Why did they kill off Schwarzwald?

This appears to be one of those unanswerable questions about Paradigm City that may never get answered *ahem* without a Season 3 of Big O.

Schwarzwald was hands down the best, most fascinating villain ever created since Darth Vader. Heck, if they can't give us a Big O Season 3...I'd love to see them do a "Sherlock Holmes and the Hound of the Baskervilles" kind of sleigh of hand. If you recall...Sir Aurthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes in "The Final Problem"...but thanks to the outrage of readers at learning of the death of Sherlock Holmes...the author decided to release a "novel" of an adventure of Sherlock Holmes PRIOR to his death that was never published before.

I think AS or whomever is in control of the Big O copyright...can at least give us a storyline arc about Schwarzwald before his "death". It would be wonderful to see things from Schwarzwald's eyes and learn what happened to him. How Michael Seebach became the man we remembered as Schwarzwald. And how he found Big Duo.

But this nevertheless doesn't explain the necessity the creators had in getting rid of Schwarzwald. It's almost as if Schwarzwald had this overly powerful presence that threatened to overwhelm the main characters Roger and Dorothy all by himself. Heck, he even takes the cake when it comes to being a rival to Roger Smith just like Alex Rosewater did...but better. I can still hear Schwarzwald's taunting laugh, his insinuating hints of what he knows about Paradigm City and what had to be "done". So this is the real mystery...why did they get rid of Schwarzwald?

Becuase they wanted to use alan gabriel instead as the insane wierdo villian.

Schwarzwald > Alan

But at least even after he died, he popped up now and again in flashbacks, narrations, posthumous letters, etc.

oh boy, more talks of season's and what not. But yeah Schwarzwald > than Alan. As far as I know AS only has the boardcast rights to Big O.

Because the series was coming to a close and they needed to wrap things up. Besides, you can't be a ghost without being dead.

Alan was kind of a poor replacement for Schwarzwald. I think Alan was the better villain, but that was all he was good for. Schwarzwald was a more complex character because he was more than just an ordinary villain. Schwarzwald played a bigger role in the story and he was the kind of guy who you can't really tell if he's a good guy or a bad guy.

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Originally posted by paul1290 Alan was kind of a poor replacement for Schwarzwald. I think Alan was the better villain, but that was all he was good for. Schwarzwald was a more complex character because he was more than just an ordinary villain. Schwarzwald played a bigger role in the story and he was the kind of guy who you can't really tell if he's a good guy or a bad guy.

...They were completly different.

Schwarzwald, to simplify it, was a vigilante. He wanted to take down paradigm city's elite and reveal the truth.

Alan was more of a double-crossing sociopathic villain, simultaniously one of the very "paradigm lapdogs" schwarzwald attacked (hell he WORKED for rosewater) and an agent for the Union.

Having not seen or deeply thought about Big O in a while..I'll just assume they got rid of Schwarzwald because the plot sort of shifted.

Season 1 had Roger prying into the nature of the megadeus and paradigm. Schwarzwald led him to that...big..prototype thing in the sewers as well as the knowledge that people were realizing their memories had been reset. Then he died.

Season 2 had Roger more directly confronting Gordon, and also the Union. As well as his own past in a couple of episodes.

If theres a season 3 (and we know I'm pessimistic), Schwarzwald should get a flashback at best. He's dead, furthermore I think his character has completed its arc. He's not an antagonist anymore, he's sort of an etherial presence. When Big Duo Inferno crashes into the lights, Schwarzwald has his little voiceover about the lights and so on. Anything aside from a flashback should just be a voiceover maybe talking about the unreality of paradigm.

(I realize that half of what I said is probably either wrong, or out of chronological order, but I'm sure someone could piece it together and get the general gist of what I meant.)

edit: As for the "is he good or bad" thing, that could theoretically be explored in season 3.

Assuming Roger retains his knowledge the world he lives in is a farce, the writers could make the big issue of season 3 into which is preferable. The relative stability the denizens of Paradigm live in, or the unknown outside of the "stage". A relatively comfortable lie versus a potentially destructive truth.

Hell they could even pull a 180, and make Roger into sort of a neo-Schwarzwald, crusading for the "truth", potentially through some unorthodox means. And if you want to make it even more ambiguous, it could be left questionable as to which is preferable...the lie of paradigm, or the reality of what lies outside of its confines.

(This idea would never happen obviously, even if they made a season 3 it'd basically HAVE to wrap things up neatly or there would still be an outcry for closure)

Things such Schwarzwald's death, and such could be explained in a 3rd season, however that's if there ever will be season 3, and that's HUGE if.

I think it was a nice way to wrap up (no pun intended) his tragic story.

Plus, I enjoy how they pulled it off - with Angel just telling Roger that they found Scwardzwald's body and all that. Like, "Oh, by the way, he's dead."

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Originally posted by Schoolie I think it was a nice way to wrap up (no pun intended) his tragic story. Plus, I enjoy how they pulled it off - with Angel just telling Roger that they found Scwardzwald's body and all that. Like, "Oh, by the way, he's dead."

That was like a kick in the head when I first saw it.

Needless to say I was pretty pissed.

It seemed to me that Schwarzwald felt there was nothing more he could do in Paradigm City, or that he figured he might just branch out into the desert, or that Leviathan was the last Megadeus he knew about...

... seemed to me like a natural thing for Schwarzwald to do.

LOL - my brother and I made a joke about this very question. We realized that Schwartzwald ALMOST found out that it was an anime and so Director Konoka and the Sunrise people were trying to kill him off before he found out the truth! Obviously that was what he was rambling about when he crashed into the stagelight above the city - they crashed him into one of Sunrise's stagelights! HA HA HA!

But I guess you'll want to hear what I think is the real reason, right?

It was part of the plot - Schwartzwald had been assimulated in Big Duo, so he was always going to live in there (in a sense) - his Memories gave a possibly spiritual-scientific rebirth to his consciousness - his soul if you will. Memories are eternal after all - or was that a fantasy Schwartzwald shouldn't be allowed to indulge?

The big question was when Big Duo Inferno-Schwartzwald combo crashed into the stagelight - was that metaphorical, or is there really a Dome over Paradigm City, the ocean, and the wastelands? We found out that the Union had always been in Paradigm City - that their aliases outside the city were false Memories, right? Or did I miss something in all of the confusion.

If they make a third season, Schwartzwald will probably come back like everybody else - possibly as just an ordinary reporter though