Good theory, I don't know if Disney will ever use it but good anyway!

But as far as Clu not knowing Rinzler was Tron he would be stupid since Rinzler has the same circuitry as Tron.

Perhaps he is using the same trick Flynn used in the original movie Changing his colour somehow makes other programs see him as 'friendly' to their cause. Or perhaps Clu believes that Rinzler is Tron who has been repurposed by one of his lieutenants?

I think he's already been re-purposed into Rinzler, but as a Manchurian Agent or a case like (pardon the actor allusion) Talia Winters. All it would take for "Tron" to go away is for Clu to make a slight adjustment to the disc.

This has benefits for Clu. What better way to get your enemies out in the open than making them think the great hero who took down Master Control is still alive and recruiting an army? What better way for you to learn names, locations, hideouts, and supply lines than having the rebel figurehead hand them to you? Even better for Clu; some young, stupid beta-unit of a Program (or, possibly, an Iso) is trying to pass himself off as a much more experienced and badass fighter. (Think Batman. Yeah, Terry McGiniss is no slouch, but compared to Bruce Wayne in his prime?) All the better is that Tron wouldn't realize he's a traitor. Holes in his memory, glitches in his software...he would attribute it to being an older Program (8 years is quite old for software, and Dumont is proof Programs age), and damaged by Clu's attack.

Remember, Clu is a SMART S.O.B - he thinks like Flynn. In fact, all you have to do is take 1982!Flynn, send the karma meter to the basement (82!Flynn was just shy of Chaotic Neutral, and had a streak of being a petty, vindictive, arrogant jerk), and give him a single project on which to focus all that brain power. Scared yet?

I think it's a masking "shell" / perception filter... how long that "mask" protocol will continue to function on the damaged Tron remains to be seen. I've seen no direct hard evidence that proved Tron was ever actually put through the rectification process. We will have to see what happens later in the storyline of Uprising I think..


I much prefer that he lost his memories and so just *thought* he was "Rinzler"/servant of Clu (and actually was just in disguise and monitering Clu) but due to his damages and degraded code sort of settled into Being "Rinzler" and forgot he's Tron and "fights for the Users" then many cycles later upon seeing Flynn he regains a bit of his memory....