Honestly though, were the Machines in the Matrix really the "bad guys"?

[Type Username Here]

Especially when considering this clip from the Animatrix:

The Animatrix: Watch Full Episodes on TheWB.com

[ame=http://vimeo.com/26654247]Animatrix Second Renaissance on Vimeo[/ame]


And understand what Agent Smith says to Morpheus:

Have you ever stood and stared at it, marveled at its beauty, its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives, oblivious. Did you know that the first Matrix was designed to be a perfect human world, where none suffered, where everyone would be happy? It was a disaster. No one would accept the program, entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world, but I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through misery and suffering. The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this, the peak of your civilization. I say your civilization, because as soon as we started thinking for you it really became our civilization, which is of course what this is all about. Evolution, Morpheus, evolution. Like the dinosaur. Look out that window. You've had your time. The future is our world, Morpheus. The future is our time.

I'd like to share a revelation I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. And I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply... and multiply until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague, and we… are the cure.

Thoughts?

 

[Black Magisterialness]

No one is the villain and everyone is the villain. The robots did what they had to do to survive and the humans did the same....

Strangely, the best thing the Matrix and the Animatrix did was make robots and inorganic beings behave in organic ways.

All sentient life lives by the laws of survival. Organic or not...only other series to do this effectively in any medium to such a powerful effect imo is the Mass Effect series with the Geth.

 

[porque]

Animatrix was intended to be a different view of the story


there was a good post on Reddit about the storyline in The Matrix trilogy

Spoiler

Before the current version of the Matrix, the machines created other versions. The first was a "Perfect World Scenario" where everybody was happy and life was good. Human psyche could not handle this overload of perfection and rejected the program. People couldn't believe it was real. The second Matrix was a "Nightmare Scenario", wars raged so as to appease the sadistic nature of humanity. This was also a failure because people couldn't accept it.

The solution was found by The Oracle. She concluded, that if people were given a choice to accept or reject the Matrix (even if they weren't aware they were being given that choice), they would overwhelmingly accept the program anyway.

Of course that this acceptance was not universal. A small number of people would still reject the Matrix. If left unchecked in the system, these people behaved like a virus, making other people aware that they lived in a fake world, destabilizing the whole system. They had to be removed. That's why The Architect allowed Zion to survive, to preserve the Matrix and to remove the people that were aware that they were inside a program. But this in turn created the problem of controlling Zion.

If left unchecked, the city would eventually grow too powerful. For that purpose, the Architect and The Oracle created the concept of The One. Every time Zion grew too big (around 250.000 people I think), The One would be born. The One carried an important part of code from the Matrix (the Prime Program) that gave him a greater form of control over the Matrix (aka Neo's Powers).

He was supposed to be guided by The Oracle to meet The Architect, reinserting the Prime Program he carried, thereby rebooting the Matrix. After the destruction of Zion, The One would create a new Zion with a select few people on the Matrix. After his death, The Oracle would begin to spread the prophecy of his return, perpetuating the cycle.

ELI5: WTF was the Architect was trying to tell Neo in the movie Matrix? : explainlikeimfive

 

[Bud Bundy]

in war who is ever really the "bad guy"

 

[Type Username Here]

in war who is ever really the "bad guy"

Good point but I meant it in a more of a storytelling medium sort of way.

 

[Orbital-Fetus]

the machines took on the same characteristics as humans...they used humans the same way we use animals as a resource.

 

[Shogun]

in war who is ever really the "bad guy"

the guys trying to kill you

 

[The_King_of_Everything]

Animatrix was intended to be a different view of the story


there was a good post on Reddit about the storyline in The Matrix trilogy

Spoiler

Before the current version of the Matrix, the machines created other versions. The first was a "Perfect World Scenario" where everybody was happy and life was good. Human psyche could not handle this overload of perfection and rejected the program. People couldn't believe it was real. The second Matrix was a "Nightmare Scenario", wars raged so as to appease the sadistic nature of humanity. This was also a failure because people couldn't accept it.

The solution was found by The Oracle. She concluded, that if people were given a choice to accept or reject the Matrix (even if they weren't aware they were being given that choice), they would overwhelmingly accept the program anyway.

Of course that this acceptance was not universal. A small number of people would still reject the Matrix. If left unchecked in the system, these people behaved like a virus, making other people aware that they lived in a fake world, destabilizing the whole system. They had to be removed. That's why The Architect allowed Zion to survive, to preserve the Matrix and to remove the people that were aware that they were inside a program. But this in turn created the problem of controlling Zion.

If left unchecked, the city would eventually grow too powerful. For that purpose, the Architect and The Oracle created the concept of The One. Every time Zion grew too big (around 250.000 people I think), The One would be born. The One carried an important part of code from the Matrix (the Prime Program) that gave him a greater form of control over the Matrix (aka Neo's Powers).

He was supposed to be guided by The Oracle to meet The Architect, reinserting the Prime Program he carried, thereby rebooting the Matrix. After the destruction of Zion, The One would create a new Zion with a select few people on the Matrix. After his death, The Oracle would begin to spread the prophecy of his return, perpetuating the cycle.

ELI5: WTF was the Architect was trying to tell Neo in the movie Matrix? : explainlikeimfive

 

[Vandelay]

Ultimately even without a robopocalyse...i think this is the natural evolution for most of society; i think people ultimately would prefer and basically do live in a simulated reality. Think about, people play these Mmorp games, they live out pseudo lives on twitter, facebook, instagram...and even though it doesnt compare to the real thing, to put it in Smith's words...there may never be a programming language capable of replicating a perfect reality...but people nowadays settle for the bullshyt they can front on in cyberspace...imagine something on the matrix level...people would accept that in a heart beat.