Well, it just happened that the week I went on vacation was the week Cartoon Network premeired Season 2 of Big O. Which was disappointing, as now I am kind of going to be seeing some stuff that might not make sense. So anyone who has seen it, can you fill me on on what happened up until now? It would be greatly appreciated.
As best I remember it, anyway, I may have mixed up the order of one or two things -
spoilers below
Roger and R. Dorothy are in Big O, hip deep (for a MegaDeus, anyway) in the ocean, fighting the three foreign MegaDeuses. The battle is not going well for Big O, in fact it goes so badly that one of Big O’s arms gets ripped off. Roger is having a crisis of faith, a crisis of self, asking who he is, who he really is, why is he fighting, what is he fighting for? R. Dorothy watches on impassively (under the circumstances, odd even for Dorothy) as Roger asks these questions out loud in between flashes. Instead of the controls, Roger suddenly has his hand on a tomato, then there are tomatoes everywhere.
Roger suddenly finds himself in the city - what appears to be Paradigm city before ‘the event’. There are no domes, there are birds and animals, people walking around happily. Roger looks disheveled, his hair mussed, his suit a mess, and two day’s facial growth. He sees his home and goes in. There’s two guards at the door, they look at him oddly, and people going about their business. Roger demands to know what people are doing in his home and demands that they leave. He’s informed that it is not his house, it is a bank (which, of course, we knew his home had been prior to ‘the event’). The bank manager comes out, it’s Roger and Dorothy’s old friend, Beck. Roger recognizes him and calls him by name, but Beck clearly doesn’t know who Roger is and seems to assume he’s a homeless bum. Roger gets more and more demanding, more irrational, finally turning to his watch to call Big O but the face of the watch is an empty ring.
Roger is in a theatre watching a play - literally, cardboard props, stilted dialogue, and all - of his life - specifically, his meeting Norman. Norman explains that Roger is the one he has been looking for, the one he believes he served before ‘the event’. Roger denies this, it makes no sense (which it doesn’t, Roger is too young), and Norman tells Roger that he has a destiny (or some such).
Roger is outside again, he sees Dorothy (presumably the original) and her father (grandfather?) going into a club. He calls out to her and she looks at him oddly before going in. Roger runs into Angel, who refers to him as “Major”, clearly implying that he’s in the military. He gets in a car with him, she’s taking him ‘back’ somewhere, and Roger makes a ton of sarcastic comments in response to just about everything she says.
Roger is talking about Big O and we see a B&W comic book, panels of which show the adventures of Roger and Big O. Roger is holding the comic book whilst sitting on a park bench. Was it all a dream?
Roger is walking down the sidewalk and suddenly Dorothy, in the red dress and apparently the original, is standing in front of him. As they talk you can see their reflections in the window, in the reflection Roger is his old self and Dorothy is in the R. Dorothy black dress. Roger seems to decide that he is who he is, and that’s what counts (my interpretation, anyway). In one motion he rips off his disheveled clothes and he’s back to his old self.
We’re back in Big O’s control booth, R. Dorothy’s hand is on Roger’s on the controls. Despite the missing arm, and with the (at least attempted) help of the Paradigm city military police firing from the shore, Big O manages to knock down and damage all three of the enemy MegaDeuses. The MegaDeuses manage to get back up, Roger decides to end it once and for all. Major Datsun somehow realizes what’s coming and vacates his people from the area just as Roger slams his fist down on a button. A bunch of chains with big rocket powered bat-a-rang like thingies fire out from Big O in every direction, ripping through everything in the way - including the three enemy MegaDeuses.
We see the (apparently evil) head of Paradigm Corp., clearly not overly thrilled with this turn of events. He turns to someone, we don’t see their face but I’m guessing Beck, in this weird Joker-like get-up, and tells him to retrieve the foreign gifts (I was never clear on how they knew the MegaDeuses were of foreign origin, but clearly they want them).
We watch Big O walk past Angel, who has been watching all this from the shore.
End.
Oh, and there are references to ‘another Big’, though it was unclear to me if all three of the others were also ‘Bigs’ or just one of them. We’ve had hints before that ‘Bigs’ are a particular kind of MegaDeus and the head of Paradigm Corp. wants a Big - presumably not for good purposes.
Anyway, that’s it as best I recall.
Myria
Thank you! I really regret missing that episode, the giant robot battles are done very well, abeit extremely brief. I saw a preview of the battle and it looked great, with Big O double piston-punching two megadeuces.
I recall that Roger faced Schwarzvald in season one, who was in Big Duo (looked like an ‘air’ version). In the previews I saw a megadeuce which seemed to be a big, maybe a water one? and in the previews Beck was seen, which makes me suspect he has a role to play.
I am EXTREMELY curious as to how all this pans out, what it all means…the thing I both love and loathe about Big O is that like the ‘Matrix’ trilogy, I’m left with more questions than answers after each installment- each explanation opens up twice as many mysteries, keeping me starving for more 
My husband tends to find Big O very frustrating because they only give things away in drips and drabs. Me, that’s what fascinates me about it. I’m still debating what the “Cast in the name of god - Ye not guilty” bit is about (beyond the obvious biblical reference). I suspect Big O is judging Roger in a sense (only the worthy can operate it) and it’s clear from what we’ve seen (especially the next to last first season episode, where the other MegaDeus tries to crawl away) that the MegaDeuses have some sort of intelligence of their own. As long as they’re going somewhere with it - and it seems clear to me they are - I find that sort of thing fascinating. That they keep tossing new stuff in - the implanted memories, for instance - just adds to the fun :).
I expect Big Duo will almost certainly be back at some point, and Beck as well. As I said, I suspect the costumed character was Beck, but that’s just a guess and even if I’m wrong Beck still has some serious scores to settle with both Rodger and R. Dorothy. Then there’s Angel - whose side exactly is she on, anyway? Every time I think I’ve gotten that figured out, something happens to make me rethink it. And R. Dorothy, who clearly isn’t like other androids, what’s with her? What’s with the head of Paradigm Corp.? He seems to know a lot more about the past than anyone should. What was ‘the event’? Where did the MegaDeuses come from and what were they for? Why are they all completely different? How does Roger know how to pilot Big O, or Norman how to repair it? What’s the connection between Big O and Roger?
They’ve got more loose threads than a badly woven rug, hopefully they’ll get to tie everything up eventually. It has to be one of the oddest and most fascinating giant mecha shows ever. In fact you could pull the mechs out of it entirely and not have to change the show that much at all.
Anyway, they’ll almost certainly replay the show at some point. One of my best friends missed it as well and she’s been pissy about it all week, I’ve been comforting her with reminders that Cartoon Network paid for these to be made and they’re not going to show them just once.
Myria
Oh, by the way, though the seem to pronounce it “megadeuce”, it is actually “megadeus”. Literally, ‘giant god’, which may tie into the whole “Cast in the name of god” thingy.
It’s not clear to me if the mispronounciation is purposeful and will play into things later, or a change Cartoon Network made. I’ve read that in the first version of the first season Cartoon Network showed “Cast in the name of god…” was changed to “Cast in the name of good…”. Why in the world they decided to do that, I’ve no idea, but for the “uncut” version they showed this summer it was back to the original.
Myria
Well, I know that Cartoon Network typically doesn’t allow any religious words in certain context, but Adult Swim is a bit more lenient. If you caught Adult Swim version of Big O season 1 you’ll notice a lot of stuff that wasn’t censored out (the couple that get shot up by the helicopter, for example).
My guess on the mysteries so far:
The catastrophe that caused people to lose their memories is tied to some huge war, I’m sure the mass amnesia probably had to do with PREVENTING something so horrible from ever happening again. Rosewater (head of Paradigm) is probably a member of that past society, one of the only with totally intact memories. Everyone else is kind of grasping in the dark with their lives, people unwittingly receive the memories of others and all sorts of havoc ensues. The Megadeus has some sort of AI, possibly its own ‘soul’ which is tied to its pilot.Perhaps the memories of the former pilots are bound to these ancient behemoths, that’s why the ‘memories’ always seem to be associated with a rogue megadeus.
I wasn’t aware that was a general Cartoon Network policy, any idea why they take that tact? I didn’t see the original versions of Big O they played, just the Adult Swim “uncut” (their term, which I didn’t understand until I read about some of the changes they’d made originally) versions. Big O certainly has had any number of religious references and allusions, but they’re generally subtle, not of a great deal of importance (at least not yet), and there’s certainly nothing preachy about it in the least. I can’t imagine why anyone would have a problem with it, nor why anyone would feel the need to try and excise them. I had wondered why they felt they had to play it so late at night with a parental warning - the latter being the really confusing part. It is very adult in concept, but it isn’t particularly violent (especially compared to Yu Yu Hakusho, JLA, or, especially, Dragonball Z, all of which run during the day), nor is it particularly crude (certainly not within a mile of Family Guy or even Futurama, though both of those originally ran in primetime), nor does it contain any real sexual references (I don’t think R. Dorothy’s apparent crush on Roger really counts).
In any event, if they purposefully changed ‘MegaDeus’ to ‘MegaDeuce’ just to avoid the potential religious reference I’m going to be very peeved. I’m hoping that instead it’ll play into the plot somehow later down the road.
There’s been a number of hints that there was some kind of war involving the MegaDeuses, but at one point when Roger is discussing this he says “It was all a lie…”. This is when he’s still within the throes of his crisis of faith, though, so it’s unclear whether that means anything or not. Certainly it seems likely the MegaDeuses are tied into ‘the event’ somehow.
The MegaDeuses certainly have some sort of AI, I’m guessing they may even be sentient. In the last first-season episode when Roger is in trouble he calls for Big O but the signal is being jammed by the ‘other’ R. Dorothy (that’s who we’re supposed to believe she is, anyway) who is trying to kill him. Big O shows up anyway with the ‘real’ R. Dorothy in the cockpit. When Roger asks her how she knew to come rescue him, she says she didn’t. Big O went there on its own (Norman also says something similar). When Roger is watching the play of his meeting Norman, Norman says something about Big O ‘knowing Roger’, that they’re linked somehow, and hints that they may even take on the traits of each other (my interpretation, anyway). Both Roger and Major Datsun seem shocked when the damaged MegaDeus tries to crawl away (one of them says “But that’s not possible!”), but we’ve had plenty of hints before that a MegaDeus could potentially do things on its own (some of the rogues don’t seem to have pilots that we ever see, in some instances they may be actually looking for their pilot like a lost dog looking for its master). There’s definitely more to that than has been revealed so far, the idea that a MegaDeus and its pilot are tied together by a ‘soul’ makes some sense.
The whole memories thing is handled very oddly, part of the fun. Roger says several times that it’s only the rich and elderly - presumably those who were alive before ‘the event’ - who have any interest in memories. Everyone else seems almost afraid of them - supporting your theory. Roger’s collection of hourglasses makes me wonder what his real feelings on the matter are, though. There’s a tendency for characters to talk about memories as physical things, at one point Angel asks Big O/Roger not to destroy a rogue MegaDeus because it may have valuable memories in its head, Roger destroys it anyway. Rosewater (thanks, I can never remember his name) knows there are ‘foreigners’ and that the notion that Paradigm city is the only place people survived is a lie, he also knows what Christmas is when no one else seems to, and clearly knows a lot more than he should if he also has no memories older than forty years. Angel says something about a ‘re-awakening’ and it being ‘too early’, but whether she means specifically Roger or everyone is unclear. I wouldn’t be surprised if Paradigm isn’t still the city of lost memories before this season is out.
Myria
Rosewater’s wish to keep everyone convinced that Paradigm is the only surviving city makes me wonder if perhaps they’re the only ones who forgot about the catastrophe. I’m also curious as to where Paradigm is geographically. The building/city style is very interesting, it looks like something out of the 20’s or 30’s. Even Big O, with all its modern weaponry, has a rather ‘victorian’ feel to it.
I am extremely curious about Angels role in all of this. Perhaps she is somehow tied to those outside Paradigm; a cult, business, or secret society bent on restoring things.
Big O’s story is like an apathetic version of ‘The Matrix’. People don’t exactly get subjected to a bleak fate of humanity, and so most don’t care about what happened. It seems clear that people WILL remember at one point, perhaps they’re not ready yet, perhaps Rosewater is preventing it from happeneing.
Someone (the elder Rosewater? Don’t remember for sure) says something about it not being only the people of Paradigm city who lost their memories, but the foreigners as well. There’s also something about the foreigners living down below (the tunnels?) looking for technology.
The retro-look of everything, right down to Big O, the cockpit controls, even the phones with dials and the old looking cars, is a definite theme. But the same was true in the Batman animated series, which was done by the same production house (thus the inevitable comparisons between Roger and Bruce… Not to mention Norman or R. Dorothy’s last name). In Roger’s hallucinations/images of the past/whatever exactly happened to him, clothing styles and such were very 50s. Then again, that’s true in the present Paradigm city - R. Dorothy’s original red dress, Roger’s double breasted suit, ect. - it’s just not as jarring. Definitely a serious retro-look all around. As for Paradigm city itself, it seems pretty clear that it’s meant to be New York, or a variant on New York.
As for Angel, my current theory is that she’s playing both sides for the middle. She apparently at least sometimes works for Rosewater, but doesn’t seem to be completely on his side and sometimes seems to be helping Roger against Rosewater’s interests. I think she’s probably one of the other orphans with implanted memories, though apparently she has a better understanding of them than Roger as she, like Rosewater, seems to know way more than she should.
One thing I missed in the new episode but picked up reading around the web is that apparently the reason the three MegaDeuses Roger fought seemed so odd was that they were either bringing in pieces of another Big or are themselves part of another Big - Big Fau (which makes three - Big O, Big Duo, and Big Fau). It still isn’t clear to me what makes a Big different from any other MegaDeus, though - Big O doesn’t generally seem that much physically bigger than the MegaDeus it fights, though Big O does generally seem to win relatively easily so maybe the ‘Big’ is a reference to the amount of power it has.
I did find a script of that episode, if you’re interested. Someone must have typed it out from watching a tape, they did a pretty good job of it -
There are definitely some parallels between Big O and The Matrix, though in Big O everyone knows something happened but few seem to particularly care what exactly. They seem afraid to even explore it, which just seems odd to me. I wonder how much of that, along with the general belief that it is only in Paradigm city that people survived whatever happened, is because of manipulation by Rosewater and his minions. Hopefully with this season a lot of that will be answered :).
Myria