Seraph: Former One

At the end of M3, Neo's body is taken away by the machines. When this happens, we see his body through the eyes of a machine. At one point, Neo's body clearly looks like an angel because of the arrangement of golden cables around his body. I do not believe this is a coincidence: Neo is going to become a "guardian angel" to protect something important within the system, just like Seraph. Who better to protect important parts of the system than former Ones?

Consider the following additional supporting points:

• In M2, Seraph says to Neo, "You do not truly know someone until you fight them." This quote makes even more sense keeping in mind that Seraph is a former One: it takes One to know One.
• If Neo has anamalous code that allows him to defeat any human, program or machine in the Matrix, and Seraph has no problem defending himself against Neo, then Seraph must have the anamalous code too. Seraph is the only one (person or machine) who fights on Neo's level.
• In M3, Seraph says to Smith, "I have beaten you before." This would suggest one or more encounters with Agent Smith, just as Neo encounters and kills Agent Smith several times in M1. Seraph is a non-exile, so why would he have a history of fighting Agent Smith?
• When the Oracle says she thinks they will see Neo again, she looks at Seraph and smiles. The Oracle is probably inferring that Neo will be reincarnated as a guardian angel just as Seraph was.
• Neo appears to have "angel wings" at the end (graphic above), and Seraph is referred to as "wingless", apparently losing his ability to fly.

There is something that happens in the M2 Architect scene that seems like a thorn in this theory at first. When the Architect tells Neo that the current Matrix is the sixth version, the TV Neos respond, "Five 'Ones' before me? 4 3 2 What are you talking about?" These are apparently reactions of past Neos, who all look and sound like Neo. None of them look or sound like Seraph, so how could Seraph be a former One?

This would mean one of three things: 1) The Architect is fabricating the past Neos on the TV, 2) Seraph is not one of Neo's predecessors, or 3) Seraph didn't look and sound like he currently does. Option #1 makes no sense at all since the Architect has absolutely no reason to fabricate past Neos. And option #2 doesn't reconcile with the four points above.

Option #3 fits very nicely with this whole theory, and it isn't just because Seraphim (and Seraph) can change their appearance. It is because while Seraph would have been a human before, he is now just a program. Programs within the system can be given whatever appearance the system chooses. In MxO, we learn that a woman named Sarah Edmontons (anagram for Thomas Anderson) wakes up from a coma in a hospital and is able to evade security guards at the hospital, and Sarah is later given the protection of Seraph himself. If Thomas Anderson's AI is contained within a female, then it becomes much more likely that Seraph could have originally looked and sounded exactly like Neo - especially given that the system actually creates the One.

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