After seeing Ares for a second time, I mentioned I had a lot of Thoughts. I finally have time (and energy, and whatnot) to sit down and write them out. There's a LOT under the cut, and of course, spoilers abound.
The second time I saw Ares, it was after having some additional context of this site talking about all the little things I didn't think of the first time around. Mostly, how Ares can actually be interpreted as genuine neurodivergent representation (and as someone rizzin' with the 'tism herself, yes please, more of this). The film benefited, in my mind, from having just one character as the focus, as it means we got to spend time with him and get a feel for his subtleties.
For those saying that Leto's acting is too bland and robotic... hard disagree. Ares communicates so much with just his eyes (and, whether I enjoy admitting it or not, Leto does have very lovely eyes, which served him extremely well here), which is something many of us ND folks do, too. When he first reveals his face to the crowd as Dillinger shows him off, for example, you can see him just about holding it together, but also slightly overwhelmed, curious, and uncertain all at the same time.
Very much a feeling of, "what am I doing here? Am I supposed to be doing something?"
And then, what does he do? Wanders off. Gets sidetracked by an interesting new noise and the scent of rain in the air (petrichor is, after all, one of the most wonderful smells in the world). He was made a weapon of war, but the structure of him as an AGI is too good, and he behaves more like a human. Like a genuine, thinking machine. A little stiff, sure, but most certainly an AGI.
(side note: AGI = artificial general intelligence)
Would an AGI who cannot think, learn, and change be effective as a soldier? No, it wouldn't. He had to be created as he was, or he would be useless the moment enemies changed tactics.
He goes outside and it's stopped raining. He snatches a firefly out of the air, but manages not to crush it. This is immediately followed by him showing off how polite and soft-spoken he is to Elizabeth, even as he's clearly in pain from imminent deresolution, before being sent back to the Dillinger grid.
Ares is just... endearing from the get-go. He embodies a male form of the "born sexy yesterday" trope, which is so unusual across all of media. The only other example I can think of off the top of my head is the film Starman. That's how rare it is. He's charming and curious, naive and dangerous, a weapon of war softened by the infection of humanity. Basically, he is Quorra, in male form.
And then he goes digging into Eve's file, and... the look on his face. Just this overwhelming awe and wonder, and a struggle to process and take it all in. He's completely captivated by this woman, not least of which because while Dillinger says he's just an expendable soldier that can be reprinted countless times, Eve says his kind might just have the flaw of being "benevolent". Him, an artificial warrior, an AGI, choosing to be benevolent?
Then he snaps back, and continues his mission, because that's all very silly and he has work to do.
But I've no doubt he found Eve's smile to be monumentally intriguing. And endearing. Because, why wouldn't he?
But he's not going to be able to shake off that she watched her beloved sister suffer and die, and had to be strong through it, and continues to be even now. Despite everything, she sees technology as able to bring good? ENCOM doesn't desire war like Dillinger Systems does. Why not? It doesn't matter.
Then Caius is deleted, and Ares can't cope. He questions his creator, and his creator snaps and reminds him that he is one hundred percent expendable. Ares is not a "who", he is a "what". He is a thing, a tool, a weapon of war, not a thinking, potentially feeling artificial life form. That's the box he needs to be shoved into and stay in, thank you very much. He is Master Control, the head of Dillinger's digital army.
But Ares feels a strange connection to this woman he was ordered to kill. If he kills her, Dillinger would have the Permanence Code, and he could be free, too, along with all the others on the Dillinger grid. And yet, what does he does? Puts himself between her and the fellow warrior programs aiming to kill her. Takes a risk on not being able to trust her by getting her free of the grid.
And can we talk about the fact that he clings to her hand, doesn't let go unless absolutely necessary, and decides the best thing to do is rez in a jetski while he's on top of her? It makes perfectly logical sense to him. After all, if he doesn't, she could float away or get otherwise separated from him, and he needed both hands to activate the vehicle.
(Eve is clearly caught off guard by this, and then she grudgingly clings to his waist while they go whipping across the Dillinger grid's equivalent of the Sea of Simulation)
Also, I'm sorry, but there's something SO inherently sweet about how he reaches for and holds her hand. One way or another, even though he knows it's gonna cost him dearly, he is keeping her safe. Maybe it's just for the Code. Maybe there's more going on there.
Then, the way he just says stuff once they're out of the grid. The black-and-white thinking, the lack of small talk or nuance. He just says things, and while Eve is clearly caught off guard by it, she seems to get used to it fast. Maybe she finds it refreshing. She does, after all, keep Seth around, who calls her out in his own way.
(Eve sarcastically calls Ares her "boyfriend", and the mystified look on his face is just... so good. He is utterly baffled by the concept and it is genuinely hilarious.)
Ares was ready to sacrifice himself, knowing full well Dillinger would never reprint him or, even if he did, he'd never get back to her in time, to slow Athena down long enough for Eve to get the Code. In a way, he was living his last life right then. Athena knew. She outright accuses him of giving up everything just for that woman, and he doesn't deny it, because it's true. He knows it's true. Even Athena, who is an AGI herself, but aligned with Dillinger, blinded by her own orders and programming, can see it.
(alignment: the term for how much an AGI is aligned to its creators' goals. This is a critically important part of AI/AGI research, and is causing no end of headaches even now, this early into the process.)
But Ares is misaligned. He has chosen for himself: one life in this world, deletion/deresolution at the end of it, and he will do it all to protect this woman and the world she loves.
His flaw is "benevolence".
This mighty military AGI has chosen not to be an engine of death, but a protector of life.
"What is better: to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"
In turn, he has swung back around to alignment, but it's with ENCOM, and with Eve, and by proxy, the Flynn family.
He is traveling around the world, hunting for Sam and Quorra, who have disappeared under unknown circumstances... and yet, even though he vanished without a final goodbye to Eve, he's kept in touch with her, no matter where he goes. Even Seth saw what was going on, giving her the "oh my, wonder what this could be about" eyebrows when he handed her the postcard.
Sooner or later, Ares will come back to her. After all, he is aligned with her.
(...as a side note, I wish they'd left Ares with the slicked-back hair and dark clothes with red accents during the ending. While he does have the Code now and is technically human (though probably, in practice, closer to a Replicant than a full-on human being), the style they stuck him in during those final shots was a bit jarring. If my skills are half-decent after all these years, maybe I'll sit down and try to sketch out what I'm referring to.)
This is honestly the best write up I've seen on Tron Ares.
As a neurodivergent (ADHD) individual, I'm glad you pointed out how Leto really used his eyes to convey so much emotion on Ares' face because honestly for better or worse, it's so effective and I love that.
AND YES!
Ares might've been born/created to be a weapon of warfare, he instead chose a path where he could be a protector of life.
He found his light in his quest for the Permanence Code, aided by Kevin Flynn's ghostly apparition, and it's beautiful how his suit went from the brimstone and hellish black and red to the heavenly yet pureness of white.
In turn, he went back to the woman whom he dearly calls a friend.
The interactions he had with Eve in turn showed him that life is worth living even if there's pain and sadness, to have a purpose in this world.
They might be separated by two different worlds, their love and bond will always be there for them no matter what happens.
