gymrat said:
I just read the whole thread, and I don't think anyone actually explained what the Architect was saying.
3 pages of this thread were dedicated to grammar lol.
I just bought the DVD, and LOVED it. I need to watch it a few more times before my simple mind can fully understand it.
<from same place as on revo thread of mine>
Below are several lines of dialogue from the Architect scene, and I will use them to discover what is really going on with Neo and the Architect. These lines aren't sequential; they're just the ones I want to highlight.
ARCHITECT - You have many questions, and although the process has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably human.
I stand by the idea that the Architect does not lie during this conversation. He tells us quite directly that Neo is a human being. This should put to rest all theories that Neo is a computer program. It's also very important that we establish Neo as a human being, because the end result depends on it.
ARCHITECT - That [response] was quicker than the others.
ARCHITECT - While the others experienced this [attachment] in a very general way, your experience is far more specific. Vis-a-vis, love.
The translation here is very plain. There have been "others" -- other Neos -- and this one is different. We have already had this difference demonstrated in the Merovingian scene, but it is confirmed here. The Merovingian makes remarks about how Neo is different than his predecessors, and the Merovingian is quite surprised at the superhuman abilities Neo is able to command. (He does not expect that Neo can win the fight against the minions on the staircase.) The fact that this incarnation is different also means that the previous five all chose the right-hand door.
ARCHITECT - I prefer counting from the emergence of one integral anomaly to the emergence of the next, in which case this is the sixth version.
There have been five previous incarnations of Neo. This is similar to the Hindu god Indra being confronted by the fact that there have been countless previous Indras. It means: you are a part of something greater than yourself. There is also a tremendous significance in the fact that the present Neo is the sixth incarnation.
ARCHITECT - [The Mother] stumbled upon a solution whereby nearly 99.9% of all test subjects accepted the program, as long as they were given a choice.
NEO - Choice. The problem is choice.
How many times was the idea of choice and free will been raised in Reloaded? Quite a few. It comes down to this moment, and both the Architect and Neo state it clearly. This is about choice. Neo's choice -- between the right-hand door or the left-hand door -- is a magnified, superconcentrated version of the choice given to all humans connected to the Matrix. Will you accept the world you're given, or will you follow the serpent? This choice is why Neo and the Architect are shown as competing opposites -- the God and the devil. They are the embodiment of the two choices.
It is extremely difficult to determine what the Architect expects Neo to do. Most analyses of Reloaded differ at this point. My belief is that the Architect is hoping that Neo chooses the left-hand door [3]. (Yes, this is a complete reversal of my position in previous versions of this essay.) In other words, I am saying (1) that the Architect is hoping for something and (2) the thing he is hoping for is that Neo chooses Trinity. There are several key pieces of evidence for this belief. What tips the scales for me is the "parting shot" from the Architect:
ARCHITECT - Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength, and your greatest weakness.
Why does the Architect say this? Why does he mention the word "hope"? Why didn't he simply say, "So long, dummy?" I think it is because this is a moment of fulfillment for the Architect. He knows his job is finished, because by choosing the left-hand door Neo is going to destroy the Matrix. I thought perhaps by ending on "weakness" the Architect was classifying Neo's choice as a bad one. Not so. Weakness is a state of non-perfection. Human beings are defined by their imperfections, their weaknesses. So this is a statement of liberation from perfection. Neo is breaking free. He is exiting the Garden.
But the Architect is also saying something much more profound than that. Look very carefully at the sentence. The Architect is saying that Neo is quintessentially human. That is, Neo has truly transcended his boundaries by choosing Trinity. He has genuinely exercised free will. And that leads to the most incredible part of the relationship between the Architect and Neo.