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1[[WMG: Big O is a (heavily modified) retelling of Literature/TheWonderfulWizardOfOz]]
2At least the second season probably is.
3
4Dorothy is the Tin Man, Roger is the Scarecrow, Dastun is the Cowardly Lion, Gordon is the Wizard of Oz, Alex is the Wicked Witch of the West, Beck is the King of the Winged Monkeys, Angel is Dorothy (much like in Anime/SerialExperimentsLain, Alice is not [[Literature/AliceInWonderland Alice]]), and Angel's "mother" (the leader of the Union) is the Good Witch of the North. Memories are the Silver or Ruby Slippers. So in the end, Angel is able to use her power to become remembered again ("I just want to go home"), setting the world back as it should be.
5
6Please note that the world would probably not be the ''exact'' same, but changed subtly to a better world. (Think Anime/SerialExperimentsLain, which the author wrote ''just'' before Anime/TheBigO).
7
8* The Drama CD is called ''[[LampShadeHanging Walking Together On The Yellow Brick Road]]''
9
10[[WMG: Big O is a TV series.]]
11Duh.
12
13[[WMG: Big O is a ShowWithinTheShow.]]
14Angel is one of the producers of a metafictional ''Big O'' TV series. She fell in love with the character of Roger Smith (or else the actor was her real-life boyfriend), and so she had herself [[AuthorAvatar inserted into the show.]] The world-famous filmmaker they hired to be the director (who plays Gordon Rosewater -- the role was originally intended to just be a cameo gets frustrated with her meddling and starts to make the show more of a Main/MindScrew [[SpringtimeForHitler in hopes of getting it canceled.]]
15
16Angel eventually starts to write the scripts to the show; by the end, she is the director, too. The Union woman torturing Gordon is Angel the Director punishing Gordon the Director for messing with her fantasies.
17
18In the end, she realizes that Dorothy is a better match for Roger than she could be, no matter how idealized her character; after writing herself out of the show, she uses Big Venus (herself) to erase the whole mess of a show. Roger the Actor negotiates to stop her idiocy, and his character does the same for Big Venus; she agrees. The next-to-last scene is Angel the writer metaphorically meeting the character (this is why Dorothy says "Roger the Negotiator", to make sure she knows it's not the actors but the characters); then she decides to {{remake}} it, but this time she won't mess around.
19
20The last scene is the remade episode 1, with Angel as a character; but she won't be a Main/MarySue this time, which is indicated by how she's slightly off-model and thus imperfect.
21
22
23We Have Come To Terms.
24* Big O is the play being produced in the film "Synecdoche, New York"
25
26[[WMG:Big O is a computer simulation of a world where Japan has committed world-wide genocide]]
27
28Alex Rosewater, government agent, was commissioned and paid to operate a simulation of a world where all foreigners were killed and memories of them erased to create an ideal homogenized world. Angel is his research assistant who wasn't told the exact nature of the assignment. However, once she realizes the subtle horror of what she's doing, she introduces stranger and stranger random elements into the program to make it less valid. She eventually tries to shut the entire system down, but only manages to force a reboot.
29* But if that's the case, then why is Paradigm City decidedly ''not'' Japanese in style or attitude? What's with everyone having Caucasian names and mannerisms? (With anime, it's always a bit hard to tell nationality and ethnicity.) If Alex is the government agent in charge, then how does Gordon Rosewater fit in?
30** Alex Rosewater secretly loves America and its media Tropes (the American Way of Life), and so he based his simulation on them. He adopts an Americanized name for his in-sim avatar. "Gordon" could be artifacts of the simulation itself, an outside agent getting into the game, or some element of Alex's subconscious that crept in unwanted.
31
32[[WMG: Anime/TheBigO is a simulation drawn from Alex's subconscious]]
33This would explain a lot. Roger is like Franchise/{{Batman}} because he's ''based on'' Batman. The city has {{Ridiculously Human Robot}}s and HumongousMecha because {{Anime}} does. Paradigm City is half FilmNoir and half SuperRobot because Alex enjoys those genres. ''Et cetera.'' Hmmm, this could lead to a sub-[=WMG=]:
34
35[[WMG: Roger Smith is [[Literature/TheElricSaga the Eternal Champion]] ]]
36Roger Smith is a seeker of Order in a world of Chaos; he has friends who are followers; he has a doomed romance; he has a magical black superweapon. And everything is doomed no matter how many times or how much the hero wins. It's pure Creator/MichaelMoorcock.
37
38[[WMG: '''Alex Rosewater is a BrainInAJar, and the show is a hallucinatory result of long sensory deprivation'''.]]
39
40
41[[WMG: Even if they make a new series, it won't explain anything]]
42But it went from cliffhanger to [[GainaxEnding worse]]; a new series could go up to eleven in [[MindScrew confusing]] and be worth watching for that reason.
43
44[[WMG: Paradigm City is a computer simulation in an endless loop, and Memories are transcription errors.]]
45
46Either the Director's computer can literally rewrite reality inside the city, or the entire series takes place inside a computer and the characters are just [=AIs=] in a ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot''-style simulated world. Either way, Angel is the only one the system takes orders from.
47
48God-only-knows-how-long ago, she left her post, started living among the peons as an apparently normal person, and fell in love with Roger. When he died, she reset the world in a fit of grief and inadvertently erased everyone's memories in the process, including her own. [[GroundhogDayLoop The cycle repeated,]] with Roger dying and Angel regaining her powers and resetting the world at the end of the loop an unknown (but probably immense) number of times.
49
50Occasionally, there's a glitch in the computer, and people's memories of the last cycle aren't completely erased during the reset, leaving them with capital-M Memories - things they learned in previous lives, like Beck's knowledge that Roger pilots Big O or Wayneright's being able to design robots.
51
52[[WMG: The plot for Big O was generated by a computer program]]
53Not the real show, but the show-in-the-show. Okay, imagine this: [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/storygen.php]] ...Only far more advanced. The program was made to design plots for television shows. It is likely hooked up to a database of plot elements, like this tropes wiki. However, it had some imperfections and generated a severely warped story. At the end of the series, the computer is taken offline, upgraded, and then rebooted to re-write a better version of the series.
54
55[[WMG: The Big O and its world are the result of [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Third Impact]]]]
56
57Roger Smith is Shinji Ikari redefined as a mature and capable womanizer, gifted SuperRobot pilot, and devoid of any serious mental problems. The Big O itself is a restructured Eva Unit-01. Norman is Fuyutski, Dorthy is Rei, Angel is Asuka, and Big Duo is Eva Unit-02. Eva Unit-00 became Big Fau, but the spirit in Unit-00 is still not at peace with the world and wishes to keep people away, explaining its energy barrier. Asuka's mutilation by the Mass-Produced Evas in the movies were prepping her for a possible Fourth Impact, giving her the power to carry it through.
58
59Gordon Rosewater is a fusion of Gendo and Yui Ikari, this is why he's so apathetic to everything going. He has what he wants so he doesn't care anymore. Alex is also Gendo, but only the part of him that wants to destroy the world. This part split off in Insturmentality when Gordon formed. The antagonism between father and son is then a sign of the conflict within Gendo himself about his own father and son. He takes it all out on Roger-Shinji, which subconsciously eases his anxiety.
60Beck is actually Kensuke, warped by jealousy of Shinji, and driven to using Domanus to destroy Shinji and thereby prove his superiority. His fixation with Dorothy comes from her having red hair like Asuka did, before she became Angel.
61[[WMG: WesternAnimation/TwelveOunceMouse is a later season of Big O]]
62
63Every reset of Paradigm City degrades it a little, making it less realistic. Over dozens of resets, tomatoes became corndogs, Big O became Corndroid, and humans became whatever the heck the Twelve Ounce Mouse characters are. It all ends in another reset, but with hints that this time Roger/Fitz has learned how to break the cycle or at least alter it.
64
65[[WMG: It's literally all about [[TomatoSurprise tomatoes]].]]
66
67Angel is the owner of a tomato farm, and all the humans in Paradigm City are actual tomato plants. Resetting the world is the harvest, and the passage of forty years in Paradigm City (Paradigm Farm?) correlates to the planting and fruition of tomato plants on the farm.
68
69[[WMG: '''You're''' one of the tomatoes.]]
70Seriously, what do ''you'' remember about 40 years ago?
71* "The tomatoes... '''I'm''' one of...the '''''tomatoes'''''... !!!"
72* That was the sixties. If you remember them, you obviously weren't there.
73
74[[WMG: Paradigm City is [[VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}} Vault 122]].]]
75Vault 122 was meant for the sustained comfort of important scientists, researchers, and V.I.P.s; a system of interconnected Vaults, it had luxury standards and many reconstruction materials/G.E.C.K.s. Over time, the inhabitants of Vault 122 - more than 1,000 - were able to emerge and begin rebuilding. Domes were erected over each entrance/exit to protect the inhabitants within. Due to pre-War materials/knowledge, the survivors approximated pre-War life, though remained centered around the Vault due to the rest of the world being Wasteland; the main entrance to Vault 122 is under Paradigm Dome, with the underground connectives as the Big O's 'transport tunnels.' The stylized appearance of the City and its inhabitants is due to the Vault's survivors being generations removed from the originals, basing their new society on what they believed to be "Pre-War Life"... entertainment tapes. To pass down their knowledge, adapted Tranquility Loungers passed memories through generations, effectively making them hereditary; the Loungers were lost, and the original memories mixed with tapes viewed by the Vault's original inhabitants to create the bizarre flashbacks seen by the characters of Big O. The memories remain in some, scattered and fragmented, further submerged with each new generation; the memory-loss in which no-one can recall anything beyond forty years ago is simply due to radiation poisoning reacting with drugs present in the food and water that keep the inhabitants healthy. Gordon Rosewater is among those whose hereditary memories are greater than most, and the references to tomatoes are the agriculture that grew crops in polluted soil; Gordon's ancestors moved outside the dome and Gordon's mind is corroded, prompting him to play mind games with the others. The Union are outsiders who achieved similarly high levels of civilization and wish to acquire pre-War technology housed within Paradigm City - Perhaps they're the Commonwealth, or foreigners who made it to what was once North America.
76* Alternately, Paradigm City ''is'' Vault [=122=], an active experiment. The gears viewable as the Big O sinks are part of a massive mechanical platform that controls the 'suns' around the domes, the electricity, everything. That's why a city 'with no memories' can continue to function. The Vault was meant to gauge just how far the human mind could sink from reality; memories are dulled ''via'' mind-scrambling white noise broadcast over the P.A. systems at a sub-audio level. The MegaDeus are remnants of the program that built Liberty Prime, scaled down and under the control of the Overseer; hence why they act on their own and don't respond to their driver. The Union is made up of technicians who know about the experiment and exist among the populace to manipulate the outcome; hence, why those we see have bad accents and over-the-top attitudes. They're ''literally'' playing a part. Gordon Rosewater is Overseer, in need of a replacement; his son Alex contracted radiation poison, resulting in an addled mind. Alex's actions interfere with the experiment, so the technicians/the Union are sent to stop him, with Angel one of them. However, she starts buying into the illusion propagated in the city (her descent from aloof ''femme fatale'' to uncertain self-doubter), and at the end, Angel takes control of the experiment and re-starts it by performing a mass re-conditioning of the Vault's subjects. Angel becomes the new Overseer, but her appearance at the end of the series indicates that she intends to continue playing in her new sandbox.
77
78[[WMG: Schwarzwald knew he was a robot]]
79When Seebach tried to release the Archetype, he lost much of his flesh, revealing his robotic insides. Most other robot-actors would have died; due to an error, Seebach lived. From this, he learned every person in Paradigm was a robot-actor on a grand stage. He changed his name to reflect that he was no longer a character in a story. He wrapped himself in bandages to hide his robotic exterior, save for his left eye (his right eye may also indicate his android nature as it has the same circular pattern as when Dorothy is shut down). Big Duo just helped him confirm his suspicions when he flew to the "top" of the world.
80** Not necessarily proof against, but in Episode 4, we see the lens over his left eye is cracked and a similar spiraled pupil is visible behind it. It may be something like a monocle- or it could a glass case to protect the lense.
81
82[[WMG: Dorothy isn't programmed to be ThreeLawsCompliant.]]
83More explicitly in the manga, but focused on in one episode, all of the official androids are meant to be unable to harm humans. Occasionally you get a rogue machine or a programmed assassin, but these are outliers.
84
85Dorothy, however, was built by her creator to be as human as possible, since she's a ReplacementGoldfish. Everyone assumes she's programmed with limitations- maybe even Dorothy herself- but she is as free as any human to do as she pleases- but since she's a hero, she doesn't want to kill anybody. This combination of Memory tech and free will is what draws megadeuses to her, since they can sense her unusual nature.
86
87[[WMG: Paradigm City is [[Franchise/{{Batman}} Gotham]].]]
88Just try and tell me Roger isn't Bruce Wayne and Norman isn't Alfred. Schwartzwald may be the Joker.
89* Bah! Everyone knows that ''Alan Gabriel'' is the Joker-analogue! With maybe a twist of Two-Face thrown in for fun. (No real evidence for this wacky theory, though. It'd be better to suggest... Wait a sec...)
90** Alan Gabriel is a cybernetic Joker, yes; Schwartzwaldt is a cybernetic Thomas Elliot, aka Hush. Let's look at this a second: Covered in bandages, check; completely batshit crazy and wants to watch a city burn, check; has a weird mirror-image thing going with a rich-guy-by-day-vigilante-by-night character, check... yep, that's Hush!
91** If you've watched ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'', Big O can be seen as a retelling and expansion of the episodes "Heart of Steel" parts one and two and the followup, "His Silicon Soul." In "Heart of Steel," Batman fights and destroys an AI bent on phasing out humanity by replacing critical members of society with androids. In the process, Batman fights, unmasks, and destroys a robotic version of Harvey Bullock, whose character design is similar to Schwartzwald's, and who also serves as a lesser antagonist to Batman. The linkage to the Big O becomes much more convincing in "His Silicon Soul," wherein a surviving android programmed to replace Batman discovers its own artificial nature due to a damaging accident. The android searches for and discovers the AI's creator, now a reclusive, rather misanthropic farmer who has substituted growing tomatoes for his previous attempts at engineering life. Inside a domed greenhouse, it is told that its lifespan is short, and that its memories are simply data fed to it by the deceased AI; as proof, the creator asks it questions about its childhood, which naturally can't be answered. Its meeting is interrupted by the arrival of the real Batman. After a brief fight, the robot brings the roof down, saves the creator, and flees. It searches for, discovers, and incorporates a remnant of the AI; afterwards, it is repaired and modified to work as an agent to re-initiate the AI's human-replacement plan. At the last moment, after striking down Alfred and the real Batman (who get better), the robot rediscovers its human empathy via the implanted memories of Bruce Wayne, and destroys itself and the last traces of the AI in order to end it. In short, this troper holds that Roger was the android, complete with spotty memory, that Gordon Rosewater was indeed the AI researcher, Karl Rossum, that Alex Rosewater was the megalomaniacal AI, and that Paradigm City was the android's conception of reality, shattered by an act of principled will. This troper might more hesitantly speculate that the entire thing could be a retelling in which the AI succeeded in its original aims, but was at length subverted by the tendencies granted to one of its own creations. This might help explain the presence of entities such as Dorothy and Schwartzwaldt; several Big O characters bear at least passing resemblances to some of the AI's original host of android minions, including a bob-haired fem-bot that attempted to seduce Bruce Wayne. Angel, in this theory, would be a pink-suited Selena Kyle/Catwoman. Gabriel AND Beck have striking resemblances to the Joker, and Norman Burg's resemblance to Alfred is almost blatant. The prematurely-deceased Shwartzwaldt is possibly some incarnation of the Harvey Bullock android Batman destroyed, obsessed with revealing its version of the truth. It's a bit of a stretch, but even old Timothy Wainwright bears a moderate resemblance to a value-inverted version of Selena Kyle's treasured cat, Isis (which I suppose would cast Dorothy as Catwoman...no theory is perfect; also, this theory admits to having two Jokers on the cast, a rather frightening thought. Maybe the human Joker was just batty enough to recognize and survive the effective end of the world, in which case my money is on Beck as the human, what with the whole tech-exploitation theme). As for one last speculation, this Troper suggests that Roger's car is the Batmobile, and that the mecha actually represent the costumes regularly donned by the various Batman characters.
92
93[[WMG: The Franchise/{{Batman}} series is a comic/show/radio drama in Paradigm City!]]
94As a young child, traumatized by the mind-altering and implanted-training he had to undergo, Roger Smith found solace in the story of a lad like himself, one Bruce Wayne, who adopted a stylish black-wearing persona to do good. While growing up erased many of his memories, he unconsciously began to re-create his childhood stories by patterning himself after Bruce Wayne: The black outfits, the multi-talented butler, the semi-antagonistic relationship with the local police-chief, the cool car. The appearance of Dorothy begins moving him out of this mental safe-room and towards developing his own persona, as seen in his banter with Dorothy; however the change isn't easy to make, as it would mean sacrificing his childhood comfort. It's further complicated with the appearance of Angel, serving as the [[DatingCatwoman Selina Kyle/femme fatale.]]
95
96
97[[WMG: The show is a visual of an experimental AI program ala ''Film/{{S1m0ne}}'' designed to create multiple tv shows and types.]]
98They are doing a dry run after running a Mecha style show and were trying a more noir one. Unfortunately the erasures weren't perfect from the old show, as a result Arthur knows how to pilot a megadeuce without any real technical training. And our villain who screamed about what this world was had been smart enough to realize what they were and it drove him batty. The end episode was an attempt to restart the series again with a more complete erasure, rather than reusing old props they'd just try to rebuild the whole thing from scratch but keep the first few scripts. --@/{{Blackjoker}}
99
100
101[[WMG: Episode Fourteen was the real world.]]
102In it, Roger hallucinates a world where he's a homeless man and ex-cop gone over the edge, Paradigm City is a normal 1950s-era world with sunlight and no domes, and everyone from the 'show' are different people. It turns out to be a construct of Roger's mind; when he accepts his place as a Negotiator, it all goes away.
103
104This theory proposes that Roger's hallucination is the reality behind what we know as The Big O. Roger ''is'' that ex-cop who went over the edge and built an elaborate dream-world where he can solve all the problems of his city in a single episode. The Big O really ''is'' just a newspaper comic. Dorothy Wainwright ''is'' the socialite daughter of the wealthiest man in town. Angel ''is'' just a co-worker whom Roger had a relationship with and has since distanced himself from -- hence her ambivalent portrayal in the show. When Roger 'hallucinated', he was coming to his senses; the return to the 'real world' of the show was Roger refusing to accept the reality of his reality and sinking back into his delusion.
105
106[[WMG: The VideoGame/{{Myst}} theory.]]
107
108It's not that the show is a literal {{crossover}} with Myst; it's that Paradigm City is analogous to an Age created like those in VideoGame/{{Myst}}.
109
110The real world was destroyed in a cataclysmic war. Paradigm City is a facsimile of the real world, physically a different place located in {{Hammerspace}}, where as many survivors as could be saved were relocated. This is why the show spends its ''entire run'' showing signs that range from vaguely symbolic to blatant about how everything is a play on a stage, and also has every symbol that represents the ''audience'' show them as absent (the faceless characters from Roger's delusion in the season two premiere, Schwartzwald saying that waiting for them weren't the gods watching their every move but only ''abandoned equipment''). In the play analogy, if Paradigm City is the play, then the audience watching the play, the manufactured world, must be the people in the ''real'' world. But there's ''no one left'' in the real world, no audience for the play.
111
112By this theory, we ''do'' get some glimpses into the real world during the series. The first glimpses are the seemingly random scenes of the Bigs ''burning everything to the ground.'' Then, during the final episode, we see more literal flashbacks, like mass-produced Big Os wrecked on a battlefield (remember Schwartzwald saying a Megadues wasn't anything special before forty years ago?) and Roger dead in Big O's cockpit wearing a military uniform that exists nowhere in Paradigm City. Whoever made Paradigm City was smart and set it up so that the last survivors of humanity had room to make the same mistakes and ''recover'' instantly until they, one day, finally learn to not destroy the world. This is why the world isn't perfect and why anomalies like Roger (who clearly died in the real world but is still here) and the mecha exist.
113
114[[WMG: Big O really is inside VideoGame/{{Myst}}]]
115And if Myst VI is ever made, there will be a book leading to Paradigm City.
116
117[[WMG: The world of Paradigm City was the prototype for the [[VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime Eternal Sphere]].]]
118The game changed a ''lot'' over the course of development. In this earlier version, they hadn't yet worked out how to create AI with pre-existing in-universe memories. The reboot at the end was simply starting the server over from a save while they worked out a better version that wouldn't destroy itself.
119
120[[WMG: Everyone in Paradigm City is a robot.]]
121I'm surprised this theory isn't more well known, but here we go: Everyone in Paradigm City is a robot. Some have been implanted with human memories and think that they are human. Some are obviously not human and have no identity issues. Some, like Roger, Shwarzvald, Angel, and everyone else who think that they are human, are manufactured with the belief that they are human but the memory-copying process is imperfect.
122
123The original purpose of Paradigm City, the Bigs, and the various other robots has been lost in time. Something went wrong in the past, and the original program was corrupted or lost. The whole system breaks down periodically resulting in what appears to be mass amnesia, but is really more of a soft reboot. At the end of the second season, Angel takes over the system and we get to witness a reboot.
124
125If this theory is right:
126
1271) Everything Shwartzvald does makes sense.
128
1292) All of Roger's flashbacks make sense.
130
1313) The ending to both seasons make sense.
132
1334) Roger really did help (re?)build Paradigm City, he just can't remember. Other "fictional"/apparently contradictory events in the past are true.
134
1355) Norman and his team of Big O Maintenance guys makes sense: they're programmed to maintain the Big O. (Furthermore, Norman and others like him probably keep up repairs on the other robots who think they're humans without realizing it because it's part of their programming.)
136
1376) This is why robots can have human memories and vice versa: it's all the same recording format.
138
1397) This is also why, in the manga, people are able to store memories in banks and find them in external objects. They could actually copy memories onto disks, but since they have an incomplete knowledge of what people are, they don't realize that this isn't a normal human ability.
140
141Were there ever any real humans in Paradigm City? I would guess that it was intended for humans but something went wrong and when the humans never arrived the city or whoever was in charge decided to make some with the information available at the time. I would also guess that Roger's memories of the alternate reality are a recorded copy of a real person who lived in the distant past. I would also guess that every "real" human went through the same process Roger did: attempting to recreate real humans using recorded memories.
142
143(Personally, my first guess as to Paradigm's original purpose is that it was supposed to be a giant amusement park with super-advanced animatronic actors. This would explain why characters find concrete physical evidence of events that turn out to be completely fictional. But the whole blurring of fiction and reality could also be accounted for by the system misunderstanding what memories are/were of real events and which memories are/were of fictional stories made up by humans in the past.)
144
145
146Challenge to this, though: why would Roger need the oxygen tank in the GrandFinale, then? If he were a robot, shouldn't he be like Dorothy and not need to breathe?
147* Roger was waterlogged. The air flushed out his systems.
148** Nah, he was programmed to THINK he needs to breathe.
149
150Better Challenges: How do they bleed when they are shot? How did that dog eat its owner? Why do they eat food? Why would there be andorids that know they are robots when everyone is already a robot?
151* Some androids are more advanced than others. Dorothy is an earlier model who is obviously a robot, but most androids are designed to seem as authentic as possible, right down to bleeding fake blood and eating fake food. (And the characters simply say that the dog killed its owner; if any translation says it ate her, then it's either an exaggeration, or the dog-bot really turned into a huge monster that crushed her in its jaws.)
152* This also explains why Roger is never affected by the giant magnets that trap Dorothy: he (and the other advanced androids) are made from more human-like synthetic materials and plastics instead of metal.
153
154Why have some characters (apparently) aged over the decades while the robots look the same (as evidenced by the Bigs and R.D. On the other hand, we saw that Roger's old-man looking informant was actually a robot, so I guess altered face plates are not completely out of the question.
155
156
157The comparisons to R.D. and so forth could be explained away relatively easy. Not all robots are made the same. Let's split them into Robots and Artificial Humans to make it easier to think of. The A.H. would be things created by the original humans. Robots like R.D. are simpler and more primitive, body wise, autonomous machines created by the amnesiac A.H.
158
159[[WMG: Paradigm City is a giant Holodeck like those in Star Trek]]
160
161Everything in Paradigm is a projected solid entertainment hologram, with the exception of Roger Smith. That gets past the inconsistencies with theories like "everyone is a robot" - Roger himself had his memory temporarily erased so the could immerse himself in the simulation. When Paradigm City starts to vanish at the end of the last episode, it is one potential end of the program, but Roger clicks "Yes" on the Continue: Y/N dialog box when it pops up.
162
163Alternately, it could be a projected hologram, but as a prison for Roger Smith, allowing him to live out a fantasy life as a punishment for some crime.
164
165[[WMG: Paradigm City is on the site of what is now Hollywood.]]
166
167It's almost self-explanatory! Where else in the world would it actually ''make sense'' for an entire city to exist as a backlot, for everyone to be actors who don't remember past 40 years ago ''because it's in the script'', for the entire camera-crew to abandon a shoot and allow it to both fall into obscurity and go on without end? They're probably striking for more scones on the crafts table or something as we speak.
168
169And the close-to-the-ocean thing? Is simply the erosion of the California coast, after decades/more of rising sea-levels. Plus, California's known for its bounteous crops of... Wait for it... ''TOMATOES''.
170
171[[WMG: Everyone in Paradigm City is immortal.]]
172
173Perhaps one of the previous theories is true and they're all robots or computer simulations, but in any case, nobody ages the way they're supposed to. Just look at Roger. He looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties, but if he's not significantly older than 40, the timeline makes no sense. And even though we only see flashbacks of him with the Tomatoes as a child, which would suggest that he's 48 or so, it's implied that he started working as a negotiator right after losing his memories, which probably means that he's more like 60. Not even GenericCuteness can explain away that much of a difference between real and apparent age. And it can't be just Roger: if anybody in Paradigm City actually aged, a huge percentage of the adult population would have no memory problems at all, for the simple reason that they're 39 years old or younger.
174* Or perhaps their calendar/planetary orbit is totally different, and a "year" is more like a month.
175** Gordon Rosewater was shown to have significantly aged from before everyone lost their memories -- the fact that Roger appears the same now as he did then was one of the {{Mind Screw}}s of the show, and in the manga (which was created after season 1 of the manga aired) there was an uprising of younger rich kids who decided that the previous generation should get out of their way since the current one doesn't have any holes in their memories (aborted because they intruded on Norman while he was talking to his favorite statue, while simultaneously putting a machine gun near him at the same time, which probably went a long way towards convincing them that the older generation is not to be screwed with). And then there's the fact that young people/robots were getting memories from before forty years ago, including a little girl who could read the memories of people who couldn't remember them themselves, which just further complicates the situation...
176
177[[WMG: The planet Paradigm City is on is actually in the TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Universe]]
178
179The obligatory 40k WMG for Big O is: Paradigm City is New York during the Age of Strife after Terra's society collapsed, but before the Emperor began his rise to power.
180
181 This theory is simple. The place is a wasteland due to a cataclysmic war involving [[HumongousMecha enormous, ornately designed Mechas]] whose great and terrible power makes people mistake them for gods. No one knows how these machines work, or of their origins, along with other old technology. All knowledge of the past has been lost, and everything seems pretty grimdark.
182
183[[WMG: Angel isn't the reality warper of the Big O universe; Roger is.]]
184
185Quite simply, the universe revolves around Roger. He lives in a skyscraper with its own power and water, makes lots of money and yet has plenty of free time, has a cool car, has a cool robot with its own subway transportation, has a badass butler, an old friend in the Military Police who's grumpy but loyal, an informant with all the right information, a corrupt omnicorp to rebel against, has a robot maid who's possibly a love interest, has another love interest who likes pink leather and switches between "hurt and needy" and "outgoing and flirty," and usually has some cool adventure to enjoy and weird villain to smash with Big O, who's always repaired and rearmed, no matter what. In short, he's the coolest guy in Paradigm City, because he wants to be the coolest guy in Paradigm.
186
187Season 1 is when Roger is just chilling. While there's a deeper mystery or three in the background, Roger is content to let them be until he needs something to ponder. He takes life as it comes, and is free to smash up the city without any consequences. Villains like Beck and Schwarzwald give Roger adventures (both lighthearted and frightening, respectively) to look forward to; but they don't smother him. He's in danger constantly, but there's always an exit. He has friends who are both loyal and not slavish; he is both a part of the world and not tied down by it. Roger is happy; he can stretch out and relax, until it's ass-kicking time again. He never questions the awesome hand life has dealt him, because it never really occurs to him that he can warp reality. But the evidence is there: when Roger's stumped, he can go to Big Ear, who ''always'' has the information. Important people can jump far, like when Roger jumps into Big O's hands or when Schwarzwald jumps ''sixty stories and Big Duo catches him after flying in from outside the city'' (seriously, that was hilarious). There are no consequences for smashing up apartment buildings and the domes; the only thing to get hurt is Paradigm's wallet, and they repair the damage anyway. And as always, if something important is happening, Roger's right in the middle with Big O and an enemy robot to fight.
188
189Season 2 is when Roger starts to realize something isn't right.
190
191It's an accident. Roger's once again investigating the mystery behind Paradigm when he talks to Gordon Rosewater and RD and starts to wonder "Why am I here?" There are holes in the story and it makes him angry; he's not enjoying the fight like he normally does. As he starts to realize that his whole life is fake, his subconscious tries to give him what he wants. But it backfires; Roger's now a homeless ex-cop. But note how the new world is shaped; Roger can easily find old landmarks and familiar faces everywhere. Also, he's an ex-cop who was pushed to the breaking point; it has more dignity than say, being a pencil pusher- perfect for Roger's ego. In the end, when Roger decides he doesn't care why Big O fell into his lap (both it and Norman were just waiting for him), he chooses to go back to the fight and his subconscious grants his desire.
192
193But it doesn't work. Roger is still unhappy, which makes him irritable and prone to introspection; before he was sanguine, now he's moody. Roger's concerns about his life affect the world; his fear about his role and destiny create an equal and opposite in Alex Rosewater, who is also rich, has confidence in his role, and has a Big (Alex is also older and less handsome, because Roger doesn't want THAT much competition). Angel also changes: before, she was just a FemmeFatale, now she gets the same emotional baggage Roger has. The first season storylines show up again as Roger questions them, and they are no longer separate episodes but part of a larger narrative.
194
195In the end, as Roger has a mental breakdown, the world he made collapses. Bombs drop from an empty sky. Big Fau was originally broken because Roger still had enough confidence in the world and his place in it to resist any competition; now he's lost all confidence and loses miserably (he can't even hurt Alex). His home is smashed, Dorothy's brain is stolen, and as Roger believes he really is nothing but an actor fulfilling his given role, the world changes to match his belief. In the end, however, Roger decides he hates all this, and wants to go back to his old life in Season 1. Voila: Angel ex Machina!
196
197Why do his reality powers manifest in Angel? Because Roger is a man who enjoys his freedom, and enjoys adventure and challenge. It's why he's never seriously injured. However, if Roger were to realize he's invincible, it'd take away all the fun. That's why Angel suddenly becomes all-powerful, and Roger can talk her into making a new, slightly fixed world- he can't deal with what he really is, so he makes the change through Angel.
198
199[[WMG: France (and maybe the rest of Europe) went to war with America]]
200
201This occured some after WWII, in an alternate reality where nuclear weapons and mecha were developed during the 50s and were used.
202The show is a simulation in which the surviving inhabitants of New York live, having to be reset every 40 years due to the computer's memory limitations.
203
204Roger is perhaps a programmer that decided to tweak the simulation to make things work out for himself.
205Also, he is probably a fan of batman.
206* {{Jossed}} by a banner that says "Exposition 04" in Schwarzwald's first appearance.
207
208[[WMG: Roger is a clone of Dastun]]
209There.
210
211[[WMG: Paradigm was a military situation programme]]
212Paradigm was originally designed as a military programme to simulate various situations of war and famine and to make minor adjustments and rerun the simulation to see the optimum parameters, i.e., it runs a an iteration, sees how long that iteration lasts and if it lasts longer than the previous one the changes are kept and some new ones are tried. Its last task was examining the best way for the survivors of post-war New York to band together into a new city to survive. Somewhere along the way the people in charge of the simulation died and it was left on auto-repeat. Although the world outside of New York (Paradigm) is not simulated the possibility of foreign powers entering the simulation was left in. The series is one iteration of the programme after it has been run for hundreds and hundreds of time and the changes it has made, while they do make everyone survive for forty years, have become pretty crazy. Angel is all part of the system for determining when to reset and what changes to make. The simulation now contains the only remnant of humanity left on earth and will be lost when the computer's power runs out.
213
214[[WMG: The Big O takes place between [[Anime/TurnAGundam the end of the Black History and the Dianna Counter's return to Earth]]]]
215The Turn A destroyed the world years ago with the Moonlight Butterfly. In northeast Ameria, the humans rebuilt by themselves as best they could, digging out Megadei that were buried under layers of nanomachines, like the Mountain Cycles, along the way. At some point, one of them is activated that wipes the memories of everybody, creating Paradigm. Further Mountain Cycles are discovered and excavated over the next forty years, the Megadei we see in the series, including the Leviathan, a prototype Mechanical Doll that was used as a testbed for the Moonlight Butterfly. Eventually, a Mechanical Doll that uses an exotic branch of technology separate from the Turn A is activated, resonating with the DNA sequence of a descendant of its builder, and "erases" all traces of technology around Paradigm. Everything is forgotten, and rebuilt over time into the Turn A Gundam universe.
216
217[[WMG: The people of Paradigm City are not real.]]
218Remember what Gordon Rosewater said to Roger about the tomatoes? Who's to say that Rosewater hadn't done the same to humans by synthetically reproduce them? That's why the people of Paradigm couldn't remember, it's either because of the process is not yet perfected or the fact that they were just created and artificially aged.
219* Gordon basically confirmed that the Resistance were 'failed tomatoes,' artificial humans who were supposed to be able to contain/retain pre-Event memories, and when they proved faulty, they were abandoned. It's not too far-fetched to say that all but a handful of Paradigm's citizens are similar failed clones.
220
221[[WMG: Paradigm City was reset between Seasons One and Two.]]
222It's the little things, mostly. Dastun was a major in Season One and a colonel in Season Two. Roger was referred to as a former lieutenant in Season One, and a former Major in Season Two. Big O has new weapons we've never seen before, but Roger is familiar with. Angel is more competent. Roger's attitude is different, being less snarky and more aggressive- see how he treats Dastun in "Eyewitness"? Compare that to how he acts in "Beck comes Back" or "RD", when Dastun is actually trying to arrest Roger.
223
224It can all be explained away as offscreen promotions and such, but in a place like Paradigm, where memories are uncertain, it seems more suspicious.
225
226[[WMG: Big O and the other Megadeuces are really {{Eldritch Abomination}}s]]
227They only look like giant robots because that's the only way we can perceive them. Or, like Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion, the metal parts hide something... else.
228
229[[WMG: The Big O took place after the events of Giant Robo:The Day the Earth Stood Still]]
230
231[[WMG: The Big O documents what happened on the former American continent for the NYC Dome in ''Anime/ErgoProxy'']]
232The Amnesia is all due to the humans being created by a proxy, Dorothy is infected with the Cogito Virus but is yet to initiate the Cogito plan. The Megadeuces/Megadeuci were originally built by Proxies to aid their humans. What we see of the world is either the result of it being a massive dome city.
233* Alternatively, Anime/TheBigO is set in the period after ''Ergo Proxy'', the Amnesia is caused by humans waking from a cryogenic state in orbit and the Megadeuces were left behind by a few Proxies who fled the surface when the sky was restored, they continue to build and supply the mecha because they can't directly disobey humans, but by ensuring the proliferation of giant robots they can push humanity back to extinction for revenge. Dorothy exhibits the final stage of the Cogito Virus, while other androids have been built in such a way that they are immune to cogito as it no longer serves a purpose. All the strange bizarre stuff about whether something is real or not is probably old tech left in the city that was built by proxies that is malfunctioning or being tampered with by humans, as its established very clearly that proxies have access to nearly everything except space-flight, time-travel and meteorological terraforming. Gordon Rosewater was left in charge the same way as Donov Meyer was, but he got tired of it all and had Alex made from him as a clone to take over his duties letting him relax, but also control things from behind the scenes. Schwartzwald is an auto-reiv that was built to look human and after being infected with cogito now thinks he's human. The constant reappearances after his death are his residuals of his infected personality AI surviving in other systems. Roger's issue with respect to his memories could be that he is 2nd-3rd generation replication similar to Re-L, Real and Monad.
234
235[[WMG: The Big O occurs during the events of ''Anime/ErgoProxy'': Roger Smith is the Proxy of Memory]]
236The Amnesia is all due to the humans being created by a Proxy, which they experimented on and cloned, and several main characters are also Proxies.
237* Dorothy is infected with the Cogito Virus and is in love with Roger (as we clearly see) but has not gone insane or become violent because of it.
238* Roger Smith's TomatoInTheMirror is correct, and he is the only surviving clone of the original Proxy of Paradigm City. The reason for the memory loss forty years ago was because that was when the Proxy died, and people could not even think coherently enough to form memories until the Proxy abilities of the current "Roger Smith" had awakened. Also, that would make sense why there were all variety of semi-humanoid monsters (Schwartzwald, anyone), and the unique quality that allows you to command a Megadeus is being a Proxy.
239** Alternatively, just as Vincent Law was Ergo Proxy unknown to himself, Roger Smith is the original Mnemosyne Proxy, and the event forty years ago was caused by Angel
240** Angel, a blond woman who had wings that were cut off, was one of the defective clones of Monad Proxy, who was given to Paradigm City geneticist by Daedalus from Romdeau to help them out with the Proxy genetic engineering.
241** Angel is Swan, the dream-invader Proxy. The reason why she is physically present in the US rather than near Rome (where Romdeau is located), is that dreams transcend place.
242** Paradigm City-manufactured Proxies can withstand sunlight since they do not actually have a separate Proxy form, and it is the Proxy form, not the human form, that is vulnerable to sunlight. Roger Smith, as the Proxy of Memory (Mnemosyne Proxy) absorbs memories from others around them in order to maintain their disguise. The events of forty years ago where when the original "Roger Smith" was outed as a Proxy, and had no choice but to absorb the memories of all of the population to prevent them from knowing that he was a Proxy.
243* The lights that came down at the end were actually from the human ship in orbit landing. The area in which Big O takes place had not yet been recolonized by humans since fighting Megadei have wreaked it beyond usefulness.
244** Megadei themselves are weapons of the war that wreaked the planet, when Cognito-infected machines caused world-wide devastation. The Proxies had been developed before decolonization to control rogue Megadei, and the Megadei had been reprogrammed to take commands from Proxies. The "Yea Guilty" sign is the sign of low-level awareness from the Cognito-Virus making the machine judge its wielder unworthy.
245
246[[WMG: Dorothy was built/ordered by Website/FourChan]]
247With Dorothy always trolling Smith...
248
249[[WMG: Big O is a sequel to ''Series/{{Thunderbirds}}'']]
250* The events of 40 years ago were caused by a disaster even International Rescue couldn't stop. The advanced technology and engineering of International Rescue was what allowed the Megadeuses to be constructed. Roger's Griffon was constructed based on innovations seen in FAB 1. Then there's the similar RetroUniverse/RayGunGothic vibe (admittedly, Big O is more 30's/40's while Thunderbirds is obviously more '60s, but an apocalypse will do that...).
251
252[[WMG: If the show had gone on, Dorothy would've wound up piloting the Big Fau.]]
253Beck mentioned that Dorothy's memory core could be used to control the Big Fau based on his experience with Dorothy I - but that doesn't actually make a whole lot of sense. Dorothy could be used to control Dorothy I because she already had a connection with Dorothy I'it was just a matter of exploiting that. Why would the Big Fau - a Big, which have been shown to be at least semi-sentient - accept an unworthy pilot like Alex Rosewater for any length of time just because he rigged an android's memory core into the control systems?
254
255Unless, that is, the Big Fau wasn't accepting Alex Rosewater as its pilot.
256
257Dorothy's mind was integrated into the Big Fau's systems; Alex had the physical controls, but "Dorothy" had been made an integral part of the machine. What if the "pilot" the Big Fau identified - and was interfacing with the mind of - wasn't Alex Rose Water, but instead the disembodied consciousness of R. Dorothy Waynewright? The Big Fau had already pronounced Alex unworthy, but it could have easily deemed Dorothy a worthy Dominus. For what it's worth, the Big O had no issue allowing Dorothy to use it in Roger's stead as circumstances required. Roger was its master, but that Big hardly rejected Dorothy. So, perhaps whatever qualities the Bigs look for - those that Roger Smith and Schwarzwald had which Alex Rosewater and Alan Gabriel didn't - were present in Dorothy. It certainly makes more sense than "tricking" a machine like the Big Fau - which chooses a worthy pilot - into running with the equivalent of a hotwire.
258
259But if Dorothy ''was'' chosen as the Dominus of the Big Fau, then it seems unlikely that'd have ended with Angel putting her brain back in her head. It's made clear that the Bigs accept one master and serve that master; the Big Duo is loyal to Schwarzwald even after his death. With a Big just lying around that had accepted Dorothy as its master, it seems inevitable that she'd have fallen into the cockpit, at least once or twice.
260
261[[WMG: Paradigm City is Gotham post-Third Impact.]]
262Building on the above theories that Big O Is the future of Batman or is after the End of Evangelion. Following Second Impact, Wayne Corp was one of several entities developing Angel fighting mecha in competition with NERV. When it became clear that the Megadeus project couldn't compete with the Eva units the Wayne corporation mothballed the project, but not before Bruce Wayne appropriated one and stored it in the Batcave for possible future use. Following Third Impact Gotham's residents dissolved into LCL same as the rest of the world, which Paradigm City residents came to call "the event." Lacking his memory like everyone else, Bruce Wayne was drawn by his innate desire for justice to the newly forming Military Police where he served until rediscovering Wayne Manor and its secrets.
263
264[[WMG: The plot of The Big O has something to do with [[ChurchOfHappyology Scientology]].]]
265
266Scientology's secret backstory involves the spirits of billions of aliens being brainwashed by being exposed to movies in giant 3D cinemas. ([[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Really.]]) Sounds familiar, doesn't it?
267
268[[WMG: The Big O is the result of a little girl with a big imagination.]]
269And what's more, the stories she makes up while playing are creative and crazy enough to gain a following, like in ''AxeCop''. Enough of a following that there are toys. Including mass-produced Roger action figures. She wants to be a cool secret agent.
270
271Her grandfather is the one who turns the stories she comes up with during her play sessions into cartoons and films. He also grows tomatoes. When a live film adaptation was made, she was chosen to portray the childhood of the character she based on herself.
272
273As time went on, she started getting more and more meta, culminating in the ending, which includes real footage of the assembly line for Roger's action figures and documentary footage for previous films. Also, Roger rejects her because she knows that he's not real.
274
275[[WMG: Every possible interpretation of the setting is true at the same time.]]
276
277[[WMG: The whole series takes place within the Tang Sea of [[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Third Impact]].]]
278Roger represents a Shinji who grew a spine. Presumably, Angel is Rei/Lilith. Dorothy is likely either Asuka or, more likely, Kaworu (not human, denying the attraction); in the latter case, Dastun is probably Asuka. NERV becomes the Union, while SEELE's memories are incoporated into Alex Rosewater. Yui Ikari's soul isn't present, but a few fragments of her memory are bound in the brain of Gordon Rosewater. The events of Act 26 are metaphorical.
279
280[[WMG: Big O isn't just a heavy combat unit.]]
281Basically, the Sudden Impact pistons in Big O's arms don't seem like something the military would put a smaller version of on a tank or something for use in combat. Instead, they seem more like what you'd use to smash holes in large structures, like bunkers and walls. As such, maybe Big O was a heavy combat engineering platform, possibly designed from the ground up to support a hypothetical "Big Solo", or to smash anti-aircraft artillery emplacements keeping Big Duo units out of the area.
282
283[[WMG: Big O is a part of the DC Multiverse.]]
284Big O is quite clearly an alternate universe to Batman specifically, branching off Batman: The Animated Series. Roger being an alternate Bruce Wayne and others being counterparts to the rest of the cast.
285
286[[WMG: Had there been a 3rd season, a counterpart to Clark Kent/Superman would have been introduced as an enemy or rival.]]
287It would only make sense that further Batman and DC analogues would appear. Clark/Superman being the parallel to Bruce/Batman. Perhaps as another Megadeus pilot?
288[[WMG: roger and dorthy are the only 2 people who are real every one else are just characters in a play the 2 are acting out]]
289
290[[WMG: The Universe of Big O is at once real and a complete fabrication.]]
291More specifically, to mortals it's as real as can be, but a higher power builds it up and tears it down as it sees fit.
292
293At the beginning of the Big O universe, humans- probably Gordon Rosewater and Paradigm- cracked the code to reality. They figured out how to manipulate space-time as they saw fit- and being ordinary humans with limited vision, destroyed the world as we know it. At least human civilization, possibly far greater damage than they could perceive. But- something of humanity survived. The reality machine that Rosewater's company built became something of a god, and it used its power to try and repair the world it broke by being born.
294
295This machine god isn't evil or hostile, but it's struggling to comprehend human existence. Not so much a human with an antfarm as Cthulhu with a people farm, it's trying to rebuild the world, but as powerful as it is it can only do so much. It can provide food and energy sources, but it doesn't know how to make humans get along and might not even realize there's a problem. That endless desert outside Paradigm is real, as are those ruins, but they're just the machine god imitating previous structures. In a future world, they may be replaced by forest or even other human civilizations.
296
297The megadeuses are a varied breed. The Bigs themselves are similar to angels, divine servants of the machine god's will. They're not evil, but they aren't innately good, and they need human partners to properly fulfill their divine mission. And if the human is convincing enough, like Schwarzwald, the Big will go rogue. The other megadeuses are either man-made and thus weaker, or monsters born time and again from the chaos, a mix of all that came before, with their own agendas. The Bigs primary mission is to protect humans and their world from these creatures. Paradigm City itself is a kludge, a mix of New York as it was and bits of reality the machine god is tinkering with. Those stage lights and titanic machinery may serve a purpose, or they could be copies of human machines the god is imitating, or it could be as simple and silly as the machine god needing something to fill in that hole over there.
298
299The humans and androids are real enough, but they're recreated from the machine god's memories. Occasionally, they have capital-M Memories, pieces of the world as it was or Memories of a previous reiteration of the world. People like Beck, Norman and Dorothy all have these, and their Memories allow them to alter the world on a greater scale. They may have been designed like this, or the machine god may be recreating past mortals who impressed it somehow.
300
301Gordon Rosewater has his Memories. He may be the only original human left, and he's trapped in a hell of his own creation. Gordon tried to become God, but is stuck as the patriarch of a crumbling city with an aging mortal body. He was one of the most powerful humans alive, but with a human's power- limited to money and ordering other humans around- and a human's weaknesses, like dementia and TheFogOfAges. That book Metropolis was written by Gordon in a previous iteration of Paradigm, not the Gordon of the modern Paradigm. Alex is an attempt by a younger and more active Gordon to clone himself and recover all of the lost knowledge he'd forgotten from previous Paradigms, with mixed success. The other Tomatoes are similar projects, but a few of them may be relics of a previous Paradigm as well. Whatever Gordon had planned, by the time of the show he's too old and weak to carry it out.
302
303Whether human or android or something else, Roger is THE negotiator. He was the one who convinced the machine god to try and fix the world, and he impressed both it and Big O, who acts as his partner. Angel is a human recently created by the machine god to get a human's perspective on Paradigm City, since so far the god is struggling with its task. She has full freedom to choose her role on earth and is unaware of her higher purpose. She's partnered with Big Venus, the machine god's executioner- or Big reset button, if you prefer.
304
305A third season would have revealed all of this. Roger's final enemy would have been himself- a Roger from a previous iteration, cynical and angry, who has decided the only "free" action is to end the world even if it kills everyone else. Roger would struggle with his own desire for independence and his responsibility to the city, before meeting with the machine god to negotiate again for a better world.
306
307[[WMG: In a third season, Angel would have been the new leader of Paradigm.]]

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