Monday, January 24, 2011

Characters: The Big O

Characters: The Big O

These are the characters from The Big O.

Roger Smith

The top negotiator in Paradigm City and The Hero of the story. A Batman analogue, he's committed to the well-being of the citizens of Paradigm, especially children and the elderly. He controls the Megadeus he calls Big O, though he's not sure why he has this power. In fact, he never seems to dwell much at all on his own youth, or how he came to possess so many amazing capabilities...
Tropes associated with Roger:
  • Actor Allusion - "I don't know who you think I am. I'm not a bounty hunter, you know."
  • Angst Coma: In the first episode of the second season, Roger goes introspectively catatonic as he struggles to figure out just who — and what — he is. Mind Screwensues
  • Cool Car - the Griffon (Roger's answer to the Batmobile.)
  • Cultured Badass Normal
  • Dark Is Not Evil - As a contrast to Rosewater's Light Is Not Good.
  • Deadpan Snarker - He IS based off of the Film Noir traditions of heroes like Sam Spade, after all.
  • Doesnt Like Guns - He feels they're unbecoming of a gentleman.
  • MIB - even more so in that he has a rule that everyone living in his home wear black, plus he drives a black car and pilots a black Megadeus.
  • Expy/Composite Character - Of Bruce Wayne and Batman, depending on how much you view the two as the same or different characters.
  • Falling Into The Cockpit - Seriously played with by way of Fridge Logic.
  • Game Breaker: Roger Smith's "Negotiation" skill in Super Robot Wars Z: so long as Roger is deployed on the battlefield and remains there until the end of the scenario, any and all repair costs from destroyed units are reduced to zero. Repeat: ALL REPAIR COSTS ARE REDUCED TO ZERO. It helps that The Big O is one of the game's better units by being a Stone Wall. Not to mention that it hits like a truck and has many attacks which don't use energy. Just give it a "Barrier Unit" which is basically a shield which uses energy, teach Roger "B save" to get more mileage out of his Sudden Impact and Final Stage weapons and drop him in the middle of enemy territory. He even gets better after gaining Dorothy as a sub-pilot.
    • Unsure why reducing repair costs to zero is particularly gamebreaking? Unless Z has made some rather dramatic changes, you shouldn't be letting any units be destroyed in the first place, and the effect it has is consequently nil.
      • It didn't. The real strength of Roger's Negotiation ability is that enemies he faces suffer from will reduction. Thus making it harder for bosses to reach enough will for their most devastating attacks.
  • Grappling Hook Pistol: In his wristwatch. In the final episode he even uses it as Razor Floss!
  • Honor Before Reason
  • Informed Ability - Especially in the early episodes, you have to wonder at this skill as a negotiator when he has to pull out his ace in the hole so damned often. Not so glaring to be obtrusive, but DAMN. Paradigm must have some dumbass criminals.
    • Well, one of the criminals is Beck (who showed up in the first two episodes of a 13 episode series).
  • In The Name Of The Moon - "Big O! ACTION!" A justified trope, given the Megadeuses' response to their masters' voice commands.
    • "Big O! It's SHOWTIME!"
  • Jerk With A Heart Of Gold/Tsundere - His interactions with both Dorothy and Angel hint at subtle (and hilarious) Belligerent Sexual Tension
  • Mitsuru Miyamoto
  • Multiple Choice Past - Overcoming this fact may be what allows him to successfully negotiate with Angel in the Grand Finale. Maybe.
  • Multiple Choice Past: He can't be more than his late 20s or so, right? So he couldn't possibly have memories of before 40 years ago. No wait, before the event he was a cop who decided to leave his job and become a vagrant possibly because a megadeus was unearthed, and he cannot be more than 40 years old. And then he became Big O's pilot, holding the rank of major, and they've known each other since before the event. No, wait, he was a a mass-produced megadeus pilot robot. Or none of this actually happened because there were no memories!
  • Neutral Good (He has both Lawful Good and Chaotic Good leanings, so put emphasis on the Good. He doesn't hold himself to Paradigm City's rules and thinks disdainfully of the military police, but he holds his own standards highly and always follows through on a contract and saves the day, come hell or high water. )
  • Not A Morning Person
  • Private Eye Monologue
  • Rich Idiot With No Day Job - Negotiating must be QUITE a gig to keep his digs looking so fine.
  • Sharp Dressed Man - He wears black because it looks so damned good on him.
  • Steve Blum
  • The Man Behind The Man - If Gordon Rosewater's picture means anything.
  • Tomato In The Mirror - Zigzagged
  • Unusual Eyebrows: They're like...windshield wipers, or something.
  • Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys - Subverted in the second season. He PAYS for them, using hired labour.
  • Wise Beyond Their Years - Enforced version. Word Of God stated that he wanted to avert the Kid Hero.

R. Dorothy Wayneright

This young lady happens to be an android, who ends up as Roger's live-in maid after negotiations to rescue her from kidnappers results in the death of her creators. Built from a pre-Event design, her sophistication rivals that of the other androids seen around the city, and she carries the distinction of being the only one capable of passing for a human under casual inspection... until the final episodes reveal at least one other character was an android all along as well.
Tropes associated with Dorothy:

Norman Burg

Norman is Roger's butler. Though he's a faithful domestic servant in his daily routine, he's also a skilled and fearless fighter, and has been maintaining the Big O since the Event forty years ago. Apparently when the Big O accepted Roger as a worthy master, Norman did the same.
Tropes associated with Norman:

Major Dan Dastun

The Head of Paradigm City's Military Police, and formerly Roger's commanding officer. Technically his allegiance lies with the Paradigm Corporation, but his true loyalties are to the genuine welfare of the city and its people. Unlike Roger, he's (mostly) willing to put up with Paradigm's corporate string-pulling in order to keep serving the public trust.
Tropes associated with Dastun:

Angel


This lovely blonde has at least one hidden agenda, with very vague loyalties on top of that. She has a nose for trouble, which usually means she's always one step ahead of Roger. Oddly appropriate to her name, she has a pair of scars on her back — at about the place an angel's wings are usually shown sprouting from (seen in Act 7).
Tropes associated with Angel:

Alex Rosewater

The man in charge of Paradigm City and the corporation, controlling them both with ruthless efficiency. He's willing to preserve the state at the cost of its people when necessary, has no qualms about dealing with people he knows can't be trusted, and genuinely believes that anything would be better if he was in control of it.
Tropes associated with Rosewater:

Schwartzwald

Formerly Michael Seabach, reporter. His search for the truth of Paradigm City led him into its darkest secrets, where he witnessed...something... and became unhinged, to say the least. Upon his return, he begins a one-man crusade against the lies and complacency of Paradigm, and cares little for what he destroys along the way.
Tropes associated with Schwartzwald:
  • Anti Villain - Debatable. He wants to uncover the truth of behind the amnesia of 40 years ago. Should people have to die or the city be destroyed to let that truth be known, so be it.
  • Badass Angster - Especially in a Megadeus. He's generally found less lamenting his own personal fate as he is that of the city, however.
  • Bandaged Face
  • Chaotic Neutral - His motto may as well be "Screw the rules, I'm trying to prove The Truth!"
  • Char Clone
  • Conspiracy Theorist - He's also right!
  • Haunted Technology - One possible explanation of Big Duo's behaviour in season 2. A major contributor is his "ghost" that appears as he Hannibal Lectures Alan for being (seen as) unworthy as the pilot of a Megadeus, whereupon his finishing statement Big Duo flashed the words "YE GUILTY," as if to agree with his assessment.
  • Defector From Decadence - While not advocating a totalitarian dictatorship to keep the populace in line, he REALLY hates the blind hedonistic tendencies of the Paradigm City's elite. He does everything in his power to fight back against this apathy, including handing out flammable masks at a cocktail party and trashing the city with his own Humongous Mecha.
  • Evil Laugh: My, but he likes to do those.
  • Expy: You'd be forgiven for thinking he's one of Hush, but he wouldn't debut until a few years later.
  • Foil: To Roger Smith.
  • Go Mad From The Revelation: Happened before he was introduced.
  • Large Ham - None of the Big O's villains were particularly subtle, but his speech in episode 18 is deliciously bombastic.
  • Meaningful Name plus Gratuitous German - His name means "Black Forest".
  • Michael Mc Connohie
  • Nietzsche Wannabe - He's not so bleak as to declare all life meaningless, but the speech at the beginning of Act 17 ("Leviathan") certainly carries some darker notes of existentialism (See the link in Large Ham)
  • Screw The Money I Have Rules - It takes some pretty strong principles to turn down THAT level of severance pay.
  • Sixth Ranger (Joins the Ruina in Super Robot Wars D)
  • Slasher Smile: Default expression.
  • Thanatos Gambit - After his death midway through the second season, he manages to aid Roger with his letters.
  • That Man Is Dead - Michael Seabach is no more. Even Paradigm Corp. Executives start thinking this way.
  • Ubermensch - His speech in Leviathan basically set him up as this and the elite of Paradigm City as the Last Man (see above Defector From Decadence).

Alan Gabriel

All we know about Alan is that he works for Rosewater (among possibly others), he's some kind of cyborg (which were previously unknown in Paradigm City) — and that he's very dangerous.
Tropes associated with Alan:

Jason Beck

This criminal has the distinction of being Roger Smith's first foe introduced in the series. Like any good criminal, he just wants to get rich at the expense of others... but unlike good criminals, he's equally concerned with looking as good as possible while doing it. Might be more than he seems, if the pre-Event memories he gets after being hit by lightning are any indication.
Tropes associated with Beck:

Gordon Rosewater

Alex Rosewater's father, a kindly old man who has given up the cosmopolitan life to lead a simple life of farming.
Tropes associated with Gordon Rosewater:

Vera Ronstadt

A foreign woman who appears in the second season as a commander of the forces of the Union. Her French accent and claim to be from a country across the sea suggests there's civilizations in the world other than Paradigm City, but there's no memories to be had out there.
Tropes associated with Vera:
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