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the matrix - Why did The Merovingian destroy The Oracle's shell?


In the third movie, we can see that The Oracle looks completely different. Obviously, this is because the original actor died, but the Wachowski's worked that into the plot. Unfortunately, I haven't quite figured out what that plot is.


Obviously, The Merovingian is responsible for this act. I did some more Googling on the topic and came across a small transcript from the Enter the Matrix video game that indicated the destruction codes were traded to The Merovingian by Rama Kandra. Rama Kandra got to keep his daughter safe and The Oracle got Sati whom she believes is very important to the future of both The Machine and Humans. But this doesn't explain why The Merovingian wanted to hurt The Oracle in the first place. Some people have suggested that it's because she helped Neo and the others steal The Keymaker, but this makes no sense as the code was traded before The Keymaker was stolen.


Another thing that makes no sense is The Oracle's indication that the reason she lost her shell is because she made a choice to help Neo and the others. What choice did she make? It can't have anything to do with The Keymaker for the reasons I specified above. Is this a case of contradictory canon or is there a solid explanation?



Answer



Looking at the various wiki type articles about the Merovingian they all state, in various ways, that the Merovingian and the Oracle were at odds. From matrix.wkia.com



The Merovingian is a strong proponent that causality is the true nature of existence within the Matrix, not choice. As a result, his ideology directly conflicts with the efforts of the Oracle. In fact, the Merovingian's behavior strongly suggests that he despised the Oracle so much as to want her termination, suggesting that Trinity can bring him the "eyes of the Oracle" as ransom for Neo's release from Mobil Avenue.




On the other side The Oracle is a strong proponent of choice:



The bad news is there's no way if you can really know whether I'm here to help you or not, so it's really up to you. You just have to make up you on damned mind to either accept what I'm going to tell you, or reject it.



So it seems that their conflict stems from their opposed viewpoints. Now that might be a fairly weak motivation for humans, but for sapient programs, whose defining characteristics are their beliefs, it would be a much stronger motivation.


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