tronrpg

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I don't think I've brought this up before but it's how I've felt pretty much the entire election season and especially now: this is not going to be like 2016.

trump in 2016 was the president despite clearly not wanting it, not being prepared for it, and having limited influence over his cabinet (who also were constantly quitting because either they hit their limit of bullshit or still had a sense of shame), and he still did, like, all of the shit he did.

trump in 2025 has an axe to grind, has eliminated anyone who might so much as politely disagree with him, and has (with the help of the Heritage Foundation) had four years to plan out how he's going to accomplish his goals as quickly and efficiently as possible. I'm trying to be optimistic given how the H1B visa thing has already been going but also we had the richest loser in the world throw a Nazi salute so it's kind of hard to be optimistic about anything.

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that is a bold take on Sark's armor and i dig it.

"I feel a presence, another warrior is on the mesa"

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Tron franchise headcanon: Newborn programs always say “Hello world!” as their first words :3

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it's as true then as it was now.

"the characters in Tron do not act the way real people act"

excuse you. Real people act every possible dumbass incoherent way you can imagine and some that you can't. Real life consists at least 78% of watching real people do things and then spending about 9 hours straining your imagination trying to think of a reason they could have done that thing which is EXACTLY the same experience as watching Tron

I think what you mean is characters in Tron don't act the way people in movies act

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this is why i made Quorra a habitual workout/coffee junkie in my fic. she's not quite certain about how her body works, and is deeply grossed out by being made of organic gooshy stuff instead of nice clean ones and zeroes, but she knows that coffee = good brain times, even if her assistant has to remind her to drink water.

I think

If a program just got lasered into the User world, with no experience of drinking or eating User food

(only drinking the system's "liquid energy" and otherwise getting charged on the system's power)

that program would have the most fuckin voracious sweet tooth

Oh you get all your energy through your mouth? Okay so how do you turn this stuff into power? Lemme research what's in it... Holy hack this is complicated

Ok but this sugar stuff? glucose, etc... this is what converts to energy most directly for you, right

This is your way of consuming energy. Ok good to know

ALL the candy in the house. ALL the syrup, yes just the syrup don't bother with the pancakes

I'm supposed to charge myself on about 2000 "calories" of your energy daily. Got it. Buying this extra large milkshake and I'll be good for the day... AAAAA. Why does my body feel so bad later. I GOT ENOUGH POWER

Energy drink? Yes please -- OH HOLY GLITCHING GRIDBUGS THIS IS NOT ENERGY. it is... power-intensive malware that makes you use up all your energy faster and then crash??? Mixed with something that TRICKS you into feeling like you're getting sugar but you're not?? I WILL DEREZZ WHOEVER CAME UP WITH THIS

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Bruh get your ai art out of the tron tags Flynn did not reintegrate with Clu for this shit

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Cindy Morgan Zine Announcement

So many of us were heartbroken to learn of the recent death of Cindy Morgan. Not only was Cindy a talented actress and kind human being, she was incredibly involved with the Tron community and appreciative of her fans. For this reason, we would like to ask for your help in remembering her life and work.

We will be accepting art and written works remembering Cindy Morgan and the Tron characters she portrayed to create a digital zine in her honor. While art and fics are welcome, contributions do not have to be fictional. Stories and photos from fans who were lucky enough to meet Cindy, either in-person or through the Tronblr community—or from those who were inspired by her or the characters she portrayed—are also welcome. We would love to hear your memories of Cindy.

Though new works are encouraged, we will also accept works that have already been posted. You may submit as many pieces as you like, though we don’t guarantee that every submission will be accepted. Please keep submissions appropriate as this is a memorial zine. 

In interviews, Cindy often mentioned how many women told her that her role as Lora inspired them to pursue a career in science, and how much this meant to her. In honor of this, we plan to make the zine pay what you can, and to donate any and all contributions to Girls Who Code in Cindy Morgan’s name. While donations will not be required to participate in or download the zine, any amount will be greatly appreciated. 

We are still in the planning stages right now, but more detailed guidelines and submission dates will be available soon. Please spread the word! Follow this page for more information, and don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Thank you! 💙

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We're shocked by this news.

Cindy Morgan was an amazing person who will be remembered fondly by so many. She championed the return of Yori in future TRON installments when Disney wouldn't listen, and she always stuck by the fans. She was awesome to everyone she met, whether it was online or in person at a convention.

On top of all that, she was the only other admin of tronblr besides me, the founder. We'll all miss her. Somewhere in our computers, a pixel called Yori is no longer there.

I came super close to meeting her in person at SDCC 2013, but it wasn't in the cards. I'll always imagine it as the meeting that could have been.

Goodbye, Cindy. Thank you for everything.

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i always took it to mean that Flynn was so out of touch with basic human stuff after being on the Grid for the equivalent of 200+ years that he was sitting there wracking his brain trying to figure out how to properly welcome Sam, and his thought process was "...i haven't rezzed food for myself in like 50 macrocycles, man. what do User--what do *people* eat for, like, a fancy dinner? Lobsters? Does Sam like lobsters? Wait, are lobsters a real thing back home? Giant red sea bugs--am I remembering those right? Nah man, I think that was a hallucination I had once. 'Llllllobsters.' Not a real thing, doesn't sound real. What did Sam like to eat when he was a kid?...HOT DOGS! Okay, yeah, and hot dogs are...plants. No. Beef. PORK. What's the fanciest form of pork?...Roast suckling pig! Of course! Top score at dad stuff, Flynn! I rule!"

I think it would be extra hilarious if the whole pig roast was just like a completely visual graphic skin

like a videogame avatar the actual food was wearing,

and the actual food is just liquid energy, like from that spring

Which I imagine tastes like heavily caffeinated sugar water.

Bite into your slice of pork and it turns into Red Bull in your mouth

...this would be awful, but the more I think about it, the more this seems like exactly Kevin Flynn's style

Like

It reminds me of the Star Trek TOS episode The Squire of Gothos

Where they land on this planet occupied by a powerful energy being who's basically a spoiled little kid at heart

Who has this gorgeous ballroom and an incredible spread of food

But the food has no taste

And Spock's like, "interesting"

this is not even surprising enough to call "fascinating"

And his explanation is: This guy is all about the aesthetic. None of his illusion has any substance. He doesn't care about anything except how it looks. Obviously

Anyway Kevin Flynn is basically Trelane, that in some ways explains his Grid better than anything

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i always took a program's identity disc to represent that program's soul...pretty badass, hurling your spiritual self at someone else as a weapon. but yeah, that doesn't track canonically if not every Encom program had a disc to begin with. maybe the conscripts were assigned identity discs which merged with their personal discs to mark them as warrior-slaves for the MCP, and we just never saw Yori's disc because...reasons?

this is why trying to square the round peg that is T1982 canon is so frustrating.

The idea of an identity disc, with a record of "everything you do or learn," also being used as a weapon in deadly combat

...well, it seems counterintuitive from a practical perspective (if I had a personality/memory backup, I would keep it somewhere SAFE)

But

From a symbolic perspective

It is... Powerful

"this is me. This is who I am. And I will use it to FIGHT YOU"

the very literal incarnation of Weaponized Identity

the most lethal depiction of Identity Disc-ourse

....hey... when people don't accept who we are

[User-believer, or any other important part of our self]...

then sometimes it just gets to the point of having to happen that way...

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An Inquiry Into The Perfection Of Systems

(Or, Kevin Flynn is actually the worst and Clu never stood a chance)

So, this is a post about business analysis/project management, sort of. It is also, mostly… about Tron: Legacy. Hold onto your seats, we’re going to talk about IT project management.

Watch me.

Developing software and managing a software development project require surprisingly different skillsets. While intrinsically connected, Computer Logic and People Logic are not at all the same sort of logic. There is no better way to observe this than by putting developers in charge of managing a development project. (Looking at you, Flynn.)

I see you, Kevin Flynn.

There are a couple questions you have to answer in the process of a dev project. They are very common sense questions, like…

When will we call it done?

What does “done” mean?

How do we assess the quality of the result?

As is usually the case when common sense meets computers, the answer is more complicated than the question, to the point that a great many books and papers have been written on the subject. (1)

Does this look like a man who reads Project Management books? No.

Which brings me to a number of useful concepts: Definition of Done, Fit For Use, and Fit For Purpose. The terms may be more recent, but their spirit most definitely isn’t.

Definition of Done is what is says on the tin. It is formally defining what it means for an IT feature to be fully finished: what does it need to do, what does it need to look like, what quality standards does it need to meet, etcetera. This is not the place to be vague: you want concrete, measurable goals.

(Here’s a hint, in case that wasn’t already glaringly obvious: “Perfect” is not a good Definition of Done.)

Now, you can define this “done” in purely hard, technical terms. But typically, software is intended to do something for someone; Computer Logic, meet People Logic. That’s where the “Fit For” terms come in.

“Fit For Purpose” means, the software does what it was intended to do.

“Fit For Use” means, the software does what it does well enough to be actually usable.

THESE ARE NOT MUTUALLY INCLUSIVE.

But a good system is both.

A “Perfect” system would be both to the highest degree. Ideally suited to the requirements of its Users, in functionality and useability both.

Important here is that these are completely relative concepts, entirely dependent on what the users want out of their software. Regardless of how attainable it'd be, you cannot define “perfect” as a measurable goal without understanding what is required of the system in the first place.

Now… look at the Grid.

(Yeah. I know.)

The Grid has no users. The Grid has no user-end functionalities. The Grid isn’t set up to do anything, really, in the software sense. It fulfills no obvious function.

It’s a back-end environment accidentally turned front-end.

Which is… Imagine if someone walked into a factory and was like “oh wow I love the vibe of this place!” and then after getting home began setting up their own production lines, but based on vibes and aesthetic, with no regard to production output, worker safety, resource management, or even, you know, the goal of actually making anything.

Now picture being the manager of that factory.

They told you when you got this job that you had to make this the perfect factory.

But the place is falling apart despite your best efforts. People are getting injured left and right. The owner disappears for months on end, and when he shows up he just keeps adding more production lines that look cool to him rather than offering any clarity. The hope that he might have a plan for all of this is dwindling fast. You desperately try to keep track of anything quantifiable, trying not to think about the fact that you still don’t know what you’re even meant to be producing here. (Everything going wrong weighs on you; you were meant to make this perfect. You should have the ability to do what you were meant to do, right?)

And then, for some reason, random unauthorized strangers start walking into the factory breaking shit. And because the owner thinks they’re neat, they get to stay and do whatever, and you should be happy about it.

If this was an actual factory, you could... quit your job.

But this isn't a factory, it's a computer, and you, a piece of software, ARE your job.

Tell me this wouldn't drive you off-the-rails crazy. Like, actually full-on psychotic.

I know man. I know.

Computer Logic and People Logic are not the same thing. But Programs, being software and people both, have both influencing their experience.

So, was Clu evil? I rather think he never had a chance to be good.

After all, what is good, for a piece of software?

Allow me to refer to my explanations above.

..... ..... .....

(COMPLETELY UNNECCESARY) FOOTNOTES:

(1): One such book that Flynn could have read is “The Mythical Man-Month” by Frederic P. Brooks, which is very good and surprisingly relevant to this day, but I’m only mentioning because when I first heard the title I thought it was a Mothman pun.

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I've been working on this project for a while and I think it's time to show them off. These are propaganda/health and safety reminder posters for the Office for the Preservation of Normalcy, an organization that deals with the supernatural in a canon I'm working on. I have some lore I'm working on, but these posters will be the main thing that exists for now. The "sample" watermark is because I would like to sell higher-quality printouts and files in the future.

At this stage I'm looking for feedback. How do they look visually? Could a tagline be punchier? Please please let me know what you think.

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REBLOG if you have amazing, talented WRITER friends.

Because I certainly do, and I love every single one of them and their work.