For what it's worth, the consensus is that the "personality" that has been the main character for the entire show IS in fact the Mastermind (the vigilante hacker persona) -- and over the years since locking the "real Elliot" in the back of their mind, because they were in the pilot seat most of the time, the Mastermind kind of started thinking of himself as the "real Elliot". That's what not-Krista realizes, and helps him realize, near the end -- that's he's not the "real Elliot", he's never been, we've never seen him on-screen, the real Krista never spoke to him, it was the Mastermind all along. And when not-Krista mentions "others", it's a bit of an implication that the viewers themselves are also just a figment of the Mastermind's imagination, "voyeurs" feeling satisfaction from the Mastermind's vigilante hacker successes, which gives an in-universe explanation for the Mastermind's narration adressing "the audience" directly, and occasional fourth wall breaks.
The Mastermind took over the pilot seat so completely that he forgot he wasn't "the real Elliot" and started thinking of himself as the real Elliot. But another of the "personalities" is Mr. Robot, the protector personality, an idealized version of Elliot's father; when Elliot interacts with Mr. Robot he is portrayed by Christian Slater; Mr. Robot is scheming and manipulative however, and sometimes "takes over" the pilot seat and acts behind Elliot's back and without his knowledge (especially in early seasons before the audience is clued-in to the nature of Mr. Robot as an alter of Elliot). There's a lot of that, Elliot's different personalities deceiving/controlling each other, trying to achieve the different and sometimes contradictory goals of Elliot (protect Elliot / reshape the world into an utopia for the "real Elliot" / vigilante hackerism against Ecorp fueled by Elliot's rage / punish-control Elliot fueled by guilt).
But that would require either 1) a separate personality who runs fsociety, or 2) the Mastermind (or whoever) alternating between remembering and forgetting his control of fsociety each time something needed to be done there, which seems like it amounts to the same thing.
For what it's worth, the consensus is that the "personality" that has been the main character for the entire show IS in fact the Mastermind (the vigilante hacker persona) -- and over the years since locking the "real Elliot" in the back of their mind, because they were in the pilot seat most of the time, the Mastermind kind of started thinking of himself as the "real Elliot". That's what not-Krista realizes, and helps him realize, near the end -- that's he's not the "real Elliot", he's never been, we've never seen him on-screen, the real Krista never spoke to him, it was the Mastermind all along. And when not-Krista mentions "others", it's a bit of an implication that the viewers themselves are also just a figment of the Mastermind's imagination, "voyeurs" feeling satisfaction from the Mastermind's vigilante hacker successes, which gives an in-universe explanation for the Mastermind's narration adressing "the audience" directly, and occasional fourth wall breaks.
So why wasn't the Mastermind aware that he was essentially giving himself orders?
The Mastermind took over the pilot seat so completely that he forgot he wasn't "the real Elliot" and started thinking of himself as the real Elliot. But another of the "personalities" is Mr. Robot, the protector personality, an idealized version of Elliot's father; when Elliot interacts with Mr. Robot he is portrayed by Christian Slater; Mr. Robot is scheming and manipulative however, and sometimes "takes over" the pilot seat and acts behind Elliot's back and without his knowledge (especially in early seasons before the audience is clued-in to the nature of Mr. Robot as an alter of Elliot). There's a lot of that, Elliot's different personalities deceiving/controlling each other, trying to achieve the different and sometimes contradictory goals of Elliot (protect Elliot / reshape the world into an utopia for the "real Elliot" / vigilante hackerism against Ecorp fueled by Elliot's rage / punish-control Elliot fueled by guilt).
But that would require either 1) a separate personality who runs fsociety, or 2) the Mastermind (or whoever) alternating between remembering and forgetting his control of fsociety each time something needed to be done there, which seems like it amounts to the same thing.
Or am I misunderstanding?