Welcome everyone, almost halfway through The Big O! This week we kick off the Christmas season with a shocking seasonal episode and begin the final episode of the first season of the Big O. We have a lot to talk about, so let’s get started.
First we have episode 11, “Daemonseed”. Overall, as a complete package, I quite enjoyed this episode. It’s probably the stronger of the two we’ll talk about this week. Focused on Christmas, I mean “Paradise’s Day”, it’s all about Dorothy, Roger, their relationship, religion, all the things that come up regularly in normal Christmas episodes. But because of Big O’s setting, where no one has any memories of 40 years ago, it gets rid of a lot of the usual “baggage” that comes with it. Suddenly, the Christmas songs passed through holiday cards take on a special meaning, the gifts become grounded in Paradigm City’s philanthropy and historical control, and Roger becomes certain About everything. Add in Dorothy’s Android existence, her struggle to understand not only what it means to be human but also specific emotions like love, and you have something solid here.
My only real problem with this episode is the weird seeds/plants issue. The setup with the old man giving Oliver everyone’s seed, how it stops at a certain size, what his plan is, etc. It’s awkward at times. However, even with that, it’s not a big deal as it makes for a great piece with some great animation, becoming a beautiful giant Christmas tree suitable for tall climax of the episode and further pushes Rosewater to become our “big bad” because all the evil comes from there. from Him. Could it have been handled a little better, perhaps explained a little more, or made better use of the saxophone player Oliver? Of course. But even as one of the mandatory weekly monster battles, it’s adequate enough, and fighting a tree that doesn’t even know you’re there is quite a novelty. So it was passed.
Getting back to the good stuff, it’s no surprise that Dorothy was my favorite character in the episode. As always, watching her navigate the human condition is… fascinating. She is not a subtle character, in fact she is quite straightforward. However, she’s so naive and ignorant about things that you’re never sure whether they come from curiosity or legitimate emotions. Take her question to Roger from a few episodes ago, asking if they love each other. At first, it seemed like an odd question but it ended up being curious. Yet here we find her asking, privately I might add, how one falls in love. Why do they love each other? She begins to desire a gift from Roger, to get one for him of her own will. Meanwhile, she clearly doesn’t understand her own feelings on the subject!
This is something I think the Big O is handling surprisingly well. There was a period of time where she didn’t show up/do much. Dorothy is primarily a companion. But lately it feels like every episode she’s grown a little more. Take stock of what happened that week, internalize it, and build from there. It’s definitely been slow growth. One that would be much less clear if we weren’t watching at the current rate of two episodes a week. Can you imagine looking back 3 months ago and trying to remember what she was like? It will be much dimmer. It’s because of our pacing that I think we can really appreciate the subtle changes in her personality. Not denying that she and Roger were a couple when asked, asked about the meaning of the gifts/whether Roger received a gift or not, even interested in the coat he bought for her. I love it.
The second half of the episode is dedicated to Oliver, a poor saxophone player. Overall, he and Laura mainly exist so that Dorothy can learn about love, but he and Rosewater also give us an interesting insight into the state of religion in this world. How the Bible and the churches have disappeared, even their hymns and songs exist only on Christmas cards with no one really understanding them anymore. However, even after their disappearance, they were still known to people like the Rosewater, speaking of the “Son of God” in feast days and the “Book of Revelation,” suggesting that they may have been destroyed along with the other “rebel” media soon after Paradigm City was founded. It also makes you wonder a bit about the words in the Big O and their meanings, religious or otherwise.
Moving on we have episode 12, “The Enemy is Another Big One”. I think this is really a giant fight, or… a fight with two rounds. It’s all about Schwarzewald’s return, falling in love with him and now he has an even bigger, better robot. As a spectacle, this episode is so much fun! Probably the best fight of the entire show so far. The production is great, some cool gimmicks like the flight, it really feels like the Big O is on the underdog most of the time. Most of all, I hope we can see some real consequences from this incident. After all, you can’t tell me that thousands of people didn’t die from those missiles, right? They flatten like half a dome! Everyone is definitely dead! I mean, maybe they died in previous battles, but Big O never mentioned them. Considering it shot down a couple right in front of us, it should be ready to tackle this problem.
Back to Schwarzewald, he was the most interesting part of the episode. His insistence on bringing the truth to light, returning people’s memories to 40 years ago, is both sympathetic and chaotic. In a way, humanity has lost a lot in 40 years. We can see it in the ruined city, in the impressive level of old technology. At the same time, however, every instance of memories returning only brings destruction to those involved. And that’s not even the case for people like Rosewater, one of the few people who seems aware of what life was like before losing her memory. Are he and his family involved in this? Could it be causing it? Is that why he is trying to repay Schwarzewald? Or is it just a coincidence that it all seems tied to him? Also, quick note, it’s pretty obvious paying homage to the Joker with that Jester costume.
Finally I want to talk about the robots, especially the Bigs. Big O has been hinting at this for a while now, we saw parts of it even in episode 1 when Dorothy interacted with older Dorothy. However, this episode confirms that these robots appear to have sentient abilities of their own. That they are not found but choose their master themselves. Like the prototype found beneath the city with Schwarzewald’s first appearance, the Big Duo can travel without a pilot. And it does so on purpose, following Rosewater’s direction. Is this because Rosewater is controlling it? Or does it have a vendetta against him? I still do not know. But one thing is for sure, these robots are more than just tools and I bet that’s true for Big O as well. Who knows, maybe one day Roger will be judged guilty for that.
So yeah, all of this is a nice pair of episodes. Both were aiming for something different and both achieved their goals. I think 11 is stronger emotionally, mainly because Dorothy is the best character on the show and any episode that focuses on her is sure to be good. Meanwhile, 12 is clearly stronger in terms of action, giving us the best fight scenes we’ve had to date. Big O is in good position for the Season 1 finale, which is what we’ll have next week. Looking ahead, while I don’t expect it to end anything, I do want Big O to use this finale to begin to hint at its finale. We had a great time with the monster shenanigans of the week. Now take that and try to focus it a little bit. Big O has done a great job so far, keep it up.