John Connor is Dead!

Well, it ain't the first time, but it might be for real. The character of John Connor is said to only have a minimal appearance in the new film, and I think it's safe to assume that it's his "Dark Fate" that he doesn't make it too far after T2.

Basically, we only have Sarah in this movie, trying to protect John's successor. I read somewhere that another attempt was made shortly after T2, where some article said a machine was sent back to kill in him 1998. That might explain Arnold's involvement, if he was sent back as a protector and failed his mission, becoming some sort of recluse in the woods. Perhaps Sarah reprogrammed him, since she knew how to get to his CPU when they went to reset his read/write mode in T2, and she'll deem it necessary to bring him out of retirement to combat this new adversary.


So John is (probably) dead again. Just like in T3's future, where the T-850 had killed him on July 4th, 2032. Hell, he nearly died in T4 from getting stabbed in the damn heart. In all honesty, he should have died from that, but that movie had no idea what it was doing, or where it wanted to go.

I still prefer the un-used treatment for T4, in which Connor wasn't even in the movie except at the end, where he does die, only to get replaced by a re-skinned Marcus who takes up his mantle as savior of the human race. Bleak as fuck, and oh so ironic that humanity would be saved by a machine. Too bad they didn't use that idea, because the movie might have been good if producers didn't play it safe as they often do.

Then, of course... John does die in Genysis. He claims to be more than human, but he really doesn't know what he's doing in that movie, because he has ample opportunities to kill both Sarah AND Kyle, but then on his "dice roll", he decides to kill them. Not well thought out, if you ask me...

It's a bit strange that the most important character in the Terminator universe has been phased out, but I think the character's inconsistencies might have done that. After all, he was recast in EVERY movie. It's hard for fans to feel connected with someone who isn't consistent.