Do you speak L33t?: Understanding the words, phrases and themes on Mr.Robot

[Milaxx]

I started this in the speculation thread but I think these are overall words, phrase and themes that apply throughout the show. Feel free to add and/or clarify your own. Please only site examples of scenes that have already aired.

Believe - The theory that one can change reality by believing hard enough has been repeated several times. This season it's appeared on Angela's self improvement tapes when she was dressing to meet Price for dinner and most recently when she meet with Whiterose who told her to she didn't want her to promise not to release the data dumps but to "believe" it. [have to double check the scene to get the exact wording] It was enough to make Angela change her mind and tell her lawyer to stop. Does Angela now believe in a future where her mother is no longer dead?

Brave -  came up often, both in season 1 with Vera and again in season 2 with Ray.

Back to the Future - Many references both in season 1 and season 2 seem to indicate some sort of time travel.

Gods - seems to indicate power and influence. Price wants to be god like. Before he disappeared Tyrell mentioned something about becoming god as well. [have to double check the scene to get the exact wording]

Identity -.  Elliot obviously has suffered confusion about his true identity and his alter.  All of the hackers have their hacker names (I would assume that some of them, like Trenton and Mobley, don't even know each other's real names).  Whiterose is a transgender woman who uses a male gender in her career.  Masks are worn by people in f.society and the Dark Army.

Loneliness - Many of the main characters appear lonely to an almost clinic level. Elliot is season 1 cries in his apartment. Darlene appears lost and floundering. Dom is so alone her strongest relationship is with her echo machine (alexa). She even use the internet for sexual satisfaction. (shades of Her). Elliot of course functions better with computers than humans, even creating us, his invisible friend at the onset of the series. Even Price seems briefly desperate for someone to share his birthday with.

Owned (pwn) - Owned is a slang word that originated among 1990s hackers, where it referred to "rooting" or gaining administrative control over someone else's computer. The term eventually spread to gamers, who used the term to mean defeat in gaming. Owned has now spread beyond computer and gaming contexts and become part of standard slang, and typically follows severe defeat or humiliation, usually in an amusing way or through the dominance of an opposing party. Other variations of the word owned include own3d, 0wn3d, pwned, and pooned,[3] terms which incorporate elements of leetspeak. 

Pwn is a leetspeak slang term derived from the verb own, used in video game culture to taunt an opponent who has just been soundly defeated (e.g., "You just got pwned!"). In script kiddie jargon, pwn means to compromise or control, specifically another computer (server or PC), web site, gateway device, or application. It is synonymous with one of the definitions ofhacking or cracking, including iOS jailbreaking.  

In the show we see Darlene panicking that they may be "owned" and Elliot uses a pwn phone to hack into Xun's phone and find out what he knows.

Edited September 22, 2016 by Milaxx

[green]

Nice list.  But got to say that actually "owned" has been around forever.  And I mean for ages.  Like in sports where it's been used for literally generations.  Like "Jones completely owns Rodriguez having a lifetime average of .389 and an OPS of 1.029 against the lefty."  So sorry, owned just got adopted into hacking and gaming communities. 

It's been around a long, long time and probably derived literally and sadly enough -- just a guess on my part -- from the relationship between owners and slaves indicating the total domination the one "enjoys" over the other.

Every group has at times seemed to think they made up a word or phrase but it usually is just an adaptation that came from somewhere else.

[Milaxx]

17 hours ago, Milaxx said:

"rooting" or gaining administrative control over someone else's computer

Different context and slightly different meaning.  If you ever been online with tech support and given them remote access to your computer it's similar to that only without your knowledge or permission.

Just to clarify I'm not looking for the original Latin meaning of words, just the context as to how they relate to the show. As seen hackers have adapted many common words & created their own language so to speak. I'm trying to not go off on tangents, but look at how they apply to the show. It's also my hope by highlighting them we as viewers can notice how often certain characters repeatedly use these words and phrases. With a show such as this where each episode and jam packed with information it may help viewers to filter and sort. If you've noticed any of such recurring themes/words or phrases, feel free to add them.

[green]

Reality - Elliot questions what is real and unreal all the time regards Mr Robot, Evil Corp etc.  In this last episode he moved it up to the macro version as he gives a speech to us as he enters the Phase 2 set-up warehouse.  It is the Eastern (Hindu/Buddihist/Sikh/Taoist/Zen) viewpoint of maya speech.  Where what we see/hear/smell etc are only sensations or energy vibrations captured through sensory inputs (eyes/ears etc) leading to a mind (translator box) that tries to interpret these sensations into a "world."