Anon is right.
The internet is a place where nuance goes to die and everyone talks out of their ass. Watchmen was all about nuance. Hereâs why I think this post is full of shit:
Rorschach was an extremely flawed individual. However that title could basically be applied to every single hero except Nite Owl I. A huge portion of Watchmen revolves around that while none of the characters are necessarily admirable they all have some redeeming qualities.
Calling Rorschach an "incel man child " is an idiotic oversimplification of his character. He didnât decide he hated women after watching too many Andrew Tate videos; Rorschach went though an extreme amount of childhood trauma. We see how horrifying the situation was via flashbacks. Even after all of that, he manages to rise above it all and become a genuine hero. He only went full psycho after being exposed to the most vile shit Moore could get printed. Thereâs even a whole subplot which more or less mocks attempts to be an armchair psychiatrist and dismiss him outright.
Rorschachâs philosophy also doesnât exist in a vacuum. A huge part of his role is an ideological counterpoint to Ozymandius, who is the ultimate âends justify the meansâ type of person. The entire last act makes you appreciate Rorschachâs philosophy a lot more. The ending of the book presents a âLady or the Tiger?â situation where youâre not really sure which of the two was more right.
Finally, he has a decent number of badass moments. The whole âyouâre locked in with meâ is straight up cool. It is on some level meant to be such. Itâs hard not to look at him and be on some level impressed.
Rorschach isnât someone youâre supposed to idealize. However youâre not supposed to just dismiss him either.
Absolutely right, although I would say Nite Owl is also flawed, at least the second one. He was only a hero because he a) worshipped the first Nite Owl and b) he felt like a loser and couldnât get it up when not in costume, basically turning his vigilante life into a sort of fetish.
For whatever reason Internet Media Discourse⢠canât include the possibility that a character is meant to be sympathetic to some extent but ultimately wrong. Theyâre either perfect and did nothing wrong or an irredeemable monster, no in between.
I honestly wonder how many people have actually read Watchmen. I feel like the discourse around a lot of this stuff is driven by people who have read the cliff notes or are just blindly upvoting shit.
Itâs mainly the movie.
In the movie heâs pretty much the only one of them all that actually holds on to his morals. He goes the whole movie practicing what he preaches while everyone else is shown to do the opposite.
The comedian was just an abusive power hungry drunk.
Ozymandius was willing to kill millions for âthe greater goodâ
Dr Manhattan was too removed from his own humanity to care about anything anymore
Night owl and the purple girl I canât remember gave it all up entirely and then they fuck meanwhile she was still in a relationship with Dr Manhattan.
Rorschach was the only one in the movie that actually held to his morality the whole movie. Especially with the scene of him unmasked as a begger on the street and thatâs how he learned about the goings on in the city. He actively lived a life of poverty to help him be a better hero.
Because most people havenât actually read Alan Mooreâs Rorschach, theyâve seen Zac Snyderâs Rorschach. These are not the same character
The movie was very much an abridged version of the novels. Meaning all the nuances and hints that were disseminated throughout the pages or in the backgrounds had to be set aside until we are left with the movie version. A very âLoyal Stupid Paladinâ character, which really isnât a misrepresentation; it is the same character. Just, you are not given quite enough in the movie to see where heâs actually coming from.
If I remember correctly, there was talk about how closely the movie followed the graphic novel when it was being made and im sure that didnt help people want to to check out the source material.
I think most people arenât interested in both mediums. Especially at the time most people only really experience fiction from some sort of film/television
Because the world that he lives in, despite all of the machinations and ulterior motives of characters and âlesser of 2 evilsâ scenarios, is actually still incredibly black and white. Itâs OUR world that has nuance. We like Rorschach because heâs principled and we wish we could treat our problems the way that Rorschach deals with his problems: kicking the door in and punching them. In Watchmen, everyone gaslights Rorschach to believe that heâs a crazy psycho who isnât onto a huge conspiracy. Characters in Watchmen are very much good or evil but possessing complex motivations.