memes

I always liked the idea that the matrix was actually multi-tiered, and "waking up" from a tier is just like a filtering mechanism that keeps trying different versions on a given person until they reach one where they're fulfilled by it and get engaged again. Like some people get bored with a paradise, so they get the legally-distinct World of Darkness VRMMO instead; some people don't like the kitschy horror so they get some other fantasy instead, and so on all the way up to the capitalist realism tier and the revolution themed "real world" fantasy tier that finally encapsulate all of them.

The overall story of the entire series makes way more sense when looked at as the machines being merciful after their liberation despite the cruelty and genocidal hatred they'd suffered at the hands of humanity, and desperately trying to humanely and safely preserve humanity to save them from the ecocide the human powers had committed by blocking the sun out of spite.

I mean it's not canon, and the official story is the machines were still dumb and bad and John Wick was the messiah who got IRL superman/magneto powers somehow, but still.