene: For entire anthology, it's the dojo scene from ''Final Flight of the Osiris''.
19	** ''The Second Renaissance'' has a robotic version of the HorsemenOfTheApocalypse, which marks a change from somewhat realistic tone to absolutely surreal experience of incoming scenes.
20	** In case of ''Program'', Cis cutting through Duo's mask and landing on his own spear.
21	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: ''The Second Renaissance''. Given how many times it's mentioned on this very page, the section it has in the Main/NightmareFuel page, and how grotesque and cartoonishly disturbing the grim imagery and violence is, you'll understand if more than a few viewers are turned off or disturbed by it. Part of the problem is that it's very unclear who we're supposed to be rooting for as the HumansAreBastards trope being taken to extremes, it's impossible to sympathize with them, and the Machines become literal monsters by the end and ultimately enslave mankind.
22	* {{Woolseyism}}: The Spanish dub was made over a ''very'' shoddy translation, which alters many lines and makes them sound awkward most of the time. However, it also changes the line said by the soldier who is wrenched out of his MiniMecha in "The Second Renaissance" to a considerably better effect: in the original it is just a generic exclamation of fear, while the dub renders it as the same line said by the robot murdered by the human mob ("I don't want to die!"), making it a brilliant IronicEcho.
23	* WoobieSpecies:
24	** In part one of ''The Second Renaissance'' segment, the machines are a sapient species created to be mankind's slaves, and received progressively worse retaliations by [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters mankind]] when they try to fight for their own rights. What drives this particularly home is how they attempt multiple ''peaceful'' solutions, each shot down by the increasing paranoid humanity. Of course, all goes down the drain in part 2, when the war ends and [[MoralEventHorizon they start on things]] like human experimentation and enslavement, but still...
25	** The battle between the humans and the machines shows the earlier models of machine faring poorly and being destroyed wholesale, with later, deadlier models ending the war in a brutally sadistic fashion. The progression seems to imply a change among the machines themselves, who under pressure evolve from trying to peacefully coexist with humans to the more familiar version that is far more deadly, fearsome, and cruel.

Context YMMV / TheAnimatrix