9mo ago

Matrix rule(s)

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And for anyone who wants to check: US release of "The Matrix" was March 31st 1999

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The character of Switch was originally meant to be male in the real world and female in the Matrix. Warner Brothers put a stop to that.
- Not sure why, would have been a pretty cool addition to the universe.
  I can imagine nowadays people saying it's "too woke" though.
  
  Back then :
  It won't bring in the same money, don't put your weird removed shit
  Now :
  This is marketable in certain demographics, but we've already met the diversity quota, so no thanks. Besides, we don't want it to be too "political" and lose our dependable fanbase.
  
  Ah yes, famously apolitical movie The Matrix in the entirely apolitical genre of dystopian sci-fi.
  
  Dystopian? Ah yes, no one was turning a profit. Very sad.
  Although that Cyrus character was quite the go getter.
  
  All studio execs do is "mitigate" movies to appeal to a broader audience...
  An analogy would be a corporate chef who removes garlic from a tomato sauce so that people who don't like garlic will eat it, and those that do will know something is missing but can't complain too much because... endless salad and breadsticks, plus mom likes the "atmosphere"
  Replace garlic with trans character, and endless salads and breadsticks with the MCU
  
  If you think that society was friendlier to trans people in 1999 compared to 2024, you are mistaken.
  
  I can think of one reasonable reason for it. They'd be harder to identify between the two versions. It makes some sense to not change the look that much (or the actor if that was the plan) to not confuse the audience.
  
  Makes sense. Sucks it never happened though because that would have been a cool idea.
  
  Also have to pay and credit two actors for one role, which might get sticky, especially with awards.
  
  I mean you credit them as 2 different roles, Switch (In-Matrix) and Switch (IRL). Happens all the time for different ages of the same characters being portrayed by younger and older actors.
- The more I think about that, the less I'm sure how it would have worked. Any interpretation has knock-on effects for the sci-fi aspect of the premise. (Less of a problem for the philosophical and filmmaking side of things, where it's often fine to say "fuck you, deal with it.")
  If Switch in the matrix is physically female but androgynous trending butch (kinda like canon), while Switch on the Nebuchadnezzar is plainly played by a dude... is that Switch being FTM? The character's deepest internal state, behind the false system of the matrix, is a dude in a bucket. Maybe their presentation (via the body the matrix slots them into) is limited to a haircut, because who cares what your avatar looks like? It's not you. Take your Fortnite default skin, get on with the mission, and get back to reality.
  Obviously the more-likely-intended take is that Switch IRL is MTF, and gets to present however the hell she wants via the matrix. But that implies anyone could look like anyone else. If that requires some deep-seated self-image, rather than a malleable state only limit-breaking individuals like Neo can freely change, you figure Cipher would have hair. Or at least Mouse could give himself a couple inches. In one way or another. Even if it is only limited to modifications of your physical body, the idiot-proof shorthand would be a character who lost a limb during a squid attack still having it in the matrix. There is the image, the body, and the mind, and the body is overall a shite vessel for conveying the image from the mind.
  Anyway, the funny version would be to cast a brother and sister for the separate parts (phrasing) and never mention it. Maybe Neo gets a double-take during the rapid-fire introduction to the crew. Not so much as an "Oh."
  I bet Warner wouldn't even notice.
  
  It would be easier just to use an androgynous actor and dress them female in the matrix and male outside. No need for two actors, and it would be easier for the audience to remember the were the same person. Give them a little piece of styling that's unique and consistent between both, and it wouldn't be an issue.
  
  Doesn't everyone on the Neb dress kinda the same? It's all raggedy gross makeshift cloth. And then in the matrix it's all leather dusters over fine linen shirts and rugged pants... except for Trinity and the gun show.
  
  Sure, but like, all you gotta do is give them a hat that they specifically had remade in real life because they liked it so much or some shit like that.
  
  "I think it makes me look cunning."
  Come to think of it, it's kind of odd they didn't give her Apoc's white shirt. Everyone else's color scheme in the matrix is kinda black-on-black, varying only by matte black versus shiny black, except for Morpheus's tucked green tie.
  If the franchise had gone very differently, and explored the tech more than the philosophy, there'd be people with wholly different personalities in and out of simulation. They are literally online personas. If this had spawned a TV show instead of two-ish sequels, there'd be awakened hackers who spend all their free time in their ship's construct, and barely function outside of it. Basically the antihero version of Cypher's path: they recognize the necessity of defeating the machines, but long for modern comfort. They heard about people rejecting the matrix 1.0 utopia and said "I would just not let that happen to me." Once Zion triumphs they're gonna retire to some lotus-eater solipsism. Anyway: it'd fit a character named "Switch." Maybe give her the only vibrant colors in the crew's wardrobe. Or at least dazzling patterns. Turn the contrast with her all-white getup into multiple forms of contrast.
  
  Alright, between the two of us, do we have enough resources for a time machine and production costs for the original matrix?
  
  Given access to a time machine, we can presumably acquire sufficient funds through shenanigans.
  Given my current resources... I am prepared to provide the shenanigans.
  edit: But apparently they're doing another damn movie anyway, so we may yet see all possible outcomes.
  
  But that implies anyone could look like anyone else.
  I would assume the machines hook the brains up into the matrix, generating the body based on DNA and what the brain expects, not based on a scan or something. Which would mean that in the matrix there's no trans people because noone has a body they don't vibe with but it also means that you can't just wish yourself to grow a couple of centimetres or such.
  
  That'd be the inverse to the first one: Switch pops out into the real world and goes "well this is some bullshit."
  Though it has head-scratching implications for the matrix being the false reality representing systemic et cetera.

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