Sainthood - Blog Posts
I know this is the most unpopular opinion in the world when it comes to the lost gem Wall-E, BUT I think everyone is wrong about Auto.
Specifically, I don’t think he was a blind dumb machine mindlessly following his programming. In fact, I think the very reason he acted the way he did is because he was self-aware and had developed some bad vices over time. If he was a mindless machine who only did as his programming and superiors told him to, he would have obeyed the Captain’s orders to return to Earth after seeing it was habitable again. I think he knew what he was doing was morally wrong, but he didn’t care. Auto is capable of feeling emotions like frustration and even fear which are clearly shown during his face off with the Captain. Moreover, I think Auto was aware that if the humans returned to Earth, he would not only lose his power over humans, but also over machine. Plus, he would become obsolete because all the humans would leave the Axiom ship which is the one ability he doesn’t have.
In other words, I think Auto was very aware that HE was the one who had all the power and didn’t want to give it up. I think over the 700 years, being “king” got to his head and corrupted him to the point where he stopped caring about humanity and was more concerned with staying in power. People forget that personhood doesn’t mean sainthood. In other words, Auto can serve as a cautionary tale that power can corrupt anyone.
