In this version, Rorschach's journal wasn't published
The peace has been maintained as a result, but it has led to results that Ozymandias didn't account for.- It was probably published in a less credible paper as the Seventh Kalvary use their own take on the writing of the journal in their speech. The details are not confirmed yet.
- In the comic, Rorschach mails the journal to The New Frontiersman, a fringe far-right newspaper, so the above is likely.
- Jossed. It was published... And immediately treated as the insane ramblings of a conspiracy theorist.
Rorschach is actually still alive and is now a government-sponsored vigilante.
In the Comic-Con trailer, we see a masked guy watching a movie about Hooded Justice while eating baked beans from a can, still wearing the mask rolled up over the top half of his face - exactly the same way that Rorschach used to, strongly hinting at this guy being an older Walter Kovacs. We later see that same man in the masked police meeting. Notably, his mask appears to be the only one that, like Rorschach's original mask, completely covers his face and doesn't even have eyeholes, and has a similarly minimalistic design (reflective silver with no details as opposed to shifting black-and-white.) Veidt also appears to have retained his great PR from what we've seen thus far, suggesting that the contents of Rorschach's journal was never exposed. Therefore, two conclusions can be drawn from this: 1) in this version of the story, Dr. Manhattan managed to talk Rorschach down from exposing the truth about Veidt, and 2) Rorschach, now having slightly softened his literally black-and-white outlook, took on a new mask and joined the "masked cops" - where before he saw in literal black and white, now his silver mask means that he also sees shades of grey. Rorschach's primary disagreement with the police force in the comics was that they went "soft" on criminals - with the police force becoming essentially an army of legalized vigilantes, it would be a lot less surprising for him to start working with the law.- Jossed. The ones with Rorschach masks are the Seventh Kalvary, who are using Rorschach’s mask and words to commit hate crimes.
Veidt faked his death and is still orchestrating squid attacks
One of the leaked photos
shows a newspaper reporting that Veidt has been "officially declared dead." This has led to speculation that Veidt either faked his death, or that the miniseries will start with Veidt's death as an Ironic Echo to the comic. But look at the photo again. The article next to the main story is headlined: "Boise Squid Shower Destroys Homeless Camp, Kills 2." Other leaked photos show newspaper headlines making reference to "squidfalls", which appears to be a regular occurrence. Since we know that Veidt was behind the original squid attack, and is the only person with the resources and know-how to engineer and teleport squids (since he killed all of his unwitting accomplices and blackmailed the other heroes into silence), this suggests that Veidt faked his death and is continuing his scheme in hiding. After all, setting up multiple squid attacks over thirty years and keeping the world powers on a state of alert would be the only thing keeping his peace sustainable. It would also explain why the miniseries is set in Tulsa, Oklahoma instead of New York; no one would think to look for the cosmopolitan Veidt in such a middling, rural city.- Confirmed: Veidt is indeed alive and he did keep on orchestrating smaller-scale squid attacks for years after the big one. Though given his current state of imprisonment, he can't be operating the present-day squidfalls himself, so either the process is automatic and doesn't require him, or someone else (most likely Lady Trieu) has taken over it.
Veidt's plan accidentally led to a different kind of arms race
That same newspaper also makes reference to "intrinsic chamber talks" being held in Moscow. This would imply that there has been or is about to be an arms race involving intrinsic field chambers — the very technology which created Dr. Manhattan and escalated the Cold War — either because the political situation is breaking down again or humanity is desperate to create another superhuman to counter the squid threat.- Confirmed. Senator Keene is asked by a reporter about the Russians building an intrinsic field generator.
Jean Smart's character is really an older version of Laurie Juspeczyk
Pretty self-explanatory: Jean Smart's character is called "Agent Blake", the same last name as Edward Blake, Laurie's father. Although she and Dan took the name "Hollis" when they went into hiding at the end of the comic, it would make sense for her to use "Blake" as an alias.- All but confirmed with the SDCC trailer revealing that Blake's first name is Laurie.
- Confirmed.
Live-action Tales Of The Black Freighter sequences will appear
...in cold opens. These segments will provide a framing device similar to the "pink teddy bear" sequences in Breaking Bad.- Jossed. A Story Within a Story shows up in Episode 2 that seems to be serve a similar purpose as the Black Freighter sequences, but it is not a new Black Freighter story.
- We might get one in season 2. Alternatively, Tales of the Black Freighter is an in-universe TV series, live-action or animated. A very popular one at that.
Throughout the season it will be ambiguous as to who is the true Big Bad.
To match Watchmen-style deconstruction, there will be a shuffle between episodes as to who the Big Bad for the first season is. It could be implied that it’s Ozymandias, but the heroes end up having to team up with him to fight the group of Rorschach impersonators. Then there could be a new character or a previously unimportant one becomes the Big Bad and has set the events of the show into motion. It will be The Big Bad Shuffle.- Confirmed. The ninth episode reveals Lady Trieu as the true Big Bad.
Will Reeves, the old man in the wheelchair, is both the child from the Tulsa Massacre scene, and a descendant of Bass Reeves
In one of the final shots of the episode, Will Reeves is holding a piece of paper that reads "LOOK AFTER THIS BOY," the same piece of paper the young boy was given in the intro. Also, the fact that Will idolized Bass Reeves as a child, and has the same last name, so it is likely they are related.- Semi-confirmed. Will is the child who survived the Tulsa massacre, but he has no apparent relation to Bass Reeves (and possibly took his name to disappear).
Veidt's servants are robots
Pretty sure normal staff, even as well-paid as they'd be would, ask their boss to stop and lay down for a proper massage and know you don't use a horseshoe to cut a cake.- Jossed. His servants are Expendable Clones.
The Seventh Kavalry will attempt to kill Veidt
Given that they blame Veidt for Rorschach's disapperance they will somehow track down his location and attack his mansion.- Jossed: The Seventh Kavalry's plan has nothing to do with Veidt.
Veidt actually has nothing to do with the Kavalry.
He might be engineering the squid rain but to play with expectations, that is all he does in the story before being found.- Confirmed.
If Veidt gets into a fight with the Kavalry or any of the other Heroes in the Police force...
he will lose badly as despite having been the world’s smartest man and trained himself to human perfection when he was younger to the point he could easily beat Rorschach, he is now an aged man and may not have the time to keep up with his physical exercise.- Jossed.
Judd was The Atoner
From his time in the KKK.- Jossed. Judd was a highly positioned member of the Kavalry.
Veidt's ultimate plan involves creating superpowered beings.
We know from the obituary in the first Peteypedia cache that Veidt's company was involved in cloning human pets, thus he no doubt used cloning technology to create the house staff at his castle. That same obituary states that Veidt wanted to propagate a transhumanist ideology in which people submitted to the will of enlightened superbeings, but the now-technophobic public rejected this idea. It stands to reason that Veidt's ultimate plan involves creating a new race of superbeings that can compete with or supplant Doctor Manhattan, and gain control of the world in the process. Veidt's cloned servants were probably a failed prototypical version of this plan.- Jossed: Veidt isn't the one trying to create superpowered beings — the Seventh Kavalry is.
Will Reeves is/was Hooded Justice
The Tulsa Massacre scene that opens the series and introduces his character has parallels to famous superhero origin stories like those of Batman and Superman and Will is shown to be a great admirer of law men like Bass Reeves, similar to Batman being a Zorro fan as a kid. Episode 2 opens with the piece of paper that Will was given by his father being revealed to be a piece of German propaganda targeting black soldiers in World War 1, and one of the few things we know about Hooded Justice is that he expressed pro-German views during the 1930s and early 1940s. Will also shares Hooded Justice's purple and red color scheme and is shown to be abnormally tough and skilled considering his age, downing hot coffee, breaking out of his handcuffs, and reaching into boiling water to get an egg without reacting much.On top of all this Will is Angela Abar/Sister Night's Grandfather. One bit of trivia found in the author's notes of the Watchmen graphic novel is that Hooded Justice's costume was originally designed for a completely different character who was cut or reworked into Hooded Justice. That character's name? Brother Night.
- There are few issues with this concerning the original comic, which don't make the theory impossible, but require some mental gymnastics: the Hooded Justice was shown having a Caucasian skin tone from his costume's eyeholes in the comic's flashback sequences, he was strongly implied to be a gay man in relationship with Captain Metropolis, and Captain Metropolis, in turn, was strongly implied to be racist.
- Confirmed. Will applied whiteface makeup around his eyes to conceal his true identity, and was indeed in a gay relationship with Captain Metropolis, who is racist, but still doesn't mind having sex with a black man.
Lubricant Man is Dale Petey
They're both tall and skinny, Dale seems enough of an odd fanboy to come up with a ridiclous setup like that as his costumed identity, and him following Angela around could be to help Laurie or him doing his own investigation.- Confirmed in supplemental material.
The video of Adrian Veidt shown to Wade is fake
It makes little sense for Veidt to entrust his greatest secret to, at the time, just an actor. Additionally it goes counter to Veidt's character to be this involved in American politics.- Jossed. It's real, and we see some of Veidt filming it.
Lady Trieu is the daughter of one Veidt's servants whom he killed before the squid attack.
The servants were Vietnamese, just like she is. Trieu found out what happened to her dad, and was pissed off at Veidt for killing him so casually, so in revenge she took over Veidt's company and banished him to space.- Jossed. Her father wasn't Veidt's servant since Veidt himself is her father. Her mother worked for him though.
Will Reeves does have limited super-strength and super-endurance
As mentioned in the WMG above, Will can break out of handcuffs, pick eggs out of boiling water, and in general is in remarkably good physical condition for a 105-year-old man. Also, when he gets almost lynched in the 1940s, we see his bare neck right after the attack, and there's no bruises at all. It doesn't seem like his years of crimefighting have left him with any permanent injuries or scars either, even though we see him routinely engage in brutal fistfights. In the Minutemen press conference, one of the reporters outright states that he is rumoured to have super-strength. This is treated as a silly urban legend, but what if it's true?Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks are specifically clones of Jon Osterman and Janey Slater
- It would make Veidt's "play" all the more prescient
- Veidt would probably get a kick out of bossing around Dr. Manhattan and his first wife
- It would give Tom Mison and Sara Vickers a little more to do in the series than just follow Jeremy Irons around like children
- Imagine the HSQ if Dr. Manhattan finally appears and we recognise his face
- Jossed. They're a British couple that Jon met as a child.
Lady Trieu is the granddaughter of the Comedian, which would make Bian Laurie Blake's half sister.
- This would explain her reticence when Angela asks her about her father.
- In the comic, the Comedian is seen with at least two different Vietnamese women on his arm, one of whom tries to confront him about the child she's carrying.
- Yes, but in that same scene the Comedian shoots the pregnant woman dead.
- Which would be strong incentive for the other one not to speak up if she was also pregnant. Having said that, given that Trieu says her father is going to be present for her great moment, either she's got another clone to pull out of her hat or it isn't Blake.
- Yes, but in that same scene the Comedian shoots the pregnant woman dead.
- Jossed. Veidt's her father and she isn't linked to Comedian at all.
- Considering how her father screwed her plan over, she probably wished the Comedian killed him.
Even if their machine does work the Seventh Kavalry will fail in their plan to replicate Dr Manhattan’s accident.
The incident was a one of a kind event and worst could incinerate them from reality.- Confirmed.
The Seventh Kavalry's plan will succeed, but it won't matter.
They'll gain the power of Doctor Manhattan, but they'll also gain his nonlinear understanding of time, which will leave them too apathetic to do anything.- Jossed.
The mastermind behind the 7th Kavalry is Adrian Veidt
"A God Walks into Abar" makes it clear that the scenes with Veidt on Europa are not concurrent with the rest of the series rather than flashbacks taking place years ago. That episode also shows that Veidt hates the fact that the world hasn't become the utopia he envisioned. On top of that, he finds out Dr. Manhattan was able to create an utopia on Europa. So sometime before 2019 he manages to escape Europa and starts to manipulate the 7th Kavalry towards stealing Jon's powers, which he intends to use to make Earth his personal utopia. This would explain how the 7th Kavalry knows Cal is Jon, as the only people aware of that fact are Angela, Will, and Adrian himself. Senator Keene is either Veidt's patsy, or he is Veidt, who has used cloning technology to assume Keene's identity.- Jossed. Veidt isn't manipulating the Kavalry, Lady Trieu is.
Veidt was in the object that crashed on the farm that Trieu bought.
As the above guess mentions, It's been established that Veidt's scenes don't take place in sync with the rest of the show, taking place over the course of the decade between his exile and the current day. The ultimate reveal will be that he's been back the entire time, in Trieu's care.- Confirmed.
The Kalvary's plan to absorb Dr. Manhattan's powers backfires
Instead of absorbing the powers of a god, they either disintegrate into nothing or splatter into bits due to them being unable to wield Jon's powers in the same way he does.- Confirmed. Senator Keene attempting to absorb a large amount of atomic energy without a filter leads to him getting liquified. The rest of the Kavalry also die, but by the actions of Lady Trieu, who has been playing them the whole time.
The series takes place after the event of Doomsday Clock
The comic series is going to end with someone fiddling with Dr. Manhattan's personal timeline so that he meets Abar, which reminds him of his humanity; thanks to Jon being a Non-Linear Character, this means that when he becomes aware of the DC Universe he decides it would be unethical and unpredictable to meddle with it, and this ends up unmaking all the chaos that he caused by interfering with alternate universes.- Jossed.
Rolf Müller, the man thought to be Hooded Justice In-Universe, is a member of Cyclops
Reeves may have deliberately tracked down a member of the organization he is fighting against, both in an attempt to cover his tracks as Hooded Justice as well as disposing another member of Cyclops. Either he killed Muller outright or he incapacitated him and had him wear his costume, leaving him to the tender mercies of the Comedian (who was speculated by some people including Veidt to have killed Hooded Justice).- Adding to this, Reeves beat up the Comedian for raping Silk Spectre. Truly believing the Comedian will get him back, Reeves set this all up. Probably making him the only person to royally screw over the Comedian, who remain unaware he killed the wrong person until his death.
Will Reeves was given, and ate, a ‘Manhattan Egg’
I was waiting patiently for the reveal but it never came. Will says he and Jon helped each other; what if that means Will helped Jon and Jon reciprocated by passing him a copy of his powers? That would explain why Will has lived so long, is very fit and healthy for his age and can do various seemingly impossible feats (including escaping handcuffs and putting his hand in boiling water). Given Jon knew his whole timeline, it makes sense he would plan for his powers to pass on.- As a follow on, S2E1 will open on the end of S1E9 but will then cut away to another story/flashback, then end with Angela falling into the water with Will then walking over the pool to offer his hand :) definitiveprankster
Season 2 will deal with the aftermath of Veidt's exposure.
Once again, leading to the fear of a potential war between the USA and the Soviet Union. It might also lead to the rise of new vigilantes, who'll try to do their part in making the world better; Laurie would be one against it of course, comparing it to "playin' cowboys and Indians". A few members of the Kalvary escaped.
It doesn't matter to them if they were Unwitting Pawns, they still believe in their purpose. Discovering that a Vietnamese played them all only further convince them of their goal to make white Americans the masters. But without their leaders, they can't do much except their usual racist stuff, and eventually they'll all get arrested and the Kalvary is put down for good. This might be the b-story arc of season 2's main arc. Looking Glass will personally arrest Renee.
Laurie will be jealous of Angela for marrying Dr. Manhattan
Saturday Morning Watchmen is an in-universe cartoon.
It was created as an actual Saturday-Morning Cartoon by Veidt Enterprises, made in the late 80s to lighten up the kids following the 11/2 incident, and to promote the toys of course. The squid monster was made the Big Bad on the show for the sake of Obviously Evil (same way Nazis are automatically villains in fiction). The Russians are the villains due to the Cold War still lingering in people's mind despite its end. Other obvious changes are made to make it appropriate for kids; notable being making the Comedian and Silk Spectre lovers (presumably the writers combined both Silk Spectres) because the public noticed how close the Comedian and the second Silk Spectre seem in real life, unaware they're father and daughter).