AsthmaticZero
The Last Firstborn
You want to know what I think? I think that when the machines 'wrote' the Matrix, the developed certain programs to do specific things. I am writing this mainly because of the people saying that characters such as the Merovingian might be 'the first One'. The Matrix was written as a program to simulate life. But, in order to keep control over that life, the machines had to develop core programs, who appear as 'characters' of sorts to the people in the Matrix to ensure nobody is let in on there true purposes. Therefore, when the Matrix was 'reloaded', if you will, each time the cycle was complete, the machines would use the same 'template' of programs in each version. Since they are PART of the machine world, they are not 'rebooted' each time. Here are some examples:
THE ORACLE: She SAYS that she is a program. She was written to study the human psyche. She can predict the future because she has been there each time, and seen it happen already. She is a program to help the machines guide the One back to the Source.
THE MEROVINGIAN: A program written to keep the 'Exile' programs under control. He is a 'trafficker of information', as he says. He processes the information of 'exiled' programs. He is not a 'former One'. He was written by the machines as PART of the Matrix.
AGENTS: The Agents were also written into the Matrix by the machines. They are there as a level of control over the people in the Matrix. They possess superhuman abilities SO THEY CAN CONTROL EVERYONE.
All of these 'Matrix characters' would remain after a reboot in the system. They are part of the program itself. They were written into it. The reason the Agent Smith is different is because he was destroyed (by Neo), something the machines had never intended. THat is why he is now 'free'. None of these characters are people inside pods. They are PART of the program. Therefore, they could not be former 'Ones'. The One was not written as part of the program. He was created because the Matrix is not perfect. He is an ANOMALY.
Also, if you don't mind me continuing, this is what I believe about The Architect and the Source:
The Architect: Another program. He is not the actual 'creator' of the Matrix. He is a program written by the machines to lead the One to the Source. He may have all of the information, but that is simply because the machines have written him that way.
The Source: Think of the 'source' like the hard drive of your PC. When you access the hard drive from you desktop (or anywhere else, for that matter), you are not ACTUALLY accessing you hard drive. You are accessing information stored on your hard drive. You need to physically open your computer up to access the Hard Drive. In the same way, the place Neo visited was not the ACTUAL source (machine mainframe) because it is INSIDE the Matrix. In order to reach the ACTUAL 'source', Neo would have to go to where the Machine's housed their system in the real world. The source inside the Matrix can be manipulated by the machines. In fact, the 'source' that Neo visits may not even be related to the 'source' of the Mtarix at all. For all we know, the 'source' that Neo visited was the machines Trash Can. A place that they can delete him when he gets there. You know how you 'move' programs on your PC to the trash? That could be similar to the way teh machines 'move' Neo (via the Oracle and the Architect) in an effort to delete him for good.
Just some of my thoughts. Any ideas?