(no subject)
Character: Roger Smith
Series: Big O
Title: The Man with no Past Steps Into an Uncertain Future
Author: Leviathan
Email address: spottytoes@yahoo.com
Spoilers: Way too many. Anyone who hasn't seen the series and wants to should not read a single word of this essay.
Notes: I will admit to being an anime snob. I never listen to the English versions of things because I usually can't stand the voices. Roger's no exception. He's far more passionate than the American voice playing him ever manages. So, it may be that the translated version is a little different than what I've seen.
The Man with No Past Steps into an Uncertain Future
by Leviathan
My name is Roger Smith. I perform a much-needed job here in this city of amnesia.
These are the first and last words spoken by the main character of Big O. Between these 2 declarations, the viewer is introduced to the world of Paradigm City where Memories are worth more than gold, androids live alongside humans and, in the middle of it all, stands a man who pilots a giant robot and defends the city from all comers.
Who or what is Roger Smith? Primarily, Roger Smith is Paradigm City's #1 Negotiator - a man who takes both civil and criminal disagreements and works out solutions. A Negotiator also serves as a PI and sometimes as a mere messenger. Roger is so well-known that many people just call him Mr. Negotiator. Like everyone else, though, Roger is sometimes answerable to the city.
The city is run by Paradigm Corporation, serving the people as god and state, provided you live inside the domes. The domes were created by the corporation to recreate the old world where the sun shone and the temperatures were warm. Outside the domes, the world is always grey and it rains frequently. No one has any idea of how this ecological disaster struck nor what caused the vast wasteland that lies beyond the domes and the pieces of city that stand outside them. Outside the domes, ruins speak of some catastrophe that not only levelled a good portion of the city, but sank quite a bit of it under what is now called Paradigm Harbor.
Paradigm City is the phoenix that arose from the ashes of The Event - a seeming cataclysm that happened 40 years prior to the series wherein all humans and androids lost their memories. Imagine one morning walking into your job, home, friend's place, only to suddenly forget who you are, who all the people around you are and have no idea as to where you are or what you do. This is the mystery of Roger's world. No one has any idea of what happened to them, but the fear lives that whatever did could happen again.
Though Paradigm City, on the surface, appears to be a cinema noir world, there is a great deal of advanced technology. However, very few know how to build and only a few more know how to maintain this technology. The androids who live there are extremely powerful and intelligent companions who live in their own homes and own their own businesses. People accept them, except the "android crushers" who feel they shouldn't exist. However, little is known of the androids' origins. No one knows how long they may have been around prior to The Event, as, they, too, were affected by the catastrophe. No one is certain what their status in society may have been. For the most part, androids are treated pretty much like humans, though they are not allowed certain jobs. Since androids only have one law they must obey - they may not kill humans - they cannot take on jobs where they might be put into the situation that they would have to kill one.
Roger is a human being - as he himself puts it, "If I cut myself, I bleed, and I have all too many faults..." Physically, Roger is extremely strong. Other people have problems moving Dorothy, let alone pick her up as Roger does in his arms. Roger is also the one person who can operate a Megadeus - a giant robot that dates from before The Event. He is in his mid to late 20s, is not one of the people affected directly by The Event, but his own past isn't completely known to him. He remembers portions of his life, but they read like a fact sheet: born in an orphanage, fostered by a rich family, joined the Military Police, left and walked into his current occupation seemingly by accident. However, he has horrific nightmares of things he can't possibly know and of a past that reads more like a horror movie. Roger's nightmares and PTSD flashes are usually the same - dreams of destroying Megadeuses, children with barcodes in their eyes, fire, tomatoes and vast destruction. Some of the memories can't be his, they're obviously too old, while the rest would appear to be memories of things he'd rather forget. However, with Paradigm City itself as his prime example of man being able to overcome adversity, Roger is a genuine optimist who feels that the past is unimportant, but everything conspires to thrust Roger into the events of the past, to analyze just who and what he is.
We first meet him as he is fulfilling his job, paying ransom money for the release of a young woman. The deal goes sour when the father of the girl proclaims that who he's rescued is "Dorothy's dummy", an android girl who looks exactly like a human one. After the deaths of her 2 "fathers", Dorothy moves into Roger's home to become his administrative assistant.
Dorothy's entry into Roger's life presents him a dilemna. Roger very obviously likes her, but part of him can't handle the fact that she's an android. From the moment she moves in with him, he rags on her not to act like a human and complains about the fact that she's only imitating them. Part of this comes from the fact that Roger would prefer her to be true to herself, the other part is discomfiture over the fact that he's attracted to an android. Early in the series, during a case, Dorothy asks Roger "If we had no memories and we met, would we fall in love, too?" Yet, later, when Roger goes to answer the question, he says, "If you were human, instead of an android, would you and I have fallen in love?" Which he, even at that time, cannot truly answer. It's not that he's uncomfortable with androids as one of his oldest friends is one. It is, perhaps, that he can't stand the fact that she was built to function as a dead girl. Although an android so carefully crafted to look like a human is unusual, there is little negative reaction to Dorothy's existance and it is even speculated that all androids may have been such in the past.
Memories play a key part in the formation of the world. The definition of memory has been expanded to include any item that dates to prior to The Event as long as it isn't human or an android. There is also rumored to be a store of memories somewhere in Paradigm City, but no one has yet found them. In the beginning, everyone is led to believe that Paradigm City is all that's left of the world, but it leaks out that there are some kind of "foreign" powers, not as advanced as Paradigm City, still in existance. "The Union" as they are known as, attacks Paradigm City in the hopes of finding the hidden memories and levelling the playing field.
At the beginning, there seems only to be one Megadeus in existence, Big O. There is no one at the present time who knows how to create one, though Roger's butler, Norman Berg, knows how to maintain it. Big O seems completely invincible, easily taking out any other robots. This begins to change when we meet Schwartzwald, formerly Michael Seebach - a reporter for the city paper, who, despite the ingrained fears of the underground by all Paradigm City inhabitants, manages to find a prototype Megadeus deep underground. In order to fulfill a contract forced onto him by the corporation, Roger follows him and discovers what he found. Schwartzwald informs Roger that opening the prototype damaged him, explaining his horrific appearance, but he has only managed to open it. Dorothy, who has followed Roger, activates the prototype unwillingly. Frightened by this development, Dorothy flees it until Roger can put it out of commission with Big O.
Schwartzwald appears later as the pilot of a different Megadeus known as Big Duo. Big Duo, like Big O, is an old Megadeus, still strangely intact. Roger defeats him fairly easily, but as Schwartzwald flees Roger's evisceration of Big Duo, the Megadeus turns back on and walks away from the scene, climbs up the side of the pit the fight has created and reaches towards the center of the main dome before collapsing from the damage wrought. Schwartzwald looks up at Big Duo, then Big O, wondering aloud if the Megadeuses either don't need any kind of master or, perhaps, choose their pilots. As the series goes foward, it becomes more and more obvious that the Megadeuses are more intelligent than they had initially been credited, but that an interface is needed to give them purpose.
Roger and Dorothy are both interfaces. Although any android could probably serve as one, the more intelligent the machine, the more intellgent they want their interface to be. There seems to be a protocol built into them that if an operator is already owned by one machine that no other can take that interface until the other machine is destroyed. Roger is what is known as a Dominus Megadeum, the person who can control "the power of God, created by man". It seems apparent that the Megadeuses prefer a human brain over an android one, though an android will do. Each Megadeus has a "core memory", without which they are unable to function for very long.
The CEO of Paradigm Corporation is Alex Rosewater, the son of Gordon Rosewater, who originally created and built the domes after The Event. Alex is ambitious and ruthless, caring little for anyone who he feels doesn't contribute to the greater good of the corporation. Alex and Roger, initially, are not enemies. Alex uses Roger to get things done when no one else seems capable or when he feels like making a point to the Military Police about how ineffectual they are. Roger tries to avoid the corporation as much as possible, to the point of living outside the domes, but his reputation causes them to seek him out time after time.
Alex is jealous of Roger's power as a Dominus and, to that end, collaborates with the foreigners to bring back parts of yet a third kind of Megadeus - Big Four (or Fau, depending on your mood). However, the core memory of Big Four is missing until he devises a scheme to steal Dorothy's memory. With this new power in hand, Alex goes against Roger to become the single Dominus of Paradigm City.
"Memories like nightmares appear when you don't expect them to." Throughout the series, memories seem to come out of the woodwork, except to androids. Dr. Wayneright, who designed Dorothy, remembered enough not only to bring her to life, but to also help design other giant robots, though Dorothy does admit that he didn't understand her core technology. As people begin to remember more, the atmosphere of the city begins to change, becoming perilous to not only Roger and his friends, but to the entire city itself. Though Roger's plunge into the memories of old is precipitated with the appearance of Big Duo, a series of murders hurls Roger onto a destiny he has no control over nor facility to understand. At each murder, the words "Cast in the name of God. Ye not guilty" is written in red. These are the same words that appear across Big O's screens every time Roger calls him into action. The first victim had hired Roger to investigate something, but before they ever met, she was killed. Three more murders take place before Roger gets his first clue.
Roger returns to the orphanage he grew up in to find it abandoned and long stripped of anything. There, he meets up with Angel, a perennial thorn in his side, who leaves behind a book titled Metropolis by Gordon Rosewater, after warning him that the corporation is not pleased with the way that Roger runs Big O. The book not only details the last days of mankind before The Event, but also contains a list with 5 names. Four of them are the murdered people; the last name is only the initials R.D. Roger heads for Ailesberry, the dome where Gordon Rosewater has retired, to find out about the book. The old man tells Roger that the half-finished book which ends in the words "The power of God, created by man. Divine thunder raining down from the heavens" is a lie, but won't tell him how or why. He tells Roger he has to find his own answers.
Roger initially comes to Gordon to question him concerning experiments on children - the children he sees in his nightmare. Rosewater never denies having worked on these children. Roger is afraid one of these children is himself. Throughout Gordon's entire explanation, the image of tomatoes and the harvesting of them is key. When he hears the news that Roger has gone to see his father, Alex says, "The awakening has already begun".
Following clues from his flashbacks, Roger goes to a tunnel to find the opened container of some kind of device. A figure emerges wearing a red cape. Roger comes up with the idea that the R of the initials stands for "red". He asks the figure stalking him if the D means death, devil or dark, but she tells him that it means "destiny". Roger sees her face - she looks just like Dorothy. As she pulls a gun on him, she asks him if he's been "commanded" to pilot the Megadeus. When Roger denies being commanded, she tells him he must die for having knowledge of God. She manages to wing him, but just as it looks like she's about to finish him off, Big O, containing his Dorothy, shows up and destroys her.
The red Dorothy is only the start of what Roger has to deal with in trying to find out why he has such nightmares and exactly who he is. Roger has a major breakdown in the middle of a fight, losing himself in memories of a Paradigm City that has no domes, sunlight and no android or Megadeus technology. As Roger wanders as a bum in a world that doesn't acknowledge him, he begins to wonder if he created Paradigm City in his mind to escape his boring reality. He sees Dorothy, but she is a human girl with her father, Dr. Wayneright. He eventually gets picked up by Angel who tells him he's actually a Major who seems to have run away from his assignment. They drive underground where Roger's fear begins to take hold. Eventually Roger's fight against his fear brings him back to his present and he finishes off his opponents.
Roger becomes embroiled in a new world where he becomes Alex's unwitting rival for the dominion of Paradigm City. Roger has no desire to run the world, but he's the one thing Alex can't be. Alex doesn't have a Megadeus and he can't take Roger's. To that end, he has 3 robots ship in the pieces of Big 4, disguised in the fight Roger cracks up over. As Alex puts Big 4 together, Roger continues his journey of self-discovery, becoming more and more convinced that he is one of Rosewater's tomatoes, created to hold the memories of the governmental elite. More memories seem to be returning to the world in general, including the fact that perhaps their world is not what they believe it to be; that it is, in fact, malleable.
Alex becomes obsessed with creating a new world in his image. After attempting patricide, he chooses to launch an attack on the city directly in order to "reset" it. As Alex moves to create his new world, Roger discovers that not only is he not one of Gordon's tomatoes, but that he is, somehow, much older than he appears. In the book on the last of the written pages, Roger found a picture torn in half. The other half is in Gordon's possession - a picture of a much younger Gordon and Roger shaking hands. Gordon tells Roger that he hired a Roger Smith to negotiate with the creators of the world on the behalf of humanity.
As the world is rapidly being destroyed around them by Alex's ambitions, Big O and Big Four finally meet in the field of battle. Alex refuses to accept that Roger is the only Dominus and determines that since he is now in charge of Big Four, which he considers to be the superior Big, he will take out Roger and become the de facto God of Paradigm City. Big Four joins with Alex, making Alex a part of the Megadeus. He manages to knock Roger out long enough to dump him into the harbor. Roger attempts to drag him down with him, but Alex destroys the chains binding him, sending Roger deep into the water.
As Roger sinks, he finds himself floating past large gears indicating some huge mechanism. Big O moves to join with Roger as Big Four united with Alex, but Roger chooses to retain his humanity. In the meantime, Gordon and Angel, whom Gordon has called a Memory, go far beneath the surface as Gordon explains to Angel that no one other than her can possibly access the memories prior to The Event. Angel makes her own decision to shed her humanity and return to her true form.
Roger's mind is suddenly assaulted by images - images of destruction, of a huge robot that looms over Paradigm City, of himself as a man defeated, a bum on the street and hundreds of androids printed in his image. Roger denies all of these visions and, with Dorothy's help, escapes the deep and heads back to the surface. Roger proceeds to blow away half of Big Four; however, Alex accuses him of being weak and goes to energize what remains of his weaponry to destroy Roger when a huge white Big suddenly appears. As it walks, the city vanishes behind it. It lays a hand on Big Four's shoulder and it disappears. Roger realizes that this Big is actually Angel in her true form - Big Venus. He is now back to being a Negotiator, reminding Angel that she was human and that only through the memories of humans can she live in the human form she chose. The city vanishes entirely, leaving only Roger, Big O, Dorothy and Angel as Roger exorts her to let the humans retain their memories. As they merge, there is a white flash and then we find ourselves in exactly the same place as the beginning of the series. However, there is one difference. As Roger drives, he passes Angel and Dorothy who is now human.
So, who, exactly is Roger Smith? Is he a man from the past who can't die? Is he a robot made to imitate a human? Is he and everyone else just a hologram of a world that wasn't?
The idea of Paradigm City being merely a stage occurs throughout the series, especially in episode #14 - "Roger the Wanderer" where Roger flips out and flashes onto a Paradigm City that he has no memory of ever existing. As events unfold that point more and more to the unreality of the city, signs of unravelling appear - a child who resembles Dastun as a young man going to the movie he saw as a youngster with himself billed as one of the stars. When Alex begins his attack on the city, the "sky" becomes merely a set of lights. Alex's whole plan to "reset" the city seems to indicate that Paradigm City is only a construct that exists for whatever reason Big Venus chooses to recreate.
What happened 40 years ago? The implication that the world suffered from a cataclysm that either triggered a war or was triggered by a war is supposedly false, according to Gordon. Could it be that Big Venus invaded and the war Roger sees in his nightmares is actually Big Venus' attempt to take over the world, taken too far? Could it be that in some kind of strange remorse that Big Venus tried to give the human survivors a place to live? Is it possible that the humans in the city are all that is left of humanity, either taken from Earth or placed in a special "zoo" to be monitored by the conquerers?
However, were that the case, why is Roger necessary and why would Roger need to negotiate? Gordon says that Big Venus is a creature hungry for memories. Gordon also indicates that Roger is meant to be a wild card - someone who can alter what may be preset patterns built into the stage upon which they've all been placed. Each time Roger negotiates, does he gain more rights for the humans? Does he control the scenario to a degree?
Roger's choices seem to direct a number of things. When he chooses to retain his humanity, the scenario is forced to reintroduce Dorothy as an interface, leaving Roger free to continue his negotiations as a human, not as a blended being. Roger also tells Angel that he chose to give away whatever memories he originally had in order to live purely in the present, looking forward to a future that may not ever come, though he believes it will.
If Roger is merely an android, why then, do androids exist in Paradigm City? If everyone is just a construct, then androids would be unnecessary. Why introduce the concept of androids into a place if they're all androids? Why not have them all believe they're human? The androids may serve 2 functions in Paradigm City - unwitting spies for Big Venus and a bridge between the computer mind and the human ones. That could very well be why Dorothy appears as a human in her next incarnation. Having reached some comprension of human emotions, she is now considered to have joined the ranks of the humans.
There is a very good possibility that Roger himself is all that is left of humanity. That the memories used to create Paradigm City are his and his alone. Everything is set up to either entertain him or for him to entertain Big Venus. It would explain why Roger chose to give them up and why Roger's decisions can affect everything around him. It may very well be that the only 2 real personalities involved are Roger and Big Venus dancing around each other in a weird dance of Roger's emotions and imagination brought to life in a simulation.
Perhaps the real answer lies with Schwartzwald, who is Roger's dark mirror. Schwartzwald's God is Truth, which he pursues unrelentingly despite the damage done to his body. Even after his body's death, Schwartzwald continues to haunt Roger and, eventually shows up as the spirit of Big Duo, the Megadeus that chose to betray him. He wants to know what happened 40 years ago, but his sheer determination blinds him to the fact that truth, like Paradigm City itself is malleable and that there is no single truth in any world.
So, perhaps there is the answer. Who or what is Roger Smith? He's whatever is needed when it's needed.
Series: Big O
Title: The Man with no Past Steps Into an Uncertain Future
Author: Leviathan
Email address: spottytoes@yahoo.com
Spoilers: Way too many. Anyone who hasn't seen the series and wants to should not read a single word of this essay.
Notes: I will admit to being an anime snob. I never listen to the English versions of things because I usually can't stand the voices. Roger's no exception. He's far more passionate than the American voice playing him ever manages. So, it may be that the translated version is a little different than what I've seen.
The Man with No Past Steps into an Uncertain Future
by Leviathan
My name is Roger Smith. I perform a much-needed job here in this city of amnesia.
These are the first and last words spoken by the main character of Big O. Between these 2 declarations, the viewer is introduced to the world of Paradigm City where Memories are worth more than gold, androids live alongside humans and, in the middle of it all, stands a man who pilots a giant robot and defends the city from all comers.
Who or what is Roger Smith? Primarily, Roger Smith is Paradigm City's #1 Negotiator - a man who takes both civil and criminal disagreements and works out solutions. A Negotiator also serves as a PI and sometimes as a mere messenger. Roger is so well-known that many people just call him Mr. Negotiator. Like everyone else, though, Roger is sometimes answerable to the city.
The city is run by Paradigm Corporation, serving the people as god and state, provided you live inside the domes. The domes were created by the corporation to recreate the old world where the sun shone and the temperatures were warm. Outside the domes, the world is always grey and it rains frequently. No one has any idea of how this ecological disaster struck nor what caused the vast wasteland that lies beyond the domes and the pieces of city that stand outside them. Outside the domes, ruins speak of some catastrophe that not only levelled a good portion of the city, but sank quite a bit of it under what is now called Paradigm Harbor.
Paradigm City is the phoenix that arose from the ashes of The Event - a seeming cataclysm that happened 40 years prior to the series wherein all humans and androids lost their memories. Imagine one morning walking into your job, home, friend's place, only to suddenly forget who you are, who all the people around you are and have no idea as to where you are or what you do. This is the mystery of Roger's world. No one has any idea of what happened to them, but the fear lives that whatever did could happen again.
Though Paradigm City, on the surface, appears to be a cinema noir world, there is a great deal of advanced technology. However, very few know how to build and only a few more know how to maintain this technology. The androids who live there are extremely powerful and intelligent companions who live in their own homes and own their own businesses. People accept them, except the "android crushers" who feel they shouldn't exist. However, little is known of the androids' origins. No one knows how long they may have been around prior to The Event, as, they, too, were affected by the catastrophe. No one is certain what their status in society may have been. For the most part, androids are treated pretty much like humans, though they are not allowed certain jobs. Since androids only have one law they must obey - they may not kill humans - they cannot take on jobs where they might be put into the situation that they would have to kill one.
Roger is a human being - as he himself puts it, "If I cut myself, I bleed, and I have all too many faults..." Physically, Roger is extremely strong. Other people have problems moving Dorothy, let alone pick her up as Roger does in his arms. Roger is also the one person who can operate a Megadeus - a giant robot that dates from before The Event. He is in his mid to late 20s, is not one of the people affected directly by The Event, but his own past isn't completely known to him. He remembers portions of his life, but they read like a fact sheet: born in an orphanage, fostered by a rich family, joined the Military Police, left and walked into his current occupation seemingly by accident. However, he has horrific nightmares of things he can't possibly know and of a past that reads more like a horror movie. Roger's nightmares and PTSD flashes are usually the same - dreams of destroying Megadeuses, children with barcodes in their eyes, fire, tomatoes and vast destruction. Some of the memories can't be his, they're obviously too old, while the rest would appear to be memories of things he'd rather forget. However, with Paradigm City itself as his prime example of man being able to overcome adversity, Roger is a genuine optimist who feels that the past is unimportant, but everything conspires to thrust Roger into the events of the past, to analyze just who and what he is.
We first meet him as he is fulfilling his job, paying ransom money for the release of a young woman. The deal goes sour when the father of the girl proclaims that who he's rescued is "Dorothy's dummy", an android girl who looks exactly like a human one. After the deaths of her 2 "fathers", Dorothy moves into Roger's home to become his administrative assistant.
Dorothy's entry into Roger's life presents him a dilemna. Roger very obviously likes her, but part of him can't handle the fact that she's an android. From the moment she moves in with him, he rags on her not to act like a human and complains about the fact that she's only imitating them. Part of this comes from the fact that Roger would prefer her to be true to herself, the other part is discomfiture over the fact that he's attracted to an android. Early in the series, during a case, Dorothy asks Roger "If we had no memories and we met, would we fall in love, too?" Yet, later, when Roger goes to answer the question, he says, "If you were human, instead of an android, would you and I have fallen in love?" Which he, even at that time, cannot truly answer. It's not that he's uncomfortable with androids as one of his oldest friends is one. It is, perhaps, that he can't stand the fact that she was built to function as a dead girl. Although an android so carefully crafted to look like a human is unusual, there is little negative reaction to Dorothy's existance and it is even speculated that all androids may have been such in the past.
Memories play a key part in the formation of the world. The definition of memory has been expanded to include any item that dates to prior to The Event as long as it isn't human or an android. There is also rumored to be a store of memories somewhere in Paradigm City, but no one has yet found them. In the beginning, everyone is led to believe that Paradigm City is all that's left of the world, but it leaks out that there are some kind of "foreign" powers, not as advanced as Paradigm City, still in existance. "The Union" as they are known as, attacks Paradigm City in the hopes of finding the hidden memories and levelling the playing field.
At the beginning, there seems only to be one Megadeus in existence, Big O. There is no one at the present time who knows how to create one, though Roger's butler, Norman Berg, knows how to maintain it. Big O seems completely invincible, easily taking out any other robots. This begins to change when we meet Schwartzwald, formerly Michael Seebach - a reporter for the city paper, who, despite the ingrained fears of the underground by all Paradigm City inhabitants, manages to find a prototype Megadeus deep underground. In order to fulfill a contract forced onto him by the corporation, Roger follows him and discovers what he found. Schwartzwald informs Roger that opening the prototype damaged him, explaining his horrific appearance, but he has only managed to open it. Dorothy, who has followed Roger, activates the prototype unwillingly. Frightened by this development, Dorothy flees it until Roger can put it out of commission with Big O.
Schwartzwald appears later as the pilot of a different Megadeus known as Big Duo. Big Duo, like Big O, is an old Megadeus, still strangely intact. Roger defeats him fairly easily, but as Schwartzwald flees Roger's evisceration of Big Duo, the Megadeus turns back on and walks away from the scene, climbs up the side of the pit the fight has created and reaches towards the center of the main dome before collapsing from the damage wrought. Schwartzwald looks up at Big Duo, then Big O, wondering aloud if the Megadeuses either don't need any kind of master or, perhaps, choose their pilots. As the series goes foward, it becomes more and more obvious that the Megadeuses are more intelligent than they had initially been credited, but that an interface is needed to give them purpose.
Roger and Dorothy are both interfaces. Although any android could probably serve as one, the more intelligent the machine, the more intellgent they want their interface to be. There seems to be a protocol built into them that if an operator is already owned by one machine that no other can take that interface until the other machine is destroyed. Roger is what is known as a Dominus Megadeum, the person who can control "the power of God, created by man". It seems apparent that the Megadeuses prefer a human brain over an android one, though an android will do. Each Megadeus has a "core memory", without which they are unable to function for very long.
The CEO of Paradigm Corporation is Alex Rosewater, the son of Gordon Rosewater, who originally created and built the domes after The Event. Alex is ambitious and ruthless, caring little for anyone who he feels doesn't contribute to the greater good of the corporation. Alex and Roger, initially, are not enemies. Alex uses Roger to get things done when no one else seems capable or when he feels like making a point to the Military Police about how ineffectual they are. Roger tries to avoid the corporation as much as possible, to the point of living outside the domes, but his reputation causes them to seek him out time after time.
Alex is jealous of Roger's power as a Dominus and, to that end, collaborates with the foreigners to bring back parts of yet a third kind of Megadeus - Big Four (or Fau, depending on your mood). However, the core memory of Big Four is missing until he devises a scheme to steal Dorothy's memory. With this new power in hand, Alex goes against Roger to become the single Dominus of Paradigm City.
"Memories like nightmares appear when you don't expect them to." Throughout the series, memories seem to come out of the woodwork, except to androids. Dr. Wayneright, who designed Dorothy, remembered enough not only to bring her to life, but to also help design other giant robots, though Dorothy does admit that he didn't understand her core technology. As people begin to remember more, the atmosphere of the city begins to change, becoming perilous to not only Roger and his friends, but to the entire city itself. Though Roger's plunge into the memories of old is precipitated with the appearance of Big Duo, a series of murders hurls Roger onto a destiny he has no control over nor facility to understand. At each murder, the words "Cast in the name of God. Ye not guilty" is written in red. These are the same words that appear across Big O's screens every time Roger calls him into action. The first victim had hired Roger to investigate something, but before they ever met, she was killed. Three more murders take place before Roger gets his first clue.
Roger returns to the orphanage he grew up in to find it abandoned and long stripped of anything. There, he meets up with Angel, a perennial thorn in his side, who leaves behind a book titled Metropolis by Gordon Rosewater, after warning him that the corporation is not pleased with the way that Roger runs Big O. The book not only details the last days of mankind before The Event, but also contains a list with 5 names. Four of them are the murdered people; the last name is only the initials R.D. Roger heads for Ailesberry, the dome where Gordon Rosewater has retired, to find out about the book. The old man tells Roger that the half-finished book which ends in the words "The power of God, created by man. Divine thunder raining down from the heavens" is a lie, but won't tell him how or why. He tells Roger he has to find his own answers.
Roger initially comes to Gordon to question him concerning experiments on children - the children he sees in his nightmare. Rosewater never denies having worked on these children. Roger is afraid one of these children is himself. Throughout Gordon's entire explanation, the image of tomatoes and the harvesting of them is key. When he hears the news that Roger has gone to see his father, Alex says, "The awakening has already begun".
Following clues from his flashbacks, Roger goes to a tunnel to find the opened container of some kind of device. A figure emerges wearing a red cape. Roger comes up with the idea that the R of the initials stands for "red". He asks the figure stalking him if the D means death, devil or dark, but she tells him that it means "destiny". Roger sees her face - she looks just like Dorothy. As she pulls a gun on him, she asks him if he's been "commanded" to pilot the Megadeus. When Roger denies being commanded, she tells him he must die for having knowledge of God. She manages to wing him, but just as it looks like she's about to finish him off, Big O, containing his Dorothy, shows up and destroys her.
The red Dorothy is only the start of what Roger has to deal with in trying to find out why he has such nightmares and exactly who he is. Roger has a major breakdown in the middle of a fight, losing himself in memories of a Paradigm City that has no domes, sunlight and no android or Megadeus technology. As Roger wanders as a bum in a world that doesn't acknowledge him, he begins to wonder if he created Paradigm City in his mind to escape his boring reality. He sees Dorothy, but she is a human girl with her father, Dr. Wayneright. He eventually gets picked up by Angel who tells him he's actually a Major who seems to have run away from his assignment. They drive underground where Roger's fear begins to take hold. Eventually Roger's fight against his fear brings him back to his present and he finishes off his opponents.
Roger becomes embroiled in a new world where he becomes Alex's unwitting rival for the dominion of Paradigm City. Roger has no desire to run the world, but he's the one thing Alex can't be. Alex doesn't have a Megadeus and he can't take Roger's. To that end, he has 3 robots ship in the pieces of Big 4, disguised in the fight Roger cracks up over. As Alex puts Big 4 together, Roger continues his journey of self-discovery, becoming more and more convinced that he is one of Rosewater's tomatoes, created to hold the memories of the governmental elite. More memories seem to be returning to the world in general, including the fact that perhaps their world is not what they believe it to be; that it is, in fact, malleable.
Alex becomes obsessed with creating a new world in his image. After attempting patricide, he chooses to launch an attack on the city directly in order to "reset" it. As Alex moves to create his new world, Roger discovers that not only is he not one of Gordon's tomatoes, but that he is, somehow, much older than he appears. In the book on the last of the written pages, Roger found a picture torn in half. The other half is in Gordon's possession - a picture of a much younger Gordon and Roger shaking hands. Gordon tells Roger that he hired a Roger Smith to negotiate with the creators of the world on the behalf of humanity.
As the world is rapidly being destroyed around them by Alex's ambitions, Big O and Big Four finally meet in the field of battle. Alex refuses to accept that Roger is the only Dominus and determines that since he is now in charge of Big Four, which he considers to be the superior Big, he will take out Roger and become the de facto God of Paradigm City. Big Four joins with Alex, making Alex a part of the Megadeus. He manages to knock Roger out long enough to dump him into the harbor. Roger attempts to drag him down with him, but Alex destroys the chains binding him, sending Roger deep into the water.
As Roger sinks, he finds himself floating past large gears indicating some huge mechanism. Big O moves to join with Roger as Big Four united with Alex, but Roger chooses to retain his humanity. In the meantime, Gordon and Angel, whom Gordon has called a Memory, go far beneath the surface as Gordon explains to Angel that no one other than her can possibly access the memories prior to The Event. Angel makes her own decision to shed her humanity and return to her true form.
Roger's mind is suddenly assaulted by images - images of destruction, of a huge robot that looms over Paradigm City, of himself as a man defeated, a bum on the street and hundreds of androids printed in his image. Roger denies all of these visions and, with Dorothy's help, escapes the deep and heads back to the surface. Roger proceeds to blow away half of Big Four; however, Alex accuses him of being weak and goes to energize what remains of his weaponry to destroy Roger when a huge white Big suddenly appears. As it walks, the city vanishes behind it. It lays a hand on Big Four's shoulder and it disappears. Roger realizes that this Big is actually Angel in her true form - Big Venus. He is now back to being a Negotiator, reminding Angel that she was human and that only through the memories of humans can she live in the human form she chose. The city vanishes entirely, leaving only Roger, Big O, Dorothy and Angel as Roger exorts her to let the humans retain their memories. As they merge, there is a white flash and then we find ourselves in exactly the same place as the beginning of the series. However, there is one difference. As Roger drives, he passes Angel and Dorothy who is now human.
So, who, exactly is Roger Smith? Is he a man from the past who can't die? Is he a robot made to imitate a human? Is he and everyone else just a hologram of a world that wasn't?
The idea of Paradigm City being merely a stage occurs throughout the series, especially in episode #14 - "Roger the Wanderer" where Roger flips out and flashes onto a Paradigm City that he has no memory of ever existing. As events unfold that point more and more to the unreality of the city, signs of unravelling appear - a child who resembles Dastun as a young man going to the movie he saw as a youngster with himself billed as one of the stars. When Alex begins his attack on the city, the "sky" becomes merely a set of lights. Alex's whole plan to "reset" the city seems to indicate that Paradigm City is only a construct that exists for whatever reason Big Venus chooses to recreate.
What happened 40 years ago? The implication that the world suffered from a cataclysm that either triggered a war or was triggered by a war is supposedly false, according to Gordon. Could it be that Big Venus invaded and the war Roger sees in his nightmares is actually Big Venus' attempt to take over the world, taken too far? Could it be that in some kind of strange remorse that Big Venus tried to give the human survivors a place to live? Is it possible that the humans in the city are all that is left of humanity, either taken from Earth or placed in a special "zoo" to be monitored by the conquerers?
However, were that the case, why is Roger necessary and why would Roger need to negotiate? Gordon says that Big Venus is a creature hungry for memories. Gordon also indicates that Roger is meant to be a wild card - someone who can alter what may be preset patterns built into the stage upon which they've all been placed. Each time Roger negotiates, does he gain more rights for the humans? Does he control the scenario to a degree?
Roger's choices seem to direct a number of things. When he chooses to retain his humanity, the scenario is forced to reintroduce Dorothy as an interface, leaving Roger free to continue his negotiations as a human, not as a blended being. Roger also tells Angel that he chose to give away whatever memories he originally had in order to live purely in the present, looking forward to a future that may not ever come, though he believes it will.
If Roger is merely an android, why then, do androids exist in Paradigm City? If everyone is just a construct, then androids would be unnecessary. Why introduce the concept of androids into a place if they're all androids? Why not have them all believe they're human? The androids may serve 2 functions in Paradigm City - unwitting spies for Big Venus and a bridge between the computer mind and the human ones. That could very well be why Dorothy appears as a human in her next incarnation. Having reached some comprension of human emotions, she is now considered to have joined the ranks of the humans.
There is a very good possibility that Roger himself is all that is left of humanity. That the memories used to create Paradigm City are his and his alone. Everything is set up to either entertain him or for him to entertain Big Venus. It would explain why Roger chose to give them up and why Roger's decisions can affect everything around him. It may very well be that the only 2 real personalities involved are Roger and Big Venus dancing around each other in a weird dance of Roger's emotions and imagination brought to life in a simulation.
Perhaps the real answer lies with Schwartzwald, who is Roger's dark mirror. Schwartzwald's God is Truth, which he pursues unrelentingly despite the damage done to his body. Even after his body's death, Schwartzwald continues to haunt Roger and, eventually shows up as the spirit of Big Duo, the Megadeus that chose to betray him. He wants to know what happened 40 years ago, but his sheer determination blinds him to the fact that truth, like Paradigm City itself is malleable and that there is no single truth in any world.
So, perhaps there is the answer. Who or what is Roger Smith? He's whatever is needed when it's needed.