The Big O Showtime: A Legacy of Amadeus

Filler again, but better this time. Because it's character focused.

Roger is sick of Dorothy's piano-playing waking him up (at 1 PM), so he drags her to a piano bar he frequents. And the piano player there is also an android, like her. Well that answers my question of how common androids are. Dorothy is still an anomaly though, because she can pass for human. Instro, the piano player, is very clearly a robot. And an old friend of Roger's. He introduced Dorothy to Instro so he could teach her to play the piano more soothingly.

Definitely a robot

This is where the episode works better than yesterday's. It makes us care about Instro, even though we're meeting him for the first time. And the writers do this by connecting him to our main characters, who we the audience already care about. They establish that Instro is old friends with Roger from his days in the police, Dastun knows him too, and so when Roger sees Instro involved with a shady character he naturally shows concern. Instro and Dorothy form a connection too, as he teaches her to play, coming from their shared android nature and similar paternal relationships. These feel more natural to us the audience, so when the main characters care what happens to Instro we also care what happens to him. It doesn't feel forced.

It helps that Instro is very relatable, despite being a robot. His father, a brilliant scientist, built him and taught him to play the piano but died unfulfilled. It's understandable that Instro would want to fulfill his father's legacy and so gets involved with his dead dad's shady partner. He pursues his goal single-mindedly, because he's a robot. It's up to Roger and Dorothy to get him to realize there's to more to him than just fulfilling his father's legacy. This is basic character stuff, but it's done well and benefits from the formulaic approach. The clarity of motivation helps the audience connect better.

Said father's legacy involves a giant robot of course. It's actually interesting, this is the first episode that has had nothing to do with capital M Memories. This giant robot was built after the event 40 years ago, specifically to get back at the Paradigm Group. So none of this has anything to do with the amnesia event. Though we do see more crazy science, sonic weapons, and it reinforces that the Group is investigating that crazy science and are still big dicks. See they were bankrolling Instro's father's research into sonic weapons and when they pulled the plug, he built the giant robot to destroy them. I have a feeling they're going to get more directly involved soon.

And just one thing I've noticed. The two times we've left Paradigm City, it's snowy and filled with dead trees. Is it always winter out there? Is this another after-effect of the event? Did it do something to all the plantlife, because we haven't seen any plants in the city. Except for in the nice suburban domes, but those are just for rich jerks. All right, that's it for weird observation and crazy speculation hour. See you tomorrow.