I like this theory alot and it definitely makes sense, but I wanna add something, see if you agree.

Sam had to get a disc written because he's a user and only needed it for the games, so he gets a blank disc. If you tried to overwrite a program with another disc, you change him, right?

We don't know if just putting the disc on him would completely re-write him, but maybe trying to re-write him made his code "clash" with the guard's code and this ended up damaging him a in a very severe way, and Clu left thinking he couldn't possibly be repaired.

So Tron gets partially repaired by an ally (or maybe enough to just be alive, but immobilized) and this would set the stage perfectly for the training of Beck. I'm guessing Clu eventually captures him and tries to fix Tron's code himself, while altering it, thus explaining all of Rinzler's characteristics: the whiring/purring drive noise, odd body language, muteness (sorta) etc.

Does this seem like it could work?

Right, I figured he knocked Tron unconscious and rectified him. But then, I've never supported the "Tron escaped and was recaptured later" theory, either; I've always thought he was taken by Clu right there.

(and if he wasn't, how would Flynn not know? Especially if he did try to fight against Clu like Quorra tells Sam; you can't tell me that if there was a Resistance, NO ONE would know Tron was still alive and fighting and it wouldn't get back to Flynn, esp. since there's no way everyone didn't know they were close.)

Gridbug95 Wrote:So I was watching TRON Legacy clips on You-tube a couple of months ago and I found the scene where TRON fights all the black-guards and CLU. Then I saw something that made a theory for Rinzler's origin form in my mind. First of all when TRON fights CLU, he has two discs, one of which he has taken from a guard. CLU then apparently takes one of them, apparently the one from the de-rezzed guard, and raises it to strike a blow. At that moment TRON rotates his torso away from CLU in a reflex, possibly to avoid a direct face blow. (Wow I'm really getting into this ) This exposes his back to CLU. At this point CLU strikes and the camera moves away, robbing us of the chance to see what happened. My theory is that CLU attached the guard's disc onto TRON's back, thereby writing the guard's program over TRON's. This would still preserve TRON's awesome battle skilz, but with the personality and obedience that the guard had. This would possibly explain Rinzler's goofy fighting style and some of the careless mistakes he makes in the film. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r37cqh8LME

My problem is that TRON is too fast to let anyone go near his disc or attach a disc on him. CLU would have to be twice as fast to pull it off, BUT we don't see the disc on his back. I think Tron got 'infected' by one of the guard's discs by way of disc to disc transference.

In other words, the guards were specifically designed to 'infect' Tron by using their discs and if his discs touch them by parrying their weapons, then that's the infection point there. The point was not to 'infect' Tron but to disable his weapons so he can't fend for himself.

So, to take Tron down, you take the "security firewall" down .

mrw Wrote:Delurking, new user and all that. I have to agree to a degree here because the idea of Tron escaping and being recaptured later made no sense to me if CLU stood there to leave him to die. That brings up my question of whether Uprising is contradicting the Legacy back story told by Flynn. In the film, Flynn said he never saw Tron again and assumed him to be dead. Now in Uprising, are we to assume that Flynn and Tron teamed up again AFTER he got badly injured by CLU's attempted coup? I suspect Uprising is the LOST writer's chance to 'change' their story saying "OH, that thing in Legacy did'nt happen. THIS is what happened. bla bla bla". It's a clever way to go retroactive on their a$$es. Marvel Comics, especially as an example, is guilty of that many times by doing a 180 degree turn on storylines they claim is part of continuity when it changes again to something else not true to canon. Of course Uprising contradicts Flynn's version of the story because he got it wrong. He assumed Tron got derezzed and ran the hell away before he could learn otherwise. Gridbug 95 is correct -- if you slow the fight scene down and play if frame by frame, Tron is rolling away from Clu's attack as Clu starts to smash him with the disc, and then we cut to Kevin thinking Tron got derezzed. We don't see what happens next: we don't see Clu land the hit, we don't know when or how Tron gets captured/rectified. All we have to go on so far is Kevin's story, which isn't complete as he wasn't there for all of it and didn't actually see a lot of what he was there for. Uprising contradicts Kevin's story, but not Legacy itself. The plotline of Tron surviving the fight with Clu and escaping was planted back in Betrayal, so it's not the writers just doing a 180. How exactly Tron escaped the fight, we don't know, but Betrayal does clearly show Tron with a shoulder injury, fleeing Tron City on his lightcycle, so I feel safe in presuming that the last shot the audience sees of the fight isn't in fact the end of the fight -- especially since Legacy shows Tron continuing to resist while the camera cuts away. As for Kevin and Tron teaming up in Uprising, there's no evidence of that at all. There's really no indication that Kevin will even appear in the story beyond flashbacks as it takes place in a different city. Why doesn't Kevin know Tron's still out there? Well, he thought Tron got derezzed, so he snatched up Quorra and went off the grid. The only contact he had with the outside world was through Quorra, who also thought Tron died. They seem to have concentrated their attention on Clu and Tron City, so it doesn't surprise me that they would have missed Tron's goings-ons elsewhere on the Grid, since he's got to lie low while training Beck. As for the inevitable "Betrayal contradicts Evolution/Legacy, it can't be canon" protests, yes it does get some things wrong. Names of a couple characters, birth of the ISOs, etc. But at the same time, it's the only Legacy-era media that actually gives Tron a point-of-view. Since he's the only one who really knows what happened to him post-coup, and since the escape doesn't contradict the events in Evolution or Legacy (it CAN'T since neither one says exactly when Tron was captured/rectified nor shows the process), it makes sense to me to assume that it was planted there to foreshadow Uprising. In short, there definitely are some contradictions between the various pieces of media that have been released -- Tron escaping Clu's coup isn't one of them.

Mrw,

Welcome to the Tron Sector! You do have some good points there. However, the Marvel comic version of Betrayal had problems as it did get a couple of things wrong compared to the film version. We see Tron escaping with a shoulder injury in the comic. But, in the film, CLU raises his disc and takes him out. A shoulder injury to knock a person out? That can't be right.

You go for the head which is more devastating than a shoulder injury. In fact, why did'nt Rinzler show his face? Was it because he was 'disfigured'? I did'nt see Tron roll over in the Flynn flashback. All I saw was him holding his hands up while CLU strikes down straight at him. If Tron had a shoulder injury, you all would have seen some kind of 'digital scar' on Rinzler. The only thing I can think of is his face or head is the area he got struck in and then he got rectified as Rinzler.

It's just that the timing is weird. Leaving a security program left to die and knowing he'll crawl to safety and then CLU go, "Aw shucks, you again? That's it! I'm imprisoning you for rectifying". CLU would not be that stupid to leave him there since keeping Tron to his side would consolidate his power even more.

As for Flynn in Uprising, it is my understanding that he does appear in the show. Even Clu himself. There is NO way that Flynn/Tron would be laughing and cajoling right after Uprising towards Legacy and prior to being arrested by Clu. How can Tron be badly injured in the first place?

And also if Flynn got his story wrong, then who got the story RIGHT? Who else witnessed it in order to NARRATE what really happened in Uprising? There's only person who knows and that is CLU 2.0. The only way Disney is going to have that kind of point-of-view is to have CLU narrate it prior to Tron being converted to Rinzler.

OR did the original TRON die from serious injuries and Beck took his place to become Rinzler since he's, I quote Daft Punk, "Faster, Stronger and Better" and that he's younger? Which story is Disney going to spin out of their mouths to get a 180 degree turnabout face? It's kind of a cop out to me.

And lastly, how do we KNOW that Flynn got his story wrong? Who proved him wrong? Did someone say "Oh, Flynn, you got it all wrong"? I certainly did'nt see any of that.

EDIT: Oh and yes I know the background story of why the producers did'nt have Rinzler show his face due to the stuntman and CGI effects since Boxleitner is too older to move around. But still. . .they should have shown his face. IF they can do a CGI face of CLU, they could've done that with Tron.

Leaving a security program left to die and knowing he'll crawl to safety and then CLU go, "Aw shucks, you again? That's it! I'm imprisoning you for rectifying". CLU would not be that stupid to leave him there since keeping Tron to his side would consolidate his power even more.

See, that's my point. I don't think Clu left him to die, I think Tron held him off long enough to escape. We don't see the end of the fight, we don't even see Clu land the hit, just Tron starting to respond to it and then the camera cutting to Flynn who heard the hit land and then took off running. Since we don't see the hit land, we don't know how serious it was; Tron could get back up, fight Clu off and escape without contradicting established canon.

As for Flynn in Uprising, it is my understanding that he does appear in the show. Even Clu himself. There is NO way that Flynn/Tron would be laughing and cajoling right after Uprising towards Legacy and prior to being arrested by Clu. How can Tron be badly injured in the first place?

I know Flynn is in flashbacks/prologue material, because we saw that in the trailers, but I'm skeptical that he'll appear in the main storyline. I could be wrong of course, but I haven't seen anything to suggest he'll have a part in the Tron and Beck storyline. *shrug* As for the laughing/cajoling bit, I guess I'm not sure what you're saying there, unless you're implying that scene in Legacy takes place after Uprising? I'm pretty sure that's when the storyline for Uprising starts since the flashback is the start of the coup.

how do we KNOW that Flynn got his story wrong? Who proved him wrong? Did someone say "Oh, Flynn, you got it all wrong"?

Flynn presumed Tron to be dead based on events he didn't actually see, and it wasn't true. That's pretty much Flynn getting his story wrong. Once Kevin found out Tron was alive, he never made any assumptions about when Tron was actually captured. We know it happened eventually, but there's nothing in the film that says Tron was captured right at the coup. All Flynn says was, "I never saw him again," which works both for Clu taking Tron right then and for Tron escaping and fleeing Tron City.

And also if Flynn got his story wrong, then who got the story RIGHT? Who else witnessed it in order to NARRATE what really happened in Uprising?

Tron. He is the co-lead character of Uprising, after all, so he was there for all of it.

The timeline as I understand it is: we have the flashback scene in Legacy which is the coup, which Tron escapes from. The main events in Uprising happen between the coup and Sam's entrance to the Grid while Tron is in another city training Beck to take his place. I suspect that Tron's part in Uprising will end with him getting captured and rectified into Rinzler once Beck is mostly trained, but that's pure speculation.

As for why we don't see injuries? Maybe Clu fixed the surface injuries in rectification. Maybe it's just an inconsistency since we don't see injuries on him in the Uprising clips I've seen so far either. I don't have any real theories on that one. Regardless, I'm pretty sure they're not going to try and claim it was Beck under the Rinzler helmet in Legacy. For one thing, he'd have to change his circuitry and armor completely to make it match Tron's, since Beck's circuits and helmet look a lot more like Sam's. For another, it was Tron's voice when Rinzler spoke.

I definitely agree with you on wanting to see Rinzler's face, though, even if it had just been one scene after the "reveal."

It's really hard to see (that filter is frustrating). I'll see if I can post frame-by-frame screencaps when I get off work.

I think Tron gets his throat / face slashed - thats why you hear
rinzler's burbling breathing right after the strike.

-ch-

The only flaw I see with this theory is that Quorra and Flynn have swapped ID discs. By that logic, Quorra should have had certain personality trains of Flynn when she was wearing his ID Disc, and vice-versa (as Flynn was wearing hers for quite a while).

I believe beck is rinzler part of the time or all of the time if u watch tron uprising beck moves just like rinzler in every way beck has also shown the ability to wield dual identity discs , becks fighting abilities mirror rinzlers even the new episode played scars part 1 when beck tries to show tron that he could just steal dysons identity disc instead of kidnapping him derezzing him at the base of operations, beck uses the anti grav just like rinzler to confuse his opponent. And in the first episode beck uses dual identity discs while playing disc wars against bodhi he uses the walls to rebound the discs to distract the other program so he can hit his target like rinzler, in the second or third episode called the renegade part 1-2 beck is forced to do battle with iso cutler,during the fight beck knocks cutler on the ground and as cutler spins around to face him beck is seen leaping thru the air and lands standing atop of cutler with his identity disc pressed to cutlers throat which is identical to when rinzler fights sam Flynn during the disc wars game in tron legacy. These are just some of the reasons why I think beck is rinzler or is at least rinzler some of the times With tron being hurt and needing his healing chamber.