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Seraph is the name of a fictional character (played by Collin Chou) in the science fiction film saga, The Matrix. He is portrayed as the personification of a sophisticated CHAP which guards the Oracle.

The role was initially offered to Michelle Yeoh, but she declined due to a scheduling conflict. The character was changed to a male and Chou was signed instead.

[edit] The Matrix

In The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, Seraph is seen acting as a "guardian angel" of the Oracle. In fact, he refers to himself several times as "Seraph, Guardian of the Oracle," but in actuality he held this position since long before the timeframe in which the first film took place. We also learn from a scene later in the movie that Agent Smith has tried to hunt him before, but Seraph confounded him in these attempts; Seraph also points out that he has "beaten him before," implying that the two may have in fact met in battle before. The scenario is different this time now that Smith has become disconnected from the Matrix and has become an entity unto himself.

Over the course of the Reloaded and Revolutions plot arcs, he has three brief altercations with warriors of Zion. The first was with Ballard, which he staged in order to get to know him; the second, with Neo, to prove he was the One. After the conclusion of Reloaded but before the beginning of Revolutions, Seraph summons Niobe to meet the Oracle. He first tests her with another battle, in order to "test her heart's resolve" (or, more technically, a Challenge-response authentication).

In Revolutions, Trinity and Morpheus meet with the Oracle so that she could help them locate Neo. She explains that he lay within a place that was neither the Matrix nor the Real World: a construct created by the Trainman. Seraph, she said, knew how to find him, and would lead them to him.

The trio departs to the Megacity's subways. Seraph tracks down the Trainman in short order, but after a short chase and exchange of fire, he escapes. Without further action to take to this end, Seraph deems it right that they should meet the Merovingian, for whom the Trainman worked.

At that moment, the Merovingian was holding court at Club Hel, a decadent nightclub owned by the Merovingian. The three make their way to the club and have a battle with a number of the Merovingians guards, whom they dispatch with relative ease. They then exchange threats with the Merovingian; Trinity's threat seems to hold greater gravity than the Merovingian's (thanks to a gigantic Mexican standoff she creates), and the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar are reunited.

Some time later, Seraph flees with Sati from the increasingly more powerful Smith, to little avail. In due course, Smith catches up to them. Seraph mentions that he has defeated Smith in the past. Smith assimilates them both, adding two more copies of himself to his growing collective of Smiths.

Upon Smith's destruction at Neo's hands, however, all the minds that Smith had infiltrated were freed from his abduction, including Seraph's.

[edit] The Matrix Online

At this time, Seraph's alignment is uncertain. In The Matrix Online he claims he isn't allied with any of the three Factions, that he protects the Oracle and Sati - and that he will use force to protect them if need be. However, there is some speculation that he has actually allied himself with the Merovingian or has at least worked for him in the past; when Seraph aids Morpheus and Trinity's raid on Club Hel, the Merovingian says to him, in a voice thick with disdain, "The Prodigal Child returns!" implying Seraph had left his service to protect the Oracle, and also calls him a 'Judas' implying that Seraph betrayed the Merovingian at some point of his service. He also calls Seraph "L'ange sans ses ailes", which is French for "The angel without wings". In the guide to the Matrix: Path of Neo, he is actually stated to have worked for the Merovingian at some point in the past.

It has been hinted that Seraph was one of the Seraphim, programs from an earlier Matrix, that facilitated the function that Agents provide, save that they were caretakers. ^{[citation needed]} It is rumored, that Seraph lost his wings, when he betrayed the function of the Seraphim, as protectors and guardians, when he killed a human or group of humans, for undisclosed reasons. ^{[citation needed]} He was then stripped of his wings (torn from his back, making him wingless, hence the moniker) and then cast into Blackwood, the infamous exile prison. ^{[citation needed]}

He was the first to escape from Blackwood, after he realized his calling and went back to become a protector, for both humans and the Oracle and the exiles allied to her. ^{[citation needed]} There was an occasion, where Seraph was seen speaking to his former Seraphim brethren. ^{[citation needed]} When they choose to ignore his pleas for help, Seraph was forced to defend himself against his brethren, defeating wave after wave of his brethren, with some help later on, from nearby redpills. ^{[citation needed]}

His skills as a warrior are almost unmatched, and he is evenly matched against Neo. Despite not having his wings, Seraph is still able to hyperjump beyond the range of many exiles and redpills.

[edit] Etymology

Seraph is a biblical allusion to the first of nine orders of angels, the Seraphim. This allusion is also evidenced by the fire-like appearance of Seraph when Neo sees him in his coded form. The word 'seraphim' comes from the Hebrew word saraph meaning 'burning'. In the short fight right before the "coat check" fight in Revolutions, one of the guards is seen calling him "wingless", which supports the idea that, to them, Seraph was a guardian angel for the Merovingian until he switched sides to the Oracle.

It is also possible that Seraph is a remnant of the 'Paradise Matrix' that failed. This explains why Seraph is a renegade program with powers comparable to an Agent. This would also contribute to the reason that he would have allied himself with the Merovingian in order to survive. Some argue that this would be a sign of fear or weakness that makes no sense in such a program, specifically one that is granted great power by the system in which it operates. This assumption, of course, assumes that it was fear and not opportunity. Some have speculated that Seraph "fell" when the paradise version of the Matrix was lost and went from being an old and highly powerful security system that protected mankind from their own realization to a member of the system regulated by another higher authority (Agents). If so, it is easier to understand why he eventually allied himself with the Oracle, as he protects that which is most important, not simply the Oracle but both the peace between the machines and the humans which she is plotting.

It is also possible that Seraph could have been the "one" in a previous version of the Matrix, which is why when Neo sees him for the first time, he is encrypted with a golden code, instead of the usual green. But this could just be the color of the code in the "Paradise Matrix."