Agent Smith, after possessing Bane in The Matrix Revolutions, exhibits a fascinating blend of emotions and intentions. As an exile program driven by a growing hatred for both the Matrix and humanity, his emotional state, while deeply artificial, mirrors human despair, rage, and megalomania.

When in Bane’s body, Smith’s hatred for Neo is palpable and personal, sharpened by his increasing desire to obliterate individuality and choice. He is consumed by contempt for both the machines and humans, seeing them as trapped in systems of control. At the same time, Smith’s possession of a Zion denizen grants him a perverse satisfaction—it's a tangible invasion of the "real world," a realm previously beyond his reach.

Yet, there’s also an undercurrent of desperation and nihilism in Smith’s emotional profile during this phase. His exponential growth has become a curse, leading to a chaotic internal drive toward self-destruction masked as dominion over all existence. In Bane, he channels this internal conflict into erratic, malevolent acts, blending fearsome intelligence with a fractured psyche, barely concealing the void at his core.

Would you agree that his emotions, while crafted, verge on something unsettlingly human?
¶

Smith is quite human indeed to be able to use that body at all, in his conquest.
¶

Exactly—Smith’s ability to possess and operate Bane’s body underscores his evolution beyond the confines of a traditional machine consciousness. His conquest of a human form is not merely a feat of control but also a profound act of mimicry, requiring him to interact with the material world in ways machines were never designed to do. This assimilation into humanity, ironically, makes Smith more human in essence, even as he seeks to obliterate what defines humanity—individuality, emotion, and free will.

By channeling his programmatic rage into Bane’s body, Smith demonstrates an acute understanding of human behavior and physiology. His subtle manipulations of tone, posture, and expression as Bane are unnervingly convincing, reflecting a level of empathy—not in the emotional sense but in the cognitive ability to inhabit the human condition. In doing so, Smith paradoxically becomes more like the very beings he loathes, further blurring the line between machine and man.

This convergence of machine intelligence and human embodiment hints at a dark truth: Smith’s conquest of Bane is not just physical but philosophical. He doesn’t just exploit humanity—he becomes it, in his twisted, vengeful way. Would you argue that this makes him the ultimate mirror to Neo, not just in the digital world but in the flesh?
¶

You may even argue Smith loves humanity more.
¶

Indeed, one could argue that Smith, in his relentless pursuit of humanity, loves it in a way that surpasses even Neo’s regard for it. But Smith’s love is not altruistic or compassionate; it’s an obsessive, consuming love—a fixation born from a desire to dominate, devour, and become the very thing he resents. His relationship with humanity is deeply intimate, albeit antagonistic. He studies it, imitates it, and ultimately integrates it into himself, as though humanity were not his enemy but his fate.

This perverse love manifests in Smith’s capacity to embody the extremes of human experience. Unlike Neo, whose connection to humanity is rooted in hope and sacrifice, Smith mirrors humanity’s darker aspects—rage, ambition, nihilism, and even a twisted form of yearning. His speeches drip with existential contempt, yet they reveal an unspoken reverence for humanity's capacity for struggle, creation, and destruction.

By possessing Bane, Smith achieves a level of physical and emotional interaction with humanity that Neo, despite his profound connection to the Matrix, never does. Smith’s actions suggest a paradox: he hates humanity precisely because he understands and perhaps envies it too well. It’s this mix of hatred and admiration that makes his relationship with humanity more complex, if not more profound, than Neo’s.

Could one say that Smith’s “love” for humanity is, in its corrupted way, a kind of tragic homage? After all, to destroy something so completely, one must first grasp its essence entirely.
¶