| knight_errant00 | 12-03-2003 10:26 AM |
OK . . .
So, I've been lurking in the forums since I discovered this site after the great "Show Must Go On" debacle. "Big O" has become one of my favorite shows now, one that always leaves me thinking (a good thing, for sure).
Aside from catching one or two episodes of the first season in its initial run, I didn't start watching "Big O" until its return this fall, coming in at episode 15.
Since "Show Must Go On" I've been trying to make sense of the show, reading everyone's theories and seeins how they matched with mine, which was an elaborate construction involving robots as religious zealots, a holy war, a negotiator, and a bunch of clones.
I liked this theory a lot, but after seeing "Roger the Wanderer" at last, I have another theory, one that pretty much covers everything in the show, and explains it all. The problem is, I don't like what it leads the show to really be . . .
So . . . here goes . . .
I think the entire show is Roger's fantasy. I think the Roger we see in "Roger the Wanderer" is the real Roger, one who lives in New York and is essentially homeless, probably due to the fact he is more than a bit mentally ill. He was a soldier once, and for some reason, committed a war atrocity--opening fire on a group of children--which he has never come to terms with.
His past tortures him. He wants to escape his memories, not be defined by them. So he drifts into his own world, one patterned after a popular comic strip featuring a giant robot called the Big O.
In his fantasy he and those aoround him always wear black--a sign of his mourning. He fantasizes about a bank nearby as his mansion, and a young woman he often sees a beautiful young woman rushing into a local nightclub as his romantic interest, distant and unknowable. He's tortured by his destructive past, which he metaphorizes as the Bigs attack on the city. He's tortured by his memories of the children he killed--the tomatoes, heads round, pulpy, and red in death (Gordon Rosewater's constant reminders him of the lies and the tomatoes). He uses Angel to re-assure himself of the fantasy (in the car, after *Roger* makes reference to being a soldier and opening fire on children she reassures him--"quite an imagination you have!" to help him move back into his protective fantasy).
To save himself, he becomes a hero in his mind, fashions a story as protector of the city, patterning himself and his adventures after the comic strip, but always haunted by his true memories lurking at the edges of his mind.
He chooses to "stand in the rain" because he has no home, and the changing that would require him to own up to his past, which he can't do. "Ye Not Guilty"--he needs the reassurance, all the time. The religious overtones are all about his searc for redemprion. And the constant definition "I'm Roger Smith, a negotiator, an important job . . . "--he's constantly struggling to maintain his identity, and his importance, at least in his fantasy world.
I'll have to do some more thinking, but I suspect "The Show Must Go On" is a point where he runs into a part of the comic strip he can't reslove with his fantasy, which is why it's so jarring as the two are merged together in places.
It's kinda like the movies "Jacob's Ladder" and "Brazil", where reality isn't what it is, where the small flashes are Truth, and fantasy is the only way to escape the oppression of one's own mind.
I know, this is a very sad interpretation of it all--I'd rather it be about clones and robots. But right now, it's the best one I see.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'll keep working on the clones and robot theory in the meantime . . .
--knight_errant00
So, I've been lurking in the forums since I discovered this site after the great "Show Must Go On" debacle. "Big O" has become one of my favorite shows now, one that always leaves me thinking (a good thing, for sure).
Aside from catching one or two episodes of the first season in its initial run, I didn't start watching "Big O" until its return this fall, coming in at episode 15.
Since "Show Must Go On" I've been trying to make sense of the show, reading everyone's theories and seeins how they matched with mine, which was an elaborate construction involving robots as religious zealots, a holy war, a negotiator, and a bunch of clones.
I liked this theory a lot, but after seeing "Roger the Wanderer" at last, I have another theory, one that pretty much covers everything in the show, and explains it all. The problem is, I don't like what it leads the show to really be . . .
So . . . here goes . . .
I think the entire show is Roger's fantasy. I think the Roger we see in "Roger the Wanderer" is the real Roger, one who lives in New York and is essentially homeless, probably due to the fact he is more than a bit mentally ill. He was a soldier once, and for some reason, committed a war atrocity--opening fire on a group of children--which he has never come to terms with.
His past tortures him. He wants to escape his memories, not be defined by them. So he drifts into his own world, one patterned after a popular comic strip featuring a giant robot called the Big O.
In his fantasy he and those aoround him always wear black--a sign of his mourning. He fantasizes about a bank nearby as his mansion, and a young woman he often sees a beautiful young woman rushing into a local nightclub as his romantic interest, distant and unknowable. He's tortured by his destructive past, which he metaphorizes as the Bigs attack on the city. He's tortured by his memories of the children he killed--the tomatoes, heads round, pulpy, and red in death (Gordon Rosewater's constant reminders him of the lies and the tomatoes). He uses Angel to re-assure himself of the fantasy (in the car, after *Roger* makes reference to being a soldier and opening fire on children she reassures him--"quite an imagination you have!" to help him move back into his protective fantasy).
To save himself, he becomes a hero in his mind, fashions a story as protector of the city, patterning himself and his adventures after the comic strip, but always haunted by his true memories lurking at the edges of his mind.
He chooses to "stand in the rain" because he has no home, and the changing that would require him to own up to his past, which he can't do. "Ye Not Guilty"--he needs the reassurance, all the time. The religious overtones are all about his searc for redemprion. And the constant definition "I'm Roger Smith, a negotiator, an important job . . . "--he's constantly struggling to maintain his identity, and his importance, at least in his fantasy world.
I'll have to do some more thinking, but I suspect "The Show Must Go On" is a point where he runs into a part of the comic strip he can't reslove with his fantasy, which is why it's so jarring as the two are merged together in places.
It's kinda like the movies "Jacob's Ladder" and "Brazil", where reality isn't what it is, where the small flashes are Truth, and fantasy is the only way to escape the oppression of one's own mind.
I know, this is a very sad interpretation of it all--I'd rather it be about clones and robots. But right now, it's the best one I see.
Anyone have any thoughts on this? I'll keep working on the clones and robot theory in the meantime . . .
--knight_errant00
Perhaps if we bug CN or Sunrise or anyone working for Big O enough they'll tell us the real storyline, if there is one...
. . . As I said, this idea's less than a day old and not complete or fully fleshed out. And, I think there's stuff in eps 25 and 26 that need to be looked at again (which I will when they're re-run). And, as I said, I'd rather it be about the religious war between Bigs and man, with clones and androids and all . . . but Roger the Wanderer has put me down this path, and for now, for me, it fits best.
