These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: Watchmen
Tropes found in the comic:
Alas, Poor Villain: Moloch, murdered halfway through the story to get Rorschach out of the picture.
It's hard not to feel a bit sorry for the very anti-heroic Comedian, either, as we see how his attempts to connect with Laurie failed in the past, and that at the end of his life he's become a sobbing, remorseful wreck.
Eddie Blake/The Comedian in particular, he asks for forgiveness when he faces his death, and when he found out about Adrian's plan, he has such a breakdown he asked for forgiveness in front of his old enemy, Moloch, in tears and tried to justify what horrible things he did. The evidence does stack up that it wasn't that he never cared as some characters claim. He cared too much, and it drove him insane.
Is Doctor Manhatten truly unable to alter the future or is he just so much of a fatalist that he won't even make the effort?
Broken Base: The upcoming prequel comics, being made without Moore or even Gibbons's involvement, have been the point of division with many fans. Is this just a pale attempt at making Watchmen a Franchise Zombie, or a good way to reinterpret the story?
Draco in Leather Pants: Rorschach is a sympathetic character but not a role model. The Comedian is also subject to some of this.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Rorschach is much, much more popular than Alan Moore intended.
Fan Myopia: Around the time the movie came out, fans of the comic were openly discussing the ending and other plot points without spoiler tags, assuming anyone interested in the franchise had to have read the comic.
Genius Bonus: Several. "At play between strangeness and charm", seen in the lab where Osterman worked, is a pun on quantum mechanics, just to say one.
Heroic Sociopath: Rorschach and the Comedian, though the Comedian's case is arguable — both the Heroic and Sociopath parts, in fact.
In fairness, it is pretty explicitly stated that the big difference between our world and that of Watchmen is Doctor Manhattan. He tilts the economic and military balance of power so far in America's favor that the Soviet's feel far more compelled to be on a war footing than they did in our world. Then throw in Richard Nixon with a god in his pocket for about four terms and it's easy to see how the antagonism level might have gotten so severe.
Also, every time we see Rorschach before The Reveal, he's bumming food off whoever he's visiting. That's because he's essentially a homeless bum.
The Scrappy: Laurie/Silk Spectre II has a noticeably smaller fandom than the rest of the Crimebusters.
Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Watchmen influenced a ton of other works. These works fleshed out the tropes Watchmen introduced and put them in the forms that are now extremely familiar to readers. A superhero like Rorschach who goes around killing people was shocking in the 80s, but after several decades of the Punisher, he seems tame and reasonable by comparison. The notion of flawed heros like the Comedian was very fresh in the 80s, but it's par for the course these days. Dr. Manhattan pissing all over the status quo with his superpowers by altering history is far less amazing today than when it was first introduced in an era of Reed Richards is Uselss. Watchmen is still a great story, but reading it is no longer the paradigm shifting experience it was for comic fans in the 80s.
Squick: Rorschach's backstory. Also, there's just something odd about giving a "Tijuana Bible" of yourself to your effective son-in-law.
Laurie: Whatever happened to him? Dan: Oh...Well, he pulled that on Rorschach, and he dropped him down an elevator shaft. [Beat] [Both laugh] Laurie: [still laughing] Oh God, that's not even funny. Dan: Well, it's a little funny.
Dull Surprise: Malin Akerman, as Laurie Juspeczyk, gives rather ... measured responses to being on Mars and to being told the world will end.
To be fair, she'd been dating Doctor Manhattan for some time. That sort of thing was probably expected around him, to some degree.
Ensemble Darkhorse: Due to being played by the handsome Niall Matter, Mothman has seen a surprising level of attention in the fandom recently, in spite of not really being all that important.
Everyone Remembers the Stripper: Judging from some message boards, you'd get he impression that the movie is 2 1/2 hours of blue penis closeups.
Fashion Victim Villain: Subverted- like David Bowie in Labyrinth, Matthew Goode as Ozymandias has the uncanny ability to be put in some rather ridiculous outfits (purple suits? Egregious floppy '80s Hair? A supersuit withnipples?) and nevertheless look good enough to make otherwise rational straight women and gay men squee their brains out from all the Perverse Sexual Lust he creates. Then again, he comes dangerously close to a male example of Power Hair.
Fetish Retardant: The sex scene with Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" playing in the background. Zack Snyder claimed that it was deliberate, since the big-wigs wanted a steamy sex scene - they decided to placate them, while turning up the cheese factor Up to Eleven.
Fridge Brilliance: During the opening credits, it has Neil Armstrong on the moon and says "Good Luck Mr. Gorsky." There's an urban legend that his neighbor said the day the neighbor kid went to space is the day his wife would give him oral sex. Since this film takes place in an alternate timeline, it goes from confusing to clever.
Genius Bonus/Viewers Are Geniuses : The symbol Jon draws on his forehead is a representation of a Hydrogen atom. Hydrogen was the first element to be created and is the single element from which everything else in the universe comes. Which is why it's "something [he] can respect" versus something "the marketing boys" think up. The comic gives a brief explanation; the film puts the scene in but never explains it.
Hilarious in Hindsight: The businessman's line "'Free' is another word for 'Socialist'" in regards for energy. Right around the time the film was made, people were calling Barack Obamas energy policies such as support for cap and trade just that.
Wally Weaver's statements on Doctor Manhattan could also count as this.
Wally:What I said was 'God Exists, and he's American'. If that statement starts to chill you after a couple of moments' consideration, then don't be alarmed. A feeling of intense and crushing religious terror at the concept indicates only that you're still sane. Which later got vindicated on how Ozymandias implements his forced peace.
Adrian Veidt and his "Boys" folder seems to be getting a certain measure of notoriety, too.
As is Matthew Goode's profanity-laden OOC statement how people who hated the film can all "line up and suck [his] dick", because he "[doesn't] give a fuck".
Uncanny Valley: Dr. Manhattan again, though it may be deliberate.
Unfortunate Implications: In the comic, the Silhouette was murdered by an old adversary seeking revenge. In the movie, her murder is changed to a homophobic hate crime.
We also have a scene of The Comedian killing President Kennedy rather than just implying it.
To be fair, this would just be Viewers Are Geniuses instead if they didn't change it.
To also be fair, The Comedian killing President Kennedy was mostly implied in the written segments of the book, and that was the whole point of the intro sequence to the movie.
