Characters of The Big O

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This article lists the fictional characters of The Big O anime series. All characters were designed by Keiichi Sato, who has also designed characters for the City Hunter series. Because of union rules,^[1] most of the English voice cast for the first season were credited under pseudonyms;^[2] the only ones who used their real names were Lia Sargent (R. Dorothy Wayneright), Michael McConnohie (Schwarzwald) and William Knight (Gordon Rosewater).

Contents 1 Main characters 1.1 Roger Smith 1.2 R. Dorothy Wayneright 1.3 Norman Burg 1.4 Dan Dastun 1.5 Angel 2 Villains 2.1 Alex Rosewater 2.2 Alan Gabriel 2.3 Vera Ronstadt 3 Recurring characters 3.1 Jason Beck "Gold" 3.2 Michael Seebach/Schwarzwald 3.3 Gordon Rosewater 4 Minor characters 4.1 Big Ear 4.2 Sybil Rowan 4.3 R.D. 5 Notes 6 References 7 Sources

[edit] Main characters

[edit] Roger Smith

Roger Smith (ロジャー・スミス, Rojā Sumisu^?) is the series protagonist. He is the Negotiator. His job entails finding a resolution for the troubles of Paradigm City, the "City of Amnesia". He'd negotiate anything for anyone, but he is a professional and expects the parties to behave professionally.^[3] When memories betray the people and force them to reawaken monstrosities of the city's past, Roger's only option is to fight back with a monstrosity of his own, the black megadeus Big O.^[4]

The character, originally envisioned as a private eye, shows influences from Batman, James Bond and Giant Robo's Daisaku Kusama.^[5] He is voiced by Mitsuru Miyamoto in the Japanese-language version, and by Steven Blum in the English version.

Creation

In 1996, Keichii Sato and Kazuyoshi Katayama began work on what would become The Big O. Looking to create something distinguishable from the Gundam franchise, they used as a basis old super robot series and American TV shows. Sato's original concept was a giant city-smashing robot piloted by a man in black, Roger Smith. Inspired by detective shows like Oretachi wa Tenshi da! (We Are Angels!) and Tantei Monogatari (Detective Story), Roger was to be a private eye.^[6] However, the creators thought this to be too ordinary, and turned him into a Negotiator. With a negotiator, it would be "made sure the negotiations never work out... so, it's guaranteed the robot always trashes the place!" Contrary to other robot shows, the protagonist is not a young boy but a "cool adult". Sato's reasoning behind the decision is he wanted to give young viewers someone to look up to, and older viewers someone to identify with.^[7]

Roger's Rules

The Negotiator is portrayed as very methodical and strict. He has a number of rules and policies that dictate all aspects of his everyday life; from how people must behave in his house to the way he performs his job:

• "I have a special house rule that only lovely young women can unconditionally enter this mansion." (Act:01)

• "if you stay [in my house], then you wear black." (Act:02)

• "It's not my style to carry a gun... I don't like being slugged from behind, either." (Act:03)

• "I value women and the elderly. It's one of my policies." (Act:05)

• "The most important rule of all is under no circumstances must anyone touch my desk!" (Act:08)

• "The basic rule of negotiating is to consider and respect the other person's feelings." (Act:08)

• "If you want to live a happy life in this city, leave memories alone when they pop up. That's Roger Smith's Rule No. 1." (Act:11)

• "You have to use your pent-up energy to fight through the harshness of reality. That's Roger Smith's Rule No. 2." (Act:11)

• "A Negotiator only uses force as a last resort." (Act:18)

Tools of the trade

Roger considers side arms unbecoming a gentleman, so he avails himself of a number of gadgets to aid his job.^[8] Inspirations for the equipment include characters such as Batman, James Bond and Dick Tracy; and shows like Thunderbirds, Giant Robo, and The Avengers.

Roger's vehicle of choice is the Griffon, a black luxury sedan comparable to the Batmobile and James Bond's Aston Martin. The car comes equipped with armor for the wheels and windows, missile launchers, a communications station, Browning machine guns behind the front indicators, electrochromatic camouflage, and a police scanner.

The Negotiator's second most important weapon is his wristwatch, the tool for summoning the Big O. By calling the megadeus' name into the watch, Roger informs the giant it is "Showtime!" and it comes to its master's side.^[9] The watch also works as a remote control to the Griffon and includes a grappling cable, a laser cutter and a two-way communicator.

Roger's greatest weapon is the megadeus Big O. A metal behemoth that, unlike the giants of other robot anime, does not exhibit speed nor grace. But what it lacks in agility, it more than makes up for in power: The Big O is armed missiles, piston powered punches, machine guns and laser cannons.

For further information on the Big O's capabilities, see here.

[edit] R. Dorothy Wayneright

R. Dorothy Wayneright (R・ドロシー・ウェインライト, Āru Doroshī Weinraito^?) is Roger's assistant. Introduced in Act:01 as Dorothy Soldano, daughter of rich scientist Miguel Soldano, she is later revealed to be an android constructed by him. Her actual "father" would be Timothy Wayneright, the man who commissioned her construction and father of the real Dorothy Wayneright.^[10] To show her gratitude, and as a form of payment for Roger's help, she decides to move in with him and help out Norman with the chores.^[11]

The character shares her name with Dorothy Gale of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, a work Konaka references occasionally in his scripts,^[12] and the "R" initial is for "Robot", a naming convention used by Isaac Asimov in his works.^[13] She is voiced by Akiko Yajima in the Japanese-language version, and by Lia Sargent in the English version.

Creation

The character of R. Dorothy Wayneright is a creation of the series head writer, Chiaki J. Konaka. Until Konaka's involvement with the project in 1999, R. Dorothy was only known as "the android girl who lives with Roger." Her design was considerably changed and the characterization followed suit.^[14] Series creators Keiichi Sato and Kazuyoshi Katayama call her "edgy" but "loveable", aiming at a more realistic portrayal than what is expected of female characters in anime.^[6][7]

Appearance

Dorothy has the physical appearance of an 18-year-old girl, though it has actually probably been less than a year since her construction when Roger first meets her. However, her mind contains the memories of the dead 18-year-old daughter of her creator, so she functions as if she had had that life experience. Other characters don't think she's emotionless, but more often think of her almost as a sullen, quietly pouting teenager. For example, during the first two episodes of the show, Dorothy is rather happy to be with her apparent "father," but doesn't ever truly show any other emotions beside surprise (her eyes widen subtly). She displays her other emotions such as anger without making any sort of facial gesture,^[clarify] although fans of the show know that she can actually move her facial "muscles," she just doesn't wish to (her "evil twin," Red Destiny, was physically capable of contorting her face into a large range of gestures, usually to intimidate or frighten her victims, such as Roger Smith). Dorothy is capable of embarrassment (as when Roger beckoned her onto an elevator when she stalled, only for him to realize her multi-kilogram weight would put the total load far over the elevator's weight limit) and is also capable of feeling jealousy, as in the love triangle between herself, Roger, and Angel, and is capable of lying. She is also capable of showing love and affection, as was proven in the episode Missing Cat, where she took in a stray cat and acted towards it in a maternal fashion. The cat was later kidnapped, genetically altered and turned into a hideous beast, designed to cause death and destruction. The beast repays her kindness by turning on the ones who kidnapped it and refusing to harm either her or Roger.

In the Big O, few people (Roger included) ever realize her android state, instead assuming her to be a human girl. (although, as the series progresses, fewer people mistake her for being human, perhaps because those in Roger's neighborhood have become accustomed to her presence and already know she is an android). It can be assumed that she does not possess a normal human body temperature as a blind girl once discovered it after Dorothy allowed her to "read" her hands, whereupon she realized Dorothy's robotic nature instantly.

This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

Some feel Dorothy is based on the character of Olimpia from E.T.A. Hoffmann's short story, The Sandman.^{[citation needed]} The two characters share much in common, including their automaton nature, stoic personality, beautiful singing voice, and amazing piano-playing ability, possible attraction to the male lead, and the fact that each poses as their respective creator's daughter.

Character traits

Dorothy can play the piano extremely well. She obtains Roger's aid in taking lessons from master android musician R. Instro so that she could improve her performance early on in the series. She can play a wide variety of styles, from classical to the blues. Initially Roger insisted that as a robot, her playing was little more than playing a recording, because she didn't improvise but just perfectly repeated an existing performance. However, Roger soon found that Dorothy adds her own "feeling" and creativity to her music, leading him to question just how "human" the robot is. Dorothy is fond of playing the piano very loudly in the morning as her "wake up call" for Roger, which annoys him when he wants to sleep in.

Dorothy has a performance-quality singing voice, but it has never been heard "on screen" (it is muted out by montage music in the first episode), which seems to reinforce the idea that Dorothy is indeed physically sophisticated enough to display the full range of human facial and vocal expressions; she just does not have a very emotive personality.

Dorothy has the habit of standing perilously close to edge of the roofs of tall buildings; as she is a robot and has superhuman balance coordination, she can safely stand or walk along the edge of a multi-floor building's roof without the possibility of losing her balance and falling off, thus she has no fear of heights like most humans.

It is implied throughout the series that there is some connection between Dorothy and megadeus robots, specifically the Big series of megadeuses, on a level which even Dorothy is not fully aware of. Dorothy's "father" Timothy Wayneright also built a megadeus robot, "Dorothy One", and some have speculated that Dorothy is something along the lines of a scaled-down megadeus,^{[citation needed]} robots which "harness the power of God in the hands of Man", though this is unknown.^{[citation needed]} Many times during the series Dorothy stares meaningfully at megadeus robots, especially Big O, as if communicating on a deeper level.^{[citation needed]} When Roger and Dorothy encountered the Archetype robot in episode 4, Dorothy started almost uncontrollably making ultra-fast synthetic vocalizations to it, apparently communicating in some form of computer code. In the Season 2 episode "Leviathan", when the sand dragon megadeus archetype arrives, Dorothy begins uncontrollably making ultra-fast vocalizations and covers her mouth in surprise at herself. Dorothy can function as the memory core of a jerry-rigged megadeus, as seen with Dorothy One. Dorothy's main memory core can also be used as the memory core of a Big robot, as when Alex Rosewater stole Dorothy's to make Big Fau operate.

It is revealed in the final episode that Big robots are actually designed to interface with androids: the Big robot is sentient (to what degree is not entirely clear) but has a human dominus (pilot) to control its actions; an android is supposed to also be present, to non-emotionally judge when a Big's ultimate attack cannon should be used. In the season 2 finale Dorothy boards Big O and plugs herself in to activate the final attack stage for Roger (Big O was not jerry-rigged; it was designed to interface with an android like Dorothy).

[edit] Norman Burg

Voiced by: Motomu Kiyokawa (Japanese), Milton James (English) in Season One, Alan Oppenheimer (English) in Season Two.

Norman Burg is Roger's butler. Forty years ago he, along with all of Paradigm, lost all memories, but he wouldn't think twice before going once more unto the breach for his master. Resourceful and talented, he is also caretaker of the Big O.^[15] Norman's skills give him a purpose and a mission to accomplish for Roger. He and Dorothy keep Roger in line, so he likes having her around.

[edit] Dan Dastun

Voiced by: Tesshou Genda (Japanese), Peter Lurie (English)

Dan Dastun is the middle-aged Chief of the Military Police, introduced in Act:01. In "Winter Night Phantom," Roger describes him as "a hard-nosed cop [...] completely devoted to the force, and he has more pride in the Military Police than anything else." He continues, "Paradigm City needs him as much as it needs [The Negotiator]." He is Roger's former commander, but they still maintain contact. Dastun resents having the force called the "watchdogs" of the Paradigm Corporation, and has expressed his disdain for its executives.^[16][17]

Winter Night Phantom

Dastun himself gets a burst of Memory in Act 10, of a movie he saw when he was a kid before the Event. In the movie, "Winter Night Phantom", a police officer is arguing with a woman holding a balloon on a dock, ending with him shooting her. Her dying words are "Vous êtes si gentil"; "You are so sweet" in French. In the present, Dastun began seeing a woman that looked exactly like the actress from the movie, but not aged a day, roaming Paradigm City setting off explosions as a means of political assassination. This culminated in Dastun shooting her on a pier while she was holding a balloon, eerily living out the scene from the movie. Towards the end of season 2, Dastun even sees two children entering a theater to see a movie, and when he follows to investigate, he finds a boy who looks exactly like he did when he was a child, with a child-version of Vera Ronstadt.

[edit] Angel

Voiced by: Emi Shinohara (Japanese), Wendee Lee (English)

Angel is the beautiful woman Roger encounters throughout the series. Introduced in Act:03 as Casey Jenkins, investigator for Paradigm Power Management, then again in Act:04 as Patricia Lovejoy, secretary for the publisher of Paradigm Press. Originally a recurring character, Angel was given top billing in Season Two.^[18] Her role is that of a femme fatale, the woman who deceptively misleads and ensnares the hero or other males in order to gain some end they would not freely help her achieve.^[19] One reviewer calls Angel a “Fujiko clone” with a “body-hugging suit [that] would give Emma Peel a run for her money.”^[20]

Her role

Angel's back features two large mysterious scars over her shoulder blades, giving the impression that she had "angel wings" which were cut off, leaving Roger to ponder if there really is some higher meaning to her name.^{[citation needed]} At first, Angel appears to be working for Alex Rosewater, and is a spy or secret agent he sends out to "acquire" needed items or information, with the aid of high-tech spy-gear. By day, she is Alex's secretary at the Paradigm Group. She often runs afoul of Roger, and there is an underlying attraction between them which forms a love triangle between Roger, Angel, and R. Dorothy. At first, the "mystery" of Angel was that her real name and past were unknown, and Roger suspected that she was working for Rosewater, though the details were unknown.

However, by the end of season 1 it was revealed that Angel was actually a member of "The Union", foreigners who were trying to infiltrate Paradigm City, and who had their own group of three foreign Megadeus robots to unleash in the finale. Within the Union, Angel was known as "Agent 340". At this point, Angel leaves Rosewater and appears to freelance for a time. However, the mystery of Angel drastically deepens when the leader of the Union appears. In the final episodes of the series, Angel ventures into the unexplored warrens of the ruined underground beneath Paradigm City, and finds an abandoned television production studio which has rooms from her childhood in it, heavily implying to her that her own memories about who she is are a fabrication. The Union leader then appears and tells Angel that she is in fact her mother, though Angel doesn't know if this is to be believed.

The final episode of the series is noted for the plot turning almost surreal and open to interpretation, and the mystery of Angel is brought to new heights: Gordon Rosewater leads Angel away from the TV production floor into an elevator leading out of the studio. Angel breaks down, saying she has no idea who she really is and if her memories are all false.

Gordon Rosewater makes the elevator descend to sub-basement level 666, and the doors open into a vast black room with simple bright grid lines on it, which looks like they are incomplete parts of reality (they look like they're in a computer). Gordon Rosewater then holds up the mysterious book "Metropolis" which Gordon supposedly wrote (but which he claims he didn't), calling upon the real writer of the book: the book, and Gordon, promptly vanish into thin air.

Angel walks away from the elevator and further into the room, and glowing light surrounds her and spread from the two scars on her back, forming dazzling real angel-wings of light. During Roger Smith's subsequent hallucination-montage, the scenes intercut with Angel working in a production studio of some sort, and on the cover of "Metropolis" the "author" heading has switched from "by Gordon Rosewater" to "by Angel Rosewater". In a series of intercut scenes, Angel is shown writing in the book, working in TV sets which are exact replicas of rooms seen in Roger's home and other places in Paradigm City, and Angel is seen looking over schematics for R. Dorothy-type robots.

It is implied at the end of the series that Paradigm City might actually be a "stage" built by some higher being for the "theater performance" of the people living in it, who are really more like actors: in the second-to-last episode Big Duo keeps flying upwards uncontrollably, impossibly high for miles, until it parts through the clouds and crashes into a stage light the size of a large building suspended in the air. When Roger is sinking into an ocean trench miles below sea level in the final episode, he sees gigantic, strange machinery underneath Paradigm City, prompting him to wail "What is this world?" Gordon Rosewater kept hinting that Angel was "The Director", and in the final episode she is seen presiding over the events in Paradigm City like the "director" of the play that is Paradigm City (the final episode is even titled "The Show Must Go On"). In the end, Angel pilots the previously unknown "Big Venus" and begins to erase all of Paradigm City and the entire world into whitespace nothingness: R. Dorothy declares that this is what caused The Event that erased everyone's memory 40 years ago. Big Fau and Alex Rosewater simply vanish when Big Venus passes, along with the entire world, until only Big O, Roger, and R. Dorothy remain. As Big Venus closes in, Roger makes an impassioned plea to Angel for the sake of everyone in the city, and the world resets itself instead of vanishing: the scene cuts to Roger driving past Angel and R. Dorothy on the crowded streets of Paradigm City, performing his much needed job of Negotiator. This is the opening scene from the first episode of Big O.

[edit] Villains

[edit] Alex Rosewater

Alex Rosewater is an antagonist in The Big O, the son of Paradigm City creator Gordon Rosewater, although he is very different from his father. Unlike Gordon, Alex possesses an unquenchable thirst for power, and an "ends justify the means" philosophy. Alex is chairman of the Paradigm Group, the ogliarchic council that controls the city. Despite being more or less the absolute ruler of Paradigm City, Alex harbors dreams of even greater power and will stop at nothing to achieve them. He is supposedly symbolic of the Antichrist,^{[citation needed]} and acts like a "Hitler-like-figure",^{[citation needed]} but he tends to think of himself more as a Christ-figure, saviour to the people of Paradigm City^{[citation needed]} (though this is somewhat contradictory, since he has often shown great contempt and even hatred for the city's denizens, primarily those living outside of the city's domes)^{[citation needed]}. This is due to his belief that he is the only son of the world's "God," Gordon Rosewater. Thus, his delusions of being a saviour emphasize the term "False Prophet". Fitting with his false prophet motif, Alex always wears white suits, and pilots the white Megadeus, Big Fau (while the "hero" of the story, Roger Smith, always wears black and pilots the black Megadeus, Big O).

He was obsessed with controlling his own Megadeus, and made a secret deal with the mysterious "Union", a group of foreigners who have infiltrated Paradigm City, in order to obtain the parts to reconstruct Big Fau. When Big Fau had been rebuilt, he reneged on the deal and ordered the arrest of all the members of the Union (save Alan Gabriel, who served him); only Angel and Union leader Vera Ronstadt escaped.

Though the Big Fau lacked its core memory, Rosewater decided to pilot it nonetheless. As a result, the white Megadeus broke free of his control, firing at random and destroying parts of the city. Big O managed to quiet the rogue Megadeus, apparently through some sort of unspoken communication, and Rosewater was temporarily trapped inside.

Rosewater was also obsessed with recovering the hidden memories of Paradigm's past that his father Gordon possessed. When Gordon proved unresponsive, Alex finally had his father's tomato farm burned to the ground, seemingly killing him.

To complete Big Fau and ensure his total control over it, Rosewater hired Jason Beck, Roger Smith's occasional nemesis, to kidnap R. Dorothy, steal her core memory, and install it in Big Fau. When this final modification was finished, he went on a rampage in Big Fau, intent on destroying Paradigm and rebuilding it in his own image. He fought Roger Smith and the Big O and was on the verge of finishing them both off. However, Angel, piloting the Megadeus "Big Venus" in her capacity as the "Director", apparently erased both Rosewater and the Big Fau from existence.

[edit] Alan Gabriel

Alan Gabriel is a fictional character in the anime series The Big O, introduced at the start of season 2. He is also an eccentric psychopath in the employ of Alex Rosewater; after Angel was fired as Alex's personal assistant in the Season 2 premiere, Gabriel became Alex's gofer. Donning a sharp pinstriped suit, a black fedora, and skin as white as ash, Gabriel cuts something of a clownish figure; the image is enhanced by his impossible thinness and height. Though his eyes are hidden beneath the brim of his hat (though even when he takes it off his eyes are hidden by a mask), he sports a constant red-lipped grin, as if an insider on a joke. His greatest pleasure is being assigned to kill. Gabriel is a cyborg; when Dorothy asks if he's a human or an android like herself, he triumphantly announces, "I'm the boogeyman!". In battle, Gabriel employs an extendable arm, a long golden pistol, and extremely agile martial arts techniques. His clothing and movements (at one point, he appears to perform the moonwalk) hint that Gabriel may be inspired by Michael Jackson.^{[citation needed]} Gabriel's trademark (or at least, most menacing) weapon is his cybernetic hand. He snaps his fingers together to form a cone, and then spins his entire hand at the wrist, to form a large high-speed metal drill that can easily kill his victims. Whereas Schwarzwald is hell-bent on finding out the truth about the world of Paradigm City and feeling that the decadent population deserves death for their ignorance, Gabriel is simply a depraved killer, taking sadistic glee out of the act of killing itself. Alan even licks his gold pistol with his tongue right before particularly satisfying kills.

Alan Gabriel is actually a member of The Union, and is Alex Rosewater's go-between or "ambassador" between their group and Rosewater. Rosewater's dealings with the Union break down, though Gabriel appears to still work for him. Gabriel's real agenda is somewhat nebulous, though it would appear that he is straddling the fence between the Union and Rosewater, depending on who will give him the opportunity to kill the most people. Gabriel was about to assassinate Rosewater near the end of season 2 (Rosewater was unaware of this), but stopped when Rosewater gave him Big Duo to pilot and kill Roger Smith with. Piloting the modified "Big Duo Inferno", and grafted into the controls with connecting wires, Gabriel and Roger Smith engaged in a vicious battle. The battle ended when the ghost or impression of Schwarzwald appeared on the screen of Big Duo and declared that Alan Gabriel was unworthy of being a Megadeus pilot. At this point, the screen of Big Duo flashed, "Ye Guilty" and Big Duo proceeded to kill Gabriel with many linking wires in the cockpit by either smothering or crushing him to death. As a testimony to the character, his next-to-last words were "But I haven't killed him yet!"

[edit] Vera Ronstadt

Vera Ronstadt is a mysterious middle-aged blonde woman who appears in season 2 and is leader of the Union. The Union are "foreigners" infiltrating Paradigm City, and thus Vera speaks with a French accent.

Vera made a deal between Alex Rosewater in which the Union would deliver the parts to construct Big Fau for Alex, but he then reneged on the deal and hunted down all of the Union members. Vera sent the three foreign Megadei to attack Paradigm City in the season 1 finale, although Angel thought it was too soon. After Big O defeated them, Alex's men removed the parts for Big Fau hidden inside them and finished construction. However, Vera and the Union took the remaining scrap parts from the three robots and combined them to make one functional Megadeus, Bonaparte. Vera sent Bonaparte on a rampage in Paradigm City in reprisal against Alex, but piloting Big Fau, Rosewater was able to defeat and completely melt Bonaparte. Towards the end of season 2 Vera claimed to be Angel's real mother, though this is unconfirmed.

[edit] Recurring characters

[edit] Jason Beck "Gold"

Jason Beck “Gold” is a recurring character on the show, causing much anguish for Roger. Jason behaves both as Roger’s rival and mainly as comic relief throughout the show.^{[citation needed]}

Beck is the first character introduced who is meant to appear as Roger's foil, as his yellow color and wild and mischievous nature stand in contrast to Roger's black color and professional demeanor. Beck is a tall man who is very flexible. He is a coward when he knows he is losing, and he loves to make his attacks from a distance. In the first and second episodes, Beck is the kidnapper. He exchanges the Dorothy android (R. Dorothy), and keeps the Dorothy robot built like a Megadeus to break into the bank, powering it with R. Dorothy.^[clarify]

Beck is very uncertain. He can be seemingly uneasy and panicky at one moment, and calm himself down to regain himself the next. He has seen the extent of what Roger Smith can do, and takes advantage of it. Often, he goes straight for R. Dorothy, although a few times he has kidnapped Roger Smith instead.

Despite this, Beck is intelligent, as he can come up with his plots rather easily. He has done everything from reconfigure a giant robot, to building his own Megadeus, to even creating a fully functional version of Roger's torso and head. This shows that Beck, while inept, had some technical training before the memory loss.^{[citation needed]}

Beck has two henchmen, who appear with him every time he is shown (except for his appearance in the first episode of the second season). These henchmen listen to Beck without much thought or even speech.

Beck is pictured in the first episode of the second season (Roger the Wanderer) as the head of a bank. In this portrayal he is rather sophisticated and asks Roger to leave the bank in a manner that starkly conrtrasts the antics he is usually characterized by.^[clarify]

Within the context of the series Beck's goals are usually that of simple theft, or revenge on Roger (sometimes both) for thwarting previous plans. He is treated as more of an annoyance than a genuine threat (though he can endanger the safety of Roger's friends like Dorothy). However, it is intriguing that he gets bursts of memory about how Megadeus technology works.^{[citation needed]}

After being imprisoned thanks to Roger's exploits for the fourth time, Alex Rosewater's agent Alan Gabriel pressured Beck into helping Rosewater, or they would give him the death penalty. Beck assisted by building an army of 10 foot robot scorpions to kidnap Dorothy, and then using Dorothy's memory core to make Big Fau operational.

However, Beck had no real allegiance to Rosewater, and after being released did not help Rosewater fight Roger Smith. In the end, Beck helped Roger and Dorothy. Beck had a burst of memory in which he realized that a Big robot is designed to interface with an android to turn on its ultimate cannon attack. He then informed Dorothy so she could board Big O and turn the weapon on for Roger in his fight with Big Fau.

Beck has admitted several times to having memories of Roger Smith being Big O's Dominus, but his link to Roger before the memory loss is unknown still. Along with this, Beck has also admitted to having memories of how to power a Megadeus. This may mean that he built Megadeuses,^{[citation needed]} but this has not been completely revealed.

[edit] Michael Seebach/Schwarzwald

Schwarzwald... this man had continually made it his mission in the city to faithfully seek out the truth and report it to the public. Schwarzwald... I can't help but wonder. I wonder if he knew. When he was betrayed by Big Duo, did he realize then that there is probably more than one truth? - Roger Smith

Michael Seebach is a vigilante reporter before the main narrative begins, but later he is transformed into Schwarzwald. In his first appearance, the show points out that "Schwarzwald" means "Black Forest" in German. Some of the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm took place in the Black Forest, named for the lack of light due to the dense vegetation of the forest. This relates to Schwarzwald, since his face is obscured by bandages, and he lives in the dark underground of Paradigm City.^[α]

Schwarzwald is the second character of the series that is meant to look like Roger's foil, as his disheveled white suit, tattered bandages, and grandiose proclamations stand in contrast to Roger's pressed black suit, clean-cut hair, and general desire to remain out of the spotlight.

A reporter, Seebach was obsessed with bringing the truth to the people of Paradigm City, but became frustrated as the Paradigm Corporation continually censored his work. Eventually his search for the truth would become an obsession, and Seebach began living a double life. In time he became even more obsessed with his work and cut himself off from human contact, including his wife and children.

Seebach eventually decided to journey into the underground of Paradigm City, where he encounters the Archetype. It is not known what exactly happened between Seebach and the Archetype, but it left Seebach horribly scarred, burned, and the event erased what little sanity Seebach had left in him. He survived to return to the surface, but he decided that Seebach was not strong enough to get to the real truth of Paradigm City, so he took a new name and identity to suit his search for the truth. Seebach vanished from the world and was replaced by a new identity, Schwarzwald.

Schwarzwald has a tendency to leave cryptic notes and clues in his path, wanting to express to his enemies and the rest of the city the necessity of truth—and its pursuit. At one point he peppered the city with thousands of copies of William Blake's Behemoth and Leviathan, perhaps making a comparison between the legendary beasts and the Megadei. He later finds the next Big robot besides Big O; Big Duo, which is capable of flight. However, Big Duo was nearly destroyed in a fight with Big O and Schwarzwald dropped out of sight.

Although originally an enemy of Roger Smith, as the series progressed Roger found himself working with Schwarzwald, as he too began to search for the truth about Paradigm City. The key difference between the two is that Roger doesn't think the people of Paradigm City deserve to die for their complacency.^{[citation needed]}

Schwarzwald is extremely unique in his ability to pilot The Big Duo without any outside interference or technological manipulation. Although he was betrayed by The Big Duo, Schwarzwald's inherent knowledge of Duo's weapon systems, flight mechanics, and his mere ability to activate Duo strongly suggest that Schwarzwald is Duo's native pilot, or at the very least was declared "YE NOT GUILTY" at one point. Schwarzwald is one of two characters in the series to be declared as such and possess natural Megadeus piloting skills, alongside Roger Smith.

It's later revealed that Schwarzwald died while searching for the truth and Big Duo was left without a master.

However, in the penultimate episode of the series what might be the "ghost" or imprint of Schwarzwald reappears on the monitor of Big Duo while it is being piloted by the evil cyborg Alan Gabriel, and Schwarzwald berates him for his unworthiness to pilot a Megadeus. The control panel then flashes "Ye guilty", and Big Duo horrifically kills Gabriel.

Shortly after Roger Smith is informed of Schwarzwald's death, he receives a personal letter from Schwarzwald intended to be delivered post-mortem. The contents of the letter are unknown, but appeared to be very dense, lengthy writing with a powerful enough message to force Roger Smith "to wonder... if he was still wandering the city relentlessly in search of his own personal truth, even after his body had perished."

[edit] Gordon Rosewater

Gordon Rosewater is often credited as the man responsible for the construction of Paradigm City. Gordon's son, Alex Rosewater, took over his father's duties when he retired.

Much of Gordon's history is left mysterious, and his true history might never be known unless a third season of the series is created. Thought to be killed by his own son,^{[episode needed]} he aided both Roger and Angel in their quest for the truth behind the scenes. Unlike other characters in the series, such as Roger Smith or Schwarzwald, Gordon appears to be perfectly content with the uncertainties of the past, much to Roger's dismay.

While people ask him questions about the past, it is fairly obvious that Gordon has no intention of telling anyone anything, unless they find it out for themselves. Many have speculated that the figure standing before the children in Roger's frequent flashback is Gordon Rosewater,^{[citation needed]} however no factual evidence in the series has ever proven this.

Regardless, Gordon seems to know everything about the past, and may have had a hand in either the MegaDeus memory or the memory with the children.^[clarify]

[edit] Minor characters

[edit] Big Ear

Big Ear's primary function in the series is Roger's informant. He is found at the same bar every night, always reading the newspaper. He is always ready with relevant information. In the beginning of the final episode of Season 2, Big Ear is seen reading a newspaper with a picture of Big O and Big Fau fighting, though their fight has not yet started. It is possible that Big Ear has always had newspapers from the future, and was thus supposed to guide Roger Smith through his trials and tribulations.^{[citation needed]}

We also find out in the beginning of the final episode, the Big Ear is an android, with synthetic skin applied over a crude, metallic body.

[edit] Sybil Rowan

The name of Sybil Rowan (シベール・ロアン, Shibēru Roan^?) applies to two different characters in Act:10. The first is an actress and anti-government activist expelled from the city thirty years before. She starred in the movie "Winter Night Phantom", a movie Dastun saw as a child and now remembers as a recurring dream.

The second character is the bomber featured in the episode, and who resembles the Sybil in Dastun's dreams. She identifies herself as "Phantom" (ファントム, Fantomu^?), after Rowan's film. Her death, at the hands of Dastun, parallels that film's ending.

She is voiced by Sakiko Tamagawa in the Japanese-language version, and by Mona Marshall in the English version.

[edit] R.D.

R.D., short for "Red Destiny", is R. Dorothy's "evil twin"; another android of the same model and physical appearance as Dorothy, created to be an assassin and serial killer. Only appearing in one episode (the season 1 finale), she left Roger shaken for a time with the fear that Dorothy was assassinating people who remembered pre-Event memories. R.D. is psychotic and emotionally warped; on the one hand she is ruthless, cold, and calculating, however, she is manically obsessed with killing Roger Smith. She was activated by Alex Rosewater to kill everyone who has recovered memories from pre-Event time, in occurrence the "tomatoes".^[21]

The character only appeared once more throughout the series (during flashback sequences in the season 2 episode "Negotiation With The Dead"), however the basis of the character remained.^[clarify]

Red Destiny seemed to have been programmed for the annihilation of anyone with memories prior to the incident. She would kill the target, and leave the message "Cast in the name of God, ye not guilty" on the glass surfaces near her victims. During the episode, the audience is led to believe that this is R. Dorothy due to her absence throughout the episode despite Roger's questioning of her whereabouts. However, near the end, R. Dorothy is shown, showing she is not Red Destiny, and R. Dorothy states "You would have known where I was if you weren't running around the whole time".

[edit] Notes

α. ^{^}  In both the English ending credits listing for the Japanese voice cast, and also in official images from Japan, Schwarzwald's name is mistransliterated as "Schwaltzwalt".

[edit] References

[edit] Sources

Official sites

• Big O. Adult Swim.

Unofficial sites

• Character Profiles. Paradigm City.
• The Big O Encyclopedia. Save Big O.

Miscellaneous

• The Big O at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia