this is satirical for anyone unfamiliar. It's a page from the right wing newspaper that the character Rorschach reads devotedly. It's got everything. Excessive labels. :liberty-weeping:, the works
Not only did Zac Snyder not understand that Rorschach was meant as a satire of grimdark law and order takes on Batman like Year One, no, his Rorschach and his Batman are the exact same character.
Still love how Rorschach was a none too subtle dig against Steve Ditko's Mr. A as well
Nearly the exact same outfit, nearly identical philosophy
But where Mr. A is a principled newspaper reporter who moonlights as a vigilante, Rorschach is a greasy weirdo who only reads the greasy right-wing tabloids
He's ugly, he doesn't bathe and moreover he's short and drives a psychologist to the brink with his depravity
Nobody should like Rorschach and yet, for some reason, he's the most popular character
Mr. A was inspired by Objectivism, the belief system and moral absolutism of the philosopher-novelist Ayn Rand.
:kombucha-disgust:
this makes me appreciate the satire way more
Those Mr. A comics basically read like Chick Tracts, but for objectivism
Like they basically all have a scenario where Mr. A gets the drug dealer/pimp/gangster into a life or death situation and it always has them being like "You can't just let me die" and Mr. A without missing a beat always goes "Yes I can, because A is A" and let's them fall/get hit by a train/get crushed by a car crusher
Okay, he never actually says "A is A" but it would have improved the comics somewhat
everything you've said is correct but "I'M NOT TRAPPED IN HERE WITH YOU, YOU'RE TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME" is a fantastic line
Alan Moore is such a good writer that he managed to make a violent dumpster goblin likeable
I wouldn't say he's likeable, but he does have virtues. Which, depending on how you feel about Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia, is a good thing or a bad thing.
Understandable maybe, but he didn't make the guy at all likeable. These people just decided they like bad traits.
Also it doesn’t help that he gets the most badass ending out of all the characters in the comic. He refuses to help cover up the mass murder of innocents and chooses to be executed rather than compromise his morals. Meanwhile Night Owl and Silk Spectre just pathetically accept defeat and retire and Dr. Manhattan tells Ozimandias all his plans are ultimately futile before fucking off into space forever. When I first read Watchmen as a teen I thought Rorschach was the only actual hero in it, mostly because of this scene.
both of these dress and think exactly like a 4chan libertarian ca. 2008. the difference is that with Rorschach, the smell, social ineptitude and general unhingedness of this archetype are portrayed in a realistic way.
Snyder's Watchmen lifts so much of its cinematography and script directly from Moore's book that they gave him a writer's credit. honestly its impressive how, despite that, Snyder managed to turn Rorschach into the main POV and sideline the actual main character Night Owl just through which scenes were given more screentime and how the editing framed the characters.
I'm sure the crying statue of liberty is less of a prediction and more of Stan Kelly lifting the joke straight from this panel. There's simply no way he isn't aware of Watchmen.
i'm pretty sure it was just an actual cliche used by hack right wing political cartoonists (but i repeat myself)
That is probably true. I tried looking into it, but there's like only one interview that deals with the crying statue of liberty and Kelly frustratingly enough doesn't break character:
BNR: Where did you first get the idea for the crying Statue of Liberty who so often appears in your cartoons?
SK: I take issue with your question. Lady Liberty is a powerful symbol of our nation, and I take great care to use her sparingly. It’s only when a cartoon is dealing with issues crucial to the survival of the Republic that I usher her into my panel. To see her shed a single tear should be enough to reduce every honest, patriotic American to a puddle of distraught emotion. I think hard and long before I use a weapon like that on my readers.
Pretty funny answer though
God damn that's a perfect answer. If this were a post on this website no one would bat an eye. Kelly is one of us
Nah, it seems like the kind of thing multiple people would come up with independently.
Nah, I'm with Mittens. Watchmen is one of the greatest works of comic art, and one of the greatest novels, of the 20th century. If would be shocked if Kelly wasn't familiar with it.
Kelly comics are second level parody, it's a comic that makes fun of people who saw this at some point and didn't understand that it was a joke
Still laugh at how butt hurt people got at the HBO show for making Rorschach’s followers act exactly like they would
Even if you think Rorschach wasn’t a white supremacist (he clearly had a variety of chud beliefs but I don’t remember him being directly racist) canonically his diary got published in this newspaper so the only ones who read it were Nazis
I think it's just an autocorrect typo
Still laugh at how [mad] their people got at the HBO show for making Rorschach's followers act exactly like they would
read this way it's totally intelligible.
wild how a british guy perfectly understands american fash
He wrote V for Vendetta too, so he also understands British fash
The rest of the comic is good too. If superheroes were real, they'd be tools for American imperialism and white supremacy. They'd break up riots and assassinate protest organizers.
I'm still surprised how many comic shitheads worship Alan Moore and love Watchmen and yet completely miss everything it's saying. They idolize Ozymandias and Rorschach, despite both of them being depraved murderers.
I've always thought there was a good parallel between those characters. There's something there I can't quite articulate, like Ozymandias is the lib ideal and Rorshach is the chud ideal. Rorschach is more honest, but at the cost of his murderous nature being obvious and repellant. He thinks he's fighting for freedom or whatever when in reality he was always someone his friends barely tolerated. Ozymandias is a beloved well groomed celebrity and yet is a more successful mass murderer than any of his super friends. Also thinks it's in the name of peace or freedom.
That's largely because the movie was directed by Zach Snyder, who is notoriously fashy. Snyder made all the heroes look cool and eroticized the violence, totally undercutting the message of the book.
