Fic: Outshine (Clu, PG)
Title: Outshine
Author: grey_sw
Rating: PG
Pairing/Characters: Clu
Spoilers: TRON: Legacy
Word Count: ~1700
Summary: Or: How The Leader Got His Stripes
Notes: Thanks to winzler and noctaval for beta-reading!
( Clu knew he had little time left. Still, he ran his hands through his hair. He rolled the cuffs of his jacket up, then pulled them down again. His own identity disc sat before him, a ring of white against the smooth black glass of the table, waiting. )
Author: grey_sw
Rating: PG
Pairing/Characters: Clu
Spoilers: TRON: Legacy
Word Count: ~1700
Summary: Or: How The Leader Got His Stripes
Notes: Thanks to winzler and noctaval for beta-reading!
( Clu knew he had little time left. Still, he ran his hands through his hair. He rolled the cuffs of his jacket up, then pulled them down again. His own identity disc sat before him, a ring of white against the smooth black glass of the table, waiting. )
Comments 19
:D Crazy awesome. The overall perspective and the way it flowed through the story was excellent, and so many nice little touches. Loved your explanation for Clu's combat victory ('cause really, the movie was very unclear on exactly how he managed to beat Tron). His inspection of his new form was a powerful moment--though I admit to a second of audible laughter where I asked "wait, his first act is... masturbation?!" XD
His whole self-rectification, and his feelings about it... gah. Beautifully, painfully, excellently done. You write Clu's perspective so well that it's hard to see past it, to figure out how much is resentment and pain, and how much... loss? Love? Is he really removing a compulsion to serve, or just trying to edit/block/hide his own admiration and caring that gets in the way of what he's trying to do? And man, the bit with replacing Flynn with himself... >.< Oh, Clu. Someone needs to hug him and shake some sanity into him. Simultaneously ( ... )
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though I admit to a second of audible laughter where I asked "wait, his first act is... masturbation?!" XD
You have no idea how relieved I am I was not the only one to come to that conclusion. Jesus, my mind hardly ventures out of the gutter these days, good to see it's got company down there :-D.
I call GUTTER PARTY!
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And yay, gutter party!
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Also: Oh, Prometheus! We were made to recite that one for school, long, long ago. I just found out that I still know most of it. EXCELLENT choice!
Very interesting and powerful take on how Clu finally turned against Kevin. I like the idea of making this a deliberate step rather than a "natural" process (or mere negligence on Kevin's side when he gave him his directive).
Well, I see your Prometheus and retaliate with this:
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
(William Ernest Henley - Invictus)
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I had some fun with the summary, especially since Clu's coup is much the same story:
"Tha, the First of the Elephants, was busy making new jungles and leading the rivers in their beds. He could not walk in all places; therefore he made the First of the Tigers the master and the judge of the Jungle, to whom the Jungle People should bring their disputes. In those days the First of the Tigers ate fruit and grass with the others. He was as large as I am, and he was very beautiful, in colour all over like the blossom of the yellow creeper. There was never stripe nor bar upon his hide in those good days when this the Jungle was new. All the Jungle People came before him without fear, and his word was the Law of all the Jungle. We were then, remember ye, one people..."
I like the idea of Clu's transformation as a deliberate choice, too. In Betrayal his color changes very gradually -- almost too slow to notice, though it's obvious if you flip from the beginning to the end -- but I think it works better as a badge of
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... and I just remembered my copy of Betrayal is still lent out *twitches*.
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It felt like a coming of age story almost, where CLU is a brash teenager who thinks he understands the world and can out-succeed his father. I liked how you explained his feelings because at the root, they're universal. I think everyone goes through a period where they need to escape from someone else's shadow and discover things on their own instead of being spoon fed ideas. It was a good read and nicely written.
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I think there's more than a bit of brash teenager in Clu. His dialogue at the end ("I did everything you ever asked!") is very son-to-father... which is why Flynn's insistence that "he's my son!" is so tragic... :(
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You know I love this ♥ Some of my favorite moments are Clu rolling up and down his sleeves in nervousness, silencing the part of him that feels remorse for what he's about to do, seeing his new reflection for the first time...
This wasn't wrong. Clu was sure of it.
I think this is pretty much Clu's reason for everything. He's as convinced he's in the right as Flynn ever was, and that's what enabled him to take such a drastic step.
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Yeah, neither Clu nor Flynn strikes me as the type for self-doubt. "We were jamming, man! Building utopia..."
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now, kiss!!!>3<
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I love his reasoning, how everything will fall apart whithout the master key, the pressure on CLU that he MUST act and do it now or lose everything. I love how the father/son issues is interwoven in it all and epecially the end around the "Excellency" thing.
This hit me hardest, though: "He had not felt like this -- wanted and valued and right -- for so long he could barely remember." - Really great, so much packed into that single sentence.
Beautiful writing!
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