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ilonga · 3 years

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angstpril day 21

alt prompt: “I’m sorry.”

ao3

alright I know this au is bizarre even for me so some background: - yes I started another matrix-inspired au - yes it's a separate au from both coppertop and the force battery au I've been writing this month - in this au, star wars canon is a simulation a la the Matrix, except on a much smaller scale and run by a shady research group, not run by ai - only ahsoka and anakin (that they know of) are actually people plugged in to said simulation; obi-wan, palpatine, and other characters are real people who live in the town nearby, whose personalities were imitated to fill the world up (because creating important people from scratch is much more difficult and takes up far more resources than just using a premade jumping off point) - at this point in the au, Anakin and Ahsoka have escaped (they escaped in what would be the Clone Wars in star wars canon), and are basically in hiding in the town - and they've explained everything to the real obi-wan, who's just like. a regular dude in town vibing until nowthere'll be another part that explains a bit more later in the month, but until then, enjoy! "I know it sounds impossible to believe," Ahsoka says softly, once they've finished their story. "But this has been our lives for. . . we don't even know how long, Mas—Mister Kenobi. I mean," she laughs humorlessly, "I don't even know how old I am. I don't even know my birthday."

Obi-wan raises an eyebrow at that. He turns to Anakin. "Neither do you, I presume?"

"Uh," Anakin swallows nervously. Obi-wan's gaze is too much to handle; he looks away. "I didn't know age or birthday in the simulation either. They went a bit overboard for the tragic backstory."

He tries to make it sound lighthearted. Instead it just sounds bitter.

The silence stretches awkwardly. He can't imagine what Obi-wan is feeling right now—he doesn't even know what he's feeling. The man in front of him is—is the real Obi-wan. And the Obi-wan he knew never even existed.

It hurts like a knife to his gut.

"You have to understand, I had no idea the research would be used in such a way," Obi-wan says finally. "I was told it was for a psychological study—I had no idea it would hurt anyone."

"Well, it did!" Before he knows it he's on his feet. The other two look at him in shock. "You—you raised me in there, you know. You were practically my brother. My father, even. And you—it was never real. Any of it. And I meet you in real life and I'm—" He blinks back tears. "I'm a stranger to you," he finishes quietly. "You don't even know me."

Obi-wan looks at him, lips slightly parted. Finally he sighs. "I am. . . deeply sorry, Anakin. I had no idea it would come to this—that I would hurt someone in this way with that research. I," he bows his head. "If I had known, I would have never have done it."

Someone. Not Anakin, but someone. It still stings even though Anakin knows the real Obi-wan has never even met him before today.

"They didn't change that," Ahsoka muses, and they both turn to look at her. She meets Obi-wan's gaze. "Your kindness," she elaborates. "You were just like that in the simulation. A sarcastic bastard sometimes, to be sure, but you. . you cared."

She blinks and looks around. "I'm sorry we bothered you, Mister Kenobi. I'm sorry we dumped all of this on you like that. I know you don't know us—you don't have to help us, if you don't want to."

Part of Anakin bristles at that, but he shoves it down. If he had been in Obi-wan's position, a couple of strangers telling him that some government survey he'd down years ago was part of a shockingly unethical research program in which random kids were dumped into some false simulation of a fantasy world—

Well. He doesn't know what he'd do. Probably accuse them of having a little too much to drink.

He's avoiding Obi-wan's gaze, he realizes. It's just—too strange.

Finally he looks back up.

Obi-wan meets his eyes and he tries not to flinch. "Well, of course I want to help," he finally says. "This mess is partially my fault, after all."

"Where do we begin?"

#angstpril2021 #fanfiction #daytwenty #I'msorry #angstpril #angstpril day 21 #my writing #star wars fanfiction #star wars au #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #ahsoka tano #star wars

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douxreviews · 5 years

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The Matrix (1999) Review

[This review includes spoilers.]

"Throughout human history, we have been dependent on machines to survive. Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."

I saw this movie in the theater, with no idea what was coming. And it just blew me away.

Our hero is an everyday grunt, like most of us. Thomas A. Anderson (about as generic an American name as you can get) works in a cubicle during the day, and as a hacker who calls himself "Neo," he searches fruitlessly for the truth on his computer every night. When Neo jumps down the rabbit hole and finally "wakes up," he discovers that it is so much worse than he ever could have imagined: the real world is an environmental horror, humanity is enslaved and machines have taken over. (There are numerous clues in the opening scenes that Neo's world is unreal -- Switch even calls him "coppertop" -- but I still didn't see the reveal coming that first time.)

The existence of a savior who can work miracles and save the world injects religious mysticism into the story as a counterpoint to the all-powerful machines, who come off as demonic and evil and a lot more emotional than one might expect. (Near the end of the movie, Agent Smith acts very human with Morpheus, telling him that humans are a virus, talking about how they stink and how much he hates them.) As Neo fights the good fight and absorbs training that will allow him to manipulate reality within the Matrix, he eventually comes to believe what Morpheus tells him -- that he, Neo, is the chosen one who will free humanity. Neo's acceptance of his own reality and destiny is the key to his control of the Matrix in the final scenes on the subway platform.

Just the look of The Matrix is spectacular. Actually, of course, it's two distinct looks so that you always know where you are (a terrific visual device used recently in the series Awake). Every scene that takes place within the Matrix has a green cast with a background pattern of grids and vertical lines, accented with interesting pops of red that symbolize the imprisoned people. When we finally see the human "batteries," they are industrial towers of green with bits of red that represent the humans trapped in the pods. Some of the cinematography in this movie is just stunning -- the lines of green rain cascading down, the stream of bullet casings from the helicopter, the checkerboard floor in the stairwell, Neo and Trinity in the elevator shaft, the slomo "bullet time" scene on the roof. I have always particularly liked the sequence where our heroes are stuck inside the walls, which was filmed as if they were trapped between lines of computer code.

In contrast, when we finally see the real world, it is dominated by blues and browns, and even though there is a lot of machinery, the shapes are more organic. Morpheus and his crew wear ragged, stained clothing. It's not beautiful like the Matrix, but it's real. What fun that we get juicy red steak in the Matrix, and colorless cereal that looks like snot in the real world. Life is hard, man.

Keanu Reeves works quite well as Neo; the role is a good fit for his exceptional physical beauty and somewhat wooden acting style. Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne both do well as Trinity and Morpheus. For me, though, the standouts are definitely Joe Pantoliano as the despicable Cypher, Gloria Foster as the Oracle, and especially Hugo Weaving as Agent Smith. Weaving's interpretation of his character is so memorable -- the controlled gestures and precise diction with extended consonants ("... and you help your landlady carry out her garbaggggge"). Love him.

If The Matrix has a weakness (for me, anyway), it's the overemphasis on superfighting and guns. Yes, they were Hollywood game-changers and they were impressive to watch the first time, but the battles -- especially the shoot-em-up in the building lobby -- get a bit old. I think the concentration on action sequences (even bigger! even longer!) instead of on the story were what made the sequels a failure. There were a couple of logic problems, too. If the machines kept humans alive by liquifying the dead for food, why was Neo flushed but not killed? How could Neo pour machine gun fire into the room where they were holding Morpheus, and not hit him?

And of course, there's the reverse feminist journey of Trinity, who starts out as Wonder Woman in the fabulous opening sequence and ends up as Superman's girlfriend, or possibly Mary Magdalene. She even brings Neo back to life with a fairytale kiss. Oh, well.

Bits:

-- The names of the characters are great fun and have meaning: Neo (Greek for "new"), Morpheus, Trinity, Cypher, Switch, Zion, and so on. Neo works at a software company called Metacortex. Morpheus's ship is called Nebuchadnezzar. Love that the two "real" brothers are called Tank and Dozer.

-- The story began and ended at "The Heart of the City" Motel. Most of the places in the movie don't have names.

-- Loved the chase through the cubicles, ending with Neo not quite able to throw himself out of a window. It's no coincidence that the agents look like FBI. Do we resent authority, perhaps?

-- I really liked that the connection to reality was an old land line telephone.

-- There are numerous references to Alice in Wonderland and the white rabbit. Neo even puts his fingers through the looking glass, and we see double reflections of Neo in Morpheus's dark glasses as well as in the spoon. In the Oracle's apartment, the movie on the TV was Night of the Lepus, the one with the killer bunnies.

-- The only colorful place in the Matrix is the Oracle's kitchen. It's still mostly green so it isn't jarring, but there is yellow and orange as well as the pops of red.

-- The guy who knocked on the door called Neo his "own personal Jesus Christ," in case we didn't realize Neo was a Christ figure.

-- It's just so much fun that deja vu is a glitch in the Matrix. What a great detail.

Quotes:

Neo: "You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?" Choi: "All the time. It's called mescaline. It's the only way to fly."

Morpheus: "The pill you took is part of a trace program. It's designed to disrupt your input output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location." Neo: "What does that mean?" Cypher: "It means fasten your seat belt Dorothy, 'cause Kansas is going bye-bye."

Cypher: "I know what you're thinking, because right now I'm thinking the same thing. Actually, I've been thinking it ever since I got here. Why oh why didn't I take the blue pill?"

Child: "Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth." Neo: "What truth?" Child: "There is no spoon."

Agent Smith: "You hear that, Mister Anderson? That is the sound of inevitability."

The Matrix effectively addressed that feeling we all have at times that life is unreal and meaningless, that we're all being controlled, cogs in a machine whose purpose we don't know. The sequels may have been ultimately unsatisfying (I'm not going to review the sequels), but The Matrix deserves its reputation as an exceptional science fiction movie.

Four out of four spoons.

Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

#The Matrix #Neo #Morpheus #Trinity #Agent Smith #Doux Reviews #Movie Reviews #something from the archive

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