History Headscratchers / WatchmenEnding

* Alan Moore basically acknowledges that Veidt's plan will fail by paralleling it with the ''Black Freighter'' story, right? A man realizes that his home is fated for destruction. The man decides he must do something to save the people he loves. He uses a literal ''pile of dead bodies'' to help save his home. A [[IncrediblyLamePun raw shark]] tries to stop his plan, so the shark must be killed. And in the end, it turns out that his home would have actually been safe, but his actions only brought death to the ones he loved most. EpicFail. For the ''Black Freighter'' protagonist, and for Veidt.

*** So, "independent launch authority" can mean a couple of different things. First, it could mean that somebody has the legal right to launch nukes whenever they feel like it, with no need to check in with superiors first. No nation gives that kind of authority to submarine captain; even the British system has a way for commanders to check in with a Prime Minister posthumously via the Letter of Last Resort. But "independent launch authority" can also mean that ''literally'', physically, somebody can push buttons and the nukes will fly, whether or not it's legal. In that second sense submarine captain do have a kind of independence, but even then they can't really press the buttons by themselves. If the sub's crew decides that the captain has gone insane they may decide to refuse the order to launch nukes, and they may even detain their own captain. Land-based launchers have an extra layer of security in that the codes necessary to activate the nukes aren't even on-location, and have to be radioed in by offsite superiors in the event of an emergency. So even if the entire base suddenly decides to nuke the world for no reason, they physically can't. Submarines tend not to have that extra layer though, out of concern that HQ might not be able to communicate quickly with a faraway sub in an emergency.

*** This isn't an accurate depiction of British policy either. Each sub contains a safe with a "Letter of Last Resort" - sealed orders on what to do if "Britain is gone", which change with each Prime Minister. It's unknown what they are as letters are destroyed when a PM leaves office - but the options suggested are apparently "fire nukes", "do not fire nukes", "make up your own mind" or "submit to the command of the French Republic, Australia or the US".

* If he's the smartest man in the world, then why didn't he just leave well enough alone? He came up with this plan to prevent WW3, but it became a self fulfilling prophesy because he's the one who drove Manhattan away, leading to the start of WW3. Why not just wait it out? Wait until Manhattan takes off on his own accord (if he even does) and ''then'' start your plan?

** You're not even the only person ''[[Main/CriticalResearchFailure on this page.]]'' And again, it's largely the point that Ozymandias's peace can't last. It's outright stated in the book by Jon.

* I had a different interpretation. I didn't see Rorshach giving into despair; I saw him as being utterly defiant to the very end. It's not that his moral system collapsed and he decided that death was the only way to avoid pain, nor was it that he realized he was about to re-doom the world by revealing the truth and he knew that death was the only way to stop his own fanaticism from ruining everything. The way I saw it, he was ''dead serious'' about never compromising, even in the face of Armageddon. He didn't say "You'd better kill me" because he decided to die; he said it because he knew that Dr. Manhattan was going to kill him regardless, and wanted to face it head-on. He was basically saying "I know that you're about to kill me; I'm not an idiot." He was also taunting Dr. Manhattan in a way, implicitly pointing out that he's about to murder the one True Hero of this story (as Rorschach sees it), thereby revealing that he (Dr. Manhattan) is corrupt. Rorschach thinks ''everyone'' is corrupt, and he spends his final moments pointing that out.
** There's ''also'' the fact that he mailed his journal earlier; if his death is in any way intentional, it's just a ploy to make everyone think that he no longer poses a threat to the new world order. If he gets killed in a spectacular particle explosion that doesn't leave a corpse, people may assume that he had the journal with him at the time, and thus they won't search for it. But if he gets killed by a bullet, they can search the corpse and maybe think "Hey, didn't he used to have a journal?" and maybe they go find it somehow and the world never learns the truth. So he's got to goad Dr. Manhattan into killing him now, when he's got his attention. I don't know that any of this was the ''intended'' interpretation, but it's an interesting thought.

* I had a different interpretation. I didn't see Rorshach giving into despair; I saw him as being utterly defiant to the very end. It's not that his moral system collapsed and he decided that death was the only way to avoid pain, nor was it that he realized he was about to re-doom the world by revealing the truth and he knew that death was the only way to stop his own fanaticism from ruining everything. The way I saw it, he was ''dead serious'' about never compromising, even in the face of Armageddon. He didn't "You'd better kill me" because he decided to die; he said it because he knew that Dr. Manhattan was going to kill him regardless, and wanted to face it head-on. He was basically saying "I know that you're about to kill me; I'm not an idiot." He was also taunting Dr. Manhattan in a way, implicitly pointing out that he's about to murder the one True Hero of this story (as Rorschach sees it), thereby revealing that he (Dr. Manhattan) is corrupt. Rorschach thinks ''everyone'' is corrupt, and he spends his final moments pointing that out.

* I had a different interpretation. I didn't see Rorshach giving into despair; I saw him as being utterly defiant to the very end. It's not that his moral system collapsed and he decided that death was the only way to avoid pain, nor was it that he realized he was about to re-doom the world by revealing the truth and he knew that death was the only way to stop his own fanaticism from ruining everything. The way I saw it, he was ''dead serious'' about never compromising, even in the face of Armageddon. He didn't "You'd better kill me" because he decided to die; he said it because he knew that Dr. Manhattan was going to kill him regardless, and wanted to face it head-on. He was basically saying "I know that you're about to kill me; I'm not an idiot." He was also taunting Dr. Manhattan in a way, implicitly pointing out that he's about to murder the one True Hero of this story (as Rorschach sees it), thereby revealing that he (Dr. Manhattan) is corrupt. Rorschach thinks ''everyone'' is corrupt, and he spends his final moments pointing that out. There's ''also'' the fact that he mailed his journal earlier; if his death is in any way intentional, it's just a ploy to make everyone think that he no longer poses a threat to the new world order. If he gets killed in a spectacular particle explosion that doesn't leave a corpse, people may assume that he had the journal with him at the time, and thus they won't search for it. But if he gets killed by a bullet, they can search the corpse and maybe think "Hey, didn't he used to have a journal?" and maybe they go find it somehow and the world never learns the truth. So he's got to goad Dr. Manhattan into killing him now, when he's got his attention. I don't know that any of this was the ''intended'' interpretation, but it's an interesting thought.

** If you consider that ''The New Frontiersman'' seems like precisely the sort of rag that would've been publishing salacious scare-stories about Adrian Veidt '''already''' - high-profile liberal, eco-friendly inventor, 'New Agey' self-improvement guru, questionable sexual orientation: basically, everything the ''Frontiersman'''s publisher would resent by pure reflex - that one more isn't likely to surprise or impress anybody.

** If you consider that ''The New Frontiersman'' seems like precisely the sort of rag that would've been publishing salacious scare-stories about Adrian Veidt '''already''' - high-profile liberal, eco-friendly inventor, 'New Agey' self-improvement guru, questionable sexual orientation: basically, everything the ''Frontiersman'''s publisher would resent by pure reflex - that one more isn't exactly going to surprise anybody.

** I think the fact that AMERICAN CITIES got completely destroyed is a pretty good reason to believe that it's not a trick. No government would greenlight the destruction of their own major cities just for a political power play. I think that given the fact that Dr. Manhattan had abandoned the US, plus the fact that there would plenty of testimonies from US officials and Veidt (as mentioned above, the leading expert on Dr. Manhattan) of Manhattan's disillusionment of the US Government and human life in general, and the distruction of cities across the world ''including'' the US, the idea of Dr. Manhattan going rogue and attacking the world independently of the US would be pretty easy to argue to any skeptical Russians. The only real issue I have with the movie ending is that it make Ozy's GambitRoulette an even bigger gamble than it was in the book, considering he had much less control over Dr. Manhattan's action's than he did of the squid project in the GN, and so the "Just As Planned" momment falls a little more flat. Seriously, they had to do quite a bit of tweaking to make the new ending believable, but I think--at least for me, anyway--they ultimately succeeded.

*** As a FlyingSpaghettiMonster, I find all of these morals offensive because they do not acknowledge my noodly omniscience.

* Ask yourselves this...in-universe, would you feel comfortable that your murderous friend is walking around freely? Even if you are on Ozzy's side, how do you know the next city he blows up won't be yours? What if your relatives and friends were in those cities he blew up, would you still be on his side? How can you sleep at night knowing millions have perished? How do you know he won't arrange a hit on both you and your girlfriend for knowing too much? I would spend the rest of my life worrying about this psycho assassinating me down the line.

* Ask yourselves this...would you feel comfortable that your murderous friend is walking around freely? Even if you are on Ozzy's side, how do you know he won't blow up more cities, killing you, your friends, and family? How do you know the next city he blows up won't be yours? How can you sleep at night knowing millions have perished because of your old teammate? How do you know he won't become paranoid as he gets older, and arrange a hit on both you and your girlfriend?

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[[folder:Nite-Owl and Laurie allowing Ozymandias to live]]
* In-universe, I would not feel comfortable having Ozzy walk around freely after learning his master plan. Let's ignore the ending with Rorschach's journal, what if the USA and USSR become enemies again? Ozzy would blow up more cities. What if Nite-Owl and Laurie decide to move to a new city and start a family? How would they know Ozzy won't blow THEM up? Even if you were crazy enough to be on Ozzy's side, how do you know he won't attack cities where your friends and family live?

* In-universe, I would not feel comfortable having Ozzy walking around freely after learning his master plan. Let's ignore the ending with Rorschach's journal, what if the USA and USSR become enemies again? Ozzy would blow up more cities. What if Nite-Owl and Laurie decide to move to a new city and start a family? How would they know Ozzy won't blow THEM up? Even if you were crazy enough to be on Ozzy's side, how do you know he won't attack cities where your friends and family live?

* In-universe, I would not feel comfortable having Ozzy walking around freely after learning his master plan. Let's ignore the ending with Rorschach's journal, what if the USA and USSR become enemies again? Ozzy would blow up more cities. What if Nite-Owl and Laurie decide to move to a new city and start a family? How would they know Ozzy won't blow THEM up?

[[folder:Why did Ozymandias think his plan will work?]]
* Imagine if some guy releases a fake alien threat onto the world, hoping whites, non-whites, and gay people will stop hating each other and join forces. After defeating this alien threat, wouldn't they go back to hating and murdering each other (because of our egos, greed, pride, different beliefs, religion, etc). Human nature would rear its ugly head again, and things would be back to normal. Ozymandias, the smartest man on earth, should know that peace on earth is unrealistic.

* Imagine if some guy releases a fake alien threat onto the world, hoping whites, non-whites, and gay people will stop hating each other and join forces. After defeating this alien threat, wouldn't they go back to hating and murdering each other (because of our egos, greed, pride, different beliefs, religion, etc). Human nature would rear its ugly head again, and things would be back to normal. Ozymandias, the smartest man on earth, should know peace on earth is very unrealistic.