Paradisa Application
Apr. 11th, 2012 03:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
messin_with_my_zen_thingCHARACTER
CHARACTER NAME: Kevin Flynn
SERIES: TRON
CANON POINT: The end of Tron: Legacy – as he’s being reintegrated with CLU.
LOSS: He loses the ability to meditate. He can TRY but he’ll develop some physical tic that’ll keep him from concentrating. He’ll have to find some other way to maintain the zen that he’s worked so hard to find.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
20 years, 11 months, 20 days, 16 hours and 22 minutes. That’s how long Kevin Flynn was trapped in the virtual world he’d helped create and nurture. Spending that much time with only an Isomorphic Algorithm as company would change any man. Many might go mad. Flynn? He found Zen.
Flynn’s changed a lot since he was an immature 33 year old with a penchant for hacking into secure systems. In his younger years he was loud, outspoken, snarky and sarcastic… a lot like his son turned out to be, actually. If he knew he was right he wouldn’t stop until everyone else in the room knew it and was on his side. However, his brashness and immaturity had driven people away - namely his girl and the man she married who would later become his best friend, Alan Bradley. Yet, underneath all that pomp and show lies a heart bigger than cyberspace.
Flynn had one thing he wanted to do in life. He wanted to program operating systems and video games. When that was taken away from him he began to lash out at the person who’d wronged him. Not directly, of course. Instead he chose to sneak in using his program, CLU, to try to find the proof he needed to take him down. He’s not a very confrontational guy. If he can get away with sneaking in and dealing with things behind the scenes he’ll gladly take that option. That is, of course, if he has a choice. If someone gets in his face he has no problem cutting them down to size with a well timed comment or a fist to the face. For all his showboating he has no problem letting someone else have the glory sometimes. When it came down to the showdown with the Master Control Program he jumped into the beam to distract the MCP while letting Tron have the honors of actually taking it down. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and how to use them in tandem with others to achieve their goal.
About a year after he found the Grid and became head of Encom something happened that would change how he viewed the world forever – the birth of his son. Sam changed how he saw everything and what he wanted to do with his life. He stopped worrying about high scores and being a cool dude. His world revolved around his wife and child. When his wife died 2 years after that he became even more determined to make the world a better place for Sam. No matter how hard he was working, he always found time to be with his son. He was a desperately devoted father and the hardest part about being trapped in the Grid was losing Sam. He even says that he would have given the Grid up for one more day with his son.
Sam turning up in the Grid was both the best and worst thing that CLU’s plans wrought. It gave Flynn one more chance to see his son, to see how he’d grown up and the amazing man he’d become. It also gave him something to fight for. Left uninterrupted, Flynn could have spent the rest of his days meditating in seclusion in the Outlands. Even when Sam showed up, he tried to convince him to stay because he knew what would happen if they fought back. As he says, “The only way to win is not to play.” When Sam takes matters into his own hands Flynn rejoins the game, as it were. However, he’s not playing for himself. He spends the flight to the portal planning how to get Sam out, knowing full well he’d never make it out, himself.
As stated, Flynn is a very single-minded individual. If he knows he’s right nothing can stand in his way. This went to extremes in his struggle to convince people of the existence of the Digital Frontier. Between his book and the lectures he did everything he could to make people see that it was the world’s “destiny.” He knew he could change the world, he just needed others to believe he could do it. When people started to think he had a few circuits loose he could have backed off and just dropped the issue. Instead he stepped down from Encom and continued to work towards his dream, no matter what anyone else said. That determination was both a boon and the cause of his downfall.
Flynn’s ego quite literally got the best of him. When he programmed CLU he gave him the directive to “create the perfect system.” Unfortunately, in his naïve enthusiasm he didn’t realize that perfection is unknowable. CLU being a program and unable to learn these things on his own took that directive to the letter and began his coup and the Purge of the ISOs. With everything that CLU did, genocide, attempting to kill his son, destroying Tron, nearly killing him- Flynn didn’t blame him for any of it. No. He blamed himself. He knew that CLU was working within the parameters of his program. The program that he wrote. He realized that CLU was him at that age, but his single-minded determination was pushed to the max and directed at innocent programs. In their final showdown he never once argues with CLU. The only time he contradicts him is followed by the observation that he wouldn’t know it because he himself didn’t. Flynn apologizes to CLU. He apologizes and opens his arms to the program who could very well have killed him where he stood. In his mind, CLU is the biggest victim of everyone on the Grid.
In the decades he’d been trapped he had nothing to do but think. Sure, he’d built a house and had books and could play Go with Quorra and teach her about the world, but that only goes so far. Over time he learned to meditate and found Zen. He couldn’t get home or achieve anything he’d wanted to, so he moved himself past hopes and wishes. He’d accepted his fate and had found a way to keep himself sane while he passed the Cycles in relative peace. The thing is, whenever he meditates he positions himself in such a location where he can also observe. In his house in the Outlands he meditates in front of a large window overlooking the Grid. This means that even if he’s not actively meditating he can stare over the city and watch how it’s changing. It may be from afar, but the User is still keeping an eye on things as he can. On the flyer he positions himself so he’s facing Sam and Quorra. At one point he opens his eyes and watches the pair talking and laughing. This leads one to believe that for at least part of that time he wasn’t meditating – he was planning.
On the whole, Flynn is extremely smart, very witty, fiercely loyal and selfless to a fault. If his own temper starts flaring up he diffuses it with a sarcastic comment instead of falling prey to anger. He’s seen as practically a messiah in the Grid, programs fall to their knees when they see him, but that hasn’t changed how he treats people or programs. He knows that there are others wiser than he and he has great respect for them. He also has a knack of controlling situations without people realizing he’s doing it. He never lies to Sam. He redirected the conversation until there was a better moment for the truth to come out. He also set everything in motion for Sam and Quorra to escape the Grid without him without Sam ever knowing. The final gift he could give his son was escape from the Grid. He gave him that at the expense of his own life, and he did so with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. The knowledge that his son would be safe was all the strength he needed to give CLU what he really needed all along – a hug.
(Which, you know, ended them and took the Grid with them but, hey, you do what you have to do.)
ABILITIES:
He’s a computer genius. He can program and reprogram just about anything he can get his hands on. If he’s on the Grid he can do so with just a touch of his hands, even going so far as touching the walls or floor and changing things. In the real world he’s limited to what he can do by manually working the systems which is, frankly, quite a bit.
Though his skills have dimmed some with age he’s still a force to be reckoned with with his identity Disk. He’s not seen using it as a weapon in TRON: Legacy but there’s nothing to say that he’s completely lost the skills he had. He used to be quite the competitor in the games… twenty years ago. Now? He could still do better than the average person, but he’s not as good as, say, Rinzler and CLU. Put him on a bike or light cycle, however, and all bets are off.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
End of Line.
Three little words came unbidden to Flynn’s mind. In the Grid they simultaneously meant so little, yet so much. He never had to actually type the command anymore, so it seemed a little superfluous. At the same time, however, it suited the hopeless situation he’d found himself in.
CLU had betrayed him. Of all the programs, CLU had been the one to turn against him. He had to admit, even he didn’t see that one coming. Zuse maybe, but not CLU. He sighed, stopping and turning to look over the city he’d once considered his second home. “CLU…” His voice trailed off as his gaze was drawn to the flickering light of the portal. His only way home and it would be about as easy to reach as it would be for Sam to dig a hole to China in their backyard. His son’s name died on his lips as he watched the portal flicker once more before it closed- seemingly for good. He closed his eyes, his chest tight as he thought about Sam, his parents, Alan and Roy. The people he’d never see again, who’d never know what happened to him.
An explosion to the East disrupted his thoughts and he turned, following the noise. He cursed himself for being so selfish. He was just one man. One insignificant man out of 5 billion other people. The ISOs were a miracle. They were a miracle and they were being wiped out like a common computer virus. He took a shuddering breath as he watched the ISO Towers being destroyed. His heart broke a little more with each shot that hit the structures. When they fell, he felt like he was falling right along with them, refusing to tear his eyes away from the massacre. It was hard to tell if the screams he heard truly carried over that distance or if they were just his own shame and pain screaming within his head.
It was a new game, now. CLU wasn’t just running the ISOs out of town, he was committing genocide. How had it come to this? How had he missed this? He had to regroup. Maybe there was still something he could do. He knew he couldn’t save all of them, but maybe he could save some- mount a resistance. Turning his back on the city, he pulled his hood over his head and looked out over the horizon. He hadn’t ventured this far into the Outlands before, but it was the safest place for now. He shook his head as he started the long walk to his new home.
End of line, indeed.
FIRST-PERSON JOURNAL SAMPLE:
[Oh man. Guess who just found the games room? He’s currently weaving through the games. He’s not playing any just yet, just taking it all in and seeing what’s come out since he’s been, well, indisposed.]
This is incredible, man! Oh this is just like my place back home. Well, the way it was when I last saw it. I’m sure it’s probably seen better days at this point.
[His eyes fall on one particular game. Space Paranoids. He slowly walks over to it, running his hands up the sides of the machine.]
Blast from the past, man. I never thought I’d see one’ve these, again, let alone in perfect condition like this. [He scoffs softly] Wonder if anyone even plays it, here.
[He picks up his journal, not even caring that it had been open]
[Sam]
Hey, kiddo. You up for a game of doubles? Who knows, maybe you’ll finally be able to beat your old man.
INTENT: The existing cast is amazing and the thought of bringing Flynn in somewhere where he can see his son again as a child is just beautiful. I also love the philosophical aspect of Flynn. He’s so zen, man, I could definitely use some of that. Also… with the possibility of CLU looming on the horizons, the conflict and confusion would just be gorgeous.
CHARACTER NAME: Kevin Flynn
SERIES: TRON
CANON POINT: The end of Tron: Legacy – as he’s being reintegrated with CLU.
LOSS: He loses the ability to meditate. He can TRY but he’ll develop some physical tic that’ll keep him from concentrating. He’ll have to find some other way to maintain the zen that he’s worked so hard to find.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER:
20 years, 11 months, 20 days, 16 hours and 22 minutes. That’s how long Kevin Flynn was trapped in the virtual world he’d helped create and nurture. Spending that much time with only an Isomorphic Algorithm as company would change any man. Many might go mad. Flynn? He found Zen.
Flynn’s changed a lot since he was an immature 33 year old with a penchant for hacking into secure systems. In his younger years he was loud, outspoken, snarky and sarcastic… a lot like his son turned out to be, actually. If he knew he was right he wouldn’t stop until everyone else in the room knew it and was on his side. However, his brashness and immaturity had driven people away - namely his girl and the man she married who would later become his best friend, Alan Bradley. Yet, underneath all that pomp and show lies a heart bigger than cyberspace.
Flynn had one thing he wanted to do in life. He wanted to program operating systems and video games. When that was taken away from him he began to lash out at the person who’d wronged him. Not directly, of course. Instead he chose to sneak in using his program, CLU, to try to find the proof he needed to take him down. He’s not a very confrontational guy. If he can get away with sneaking in and dealing with things behind the scenes he’ll gladly take that option. That is, of course, if he has a choice. If someone gets in his face he has no problem cutting them down to size with a well timed comment or a fist to the face. For all his showboating he has no problem letting someone else have the glory sometimes. When it came down to the showdown with the Master Control Program he jumped into the beam to distract the MCP while letting Tron have the honors of actually taking it down. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and how to use them in tandem with others to achieve their goal.
About a year after he found the Grid and became head of Encom something happened that would change how he viewed the world forever – the birth of his son. Sam changed how he saw everything and what he wanted to do with his life. He stopped worrying about high scores and being a cool dude. His world revolved around his wife and child. When his wife died 2 years after that he became even more determined to make the world a better place for Sam. No matter how hard he was working, he always found time to be with his son. He was a desperately devoted father and the hardest part about being trapped in the Grid was losing Sam. He even says that he would have given the Grid up for one more day with his son.
Sam turning up in the Grid was both the best and worst thing that CLU’s plans wrought. It gave Flynn one more chance to see his son, to see how he’d grown up and the amazing man he’d become. It also gave him something to fight for. Left uninterrupted, Flynn could have spent the rest of his days meditating in seclusion in the Outlands. Even when Sam showed up, he tried to convince him to stay because he knew what would happen if they fought back. As he says, “The only way to win is not to play.” When Sam takes matters into his own hands Flynn rejoins the game, as it were. However, he’s not playing for himself. He spends the flight to the portal planning how to get Sam out, knowing full well he’d never make it out, himself.
As stated, Flynn is a very single-minded individual. If he knows he’s right nothing can stand in his way. This went to extremes in his struggle to convince people of the existence of the Digital Frontier. Between his book and the lectures he did everything he could to make people see that it was the world’s “destiny.” He knew he could change the world, he just needed others to believe he could do it. When people started to think he had a few circuits loose he could have backed off and just dropped the issue. Instead he stepped down from Encom and continued to work towards his dream, no matter what anyone else said. That determination was both a boon and the cause of his downfall.
Flynn’s ego quite literally got the best of him. When he programmed CLU he gave him the directive to “create the perfect system.” Unfortunately, in his naïve enthusiasm he didn’t realize that perfection is unknowable. CLU being a program and unable to learn these things on his own took that directive to the letter and began his coup and the Purge of the ISOs. With everything that CLU did, genocide, attempting to kill his son, destroying Tron, nearly killing him- Flynn didn’t blame him for any of it. No. He blamed himself. He knew that CLU was working within the parameters of his program. The program that he wrote. He realized that CLU was him at that age, but his single-minded determination was pushed to the max and directed at innocent programs. In their final showdown he never once argues with CLU. The only time he contradicts him is followed by the observation that he wouldn’t know it because he himself didn’t. Flynn apologizes to CLU. He apologizes and opens his arms to the program who could very well have killed him where he stood. In his mind, CLU is the biggest victim of everyone on the Grid.
In the decades he’d been trapped he had nothing to do but think. Sure, he’d built a house and had books and could play Go with Quorra and teach her about the world, but that only goes so far. Over time he learned to meditate and found Zen. He couldn’t get home or achieve anything he’d wanted to, so he moved himself past hopes and wishes. He’d accepted his fate and had found a way to keep himself sane while he passed the Cycles in relative peace. The thing is, whenever he meditates he positions himself in such a location where he can also observe. In his house in the Outlands he meditates in front of a large window overlooking the Grid. This means that even if he’s not actively meditating he can stare over the city and watch how it’s changing. It may be from afar, but the User is still keeping an eye on things as he can. On the flyer he positions himself so he’s facing Sam and Quorra. At one point he opens his eyes and watches the pair talking and laughing. This leads one to believe that for at least part of that time he wasn’t meditating – he was planning.
On the whole, Flynn is extremely smart, very witty, fiercely loyal and selfless to a fault. If his own temper starts flaring up he diffuses it with a sarcastic comment instead of falling prey to anger. He’s seen as practically a messiah in the Grid, programs fall to their knees when they see him, but that hasn’t changed how he treats people or programs. He knows that there are others wiser than he and he has great respect for them. He also has a knack of controlling situations without people realizing he’s doing it. He never lies to Sam. He redirected the conversation until there was a better moment for the truth to come out. He also set everything in motion for Sam and Quorra to escape the Grid without him without Sam ever knowing. The final gift he could give his son was escape from the Grid. He gave him that at the expense of his own life, and he did so with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. The knowledge that his son would be safe was all the strength he needed to give CLU what he really needed all along – a hug.
(Which, you know, ended them and took the Grid with them but, hey, you do what you have to do.)
ABILITIES:
He’s a computer genius. He can program and reprogram just about anything he can get his hands on. If he’s on the Grid he can do so with just a touch of his hands, even going so far as touching the walls or floor and changing things. In the real world he’s limited to what he can do by manually working the systems which is, frankly, quite a bit.
Though his skills have dimmed some with age he’s still a force to be reckoned with with his identity Disk. He’s not seen using it as a weapon in TRON: Legacy but there’s nothing to say that he’s completely lost the skills he had. He used to be quite the competitor in the games… twenty years ago. Now? He could still do better than the average person, but he’s not as good as, say, Rinzler and CLU. Put him on a bike or light cycle, however, and all bets are off.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE:
End of Line.
Three little words came unbidden to Flynn’s mind. In the Grid they simultaneously meant so little, yet so much. He never had to actually type the command anymore, so it seemed a little superfluous. At the same time, however, it suited the hopeless situation he’d found himself in.
CLU had betrayed him. Of all the programs, CLU had been the one to turn against him. He had to admit, even he didn’t see that one coming. Zuse maybe, but not CLU. He sighed, stopping and turning to look over the city he’d once considered his second home. “CLU…” His voice trailed off as his gaze was drawn to the flickering light of the portal. His only way home and it would be about as easy to reach as it would be for Sam to dig a hole to China in their backyard. His son’s name died on his lips as he watched the portal flicker once more before it closed- seemingly for good. He closed his eyes, his chest tight as he thought about Sam, his parents, Alan and Roy. The people he’d never see again, who’d never know what happened to him.
An explosion to the East disrupted his thoughts and he turned, following the noise. He cursed himself for being so selfish. He was just one man. One insignificant man out of 5 billion other people. The ISOs were a miracle. They were a miracle and they were being wiped out like a common computer virus. He took a shuddering breath as he watched the ISO Towers being destroyed. His heart broke a little more with each shot that hit the structures. When they fell, he felt like he was falling right along with them, refusing to tear his eyes away from the massacre. It was hard to tell if the screams he heard truly carried over that distance or if they were just his own shame and pain screaming within his head.
It was a new game, now. CLU wasn’t just running the ISOs out of town, he was committing genocide. How had it come to this? How had he missed this? He had to regroup. Maybe there was still something he could do. He knew he couldn’t save all of them, but maybe he could save some- mount a resistance. Turning his back on the city, he pulled his hood over his head and looked out over the horizon. He hadn’t ventured this far into the Outlands before, but it was the safest place for now. He shook his head as he started the long walk to his new home.
End of line, indeed.
FIRST-PERSON JOURNAL SAMPLE:
[Oh man. Guess who just found the games room? He’s currently weaving through the games. He’s not playing any just yet, just taking it all in and seeing what’s come out since he’s been, well, indisposed.]
This is incredible, man! Oh this is just like my place back home. Well, the way it was when I last saw it. I’m sure it’s probably seen better days at this point.
[His eyes fall on one particular game. Space Paranoids. He slowly walks over to it, running his hands up the sides of the machine.]
Blast from the past, man. I never thought I’d see one’ve these, again, let alone in perfect condition like this. [He scoffs softly] Wonder if anyone even plays it, here.
[He picks up his journal, not even caring that it had been open]
[Sam]
Hey, kiddo. You up for a game of doubles? Who knows, maybe you’ll finally be able to beat your old man.
INTENT: The existing cast is amazing and the thought of bringing Flynn in somewhere where he can see his son again as a child is just beautiful. I also love the philosophical aspect of Flynn. He’s so zen, man, I could definitely use some of that. Also… with the possibility of CLU looming on the horizons, the conflict and confusion would just be gorgeous.
