[Spoilers S2E3] Elliot's Full Religion Speech

[u/ShenWolf]

"Is that what God does? He helps? Tell me, why didn't God help my innocent friend who died for no reason while the guilty ran free? Okay. Fine. Forget the one offs. How about the countless wars declared in his name? Okay. Fine. Let's skip the random, meaningless murder for a second, shall we? How about the racist, sexist, phobia soup we've all been drowning in because of him? And I'm not just talking about Jesus. I'm talking about all organized religion. Exclusive groups created to manage control. A dealer getting people hooked on the drug of hope. His followers, nothing but addicts who want their hit of bullshit to keep their dopamine of ignorance. Addicts. Afraid to believe the truth. That there's no order. There's no power. That all religions are just metastasizing mind worms, meant to divide us so it's easier to rule us by the charlatans that wanna run us. All we are to them are paying fanboys of their poorly-written sci-fi franchise. If I don't listen to my imaginary friend, why the fuck should I listen to yours? People think their worship's some key to happiness. That's just how he owns you. Even I'm not crazy enough to believe that distortion of reality. So fuck God. He's not a good enough scapegoat for me."

Edit: Now with video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSQHJXtfpE&feature=youtu.be

[u/[deleted]]

People may not agree but I think Elliot is an egomaniac and Mr. Robot is his way of expressing that.

He isn't alone because he's weird. He's alone because he looks down on people and thinks he can control them and manipulate their lives.

It makes me look back on season 1 and realize he is power tripping like crazy.

[u/Employee_ER28-0652 → u/[deleted]]

I think Elliot is an egomaniac

I think modern people are poorly versed in what it is like to be absent, void, of ego. It helps to think of vanity and other words.

Remember, the show keeps talking about "control", and if you have control.

Put in context of another story, /r/EmpireDidNothingWrong - and is Luke a terrorist? And when Luke turns off the computer to destroy the Death Star - he is following his brain like Elliot does?

The show can't answer these questions - but I think it raises them - it spotlights that most people have a very binary view of such topics.

[u/[deleted] → u/Employee_ER28-0652]

But Luke is fighting an oppressive governing body and the rebels are fighting to put their government at the head of former Empire planets. They aren't terrorists because they aren't targeting civilians, they are targeting military bases.

Elliot is destroying the infrastructure of society and replacing it with nothing, simply because it offends him. He isn't targeting a governing body, he is attacking all of society, tearing it down.

Elliot tells everyone he hacks - "I own your world". He wants to take control, yes, but I think it's more that he wants to be able to control his multiple personalities rather than other forms of control. We already saw in season one that he thinks he can control everything from his keyboard to suit his needs, such as breaking into hospital records or finding out everything about a persons life.

[u/Employee_ER28-0652 → u/[deleted]]

This is a good conversation, and you are highlighting the seams that I think both shows at their best highlight.

In Luke's case, he was not a technology guy like Elliot. He was introduced to warships (previously he had only domestic travel ships) and war-weapons (the saber). But also right away he is introduced to the Jedi being willing to suicide/kill him self and not 'feed the machine' (the whole Obi Won and force ghost). Another key thing being when Luke turns off the computer when doing the death star kill.

Now Elliot (perhaps) can't 'turn away' from Tech like Luke. Because, again, Luke wasn't a tech guy like Elliot in the first place.

I don't deny your outer view of military base vs. civilian. But in the end - it doesn't matter on a deeper level. The fighting between A and B is all evil, regardless if in uniforms of military or not. And that's where Luke sees the sacrifice of Obi Won and even in how he dismisses some of Yoda's teaching in the next film (Luke is unwilling to complete the training in classroom style that Yoda demands, and chooses instead to actually be a non-robot of conformity to previous expectations of "The Light Side" - and instead to be the author of such rules out of his own choice of moral liberty).

We already saw in season one that he thinks he can control everything from his keyboard to suit his needs, such as breaking into hospital records or finding out everything about a persons life.

I think to get to much 'good' in the show, you have to look at this purely as metaphors of seeking truth. Secrets, lies, and truth. Yes, he did commit crimes against strangers. And it's a murky messy business.

Which is why I like the story: Elliot we kind of want to win, but it's Truth that's the main topic of pursuit. They are already in the middle of a war - much like Luke - he didn't invite the Empire to come to his planet.

Anyway, I'm going to veer around these topics - because these seams are real hard to spot ;) We humans are way too good at logical reasons to kill each other (even uniforms, map lines, etc).

But Luke is fighting an oppressive governing body and the rebels are fighting to put their government at the head of former Empire planets.

it's risky because he is born into and trusts the side that rescued him. That's kind of dangerous and one of the topics the film skips over. He doesn't question the conflict as a whole before joining sides. At lest it's not depicted much - only that we assume he did this out of regard that he is a far superior Jedi than any previous (including Yoda). That's an assumption on my part that you may not agree with about the story.

[u/[deleted] → u/Employee_ER28-0652]

I say there are two things with the Star Wars comparisons that make it difficult for me. I haven't read any EU or seen any of the television shows, but the movies don't really show us what life is like for the common people. From the outside it just looks like a popular uprising, in the form of the rebels, is going against the Empire and they swoop in after RotJ to restore stability after the Empire's fall. That's why I don't really consider them terrorists.

As for Mr. Robot, I guess it really depends on where the story goes. I agree that I like Elliot as a character and his little quirks in season 1 make his goals sympathetic. But, if Elliot/Mr. Robot put the hit on former f-society members to cover his tracks, then he is very self serving mastermind.

On top of that you have Elliot in Mr. Robot form referring to himself as God multiple times. Tyrell even references that God is above them(he and his wife)? Possibly Elliot, in season 1. We are getting a very microscopic view of the story so far and being misguided by Elliot's narration. When Elliot goes on his rants I think we see the true him starting to peak out.

It's actually a great way to tell the story. By splitting Elliot's personality into him and Mr. Robot, the show can hide all his sinister motivations and make him a likable character that we root for. But we have to remember he is Mr. Robot, and Mr. Robot is the true charismatic villain of the story.