I’ve seen the entire 1st season. There are a lot of open-ended aspects of the series; it ends on a huge cliffhanger at the end of the season but the good news is Season 2 starts August 3rd on Cartoon Network (though I’ll be on vacation that week…DAMMIT!)
Here’s my take on the plot- Around the year 2030, there was a massive world war. Humans developed the technology to produce the Megadeuce, a massive robot capable of great destruction. The AI of the Megadeuce was tied into the pilots own brain; the Megadeuce shared a bond with its pilot the way a dog bonds with its owner.
I believe the technology behind this ‘bonding’ lead to either the creation of a kind of superweapon or some sort of horrible accident which caused the survivors of the war to lose their memories. I’m banking on deliberate-its convenient for the people behind it to make the world ‘forget’ what happened so that folks like Rosewater can exploit the fact that many people don’t WANT to remember what happened.
Big O was the first of a series of front-line Megadeuces. Big Duo, and a third Megadeuce (Big Trio? Its never mentioned the name; you see it at the VERY end of the series). Roger pilots a Big O. Big O is ‘bonded’ to Roger Smith. The "Cast in the name of God- Ye not guilty’ is a security measure I believe.
The ‘bonding’ is what allows the rogue Megadeuces to operate without a pilot. Since the catastrophe, many of the pilots either died or lost their memory, but the AI of the Megadeuces survived. Like a lost pet, the Megadeuces occasionally wake up, and the chaos they ensue is often the result of them futilely looking for their master (Sea Titan is a good example). Its rumored that memories are stored in the Megadeuces; there are people in Paradigm such as Rosewater who seem to want to profit off the memories.
Dorothy is an android whose appearance is based off a man’s daughter/grandaughter (cant remember exactly) who died. She also carries the dead girl’s memories. She is, however, still an android but like Data in ST:TNG, she is trying to become more human. There seems to be a subltle romantic interest among Roger and Dorothy, which is a bit oogy since one: she looks about fourteen years old, and two, she’s an android. Roger rescued her in one of the earlier episodes and she proved useful in many instances (she is amazingly strong; in one episode she got reprogrammed and almost crushed Roget to death by hugging him)
The Military Police Captain Dan used to work with Roger Smith. See, in the past, Roger worked with the Military Police but then quit for unknown reasons to become a Negotiator.
The batman-esque villains have an interesting role. See, everyone DID lose their memories 40 years prior, and they are somehow hidden away, but some people get their memories back. People with dangerous kinds of knowlege, like terrorism, or mad science, simply revert to how they were before the catastrophe. Some villans retained memories of other people, like their superiors or family members.
Paradigm city is in fact not the only surviving city on the planet. However Paradigm wants people to THINK that they are. They have a powerful agenda of keeping the population amnesia maintained, probably having to do with the circumstances in which everyone lost their memories in the first place. But Rosewater (the head of Paradigm) makes it clear in one episode that there are in fact other civilizations, I’m guessing the catastrophe cut communications and other cities were just convinced they were the only ones left. The domes represent a rift between the upper and lower class citizens. Upper class people live in domes; it could be postulated the role of the domes is to keep the lower class people/crime/problems out.
As if FLCL wasn’t confusing enough . . .