I come from the Net;
Through peoples, cities, and systems to this place: MainFrame
My format, Guardian;
To Mend and Defend,
To defend my newfound friends,
Their hopes and dreams,
To defend them from their enemies
They say The User lives outside the 'Net and imputs games for pleasure
No one knows for sure, but I intend to find out.
ReBoot!
The last two lines have begged the question for four seasons and seven years. The concept of the user is referenced throughout the entire series, but not until extremely late in the fourth season is it addressed in any detail, and even that is minimal. Opinions on the user vary from the atheistic views of Fax Modem- "There is no user. That's just mass psychosis induced by the Guardians," (#22, Trust No One)- to Bob's "radical" theories about a kind and loving user that would not knowingly release evil into cyberspace (#42, What's Love Got to Do With It?). Most, however, seems to view the user as a polar combination of provider and punisher. Games and viruses plague the city, tears continue to pop up, all of cyberspace is nearly overrun by a Kron virus, and yet its citizens believe that their user is ultimately there to look out for them; "The user sends what he can to make our lives a little better…usually," (Phong: #11, Infected). Sprites' interpretations of the user also seem to vary from system to system. Witness the citizens of MainFrame and those of the run-down system in episode #28, Icons; both are isolated home computers only recently hooked up to the wider world of the internet. Each has a single user who appears to be viewed as a deity. This seems to be the consensus of most systems. Indeed, the theology is reminiscent of ancient Greece in that each system has a local patron deity (user) that ultimately governs their domain. This is most likely a continuing tradition leftover from the old green-screen, 8-bit days of Tron.