#operation surplus

OS-01 is the first and only prototype from one of Syndrome's scrapped plans - Operation Surplus. This plan would have organic Supers overwhelmed and replaced by mass-produced Super-bots if he went through with it. These bots would also wield the abilities that Syndrome possesses himself - namely flight and Zero Point Energy of course

During many of OS-01's test runs, Syndrome found that his intelligent machine creations ended up doing more damage than good. That fact inspired him to design the deadly Omnidroids, and soon Operation Kronos was in action instead. Yay. Super genocide.

Even with Surplus cancelled, Syndrome was attached to OS-01 and he often tinkered with her in his spare time. Soon he made the decision to strip her of any abilities, suppress her intelligent thinking and wipe her memory, all in preparation to reactivate her as an assistant. Her new job is to record and calculate the exact damage Supers caused to his Omnidroids, so Syndrome could make flawless modifications. Her name is now said to mean "Outcome Surveillant".

Generally, Syndrome and Essie work well together! This is the point in the story where a lot of fondness and flirting happens and the nickname "Essie" comes along YAY. Mirage also exists and does her thing but Syndrome's just not interested in her like he's interested in Essie.

Essie does her job well, but unfortunately for Syndrome, her intelligence can't be fully controlled and she gets curious about things like Syndrome's gauntlets and boots which she also seemingly wears, certain familiar locations, words and more. These small reminders grow into intense urges to find out what exactly her original purpose was. Her efforts range from asking Syndrome odd questions to snooping through his archives and other possessions.

Syndrome is spooked when he picks up on her curiosity. He gets caught off-guard by her strange questions, she can disappear for hours at a time and she's been caught looking through his stuff many times too. She's out of control and it's pissing him off.

He's not keen on telling her the truth in fears of her rebelling and disobeying him. He worries that Essie will get jealous that she used to be powerful, that there was supposed to be more of her kind, and he fears that she would plot some sort of revenge. So to keep Essie loyal to him, Syndrome has wiped her memory each time she has deviated, setting her back at the beginning every time she starts uncovering her origins.

There you have it. A vicious cycle where Essie tries to find out about her origins, and Syndrome wipes her mind to hold her back and keep Kronos operating smoothly.

I like speculating random things for the ending, i have two main ones so far:

Close to the events of the film, Essie's attempts are more desperate than ever, and Syndrome is so sick of it that he abandons her entirely. He supersedes Essie with another program that can do her job, powers her down and puts her away to never be active again. He moves on, he's really into Mirage, everything that's in the film goes as normal, y'know the deal. Unless she decides to wake up and cause havoc.

After many resets, Syndrome finally decides to have the talk to Essie about her past, and it goes well! Essie accepts her present role, the change, it's just the life of a machine. None of that rebellion shit Syndrome was worried about. As for the memory erasure, Syndrome mentions that in passing as something funny, but that does not go down well. Essie is horrified and it quickly evolves into rage. She snaps at him, beating him the hell up for tampering with her memory repeatedly, and being pathetic enough to only tell her the truth now. I like this ending hehe