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What did Zion think would happen to the blue pills if they succeeded in destroying the Matrix?


Part of the Prophecy of The One involved the destruction of the Matrix. The prophecy as explained by Morpheus is:




When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit. It was he who freed the first of us, taught us the truth - As long as the Matrix exists, the human race will never be free. After he died, the Oracle prophesied his return and his coming would hail the destruction of the Matrix, end the war, bring freedom to our people. That is why there are those who have spent our entire lives searching the Matrix looking for him.



The prophecy was part of the Machine-engineered Path of The One so the Machines knew the Matrix would not be literally destroyed but rather simply reloaded. But some Zionists like Morpheus believed in the prophecy and presumably that the Matrix would be literally destroyed.


Now, if the Matrix was destroyed it seems quite possible that all the blue pills would die. From the blue pills' perspective the destruction of the Matrix would be the destruction of the world, which could easily lead to their deaths. It is well known that someone who dies in the Matrix dies in the Real World, so the literal destruction of the Matrix could result in many blue pill deaths.


But even if the blue pills did not die from the destruction of the Matrix I do not see how most of them could survive in the Real World. There are billions of blue pills in the Matrix versus hundreds of thousands in Zion. I don't see any way the billions of blue pills could survive with a scorched sky in the Desert of the Real. So, either way, it seems that the literal destruction of the Matrix would result in the mass deaths of billions of blue pills.


And if that's true then who really has the moral high ground -- Zion or the Machines? At worst the Machines are guilty of "enslaving" the blue pills, but even then we are told the blue pills make an unconscious choice to accept the Matrix. On the other hand, Zion would be guilty of murdering billions.



Answer



In The Matrix Online Morpheus admits that he (and presumably the rest of Zion) thought that a human victory would result in the deaths of the blue pills in their pods. The relevant quote is:



We thought... I thought... we could win this war or lose it. If we won, yes, millions would die in their pods, but our days and years would be spent saving those we could, and reclaiming the surface. Instead, we have peace. Neo found a way to save them all...




The video of Morpheus saying this is on Youtube. In case the video is no longer available, here is a screenshot with the quote from Morpheus as a subtitle:


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What this implies about the moral purity (or lack thereof) of Zion and its operatives is left as an exercise to the reader...


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