An Extensive Analysis Of Chanda's Motivations
Written by rogue_wildcard
Once an idealistic patent engineer researching Uploaded Intelligence, Vinod Chanda had a naive, yet innocent and hopeful nature. He always believed in a better world and wanted UI technology to be used in a way that benefits humanity. He wanted UIs to be the new workforce so humanity could sit back and relax. Though he wasn’t 100% ethical at that time (due to idealism and the fact that as far as he knew at that time UI technology was just being researched and developed), he still meant well.
After being made into an Uploaded Intelligence against his will while conscious, being put in an infinite workday scenario, and being freed by the Clan, Alliance Telecom’s previous uploads who were their test subjects, Vinod Chanda swore revenge and wanted to hurt Prasad by any means necessary. He struggled with anger issues since he was very young, punching walls and later taking up boxing to help with it. He could’ve gone to a virtual rage space— but he knew it wasn’t enough. For such a cruel crime, Chanda wanted Prasad to SCREAM. Not just scream, but scream as he lost everything, witnessing horrors as intense as what Chanda went through with the fire on his tower and the death of his family.
Then, Chanda was alone. He had difficulty connecting with other people before; but the loneliness he was in after his revenge was on a new level. He didn't know of any other UI but the mute Clan. And then, he called his mother, telling her of how alone and without a purpose he felt. He was in an empty universe that felt so small yet so infinite at the same time, with a loneliness that felt eternal, and trying to seek a purpose as he didn't have one after his revenge. That was enough to nearly drive him insane, taking drastic measures to make sure he wasn't alone. And so, he sent the scanner plans to the governments of the USA, UK, China, Russia, Israel, and Iran. But loneliness wasn't the only reason he'd do that…
Revenge and grief left Chanda so lost and lonely without a purpose, so in pain, he found one: he believes that Prasad “chose” him and that everything that happened to him was destiny in motion because his belief in free will was diminished (quoting Chanda, “how is this… free?”) and because he knew the truth of what happened was so horrific— he refused to accept it, and used it to get Laurie and David to sympathize with him, he lived in denial that escalated into delusion. That was how strong it was. His job was to develop patents— essentially specializing in the technical aspects of a patent for new inventions. He was kept working, so he believed he was always chosen to be this messianic figure who’d bring the future about— his vision of a future. Well, Chanda always believed in a better world. But who should bring it about, at least in his eyes? Vinod Chanda himself.
And for people to inhabit the new world he’s built, he sent the UI technology to six rival governments to begin an arms race. He plans to lead the UIs made in the arms race to his new world, where they can live in peace and freedom, as he says. They will be sent out to war— but they will meet Chanda instead, who will lead them to his new world. He also says he wants to free them. Free them from… the governments he’s sent the tech to. This paradox (like I said in a previous analysis) is intentional, as Chanda has a deterministic worldview yet still wants to be a liberator, leading his UI brothers and sisters to a new world. And by “free them”, he means “free them into *my* vision of a new world.” Additionally, Chanda puts them on the same path he was put on: “destiny in motion.” First, the soon-to-be UI would be uploaded, “sent off to war”, and then they’d meet Chanda who’d “show them another way”. Because Chanda believes in destiny. Not free will, hence why he’s not respecting the other UI’s free will to choose a path aside from the one he’s leading them to and how he's questioned on if those UIs “want to.” His deterministic worldview is also shown in how he justifies his killing of Laurie and his threat to David in a “you left me no choice” type of way.
A thing about Chanda is that he’s genuinely ashamed of what heinous deeds he does. That’s why he felt regretful about the Prasads (but also said he wasn’t a murderer) and feels like he has “no choice”. It’s not just because his worldview is deterministic. He refused to tell his mother the truth because of what he’s done, not just about what happened to him. He justifies and denies because of how ashamed he feels about what he’s done. He’s refusing to acknowledge the weight of his actions, so much so that he denies it. He couldn’t bear to see himself as a villain for what he’s done— so, he justifies his horrible actions by claiming they were necessary evils. Chanda builds himself on denial— so much that the denial became delusion. If denial is an ocean, Chanda drowned in it.
I think that, with how he even joined Laurie and David in warning the other UIs from the government about the flaw, Chanda has a tinge of shame and regret about sending the UI scanner plans. He still wants to show them another way (lead them into his vision), yes, but I think, after Laurie and David told him everything about the flaw and the consequences of his actions, Chanda decided it was time for him to channel his shame into fixing the mess he’s made by working with Laurie and David, though a messy alliance, under a common cause: saving the UIs, warning them about the flaw, and doing what their governments couldn’t. He even feels like he doesn’t have a choice but to kill Laurie (and he looked quite… unhappy doing it)— and says to David that they could’ve been great. He still thought that UIs were above humanity, but he still knew they were vulnerable, given the flaw and how humanity would hunt them down. This was a driving point in his extremism: with what he now knows, Chanda will do anything to protect and save his kind. It’s his way of fixing the mess he's put them in— by giving them peace and freedom, turning their hell into a heaven. At least in his eyes.
His vision of “peace and freedom” involved making those UIs live like mythological beings in an isolated civilization. If you’re familiar with Filipino folklore, Chanda wanted the UIs to live in a “Biringan City” of sorts. (For those who do not know, Biringan City in our folklore is an invisible, highly advanced city home to the Engkanto— mythical spirits.) Because he saw UIs as mythological beings— gods, to say the least. And he wanted the others to know that. Chanda saw UIs as above humanity because to him, humanity is but a cowardly and violent species, who’d terminate the UIs no matter where they hide. To him, humans will never understand and instead, they will hunt and kill them all. Because one of the last things Chanda went through as an embodied human was… being targeted by Prasad by being led into the wrong car and being drugged, for his eventual upload. As for his mother, he wouldn’t tell her the truth because knowing that her husband (who is also Chanda’s father) had already passed away before the events of the story, he thinks he shouldn’t make her grief worse. Also because of what he’s done— from his shame about the Prasads and his “I have no choice” mindset, we can indicate that Chanda felt ashamed to tell her about what he’s done. Grief aside, that can be why the truth would “upset her too much.” Though Chanda has, at that point, lost faith in a significant portion of humanity, he cares for the ones he’s close to. And UIs? They are above that! But he still knew UIs were vulnerable to things like the integrity flaw, which would kill a UI the more processing power they used. That flaw was what made the Clan unable to speak. This caused great friction with Laurie Lowell and David Kim, both of whom are UI defenders of humanity. The former wanted to send a personalized message in hopes of peace for humans and UIs. And with that, she’d expose their (the UIs) existence, leading to her death in Chanda’s hands. David was threatened by Chanda with a nuke because he copied Laurie’s message, but he managed to redirect Chanda’s nuke and sacrifice himself to send Laurie’s message.
For the time he spent at the satellite after the final battle of the first season, Chanda learned so much from He Ping. With what Ping told him, that Ping was not a democracy activist, but rather a communist sent to prison for what he believed in, Chanda learned that if it wasn’t democracy vs communism, the world might not be black and white. When Ping told Chanda he chose to upload not because he served the party but because he served what China genuinely stood for, Chanda began to realize that, of course, people can choose. Ping believed that principles must come first before power. And that came to change Chanda later.
Chanda and Ping served Stephen Holstrom, whose preserved brain was uploaded after Caspian cracked integrity. Though Ping knew there was something with Holstrom with how he killed Zhong Shuchun (an ally of Ping and Chanda) and gave Ping and Chanda a botched cure to the flaw even if they knew the real one was out there, Chanda didn’t truly turn from Holstrom until he killed Ping. That was the turning point— because that was the hard way Chanda saw who Holstrom really was. Before that, he did things (like checking backdoors) behind Holstrom’s back and saw an interview from Ellen Kim (who happens to be David Kim’s WIDOW and the mother of Maddie Kim) that made him realize that humanity wasn’t as bad as he thought. But the death of Ping was enough to make him fully turn— no more sucking up, no more UI supremacist worldviews, no more self-preservation, no more hatred, yes to principles, yes to coexistence, yes to peace, yes to playing an active role in fixing and saving himself from the mess he's made. (Thanks to Queen Of The Castle for this insight. Had it not been for Pantheoncord in general, I would've never come to my current knowledge of Chanda.)
Ping, with his influence through his conversations with Chanda and his principled nature, changed Chanda— Chanda then grew into a mediator, taking principles over power and seeking coexistence between humans and UIs now that he’s turned from Holstrom, learned from Ping, and realized the potential for compassion in humanity. His UI supremacist, isolationist, and deterministic worldviews were no more. He began to believe in genuine choice; not destiny. He’s grown past those delusions. I said earlier that if denial is an ocean, Chanda drowned in it, but Ping rescued him. He showed Chanda that he can make a choice. He showed Chanda that principles are what ultimately matter. He showed Chanda the world wasn't black and white. And in the end, he played a vital role in Chanda’s turn from Holstrom— his actions encouraged Chanda to stop wallowing in his denial and shame, and actively channel it into fixing the mess he's made and making the world a better place. When Holstrom showed Chanda that UIs could be as bad as he thought that humanity could be and Ellen showed Chanda that humanity has the capacity for compassion, Chanda’s views changed. Before, he wanted to force others into his vision. Now he fights against a plan to force others into a certain vision— he warns Ellen (and Peter Waxman) about Holstrom’s plan to start a pandemic to force humanity to upload.
When Ellen tells him he attempted to nuke her family, he tells her he never thought it would go that far (in the “at that time I never thought I’d go as far as to nuke your family; I definitely went too far" type of way). Instead of running from what he’s done, he outright says “I would’ve never described myself that way but I understand why others might” when someone says he’s a terrorist. Instead of being built on more denial— he’s over it. He’s guided by denial no more, he’s guided by principles, over the shame of what he’s done. But he chose not to wallow in it, he’s channeling it into fixing the mess he’s made— which now includes the results of his extreme actions, the general mess he’s made.
When Ellen told him he had to risk more for a future where humans and UIs can coexist— Chanda risked more than he did to call her, earning her trust. And he risked more and more to save himself from the mess he’s made and what he could’ve been by fighting Holstrom with Yair and Farhad— who were once enemies, but were convinced to fight Holstrom together with him. Though the three didn’t win, and Yair and Farhad were spared, Chanda died with a smirk. Even if he dies, he knows he’s dying for what he believes in, not sucking it up to Holstrom even further and living without principles. In the end, he was guided not by delusions of grandeur, but by principles.
Vinod Chanda is a complex character. Even though his actions could be contradictory— they could make sense when one goes deeper into his character. He’s a brilliant man guided by emotion, an idealist and a cynic at the same time, a man who considered himself a “liberator” who didn't believe in free will… Chanda’s character might not make sense to some due to its complexity, but Chanda’s primary driving goal throughout the show is the pursuit of a better world, going from a hopeful, idealistic engineer, rogue terrorist with a messiah complex, to a man taking principles over power— and trying everything he can to fix the mess he's made, seeking peace and working against a plan that seemed in line with his past self’s vision.
[Back]