Vinod Chanda is a major antagonist in the AMC+ animated series Pantheon. He was an employee of Alliance-Telecom who was converted into an uploaded intelligence against his will, and aims to help others like him through increasingly radical methods.
He was voiced by Raza Jaffrey.
Biography[]
As an Embodied Human[]
Chanda was a technician working for the Indian Alliance-Telecom corporation when he unveiled the uploaded intelligence technology to another company. His boss, Ajit Prasad, CEO of Alliance, was angered by this, and punished Vinod by kidnapping him and forcibly turning him into a UI. From there, his digital mind was forced to continue working for the company, set up in a virtual facsimile of his office and memory wiped every day to keep him unaware of his true situation. However, "the clan", a group of Mumbai vagrants also unwillingly uploaded by Prasad, find Chanda and help him escape the company's servers.
Regaining memory of what happened to him, Chanda takes revenge by hacking into the security system of Prasad's residence, killing Prasad and his family by burning the home down. After this, he calls his mother to tell her that he cannot return for a long time, though he is unable to explain his situation due to its nature.
Learning and Creating UIs[]
Chanda distributes blueprints for upload technology to various countries, then enters a three-dimensional tower mock-up borrowed from Prasad to create a world for Uploaded Intelligences (UIs). He sees a picture of Prasad with his family and replaces it with one of him and his mother. Chanda asks the other entities for photos of their families, but they remain silent. He expresses remorse for killing Prasad's family and shares his desire to build a new world for UIs. One of the entities glitches and collapses, and Chanda holds a funeral. During the ceremony, his mother calls, mentioning that someone named Laurie contacted her. Chanda finds the IP address that Laurie left behind and tells his mother to leave Mumbai, fearing she might be in danger.
Chanda confronts Laurie in David Kim's server, scolding her for contacting his mother. Laurie claims she doesn't remember doing so. David realizes Chanda possesses a key just as Cody warns Laurie not to engage. Chanda overclocks himself to speak privately to the other UIs, believing that they must work for the Pentagon, but David reveals they are not, and Chanda is surprised to learn they were uploaded earlier. When David and Laurie threaten him, Chanda pleads with them to listen and logs his entire self onto the server. He takes David and Laurie to his home and reveals the video of his upload, shocking them that Chanda had been awake. When David mentions Prasad and his family's murders, Chanda admits he struggles with controlling his anger, which persisted and worsened after his upload. Laurie deduces that the entities are uploads experiencing the flaw's final stages and that Prasad uploaded them. Chanda is stunned to learn about the flaw, and they show him files on Caspian Keyes to help him understand it.
After reading the files, Chanda demands Caspian tell him how long it will take to fix the flaw, but Caspian is unable to answer, noting David and Laurie showed Chanda his files. Chanda tries to leave and warn others but is stopped. When asked who the "others" are, Chanda reveals he sent blueprints for upload technology to the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Israel, Iran, and China, knowing they would secretly upload their best operatives. Chanda intends to change the UIs' minds, believing they can realize they are more than human, and that he can lead them and show them the possibilities of their new existence. David criticizes Chanda, warning that many could die as a result.
Meeting Other UIs[]
When Laurie records a message to reveal UIs to the world, Chanda criticizes her for endangering their existence, while David attempts to calm things down. Laurie points out that the actions of other UIs are affecting the physical world, and Chanda insists they must warn them about the flaw. Laurie says their warnings were ignored, but Chanda argues the governments dismissed them. They debate their next steps, and David offers to try something, with Laurie giving him twenty-four hours. As Laurie leaves, Chanda and David discuss the tracking issue, which allows Chanda to identify UIs but not locate them. Chanda claims Laurie is emotional due to the flaw and leaves when David brings up Prasad's murder.
Chanda and Laurie return to David's server to boost his speed in tracking the other UIs. Chanda rebuilds the program, and they discover Chinese UIs attacking Logorhythms. David, Laurie, and Chanda confront the Chinese UIs — Han Ping, Zhong Shuchun, and Bai Fu — but are attacked. In the Kim's basement, Maddie notices the server overheating as they expend a lot of processing power. Logorythms notices the signal spike, but Peter Waxman lies and dismisses it as a load balancer issue. David and his allies try to warn the Chinese UIs about the flaw, but they ignore them. Eventually, David's group restrains the Chinese UIs and presents evidence; only Ping believes them. Laurie glitches, and the Chinese UIs break free. David, Laurie, and Chanda escape, with Chanda criticizing Laurie. She admits she is near the end and decides to go public with a warning. Chanda attacks, but David defends her, threatening to send out the message if Chanda destroys Laurie. Chanda leaves, but soon after, he contacts Maddie, warning her that her father will suffer the same fate as Laurie if he interferes. Meanwhile, Chanda launches a missile at Laurie's server, destroying it and killing her just as she finishes recording.
Threatening Sacramento[]
A week after killing Laurie, Chanda hacks a nuclear submarine. He locates the Chinese UIs in "Reign of Winter" and contacts them, saving them from game administrators' scouts. Chanda informs them that the administrators are aware of their presence and claims he is fighting for all UIs. Ping and Fu believe Chanda about the flaw, but Zhong remains skeptical. Chanda offers his help in exchange for allowing him to seal nuclear codes. He then calls David, revealing he has hacked an Indian Navy warhead aimed at Sacramento, and that he knows that David copied Laurie's message. He reminds David that he will not allow UIs to be revealed to the world, and gives David ten minutes to delete himself or else he will unleash nuclear destruction on Sacramento.
David arrives two minutes before the deadline and questions Chanda about his willingness to destroy a city. Chanda admits he would do whatever it takes to protect the UIs. A battle ensues, with David gaining the upper hand until Chanda traps him in a simulation of his memories. As David is distracted, Chanda sends out false intelligence to the Indian nuclear submarine claiming that Delhi has been nuked by China, prompting a retaliatory strike, which Chanda redirects towards Sacramento. Maddie logs in to her father's server, freeing him from his illusion just in time to prevent Chanda from launching the missile. As the US military detects the nuke, David fights Chanda, only to be pinned down by Chinese UIs. David then reveals he duplicated himself and is redirecting the missile to the Pacific Ocean. Ping and the other Chinese UIs join in fighting David, and Maddie is quickly restrained. As David is overpowered, Maddie encourages him to send Laurie's message. He does, dying as it is broadcast, while Chanda and the Chinese UIs flee as the internet is shut down.
Joining Forces with Stephen Holstrom[]
After David outsmarts him and sacrifices his own life to send the message, Chanda manages to escape with his allies. During the global internet shutdown, they are trapped together within the CPU of a satellite, gradually weaking due to the flaw. Eventually, they are discovered by the UI of Stephen Holstrom, who was resurrected and cured of the flaw by Logorythms, while he is attempting to track down the remaining UIs. When Chanda and the Chinese UIs are shocked to see him, Holstrom gives them a download of information to prove his identity. Holstrom informs the UIs that he wishes to create a world for uploaded intelligences, an ideal that aligns with Chanda's own goals. Zhong still does not trust Holstrom and attacks him, but he easily defeats and destroys her, to the shock of Chanda and Ping. Holstrom uses Zhong's fragmented code to construct a primitive version of the Integrity cure, offering it to Chanda and Ping if they will follow him and join his plan. Chanda is the first to accept Holstrom's cure, and while it does give the UIs more strength, it also causes their code to mutate, deforming their digital avatars.
Rebellion Against Holstrom[]
Chanda and Ping continue to follow Holstrom and aid his plans, but their doubts in him begin to grow over time. Chanda initially does not want to oppose Holstrom out of a mix of loyalty and fear of him, but when Ping reveals to Chands that he believes Holstrom both cannot make the true cure and would not give it to them, Chanda begins to agree with him. Chanda also watches a televised interview with Ellen Kim, and as he listens to her speak about UIs with compassion and understanding, he begins to realize that humanity is capable of change and may not all be hostile to UIs. Later, when Holstrom reveals a plan to force humanity to upload by unleashing a deadly virus, both Chanda and Ping are privately appalled by this. When Ping confronts him, Holstrom turns on him, traps him, and leaves him to be devoured by Safesurf, to Chanda's horror.
Following Ping's death, Chanda secretly orchestrates a rebellion against Holstrom. He reaches out to Ellen Kim, trusting her to do the right thing, and warns her about Holstrom's virus. He also sends an encrypted message to all remaining UIs, begging them to join forces with him to fight Holstrom, and is able to recruit Yair Gispan and Farhad Karimi to his cause. In the end, he sacrifices his life while trying to defeat Holstrom, helping to secure a brighter future for both humans and UIs.
Gallery[]
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Julius Pope | Renee Keyes | Stephen Holstrom | Vinod Chanda | Ajit Prasad | Logorhythms | SafeSurf |