Neo/Agent Smith from The Matrix

[jjtaylor.livejournal.com]

Title: There's nowhere I can't go, there's nowhere I won't find you.
Author: jjtaylor
Pairing: Neo/Agent Smith
Spoilers: For pretty much everything.
Notes: Thanks to sprencious for the opportunity to go on. And on. And on.



The Matrix is my Sekrit Fannish Obsession. I say with a good deal of confidence that I'm pretty much alone in this obsession, because many people who were initially pleased with the first movie in the series were increasingly disappointed with the second and third. To be honest, I was too, and I've tried to forget most of what happens in Revolutions but somehow, my obsession survived. I hope to draw you in a little, too.

All this is to say that I don't particularly ship any one pairing in the Matrix movies, but I'll consider shipping all of them, because the Matrix universe is rich with possible pairings and possible pairing opportunities. I'm won't try to prove that Neo/Smith is canon, or that they're the OTP of the Matrix, or anything other than the fact that there is enormous potential for reading the pairing as possible, intriguing and appealing.

The Matrix canon consists of:

The three movies - The Matrix, The Matrix: Reloaded, and The Matrix: Revolutions

The Matrix video game - Enter the Matrix (yes, there is actually canon info in there, and quite a bit of it)

The nine animated stories set in the Matrix universe - The Animatrix

The Matrix comics - so far, I think only one volume is published

The Matrix website - www.whatisthematrix.com


A super-quick overview of the Matrix universe, incase it's been ages since you've seen the movies:

In The Matrix, we learn that the human race has become an energy source for machines; we are plugged into the Matrix, a complex system that is really a computer replication of our real life. We think we're walking around and living life, but we're really being grown in pods and used as batteries; real life is only a dream. However, a world exists outside of the Matrix, the real world, where people who have been freed from the Matrix live and fight the machines.


Neo is:
Neo is freed by Morpheus and his crew on the Nebuchadnezzer because Morpheus believes him to be the savior of the people of Zion and the human race. He is destined to be the best fighter of the machines and therefore the human race’s best chance at survival and freedom.

Before Neo is freed, he lives his life as Thomas Anderson, a lonely computer hacker who knows something is wrong with the world but can't quite figure out what it is. His day job is as a programmer at a giant corporation and his night job is obsessively looking for a man named Morpheus; he believes Morpheus has the answer he needs.

Smith is:

An Agent; a sentient computer program whose job is to maintain order.

Morpheus attempts to explain to Neo what Agents are:

Neo: What are they?

Morpheus: Sentient programs. They can move in and out of any software still hard wired to their system.
That means that anyone we haven't unplugged is potentially an agent. Inside the Matrix, they are everyone and they are no one. We are survived by hiding from them, by running from them. But they are the gatekeepers. They are guarding all the doors. They are holding all the keys, which means that sooner or later, someone is going to have to fight them.

Neo: Someone?

Morpheus: I won't lie to you, Neo. Every single man or woman who has stood their ground, everyone who has fought an agent has died. But where they have failed, you will succeed.

Smith has been watching Neo (when he is still Thomas Anderson, before he is freed from the Matrix) because he suspects Neo is coming close to understanding the existence of the Matrix.

Agent Smith: As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Anderson. It seems that you've been living two lives. In one life, you're Thomas A. Anderson, program writer for a respectable software company, you have a social security number, you pay your taxes, and you help your landlady carry out her garbage. The other life is lived in computers, where you go by the hacker alias Neo and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for. One of these lives has a future, and one of them does not. I'm going to be as forthcoming as I can be, Mr. Anderson. You're here because we need your help. We know that you've been contacted by a certain individual, a man who calls himself Morpheus. Now whatever you think you know about this man is irrelevant. He is considered by many authorities to be the most dangerous man alive. My colleagues believe that I am wasting my time with you, but I believe that you wish to do the right thing. We're willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start. And all that we're asking in return is your cooperation in bringing a known terrorist to justice.

The Story:

Once Neo is freed, Smith's interest in Neo becomes almost obsessive, and when it's revealed that Neo is the One, Smith is determined to destroy him. Smith represents all Agents, and Neo represents the possibility for people to be freed from the Matrix, the very last thing the machines want. This is the most solid framework for any fannish relationship they have - they're enemies. They might have hot anger sex in between fist fights, but they're not going to settle down together. It's also important to realize they're enemies who exist in different realities - Neo is a human existing in the real world and Smith, although he can inhabit human bodies (and this makes things complicated in the third movie), is a program existing in, essentially, a computer. Not much room for romance.

By the midpoint of the first movie, Smith goes a little crazy, or reveals himself to be already on that path. His personality has come into conflict with his roles and duties as an Agent, and it's during a lecture Smith gives to (a captured) Morpheus that we come to understand Smith is on the road to becoming a rogue Agent, since his goals and desires are no longer in tune with the goals of the Matrix system.

Smith: Can you hear me, Morpheus? I'm going to be honest with you. I hate this place, this zoo, this prison, this reality, whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer. It's the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink. And every time I do I feel I have somehow been infected by it. It's repulsive, isn't it? I must get out of here. I must get free and in this mind is the key, my key. Once Zion is destroyed there is no need for me to be here, don't you understand?

Smith and Neo have an epic battle at the conclusion of the first movie, culminating in a moment where Smith appears to win. He shoots and seemingly kills Neo - at least for an instant. Neo is brought back to life by Trinity's love (it's complicated, and we can talk about Trinity another time), and it's then that Neo has the power to beat the Agents; he believes he is the One.

Something odd happens when Neo resumes his fight with Smith; Neo leaps inside of Smith’s "body", and emerges, consuming Smith. The other Agents run in fear, since it appears Smith has now been destroyed.

Zoom forward to the second movie.

Smith is back. It seems Neo freed Smith from his role as an Agent when Neo jumped inside of Smith's body at the end of the first movie. Smith has become rogue agent; he's not plugged into the Matrix system, and therefore, not bound to follow its orders - he gives Neo the earpiece all Agents wear, the symbol of connection to the Matrix.

Smith: I have something for him. A gift. You see, he set me free.

Now, Smith is able to pursue Neo as much as his obsessive program self wants. More importantly, Smith and Neo are now linked in a way stronger than as enemies. Neo and Smith have both been "freed," and it is in fact by Neo's agency that Smith is free.

Neo and Smith share this exchange right before they fight. Again.:

Smith: Surprised to see me?

Neo: No.

Smith: Then you're aware of it.

Neo: Of what?

Smith: Our connection. I don't fully understand how it happened. Perhaps some part of you imprinted onto me, something overwritten or copied. That is at this point irrelevant, what matters is that whatever happened, happened for a reason.

Neo: And what reason is that?

Smith: I killed you, Mister Anderson, I watched you die... With a certain satisfaction, I might add, and then something happened. Something that I knew was impossible, but it happened anyway. You destroyed me,

Mister Anderson. Afterward, I knew the rules, I understood what I was supposed to do but I didn't. I couldn't. I was compelled to stay, compelled to disobey. And now here I stand because of you, Mister Anderson, because of you I'm no longer an agent of the system, because of you I've changed - I'm unplugged - a new man, so to speak, like you, apparently free.

As the movie progresses, it's revealed that Smith has found a way to copy himself, and he begins populating the Matrix with Smiths. He's taking over the Matrix world, and this is his new plan to end what has trapped him in the Matrix - he's going to make the whole Matrix system collapse because he becomes too powerful.

The rest of the second movie is made up of several layers of plot that have little to do directly with Smith and involve a number of other enemies to battle, as well as more exposition than any single brain can really comprehend. And skipping over that will leave me free to skip to the third movie, where:

Smith does something that's hard to explain, because, well, it's hard for me to understand. Somewhere in the second movie, its revealed that Smith possesses a member of the rebel army, a man named Bane. Bane then returns to the real world, thus giving Smith, who was previously bound to the Matrix, access to the free world, where he causes much havoc. But hold that Bane thought for a moment, because while Bane is wreaking havoc, Neo is learning all sorts of neat new things from the Oracle, who has the inside scoop on Smith and what in the world he's up to.

The man Neo and the Oracle are referring to is the Architect, from the second movie:

Oracle: Please... You and I may not be able to see beyond our own choices, but that man can't see past any choices.

Neo: Why not?

Oracle: He doesn't understand them - he can't. To him they are variables in an equation. One at a time each variable must be solved and countered. That's his purpose: to balance an equation.

Neo: What's your purpose?

Oracle: To unbalance it.

Neo: Why? What do you want?

Oracle: I want the same thing you want, Neo. And I am willing to go as far as you are to get it.

Neo: The end of the war. *Oracle nods* Is it going to end?

Oracle: One way, or another.

Neo: Can Zion be saved?

Oracle: I'm sorry, I don't have the answer to that question, but if there's an answer, there's only one
place you're going to find it.

Neo: Where?

Oracle: You know where. And if you can't find the answer, then I'm afraid there may be no tomorrow for any of us.

Neo: What does that mean?

Oracle: Everything that has a beginning has an end. I see the end coming. I see the darkness spreading. I see death. And you are all that stands in his way.

Neo: Smith.

Oracle: *nods* Very soon he's going to have the power to destroy this world, but I believe he won't stop there; he can't. He won't stop until there's nothing left at all.

Neo: What is he?

Oracle: He is you. Your opposite, your negative, the result of the equation trying to balance itself out.

Neo: What if I can't stop him?

Oracle: One way or another, Neo, this war is going to end. Tonight, the future of both worlds will be in your hands... or in his.

Neo and Smith are a part of an equation. As the Oracle points out, Smith is Neo's opposite - literally. Smith is Neo's shadow self. The shadow self, as far as my psychology takes me, is a Jungian principle, and it's essentially everything dark, everything opposite inside you. But the key is it's inside you, it's still you. The battle at the end of the first movie, Smith changed from just being Neo's enemy to being his shadow self when they were connected when Neo jumped into Smith. Smith become a part of Neo, the embodiment of Neo's opposite.

Ok, back to Bane, who, for all intents and purposes, is really Smith using another person to transport him to the real world. Except that no one seems to realize it's Smith, even though Bane is acting like a murderous psycho and going after Neo every chance he gets. It takes Neo forever to realize what's going on, even though Bane/Smith keeps calling him "Mr. Anderson," Smith's token name for Neo. And then when Neo finally realizes, they fight. Again.

Bane: Somehow familiar, isn't it?. We've been here before, you and I. Remember? I do. I think of nothing else.

Neo: Who are you?

Bane: Still don't recognize me? I admit, it is difficult to think, encased in this rotting piece of meat. The stink of it filling every breath, a suffocating cloud you can't escape. Disgusting! Look at how pathetically fragile it is. Nothing this weak is meant to survive.

Neo: What do you want?

Bane: I want what you want. Yes... That's it, Mr. Anderson. Look past the flesh, look through the soft gelatin of these dull cow eyes and see your enemy.

Neo: No.

Bane: Oh yes, Mr. Anderson.

Neo: It can't be.

Bane: There's nowhere I can't go, there's nowhere I won't find you.

Neo: It's impossible.

Bane: Not impossible. Inevitable. Goodbye, Mr. Anderson.

Neo kills Bane, though not before being blinded with some awful electrical wire, which is scary. However, the blindness comes with the benefit of allowing Neo to see the machine code in a new way, sort of like seeing the aura of the Matrix. This is important because Neo is taking a ship to the Machine World, the physical home in the real world of all of the machines that make up the Matrix system. Neo believes he can stop the war between the machines and Zion by offering to destroy Smith. Neo knows Smith's power has grown out of the Machine World's control, and he knows it is his destiny to fight and destroy Smith.

They fight. And fight. What happens next, though, should seem strangely familiar: Neo allows Smith to consume his body, to enter him wholly, much in the way Neo entered Smith at the end of the first movie. Their connection is reversed, and as Neo re-absorbs his shadow self, Smith is destroyed, and Neo dies.

Ok, you still with me?

The quick recap of why Neo/Smith is terrific:

Enemies. Two halves of one whole. Two worlds. Destiny. The incredible possibilities afforded by the Matrix canon for alternative realities, dream-like encounters, dodging the limits of reality, and the bending of the normal rules of physics.

I have no applicable fandom guide to offer, because the fandom is so comparatively small and so inconsistently active (many of the livejournal communities uncovered by searching by the interest "the matrix" is overwhelming but the actual yield is disappointing). I encourage you to give the movies a second (or first) chance, or that you check out the video game, the comics, or the website to get your imagination going.

If you have questions (and I hope you do), or if terms like the Architect, the Oracle, the Machine World, or even the concept of Agents boggle your mind, drop me an email or a comment and let's talk. I won't pretend I'm an expert, but Matrix world is definitely an obsession I'd be delighted to share. I'll stop back in and post any fanfic recs I uncover, but I've had terrible luck tracking stories down. If you have a favorite, I'd love to know about it it!