Theories about "the event"

[MJC]

This thread is about what people think the "event" in Big O was that caused the mass memory loss or whatever. We'll find out sometime in Season 2, this thread is where you can post your theories as to what it was. Maybe somebody will guess right and get bragging rights.

I'll post mine in a little while.

[TylerL]

Swamp gas.
Reflected off of Venus.

[Plasma_Ghost]

Perhaps it was something so awful, so tragic that their sub-concious wanted to forget.

[Ferquin]

I say it was induced by the Paradigm corporation. See how they are the most aggressive group collecting Memories. They probably created the Megadeuses to a) control the world, and b) to wipe people's memories. I can't really say exactly what they used to erase people's memories. I notice there aren't a terribly large amount of elderly people. They probably killed off much of the elderly during the Amnesia. In the forty years since, children have been raised and grown up believing and knowing nothing of the past up until forty years ago...
except for the special children the elder Rosewater had raised and "sown" with Memories in his "farm"

[Mynd Hed]

There are two major schools of thought that I have encountered: either Paradigm did it to solidify their control of the city, or God did it to punish Man for his arrogance. Either way, it seems logical that Paradigm probably had some kind of advance knowledge of what was going to happen before the fact, so that they were ready to move quickly to seize power after the Cataclysm hit.

[Masamune2052]

Like Ferquin said, it will probably be some horrible experiment/military project gone awry. It's never an actual race of invading aliens, it's just ourselves.

[MJC]

But if it's some kind of military project or something Paradigm Corp. did, what about the rest of the world (why do they think only Paradigm is left)? And why do most animals appear to be so rare?

[Ferquin]

Perhaps like rats leaving a sinking ship, they abandoned the city long ago, feeling he imminent arrival of the Amnesia. The ones that were left behind were probably harvested by Paradigm for experimentation or to erase any traces of Memories. Pets, after all, are sentimental attachments that could evoke past Memories.

[The_Dominion]

Well it could be an inventive take on the rapture, going with the religous symbolism.

But it is probably something that Paradigm did intentionally to execute control over the world, or maybe just the city.

[livingfruitvirus]

But if it's some kind of military project or something Paradigm Corp. did, what about the rest of the world (why do they think only Paradigm is left)? And why do most animals appear to be so rare?

Paradigm City's inhabitants believe they're the only city left on Earth, but Paradigm Corp. knows that foreigners exist, and it almost seems like they don't mind if people discover their existance. it begins to dawn on people in episode 13 when...foreign megadeuces arrive at the city. episodes 13 and 14 reveal a LOT of information. good question about animals too. although i sometimes think maybe it's because the writers didn't bother to include them as much.

[Conekiller]

I havn't been re-watching the series on AS, but by my memory, I recall the idea of "collecting memories" was awefully vague in the show, do they ever clarify that. how the hell do you collect a memory anyway, and what do you do with it once you have one?

[talibancity]

It seems that Paradigm is "all-knowing", and they still have their memories, or at least the head guy does. For instance, in last night's episode Alex Whatsis knew the true meaning of Heaven's Day. Now no one would've known that if they had their memories erased. It's probably something to do with Paradigm, although I wouldn't be surprised if it was something really obstruct and random.

[Yossarian]

This is one of the reasons I love the genius of Big O! The event is one of those under-the-surface mysteries that exist in life and everyone accepts them as unsolved. Perhaps the war was so bloody and the machines of war so terrible that a mass amnesia was triggered to wipe out all memory of it. It could be the amnesia is imposed by others upon the population to prevent another outbreak of war. Or it could be that the mass amnesia is self-inflicted by the population to forget the devestation.

[Mynd Hed]

Hmm... up until recently, I've been a big believer in the whole "God did it" theory, but the more I think about it, the more I don't think that's the case. In Act XIII: R.D., Gordon Rosewater (the founder of Paradigm) tells Roger, "Everything in that book-- the giant robots running amok, the power of God wielded by the hand of Man-- everything in it is a lie."

That's paraphrased, of course, but I think he's telling the truth there. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say there was some kind of cataclysmic war that wiped out a good majority of the population of Earth-- obviously not all foreigners are dead, so I'm guessing that the domes around Paradigm somehow saved the lives of the people there, and that there were probably a few other domed cities that also escaped the devastation, but that these are too far away for quick and easy contact with Paradigm.
If I had to hazard a guess at this point, I'd say that Paradigm, knowing that the war was coming, decided to inflict the amnesia on its own citizens so that they could solidify political control over the city after the disaster was over. They also destroyed most of the records of pre-Cataclysm society, but they knew that their amnesia technique wasn't perfect-- people sometimes spontaneously regain memories-- and that there was no way they could possibly wipe out ALL the written and electronic records.
So they decided to leave a false trail for people to follow in case anyone ever got too nosy. They took special care to destroy all memory of religion, but then let a few hints slip here and there (like Alex Rosewater's mention of the Book of Revelation to Dastun). Anyone who was overly interested in the nature of the Cataclysm would stumble upon these hints and also the fact that Paradigm has been (supposedly) trying to cover up religious knowledge. Paradigm would then give them even more hints (such as the book Angel leaves for Roger to find in Act XIII), leading them to believe that the Cataclysm was actually the Rapture. Thinking they had the answer, they'd then give up the search for more answers, and Paradigm's role in the amnesia would be kept safely hidden.

There are still some holes in that theory though: for example, if Paradigm did all that, why don't they have the technology to build Megadeuses, or if they do, why don't they have a squadron of them to defend the city instead of relying on Roger to do all the dirty work?

Ah, whatever, I guess we're just going to have to wait for Season 2 for the rest of the blank spots to be filled in.

[SSJPabs]

I'm going to stick with a version of what was found in the book -- that there was indeed a masive conflict using the Megadeus robots. SOmething I always believed was that Paradigm arose AFTER the "Event" perhaps from powerful men and women who survived the event in-tact, but without a serious kind of fore-knowledge of the even.t

[Mr_Millions]

The war theory seems pretty plausible, because if it was actually God, He wouldn't need robots, being God and all.

However, I find it interesting that it took ten years after the event for Paradigm to be founded (It was mentioned in Winter Night Phantom, I think. Someone mentioned that Paradigm had been founded thirty years ago). If it was planned from the beginning, you would think Paradigm would be founded immediatly, to provide stability to an insane world.

That leaves us with only one logical explaination. It was the French.

[Cyporiean]

It was Gozer.

[Mynd Hed]

The war theory seems pretty plausible, because if it was actually God, He wouldn't need robots, being God and all.

Well, you could say that for almost anything, though. In the Book of Genesis when God visits all those plagues on Egypt, you could say, "Why does he need locusts? He's GOD. Why does he need Moses to lead the Israelites? He's GOD." Or in the New Testament, you could say, "Why does he need to make a son to send down here to do all that stuff? He's GOD."

I had a thought the other night. The more I think about it, the more I think that maybe Roger Smith isn't human. First, he seems to be the only one who can pick up R Dorothy Waynewright. Second, in Act IV: Underground Terror, he doesn't seem to be very used to feeling emotions, especially fear, in the same way that you and I are used to. And third, that would explain why Paradigm allows him to keep The Big O: maybe they created him, gave him The Big O, and programmed him with a sense of altruism and the desire to protect people, so that he would always protect the city when it was in danger and Paradigm could keep its hands clean. Obviously he's not a mechanical android like R Dorothy and R Instro-- he gets shot and bleeds in Act XIII-- but maybe he's more like an organic android or a clone. In which case his memory of his mother in Act IV would be a red herring, a memory programmed into him by Paradigm.

I dunno, it's kinda farfetched, but a fun theory.

[I.R Joey]

I have some theories.

1.Option 1 The Judeo-Christian God or some kind of deity struck down mankind because they were becoming to arrogant with their technology. It's kinda like the old story of the tower of babel. Remember how that guy who messed up the cat kept comparing himself to the creator. The religious theory would also explain "cast in the name of God..." and Dan's refrence to a "book of revelations." Also keep in mind that Deus, is the latin word for God or a god, so maybe that judgement which wiped out everyones memories came from the giant machines themselves.

2. Option 2
Paradigm actually did it themselves in order to solidify their power and become church and state. My brother even came ep with an interesting theory about Paradigm closing itself off from the rest of the world, which in fact hasn't lost its memory at all.