[Spoilers] The Riddle of the Big-O

Started by StarGeno, May 16, 2005, 01:44:30 AM

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StarGeno

I was watching the final episode to season 2 of the Big O and I still don't understand what was going on.  Does anyone know what was going on with Paradigm City?  Who was controling the city?  What is Roger Smith?  Why did the people of the city lose their memories 40 years ago?

I heard somewhere that season 2 was supposed to answer all sorts of questions, but I am still confused.

Zain

I added a spoiler tag in the topic, cause you know this one is going to spiral out of control...

I originally watched Big-O on Cartoon Network when it first aired... I think they didn't show the last episode or something, so when I tuned in on the "season finale" day and saw the very first episode, I was thoroughly confused. Oh well :|
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OniCourseMusha

I seen the whole thing.

I got confused as well unless u pay really close!
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VictimX

No is roger a test tube baby, clone? Is Angel a form of computer clean up and what were those huge lights doing on top of the city...? I'm comfused even after 4 times seeing the season I still am no closer to uder standing anything.

StarGeno

In all honesty I like the first season better than the second one.  At the begining of the show, things seemed much more simply and easy to understand.  But as soon as they threw in the lights in the sky and went more into the tomatoes, WHAM, everything spun out of control.

ZJCitrusGraffiti

[SPOILERS]
I too have only watched it on CN and in no other form.
My take: someone had WAY too much time on their hands and made an experiment to see what mankind would do if they lost their memories. If part of them lived "outside" of the domes and others "inside" them. As if "instinct" took them over and there was a natural consensus that those inside the domes were somehow richer or wealthier, and those outside resented that "fact." It's all somone's social experiment.

Imagine a mini-scale model of a city... (you made it?) and put it inside a dome with two-way mirrors.... Now, inside this HUGE dome, you put in smaller domes...  THIS is where Big O begins (Imagine the movie "The Truman Show")

I got this idea after analyzing the last four episodes. The final episode STILL baffles me. @_@

VictimX

But at the very end why dose the series start over again?

ZJCitrusGraffiti

I always thought(after discussing the series with a brother of mine) that whoever STARTED the experiment, somehow "deleted" everyones' memories in one swoop at the begining of the series and by the end did it again.

VictimX


StarGeno

[spoiler] I also think that the city was meant to be some kind of experiment.  But who is the person who started it?  And what was with that guy who always gave Roger smith advise in the cafe?  In the last episode they show that he is a robot, who I assume never leaves the cafe.

ZJCitrusGraffiti

[SPOILER] The last epi alludes to/hints at Angel being the "experimentor", but if she is, the why would she also erase her own memory and subject/put herself to/in that lifestyle? Those "wing" marks... what are they? Are Roger and Angel the only people who aren't "tomatoes"? (Doesn't Roger age well for being over 40years old?) As for that robot informer from the restaurant, A.I. has probably reached such a height (in the series' future) that he was "programmed" to tell Roger exactly what he wanted to know without saying too much..... He was just that: programmed!

Stormfalcon

Think "Truman Show" on an infinite loop.  Essentially, Paradigm City is a giant city-sized set for a TV reality-type show called "Metropolis", starring Roger and directed by Angel.  No one in Paradigm City knows that they're part of a show and lives out life as normal (with the addition of giant robots as well as androids).  Unfortunately, Angel falls in love with Roger and puts herself in the show.  Things go further awry as things start happening that weren't in the script, so Angel (in the form of Big Venus) goes and wipes the slate clean, starting the cycle over again and wiping out the memories of everyone as the show gets another shot.  With each additional try, even with the changes to the script, things still go wrong and Angel hits the reset again.  And again.  And again.  Every forty years.  Things get complicated in that not all the memories get wiped out, and some people still retains pieces of memories from past runs of the show, and those various memories conflict with each other since each run of the show wound up ending differently.  Hence in one run of "Metropolis", Roger is a military officer, and another run features an army of Big Os and entire flights of Big Duos.

During one of those endless runs of "Metropolis", Gordon Rosewater hires Roger to negotiate with the director to normalize the whole situation and put an end to the endless loop nature of Paradigm City.  Of all the denizens of Paradigm City, only he and Michael Seebach/Schwartzwald had any idea of the truth behind their city and its mysteries (and that truth drove Seebach mad).  The story we see through most of Big O is the one where Roger finally achieves his objective of negotiating with Angel the director and arranging for one last run of "Metropolis", setting things right.

I hope this clears things up somewhat.  It's what I remember from reading a website analysis that is currently down.
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AbsolutelyCursed

Unbelievable!!! That almost makes too much sense.  That show has warped my itty bitty mind.

VictimX

That saddly makes sence in my little mind but why did the Big O's move by them selves, then what was with Gordon and the mentionings of tomatos?

ZJCitrusGraffiti

If that's true.... in that every 40 years, the "show" starts over [I mean it makes SOO MUCH SENSE to me too!!], then... well... the mind may work that way, but not the aging process...  What? Is Roger and Angel both aged more than 40yrs x #? of times the "show" stars over?? ....Unless, it's an alternate, way-in-the-future future that people don't show their "age" anymore.   That could be it.

Stormfalcon

Quote from: "VictimX"That saddly makes sence in my little mind but why did the Big O's move by them selves, then what was with Gordon and the mentionings of tomatos?

Considering that there are androids in Paradigm City with fully functional AIs, it shouldn't be surprising that the Bigs also have some level of AI as well.  They certainly have enough to choose and/or reject their pilots.  The more time spent between pilot and Big, the more they imprint on each other and form a partnership, allowing the Big to act as needed at times.

As for the whole Tomatoes thing, that's a reference to cloning.  Yup, almost everyone in Paradigm City is a clone of some sort, and Gordon was in charge of that.  The only two characters (androids aside) that were declared not to be clones were Roger and Angel (and presumably Gordon as well, with him being in charge of the whole cloning project).  That does raise an interesting mystery, as to how Roger and Angel were able to avoid aging while everyone else got reset along with Paradigm City.
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Stormfalcon

Quote from: "ZJCitrusGraffiti"If that's true.... in that every 40 years, the "show" starts over [I mean it makes SOO MUCH SENSE to me too!!], then... well... the mind may work that way, but not the aging process...  What? Is Roger and Angel both aged more than 40yrs x #? of times the "show" stars over?? ....Unless, it's an alternate, way-in-the-future future that people don't show their "age" anymore.   That could be it.

That, I'm probably going to chalk up to the superscience prevalent in the show.  Considering that the science behind Paradigm City was enough to engineer a city-sized studio as well as androids, giant robots, and giant biological monsters, as well as cloning (for everyone else besides Roger, Angel, and presumably Gordon), I wouldn't put it beyond their tech level to be able to reverse aging to some extent as well.  Alternately, perhaps the scene showing an assembly line of Roger androids in the last episode may bear much more of an answer...
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VictimX

... to much sence for a series that seems to make non... scary...

ZJCitrusGraffiti

I just thought of something else!! What if(and it's probably true) just like how everyone IS a memory and memories can be programmed any which way, what if all were programmed to "believe" 40yrs had passed? That could explain why Roger, Angel, and Gordon(?) don't age that much(if at all). That way the full 40yrs don't really have to pass... just seem like it did.

ZJCitrusGraffiti

Another thought just occured to me!! I saw the last episode again... well, the second half of the last episode and I think I could explain it... Roger and Angel are indeed humans, but the "aged" Gordon Rosewater we see in the series is what he would have looked like had he lived. (something killed him) Since Gordon is Angel's father and she missed him so much, she had his being/presence programmed into the Paradigm City show, but aged to represent what he(Gordon) would have looked at that time. That would explain that picture of a young Gordon and a not-changed Roger in mid-handshake. ...Either it is/was Gordon or another male Rosewater that was shaking hands with Roger.  (i'm almost confusing myself) ^^;;;

Quote from: "Stormfalcon"I hope this clears things up somewhat. It's what I remember from reading a website analysis that is currently down.
What's the URL anyways? ^_^ I wanna check it out.