12 main themes/symbols of BIG-O

Finding "the truth" is impossible with what we've been given. But to try to delve deeper and make the most of the clues we've been given in BIG-O, I thought of a concept today. Rather than trying to clump every clue and hint together, why not look at each of the major themes--the things they keep showing over and over again, beating us over the head with. If we can understand the main theme/symbol's purpose in the story, then we might see the connections better, and understand the clues we have been given better. (let me know if I missed some keys.)--then, please share your thoughts!

Theme 1: MEMORIES

Theme 2: HUMAN-ROBOT-MEGADEI Relations

Theme 3: THE EVENT

Theme 4: THE TRUTH

Theme 5: THE UNDERGROUND

Theme 6: FEAR

Theme 7: TOMATOES

Theme 8: METROPOLIS Book

Theme 9: STAGE and ROLES

Theme 10: RELIGION

Theme 11: SOCIAL INJUSTICE/WORLD DIVIDED

Theme 12: THE WIZARD OF OZ

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Theme 1: MEMORIES

The theme that glues all the episodes together. It is a City of Amnesia. What are memories? Which are real, which are fake? What do the memories of 40 years ago have to do with the events of today? Why is memories often capitalized in the Japanese. Does that mean memories are living? Are they people? What is a person without memories? What is life without memories?
These questions about memories cover the series...but could they be a smokescreen? Is the concept of "memories" the key to the story, or simply a red herring that distracts the viewer from the truth?

Theme 2: HUMAN-ROBOT-MEGADEI Relations

It is made clear from the beginning in Roger's mansion that Dorothy "chooses" Roger. Instro is called the son of Amadeus but in the photo it looks like he was once a human. Big Ear is a robot. Rosco Fitzgerald is a robot with a human wife-raising questions about love. Dorothy poses a question about that to Roger. There are many robot-human friendships in Season 2 and questions raised about if humans and androids had always been this close. Robots also lost their 'memories'. The cables that attach to people in the megadei...the concept of masters and questions of who controls who...the relation between androids like Dorothy and megadei like BIG-O--there seems to be sentiments that there is a vital link here.

Theme 3: THE EVENT

The ambiguous 'starting point' we're given as viewers. The so-called cause for the lost memories. What caused the Event? Was it a war? Was it simply Big Venus doing its erasure thing? Are there more than one Event? What's its significance for the future of Paradigm City?

Theme 4: THE TRUTH

Schwarzwald rambles incessantly about finding "the truth" of 40 years ago and the Event. The concept that the truth may lie "underground" or in old machines. But is there truth to be found? Is there more than one truth?

Theme 5: THE UNDERGROUND

This is a very mysterious place often talked about but rarely visited. Whenever it is visited there comes about questions of fear and reality. Additionally, revealing things about the city are shown about the city here: mini-stage sets, a false sunken city, a city expo, giant gears/pistons, etc. Strangely newer objects are found the deeper you go, but this is never explored/explained. It seems many Bigs have been found in sub-levels and other megadei have come from there as well.

Theme 6: FEAR

Schwarzwald seems to suggest that fear is a key factor in humanity and that it is not in proper use in Paradigm City. As long as it is denied evil will ensue. (Perhaps going on the concept of learn from your mistakes?). Roger finds fear and terror irrational and eventually denies it. At one point he ran away from it though. Does this refusal of fear cause beneficial or detrimental effects to the City of Amnesia? Is the fear that the people are not real? Denying reality like Angel according to Roger's final speech. Then again, the fact that Wainwright had copper-plated room suggests fear of something physical...sort of like a bomb shelter of old.

Theme 7: TOMATOES

A very strange symbol. Connected heavily to Gordon Rosewater, the alleged founder of Paradigm City. It is a metaphor for synthetic reproduction, in this case, allegedly of memories. There is something about this symbolism that talks directly to the concept of making something false more like reality.

Theme 8: METROPOLIS Book

A symbolic book that mirrors the destruction seen on the outskirts of Paradigm. It was never completed, and it is said that only Roger can complete it. It speaks of apocolyptic visions somewhat like the Book of Revelations. It is connected with the city's history and Gordon Rosewater. On another level, it also suggests the similarities between Big-O's world and classic sci-fi/industrial future worlds such as Lang's Metropolis.

Theme 9: STAGE and ROLES

Showtime; Action! Its there from the beginning. Even a stagelight-like beam comes down on Roger when he calls it in episode 2. Roger the Wanderer brings the stage and role concept to the fore and its continually talked about in Season 2 until it comes to the point where it seems it is soemhow the truth. If so though, why so elaborate and for what purpose? Looking at design sheets from the design manuel, it is clear that Paradigm City is some form of stage/simulation. Often characters are in ironic scenes like Daustan and Angel talking in a room full of manaquins, Daustan in the movies, etc. In the end there is a BIG-O movie poster in the background and Angel, Dorothy, and Roger in a booth. What is the purpose of all this? Konaka, the head writer, does have a love of dolls and toys, so Paradigm could aslo be some kind of model simulation (we do see Angel holding a Dorothy doll and contruction design). We don't know what the scale is of this stage really. How metaphoric and how literal is it all? How would this effect the rest of the story?

Theme 10: RELIGION

Everywhere there is symbolism visual and spoken related to God, heaven and religion, especially from the Judeo-Christian tradtion. One of the head writers on BIG-O has a history of tying in religion. To what extent is it key in the story? It appears to often be linked with key sections/characters/machines--and often the writing seems to go out of its way to point this out, like when Instro starts playing at church and Roger is put on a physical cross. The concept of free will is brought up in relation to "umbrellas" If you go out in the rain without an umbrella you are practicing free will; you're right to choose. Only Roger, Angel, and Dorothy do this. (and only they are seen in the 'booth' of the previously mentioned section).

Theme 11: SOCIAL INJUSTICE/WORLD DIVIDED

The world is very cut up. The poor sections and the domed rich sections. The desert, the sea, and the underground. Everything is very seperated. As such, there is a lot of discrimination and injustice. Concepts of corrupt government wishing for genocide of the poor basically--shown in Bring Back My Ghost, The Show Must Go On, and many others.

Theme 12: THE WIZARD OF OZ

Dorothy, Glinda, Vera's comments about Angel's favorite story, the yellow brick road, red slippers--all tied to BIG-O through the anime or official radio drama. These are blatent. How do they effect the story? Do they lend more credence to the story being more focused on Angel as some have suggested?

This list is really nice and all, and some of the major themes are certainly addressed (if not in a comprehensive manner, at least in passing)...however, I think you miss a very key theme. You bring it up in several of your themes, but I really think it transcends them...

I speak of the theme of Identity, which I think is the defining theme in Big O...

Memories certainly play a large role in the theme, as I mentioned before, but so does "the truth," "stage and roles," androids, "tomatos..."

Just about every theme ties into this core theme of Identity at the end of the day, I think...

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Theme 3: THE EVENT The ambiguous 'starting point' we're given as viewers. The so-called cause for the lost memories. What caused the Event? Was it a war? Was it simply Big Venus doing its erasure thing? Are there more than one Event? What's its significance for the future of Paradigm City?

Well actually Big Venus is "purifying" the world...not erasing or reseting (though the term "rewinding" has now been written in stone as the term to use).

If you notice, Big Venus (from what we've seen) only appeared when the worl was close to complete annihilation. The war of 40 years ago, "The Big Win" fight...and after each time we see things have gotten better. During the first war, Big Venus came and 'rewound' everything into another loop ("The Event"). This "loop" is only a parallel universe that is only slightly different from what had happened before it. Big Venus brings all the people, animals, structures, megadeuses, and things over into this new universe with no memory of what had occured. Things were changed slightly, however, by Big Venus itself. Nearly all of the 'Bigs' Forces and 'Enemy' Forces (leviathan, etc) were gone and probably the people that started the war as well. Things go A LOT better than before, obviously, until Gordon Rosewater tries to recover/make memories of before The Event. He probably stumbled upon something that actually could tap into those memories that were locked away by Big Venus and thus the tomatoes were made. He probably tampered with something that shouldn't be tampered with (as seen later with the obsession of memories) and thus was rewound first. Moving now into the setting of the acts 25-26, Alex Rosewater wants to make Paradigm City his world/kingdom....Roger Smith fights against him. They destroy most of the city (kinda defeating the point, no?) and then Big Venus shows up when Final Stage (the ultimate attack which has 'should never be used!!1' all over it) is fired. Big Venus gets rid of Alex Rosewater and continues transporting the world into the next parallel universe (it started before with the sky and Angel and Gordon Rosewater). As Big Venus makes its way over to Big O and Roger Smith (and dorothy) it realizes that Roger Smith wasn't corrupt and thus spared him (along with Dorothy) ((we don't know about Big O)). We we next see Roger Smith, he's back in Paradigm City driving along but there's no Alex Rosewater, no completely ruined city (only semi-ruined), and no idea whether Big O is there or not. Now just from seeing Alex Rosewater being gone we can guess that Big Venus didn't bring the entire world back through time....but instead brought the world into a new dimension with slight changes to it but still keeping it relatively the same (since it was very close to being "perfect" before). My guess is that Big Venus is the megadeus meant to purify the world.

Awsome job! Tehre are also other important themes or re occuring symbols such as time which is seen as the main clock in the city, hour glasses, Roger's watch and the clock Norman always winds.

Theres also the reoccuring Red Ballon thats also important too.

I think that one of the themes you missed was one of Choice vs Control. This ties into the theme of Truth you mentioned before, but I'd say it goes a step beyond.

A lot of what Roger represents is the freedom of choice. He has Memories of his own (whether he wants to face them or not), and he has the choices that those Memories grant--whether or not to do something about them. Naturally, the Rosewaters (and to a lesser extent, Angel, and arguably, Dorothy and Big O himself) represent control. The Rosewaters took control of whatever they could grasp. In his retirement, I think Gordon relaized his mistake, and voluntarily turned his back on controlling others (maybe that's why he lost some of his Memories?), and Alex hasn't had that opportunity yet. Angel may not want to control others with the Memories, but she definitely wants the power the Memories grant. I figure Memories might be like wealth--it doesn't matter if you have it, it just matters if you don't have it. In the case of Dorothy and Big O, they are both pushing Roger to make a choice regarding his Memories. That could be construed as a weak form of control over Roger, if you chose to look at it that way.

The choice that Big O, Dorothy and Angel are trying to make Roger commit to is pretty obvious. It's the choice of what to do with his Memories, symbolilzed by his choice between Angel and Dorothy. It ties into the Truth theme, from Roger's comments about "not being able to commit to one Truth." In short, even though he's on the side of Choice, Roger is in fact doing nothing to go for either option--and his indecision is in fact a choice.

More themes:

DUTY AND LOYALTY: Roger and Dastun do their duty, always, even if no one else cares. Even if it's going to kill them. Both of them are also personally loyal to individuals more than to their jobs. Dastun leaks word of Angel's whereabouts in Act 23 so Roger can get to her before Dastun's own men do. Roger doesn't hesitate to try to rescue Angel. Also, Roger leaves Big O during a fight in Act 21 and after one in Act 24 to save Dorothy.

HIGH TECH AND LOW TECH: There are anomalous technology differences in Big O. Roger has a lot of advanced, micro-miniaturized electronic equipment, while consumer televisions in Paradigm seem to be primitive vacuum-tube units. Big O is set roughly in the late Fifties or early Sixties, where there really was such a technology gap (between vacuum tube and transistor devices), but Roger's stuff is more advanced than that. Alex Rosewater also has some advanced stuff like that, and of course the tech level of the androids and Megadeuses is off the charts.

DESTRUCTION LEADING TO GODHOOD. All the villains seemed obsessed with destruction, and many were also obsessed with achieving godhood.

quote:

Originally posted by NotAsleep I think that one of the themes you missed was one of Choice vs Control. This ties into the theme of Truth you mentioned before, but I'd say it goes a step beyond. A lot of what Roger represents is the freedom of choice. He has Memories of his own (whether he wants to face them or not), and he has the choices that those Memories grant--whether or not to do something about them. Naturally, the Rosewaters (and to a lesser extent, Angel, and arguably, Dorothy and Big O himself) represent control. The Rosewaters took control of whatever they could grasp. In his retirement, I think Gordon relaized his mistake, and voluntarily turned his back on controlling others (maybe that's why he lost some of his Memories?), and Alex hasn't had that opportunity yet. Angel may not want to control others with the Memories, but she definitely wants the power the Memories grant. I figure Memories might be like wealth--it doesn't matter if you have it, it just matters if you don't have it. In the case of Dorothy and Big O, they are both pushing Roger to make a choice regarding his Memories. That could be construed as a weak form of control over Roger, if you chose to look at it that way. The choice that Big O, Dorothy and Angel are trying to make Roger commit to is pretty obvious. It's the choice of what to do with his Memories, symbolilzed by his choice between Angel and Dorothy. It ties into the Truth theme, from Roger's comments about "not being able to commit to one Truth." In short, even though he's on the side of Choice, Roger is in fact doing nothing to go for either option--and his indecision is in fact a choice.

Great post...free will...another theme that coincides with choice and control. Roger was negotiating for free will for the citizens of Paradigm. He wanted them to have the choice and free will to remember what they wanted, rather than be controlled in remembering what was forced on them.

quote:

Originally posted by StevieV019 quote: Originally posted by NotAsleep I think that one of the themes you missed was one of Choice vs Control. This ties into the theme of Truth you mentioned before, but I'd say it goes a step beyond. A lot of what Roger represents is the freedom of choice. He has Memories of his own (whether he wants to face them or not), and he has the choices that those Memories grant--whether or not to do something about them. Naturally, the Rosewaters (and to a lesser extent, Angel, and arguably, Dorothy and Big O himself) represent control. The Rosewaters took control of whatever they could grasp. In his retirement, I think Gordon relaized his mistake, and voluntarily turned his back on controlling others (maybe that's why he lost some of his Memories?), and Alex hasn't had that opportunity yet. Angel may not want to control others with the Memories, but she definitely wants the power the Memories grant. I figure Memories might be like wealth--it doesn't matter if you have it, it just matters if you don't have it. In the case of Dorothy and Big O, they are both pushing Roger to make a choice regarding his Memories. That could be construed as a weak form of control over Roger, if you chose to look at it that way. The choice that Big O, Dorothy and Angel are trying to make Roger commit to is pretty obvious. It's the choice of what to do with his Memories, symbolilzed by his choice between Angel and Dorothy. It ties into the Truth theme, from Roger's comments about "not being able to commit to one Truth." In short, even though he's on the side of Choice, Roger is in fact doing nothing to go for either option--and his indecision is in fact a choice. Great post...free will...another theme that coincides with choice and control. Roger was negotiating for free will for the citizens of Paradigm. He wanted them to have the choice and free will to remember what they wanted, rather than be controlled in remembering what was forced on them.

Don't forget about Schwarzwald's constant ramblings about puppets, lap dogs, and robots no longer under our control.

The nightingale symbol stands out too. And we're often shown just how thing the line between the humans and androids is.

The Union, although only in Season 2, they have a strong standing in Paradigm, regardless of what everyone else says (except maybe Gordon). Actually, its more the lyrics of their song that call to familiarity.

Some thoughts:

The relationship between androids and humans is definitely a theme. What if it was a struggle between the two that caused the Event, and therefore, their current relationship is an ironic after-effect of lost memories?

Another thought I've had for a while is this: after I read the article on the Big O DVD Collection where the creators state that the conception of the series was initially just an attempt to sell toys, I've wondered if the ending of Big O isn't a throwback to all of that.

Attempt to sell toys??? Like, robot action figures? Hmph! *turns away* I'd much rather have Dorothy barbie-doll and a Roger ken-doll. AND there would be the Griffon-mobile, the big black piano, Norman-doll complete with a silver tray and heavy guns, and last but not least... Shwartzwald doll!!! Flame-resistant to discourage the kids from trying to set it on fire. And he'd come with 2 yards of extra bandages, a lighter that says "I heart fire", a postcard displaying the famous trio of Leviathon and other creatures, and a brochure from anti-smoking campagn.

This just hit me but Time, time is defently a re-occuring motif throughout the series how much time is, how little there isof it an is there any at all. ^_~"

Oh yeah, what's with all the hourglasses? Egyptians invented those to replace the water clocks, since water seemed to evaporate quickly. They were referred to as "sand clocks". The tarot cards have the "Old man" or "Father time" card which usually signifies time and pictures an old man with a beard, staff in hand and an hourglass in his other hand or near by.
What they're trying to tell us in Big O though I'm not sure.