Largo's Origins

The mysterious Largo appeared in Moonlight Rambler as the man behind the scandal involving the Sexaroids' escape from Genaros. He engineered the ordeal and when blackmailed Flint and Kaufman with the information he had. Largo knew all the secrets at GENOM and its subsidiaries. He knew so much, in fact, that he soon began to resemble someone else. That someone would be Brian J. Mason.

Largo demonstrates an extreme obsession with Sylia Stingray. He claimed that he wanted to set the Boomers free and end their enslavement to humans. Yet he mistreated his fellow Boomers and was at least as bad as humans were. His priorities seemed to lie in revenge on Sylia Stingray, achieving power, and wiping out mankind, probably in that order. At the very end of Moonlight Rambler he calls out to Sylia, giving himself and unnaturally foreboding presence. In Red Eyes he calls to her once again, only this time he reveals to her that they are the same in the following conversation:

"Sylia... Sylia Stingray..."
"How do you know my name..?"
"I know... that you and I are two of a kind... Because..."

Before he finished, Leon McNichol shoots him and sends him off the edge of the GENOM Tower. A moment later Sylia thinks to herself:

"Frail humans need not fear anything more... Brian J. Mason..."

That seems to answer the questions, but most people want to know how Brian J. Mason, a thin, pale, somewhat unattractive GENOM executive in his mid- to late thirties, could become Largo, a muscular, handsome, egotistical SuperBoomer who appeared to be physically between his late twenties and early thiries. The two looked nothing alike. Mason had an ego, but Largo was an outright asshole who had no qualms about waltzing into Quincy's office and calling him ojiisan, something Mason would never have dreamed of doing. Or would he have..?

In all probability, Mason's longing for power also caused him to harbor many secret desires that did not include Sylia and power. One of those desires was undoubtedly to tell Quincy exactly what he thought of him, and that meant calling him an "ignoble, old man." That statement did little more than amuse Quincy, but just saying it would have meant a great deal to Mason. He made it clear in AD. Police 25:00 that he wanted to take over GENOM. He was embarrassed and annoyed when Armstrong called him a kiss-ass. Proving to the world that he was not under old Quincy's thumb may have been Largo's greatest delight while he was present during 2033.

There are, of course, debating theories on how Mason became Largo and why he changed so much from one to the other. The simplest explanation is that Largo is who Mason wanted to be. He was sculpted as a very good looking, stylish man who had a deep, booming voice and a good stature. Mason was none of those things, at least not in the typical sense. Largo was his new identity, the person Mason was on the inside. It is not unlike someone who gets plastic surgery or even a makeover and then gains a whole new personality with it.

The hard thing to explain is Largo's Messiah Complex. Deep down inside Largo did not seem to have a Messiah Complex. It was more like he wanted to have the Boomers enslaved by himself rather than the humans. It was an act of greed, not an act of a savior. He called the Boomers his children and said that they had to the potential to be a new species, yet he mocked Priss when she showed grief upon Sylvie and Anri's deaths. Sylvie and Anri were sentient Boomers, in a sense humans that were made in a factory. Largo's laughter at the idea that Priss was grieving about their deaths proved that Largo's wish was to keep the Boomers for himself and take that power away from the humans. He also slaughtered a dozen BU-55Cs in Quincy's office, one on the road, and blew up the GENOM Towers where many more were kept. Essentially, Largo's Messiah Complex was a myth, or a cover up for a more devious plan.

What was not a myth was Largo's desire to be regarded as a god. At the end of episode six he became angry at Priss for blowing up his arm and "injuring a god," then cited death as the price she and the other Knight Sabers would have to pay for damaging him. Largo could have recovered physically in a minute or so but instead his pride got in the way of his logic and he forfeited his life in an attempt to kill the only people who could hurt him. It was then that he contacted Sylia and 'told' her who he was, opening up the door to even more debates.

As for how Mason became Largo, the answer is not hard to figure out. Mason must have been augmented at least significantly enough to transfer his thoughts to a special computer. Knowing Mason, he had Largo activated before he died. His death looked like a suicide (one clunky battlesuit and a BU-55C against Sylia Stingray and Nene Romanova) so it can be assumed that he meant everything to go that way. He died with the knowledge that Sylia was the woman behind the Knight Sabers and that seemed to please him immensely. He had at least five chances during the third episode to kill Sylia without any honest effort but instead let her live, further proof that he knew he would be revived, or was already living his second life as Largo.

According to Meltdown, Mason stole the Largo body from Whiz Laboratories when he killed Doctor Stingray. Depending upon whether or not you accept BGC! as canon, this might be helpful to clarify the debate of the origin of Largo's physical body. It also proves that Doctor Stingray was well ahead of other scientists in his Boomer research.

There is an interesting note that, while slightly unrelated, is worth knowing. According to Toshimichi Suzuki, he chose Largo's name because he thought it sounded neat. Then someone noted on a website that the word 'Largo' appears at the top of sheet music during Blade Runner. That seemed to clear things up, but after some minor research, it appears that the word 'Largo' is a musical term for a second movement. Largo was Mason's second movement, wasn't he? Either Suzuki was very clever or had no idea what he was doing. Anyhow, the name alone makes for a good topic of conversation.