A Song of Sea and Circuits (Part the First)
Most of us have probably played the Sorting Hat game with our favorite fandoms: what Hogwarts House would your favorite characters fit best in? (Another variant I’m personally rather enamored of is shoving Lantern Rings of various hues onto every character I can get within arm’s reach). However, when it comes to Tron, these days, I can’t help but feel it shares a great deal more similarity with another massively popular fantasy literature series…one that is vastly less tame (and being we were talking about Harry Potter, that’s saying something, cough) but still happens to come with a “sorting” system of its own. So without further ado, let us mash together Tron and George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones for TV-only folks) and laugh uneasily at how easy it is.
Kevin Flynn - Eddard “Ned” Stark. A good man who earned the love and undying loyalty of thousands…but his way of not quite being able to get it through his thick head that not everyone thinks the way he does and making decisions accordingly leads, in large part, to his downfall.
Sam Flynn - Sansa Stark. Kevin Flynn’s kid, who worshipped the heroes in his dad’s stories…but turned out to be a bit Wrong Genre Savvy and completely out of his depth when he found himself a player in them. Spends most of the story being a damsel in distress (you know it’s true), but is brighter and stronger than a lot of people give him credit for.
Tron - Catelyn Tully-Stark. Strong and fierce and extremely intelligent, with a close, profound relationship with Flynn (who he was all of the unsure about, at first, but eventually grew to love). His greatest priority in life is the protection of his people, and he sees the things Flynn (and others) tend to miss. Rendered unrecognizable (and utterly terrifying) by a horrific betrayal.
Clu - Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish, with a not-insignificant bit of Tywin Lannister thrown in. Clu has Lord Tywin’s scary competence and power position (not to mention the fact that the fandom has apparently long associated him with lion motifs), coupled with Littlefinger’s master-class skill at Xanatos Speed Chess and his creepy, creepy obsessions, one of which focuses pretty clearly on Tron…
Quorra - Daenerys Targaryen. The exiled Last of Her Kind, Quorra demonstrates a curious mixture of childlike naivete and extremely impressive badassery. Implied to be “special” in a nebulous sort of way, and is almost ethereally beautiful.
Beck - Robb Stark. Leads a rebellion in Flynn and Tron’s name, and despite his obvious youth and occasional derpitude actually starts succeeding against all odds. Mentored by Tron, but doesn’t always listen to Tron the way he ought to. Uprising’s cancellation left his ultimate fate ambiguous, but let’s be real, guys: that aforementioned horrific betrayal is almost certainly going to result in these two boys sharing a similar fate.
Anon - Jon Snow. Kevin Flynn’s “bastard” program, the last he ever wrote and forgotten or looked at with scorn and/or suspicion by most of the Grid. One of the last desperate bulwarks against an oncoming eldritch zombie apocalypse.
Gibson - Howland Reed. The leader of a tough, insular little clan-colony that makes its home in a godforsaken stretch of inhospitable wilderness where nobody else in their right mind would want to live. Good luck finding them if they don’t want to be found. If you do manage to win Gibson’s trust and loyalty, however, he will face death and worse for you and never so much as blink.
Jalen - Rhaegar Targaryen. Never gets so much as a minute of screentime (as himself, anyway), but was an extremely important and intriguing figure. A book-smart scholar, heir to the leadership of his people, who never really wanted to be a warrior but turned out to be pretty crazy-awesome in a fight when something convinced him that learning how to do so was a thing that needed done. Sadly, Jalen didn’t recognize the looming storm on the horizon that was coming for him and his people, and made a couple of rather ill-advised choices that led to his downfall…and the murder of his entire family.
(TO BE CONTINUED…)
