My Theory

My theory is a little plain and simple, but it makes sense to me. I also think that this is like Neon Genesis Evangelion, where the author intentionally made it a cliff-hanger so that the viewers drew their own conclusions. Thus shattering my hopes for a season 3, although I said the same thing right before TBO2.


Solipsism. If anyone is unfamiliar with it; in a nutshell, Solipsism is a philosophy where one single mind, person, thought, or in TBO's case, memories take the form of god (or a creator as mentioned in TBO).

Rosewater Sr. says that Roger was hired to negotiate with the creator. In the end, he negotiates with Angel, thus, logically, Angel is the creator.

Angel is a child, playing with dolls. (This is why I think the doll in in the river, to show this) Just as anyone has played with action figures, legos, what have you. The stage and the actors in TBO are the dolls.

Angel controls all, including the megadeui. "Cast in the name of Angel; Ye not guilty" is more like it. Notice how everyone Angel does not like, Rosewater Jr., Gabriel, and Schwarzwald can not control any of the Bigs, because they are tools of god, Angel, and she does not want them as dominui.

Angel states that she likes Dorothy, and around the same time Roger somehow understands TBO and he runs to go save Dorothy. Angel liked Dorothy, so she made her contain the memories that activate the tools of God.

The "Reset Event" that takes place is simple to understand. If you built a castle out of blocks, and you decide that it is not right. You knock it down, and build again. Which is why at the end of Act 26, Dorothy and Angel are standing together, with Roger in the car like at the beginning. She "rebuilt the castle", to her preferences after Roger negotiated with her.

And the reason why Roger is seen as a homeless man. I think that was Roger's role before the Reset that led to TBO that we are watching now. Same for the war and destruction, it was his role before the Reset that led to TBO that we are watching now.

After all, this is Angel's stage, her dolls are the actors, and like every playhouse, they change their production, thus the Reset Event occurs, and she chooses a new script that she likes.

Its not a perfect theory, but it is the best I can think of. Any feedback is welcomed.

Interesting... I would argue the converse about Shwartzy... But it doesn't really matter, I guess.

Also, do you make any distinction between the Angel in the majority of the series and the Angel at the end? The almost seem like two people to me...

Nice touch with the doll... That did always seem pretty random...




Oh, and in answer to your question, I live in the ATL, but "Planning an attack on Earth..." sounds cooler.

Very simply put, your therory is correct. That theory (with a few execption, in my belief) is what Paradigm City realy is. It's the underlining premiss behind the show. However, I don't think the entire show is just a grown woman playing with dolls, so I think you can agree with me that there are deeper meanings within the show.

Edit >> Sorry, my mistake. I see that you are refering to Angel as a little girl, not a grown woman. Then, your theory is absolutly correct.

Your theory makes sense, but I'd like to add that Big Venus has been connected with Lucifer (I think in the official art book). And that implies to me that the resets have an evil/negative effect. For one thing, they twart the progression of the common citizens of Paradigm, to whom Roger is a kind of champion. Therefore, to have balance, there should be a power equal to Angel, but one who's purpose is to break the cycle; to keep Angel from knocking down the dollhouse. That might be Roger, but if so, he and we don't have enough information to say for sure. I'd like to think that the "god" that the megadei refer to isn't Angel, but the (as of yet unknown) equal positive force in Paradigm.

Hey thats cool and it works.

I really liked this idea:

""""Angel controls all, including the megadeui. "Cast in the name of Angel; Ye not guilty" is more like it. Notice how everyone Angel does not like, Rosewater Jr., Gabriel, and Schwarzwald can not control any of the Bigs, because they are tools of god, Angel, and she does not want them as dominui.""""

Thats cool.

I'm going to be blunt: I hate Solipsism. It's bad philosophy and bad writing. Your theory may very well be true, but I'd hate for that to be the case. I'd like to think the writers are more creative than that.

As to the part about "people who Angel doesn't like can't control the Megadeus": this seems flawed. Big Duo nevers disobeys Schwarzwald: it merely acted without him controlling it. Big O does the same thing trying to save Dorothy in Act 23, (and in fact literally disobeys Roger in Acts 20-21), but no one is saying that Roger can't control Big O.

And as I've said before, I hold the "roger as bum" sequence to be a metaphor for Roger's internal struggle over his identity, which had been called into question by what he had learned in Act 13.

BehemothPanzer had posted his own theory that Big O was all in Roger's head. He had some good points as well.

Those 'memories' are recalled in episode 24 when he is having 'dinner' with Rosewater. The symbols are important here, the checkered background, the three bigs, and the fact that it could all have been a lie to begin with. Uncertantity breeds doubt, but without doubt there is no change.

quote:

Originally posted by Jane Your theory makes sense, but I'd like to add that Big Venus has been connected with Lucifer (I think in the official art book). And that implies to me that the resets have an evil/negative effect. For one thing, they twart the progression of the common citizens of Paradigm, to whom Roger is a kind of champion. Therefore, to have balance, there should be a power equal to Angel, but one who's purpose is to break the cycle; to keep Angel from knocking down the dollhouse. That might be Roger, but if so, he and we don't have enough information to say for sure. I'd like to think that the "god" that the megadei refer to isn't Angel, but the (as of yet unknown) equal positive force in Paradigm.

Actually, Lucifer isn't Satan (its amazing how hard it is to stamp out this misconception), so this isn't really an implication of the resets as evil. Lucifer probably means what it really refers to, the personification of the Morning Star/Evening Star (which is actually the planet Venus). And we do see that the arrivial of Big Venus is proceeded by a great light -- appropriate, considering Lucifer literally means "light-bringer".

yup, the ultra-christinization demonization of foriegn religions has left us with the taste of assumption in our mouths.

If Angel represents Venus does Roger represent Mars, opposite forces working in tandem for a conclusion of satisfaction?

Would that make Dorothy Mercury, the curious communicator?

The problem with solipsism is that nothing matters. It's no different from a series of hallucinations. In a limited sort of way, it can make an interesting character study, but not if you play the viewers for a set of suckers through 26 pointless episodes and go "Ha, ha, fooled you!" at the last minute.

quote:

Originally posted by A Clockwork Tomato The problem with solipsism is that nothing matters. It's no different from a series of hallucinations. In a limited sort of way, it can make an interesting character study, but not if you play the viewers for a set of suckers through 26 pointless episodes and go "Ha, ha, fooled you!" at the last minute.

Exactly.

That leaves the possible question who'se hallucination (assuming that it wasn't a deliberate cliffhanger):

Dastun has a head concussion
Angel is losing her sanity
Schwartzvald broke the 4th wall and brought everything down
Dorothy can function without her hdd memory (that doesn't mean that there isn't a backup drive somewhere)
Roger seems to be the only one who can handle the situations, although he had his doubt's in Roger the Wanderer, but without doub there can be no change.

But Angel has no idea who she really is, even when she boards Big V, she is in shock. Why would this "little girl" play a game that put her so much turmoil, and why would she have Roger (her knight in the black megadeus) fall in love with Dorothy and not her. If we go by your theory, Angel is one demented and self-effacing child.

adjunct: I have always thought the doll in the river represented lost innocence.

quote:

Originally posted by aeternus_flammus But Angel has no idea who she really is, even when she boards Big V, she is in shock. Why would this "little girl" play a game that put her so much turmoil, and why would she have Roger (her knight in the black megadeus) fall in love with Dorothy and not her. If we go by your theory, Angel is one demented and self-effacing child. adjunct: I have always thought the doll in the river represented lost innocence.

Not to mention some seriously warped views about her mother.

quote:

Originally posted by paradoxx That leaves the possible question who'se hallucination (assuming that it wasn't a deliberate cliffhanger): Dastun has a head concussion Angel is losing her sanity Schwartzvald broke the 4th wall and brought everything down Dorothy can function without her hdd memory (that doesn't mean that there isn't a backup drive somewhere) Roger seems to be the only one who can handle the situations, although he had his doubt's in Roger the Wanderer, but without doub there can be no change.

All theories that assume that everything's predestined, or that the people are fake, or that the action is fake, simply boil down to "Nothing matters."

All "nothing matters" theories are equivalent.

quote:

Originally posted by A Clockwork Tomato The problem with solipsism is that nothing matters. It's no different from a series of hallucinations. In a limited sort of way, it can make an interesting character study, but not if you play the viewers for a set of suckers through 26 pointless episodes and go "Ha, ha, fooled you!" at the last minute.

But that is the whole idea. All 26 episodes had a deeper meaning behind them. That what has happen in the past shapes who we are, but does not govern what we do and how we act. The world is what we make of it. To quote Roger Smith, "How you are given life does not govern how you live it."

Consider that Angel is a little girl with a large amount of turmoil in her life, possibly a war going outside her window, or something more personal as an abusive household. Angel invents Paradigm City as a means to feel she has more controll over her life and the problems she is experiening, a city with no memories of a terible past. Though her memories and her life experiences are shaping herself that is not how she should live her life.

So what should be taken away from the end of Big O is that the world will continue on, and though it is important to have memories to understand where we came from should be by no means our direction. The future is undetermined though our actions in the past will no boutably have consequence in the future. The future is what we make of it. And yes one person, one very ordinary person with an ordinary name like Roger Smith, can have a large impact on the world.

quote:

Originally posted by aeternus_flammus But Angel has no idea who she really is, even when she boards Big V, she is in shock. Why would this "little girl" play a game that put her so much turmoil, and why would she have Roger (her knight in the black megadeus) fall in love with Dorothy and not her. If we go by your theory, Angel is one demented and self-effacing child. adjunct: I have always thought the doll in the river represented lost innocence.

You hit it on the nail. This is exactly what I've been thinking about when it comes to the Dorothy/Roger/Angel triangle. It doesn't make sense for Angel to "create" Dorothy to have her fall in love with Roger. Another thing...notice just how interesting it is that Dorothy was able to function without her memory core. How is that? And how did Dorothy know about the Big Venus riddle? And how did Dorothy know Roger chose not to merge with Big O? And at the end...after the Reset...why is Dorothy still there? Notice that it's shown deliberately that she's standing next to Angel. I have a feeling that Dorothy and Angel BOTH control Paradigm City...but in different ways.

I see justice in the theory that Angel is the only creator. No matter how wonderfully Dorothy functions (even without memory), she is still a model held in Angel's hand. There is no evidence that this hierarchical relation between Creator and creature can be conceived otherwise insofar as the whole series shows us.

In saying so, however, I do think the notion of solipsism should be qualified. Not because I hate it (a theory can stand well regardless of our love or hate), but because it doesn't do justice to the careful reading provided by Dominus Excelsior. Solipsism, with one sucked into one's inner world, excludes any necessity of negotiation with others. However, in The Big O, negotiation is always at the core. Angel as the sole creator is never self-sufficient or omnipotent; she needs somebody else to negotiate with her.

While this could be a very interesting revisionist reading of Christianity (God needs human beings for interactions), we should regard The Big O as an allegory of the production of the TV show itself. We know a 1921 Italian play called "Six Characters in Search of an Author," in which a group of characters complain that the author who created them hasn't finished the story (sounds familiar?) and try to search him out (for negotiation!). Episode 26 has this final fantasy realized when Roger, along with Dorothy, gets into the TV broadcasting control room (see the signs "On Air" on both sides of the big screen ) and places a hand on the shoulder of Angel the director/producer/scriptwriter.

Indeed, the whole show of The Big O is full of self-references. Just take a look at the poster behind Angel's shoulder and Roger's hand at the end of Episode 26 (attachment 1). The poster shows the image of Roger sitting in the cockpit of the Big O, which is the same publicity image you can find in many other Big O products (see the cover underneath the jacket of the Big O Official Guide and some Big O CDs' covers [attachment 2]). The self-reference resounds most strongly in Episode 14, where Roger the wanderer complains aloud that he lost his role (simply because the show was suspended for two years). Therefore in my opinion, The Big O is not really a psychological drama of a little girl (that would be an Evangelion's business), but rather a show about itself. Rethink why Roger always yells: "Big O, Showtime"? Because The Big O itself is no more than a TV show. How about "Big O, Action"? We all know "Action" is a signal given to actors, meaning: Time to act in front of the camera before we run out of film!

Hence Angel is a sole but deeply troubled creator. She needs interaction with others, and the characters she created have the ability to negotiate and even compete with her. Her creation is not seamlessly a self-serving love tale; rather, it is full of contradictions, discrepancies, struggles, compromises. Indeed that is what you expect to get when you are producing a TV show. The fact that Dorothy is there as an obstacle between Roger and Angel does not really challenge the theory that Angel is the only creator, as far as we understand this creator is far more complicated than a simple-minded wishful thinker.

Angel is a sole creator but also a self-splitting one. She can exist both inside and outside the show she created, but this is splitting rather than omnipresence, because she has no memory that she has as Creator when she is involved in the show (just like a director who happens to play a character in her own film will never allow this character to say or to know something that only the director can say or know). In other words, she is at the same time THE memory and forgetfulness -- the ultimate embodiment of the two contradictory basic elements underlying the whole show.

• Attachment: Big O Poster Appears in Big O 1.jpg
• Attachment: Big O Guide & CD covers.jpg

then angel is the collective force of the people who created big O coming to terms with having to conclude season two.

That being said, I do see heavy heavy symbolism that is unlocked once you see Big O as a commentary/drama of itself. Swartzvald sait it best 'This is a comdey," and there were times I laughed, like no other time too!!! The creators of this show knew what they were doing, they put in little details from japanese pop culture homage to complicated metaphysics (the cartoonish Beck to lightning jogging distant memories which the episode 'negotation with the dead' associates with the sun, as the emplem of the sun apepars on the floor in teh senators 'study of the dead')

Big O is not only a commentary on itself, but as art imitates life, it comments on what it imittates, life itself. The despair and possible apocolypse of the future yet to come, and how the interactions and lack therof between the different parts of society form the world we live in, the paradigm of our Cities across our globe.

The interactions between teh characters acts as a vehicle for the story to move along while the Megadeuces keep the sub-story of Emporer Alex Rosewaters rise to ultimate power and ultimate corruption, which keeps the show moving no matter what, for they (the megadeuces) are the stars of the show, they are the ones who remember, or more preciecly they retain an imprint of their pilots memories.

Bio O was meant to be all of this and more.