Roger Smith

Roger's Character

As negotiator, his job entails finding a resolution for the troubles of Paradigm City, the "City of Amnesia". He'd negotiate anything for anyone, but he is a professional and expects the parties to behave professionally. Despite this, he displays a certain aversion to the Paradigm Corporation, and takes the jobs he gets from them only if they happen to involve a threat to the city itself or are of personal interest to him. When memories betray the people and force them to reawaken monstrosities of the city's past, Roger's only option is to fight back with a monstrosity of his own, the black megadeus known as Big O. In terms of personality, he starts off the series as a very arrogant, witty, sarcastic, and seemingly unconcerned individual to the point of being almost snide. In situations involving his work however, he is professional to the extreme, masking any hint of potentially emotional behavior. He values logic above almost all other qualities, and hates to feel out of control of either his emotions or whatever situation he is in. Thus, during negotiations, he maintains as best he can a calm, collected and pleasant attitude. As the series progresses however, many of these traits are ironed out of his character, and he begins to exhibit a much more compassionate and open-minded attitude, learing how to cope with emotional issues and people instead of just ignoring them. Some interesting incongruities pop up about his character as the story progresses. It is implied by Gordon Rosewater that Roger was alive before the Event and was not one of Gordon's genetically created children. Both he and Gordon refer to Roger having "lost memories" even though he appears to be in his mid twenties. Gordon specifically mentions a contract that he made with Roger prior to the Event. His flashbacks and hallucinations during the series would seem to indicate that he was a member of the military before the Event occurred, apparently holding the rank of Major, and was Big O's pilot even then. These flashbacks also seem to support Gordon's position that Roger was indeed alive prior to the Event, and a photograph taken of Roger and a younger Gordon seem also to lend credence to the theory. The final episode of the show further suggests that Roger may be an android, as many androids are seen being built in the flashbacks which look exactly like Roger when completed.

Rules to Live By

The Negotiator is portrayed as very methodical and strict. He has a number of rules and policies that dictate all aspects of his everyday life; from how people must behave in his house to the way he performs his job:

Abilities/Weapons/Transportation

Roger considers sidearms unbecoming a gentleman,(though he has used them as tools, rather than weapons, on occasion) so he avails himself of a number of gadgets to aid his job. Inspirations for the equipment include characters such as Batman, James Bond, and Dick Tracy; and shows like Britain's Thunderbirds and The Avengers, and the classic Japanese action show Giant Robo.

Roger's vehicle of choice is the Griffon, a black luxury sedan comparable to the Batmobile, the Green Hornet's Black Beauty, and James Bond's Aston Martin. The car comes equipped with armor for the wheels and windows, missile launchers, a communications station, Browning machine guns behind the front indicators, electrochromatic camouflage, and a police scanner for intercepting communiques of the military police. The Negotiator's second most important weapon is his wristwatch, the tool for summoning the Big O. By calling the megadeus' name into the watch, Roger informs the giant it is "Showtime!" and it comes to its master's side. The watch also works as a remote control to the Griffon and includes a grappling cable, a laser cutter and a two-way communicator. Roger's greatest weapon is the megadeus Big O. A metal behemoth that, unlike the giants of other robot anime, does not exhibit speed nor grace. But what it lacks in agility, it more than makes up for in power: The Big O is equipped with armed missiles, pile-driver powered punches, machine guns and laser cannons. Big O is transported around Paradigm City and out into the country via underground railway tunnels aboard the massive, quad-engine carrier train called the Prairie Dog, which has a telescoping chute that can deploy and recover Big O on the surface. It apparently operates via remote, as Roger's butler Norman deploys it to different parts of the city from the mansion when his master has need of it. When not in use, it rests in an underground railway junction beneath Roger's mansion. In the manga, it is revealed that this transport also carries interchangeable arms for Big O that can be exchanged easily, something that is not shown in the anime.

In addition to these tools, Roger has exhibited extraordinary physical conditioning throughout the series, and has been shown may times to be much more physically capable than most humans. Of particular note is his strength; he has been able to carry Dorothy on several occasons, once even holding her while jumping down around 15 feet, while it has been shown that any other character in the series who has attempted to so much as move her can hardly even budge her. Also, during his brief hand to hand fight with Alan Gabriel (who has been shown to have superhuman capabilities), he was able to not only hold his own, but floor the cyborg during their initial exchange.