serafina20 | Watchmen

You know, I think the squid kind of almost ruined the book for me. I mean, it was so unexpected, so over the top absurd that, even though I'm sure Moore had a reason for it, it just didn't work for me. I got stuck on the fact that Veidt made a squid to kill millions for world peace and it wasn't going to last (because it could never) and it was so stupid and they don't even punish him and instead kill Rorschach whom I think was right and I ....

Can't even see any good in it.

In the movie, though, it's different for me. One, I sat and watched the whole thing straight through, so the fear and anxiety over WWIII hit home more than when I dragged the book out over months. Also, I find comics a very hard medium for me to get into emotionally. I don't experience the characters as people the way I do in prose and movies. I was very disconnected from the characters (except Rorschach, whom I understood on a level I didn't the rest). So, their fear in the book didn't get me, the fear in the movie did.

Plus. Veidt's plan in the movie made sense to me. People already fear Manhattan. They love him and loathe him and want him to protect them, but have this great anxiety he'll betray them and this sort of inborn... distaste, it seems, for him. So framing him, making him a vengeful, God-like figure who was watching over them made sense.

It seems that in the book (and I could be wrong; I have to reread the end) that Veidt assuming what happened in Star Trek would happen in his world: at the first proof of alien life, humanity would put their differences aside and work together to make everything a better place. And, I'm sorry, even as a Trekkie I know it ain't gonna work. The world may be holding hands and signing kumbaya at the end of the book, but you know the leaders are starting to look for ways to make themselves richer and more powerful.

But, in the movie, they still think they're being watched. Any moment, if they pull out the weapons again and start getting at each other's throat, Dr. Manhattan can come back and kill a gazillion more people. They'll get their acts together out of fear, not because of some innate goodness or whatever. So, in that way, it still seems more plausible.

So, because the movie isn't quite as ridiculous as the book, I can sorta step back from my anger and go, "Oh, okay. It'd work for a bit" which, really, is the best we could hope for. With any luck, it'd work long enough for most of the weapons to be dismantled so when they find out the truth (or stop being scared) they can't pull them out right away.

However:
1. I still think it's bullshit that they weren't going to tell anyone. The people deserved to know who exactly had killed them.
2. Since Veidt framed Manhattan, why not expose Veidt as the true villian after a certain amount of time?
3. Killing Rorschach was bullshit. Not killing Veidt was even more bullshit. But, I can sorta see why it turned out that way.

And my other thought:
You know the scene where Manhattan sends his boys in to play with Laurie while he's working with Veidt? How much you want to bed it was Veidt's idea to send them in?

My Rorschach sue is 16 pages, 3,811 words.