Skip to main content

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.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...