this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2023
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The internet is a place where nuance goes to die and everyone talks out of their ass. Watchmen was all about nuance. Here's 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 didn't 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. There's even a whole subplot which more or less mocks attempts to be an armchair psychiatrist and dismiss him outright.
Rorschach's philosophy also doesn't exist in a vacuum. A huge part of his role is an ideological counterpoint to Ozymandius, who is the ultimate "ends justify the means" type of person. The entire last act makes you appreciate Rorschach's philosophy a lot more. The ending of the book presents a "Lady or the Tiger?" situation where you're not really sure which of the two was more right.
Finally, he has a decent number of badass moments. The whole "you're locked in with me" is straight up cool. It is on some level meant to be such. It's hard not to look at him and be on some level impressed.
Rorschach isn't someone you're supposed to idealize. However you're not supposed to just dismiss him either.
For whatever reason Internet Media Discourse(tm) can't include the possibility that a character is meant to be sympathetic to some extent but ultimately wrong. They're 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.
It's mainly the movie.
In the movie he's 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 "the greater good"
Dr Manhattan was too removed from his own humanity to care about anything anymore
Night owl and the purple girl I can't 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 that's how he learned about the goings on in the city. He actively lived a life of poverty to help him be a better hero.
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 couldn't get it up when not in costume, basically turning his vigilante life into a sort of fetish.
Yeah I was talking about the first Nite Owl. I think the second one is called Night Owl.
The first one is honestly just a chill dude.