Those of you who have read/seen 'Watchmen'...can you identify with Rorschach?

[Danger Mouse]

Poll question: Those of you who have read/seen 'Watchmen'...can you identify with Rorschach?

I read this thread in GD:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5547320
And it turned my stomach enough to make me think of Rorschach's actions in 'Watchmen'...I really could identify with him. As twisted as he was, he tried to counter the brutality of the world with brutality of his own...and couldn't yield his principles even when it was the best interests of all involved.
Could you see yourself going down his path, pushed far enough? Do stories like this make you think of putting on a fedora and white mask and searching for a can of gasoline?

[Forkboy]

1. I almost did go down that path, and I don't recommend it.

When I was younger (much) a friend's 12 year old sister was raped. She was too afraid to talk to the police, but she told us. I got to the guy the first, and I had every intention of killing him, and damn near did.

The episode was almost an epiphany for me. I thought all night about what I had done, and how close I had just come to commiting murder. That wasn't the person I wanted to be. Even if the person deserved it (and I still feel he did) it's not up to me to be judge, jury and executioner.

This episode is what led to me being against the death penalty. It wasn't about whether someone deserved to die anymore for me, it was about what kind of person I wanted to be. If I were to turn around now and favor the death penalty I'm afraid that it would get easier and easier for me to watch people die, and I don't want that. I've tried for over 20 years not to be the person I came close to being, and while I still feel that temptation sometimes to turn someone's skull into a bloody pulp of blood and brains (as is the case when reading the article you have linked in your OP) I know it's not an answer. The urge is understandable....following through on it isn't.

And don't relate to Rorschach too much. He was still a scumbag for the most part, and racist to boot. :)

[Mojambo]

2. He was completely batshit crazy

Do I understand him? Yes.

Do I relate? I couldn't possibly.

[baldguy]

3. If he had been sane & well-adjusted he would have been G Gordon Liddy.

[Forkboy]

5. LOL

That's a good one. :rofl:

[DarkTirade]

4. Have you read the comic Black Summer?

It does a good job of dealing with that whole 'how far do we go' thing that many of the mainstream superhero comics don't deal with a whole lot.

[BreweryYardRat]

7. Can't speak for the OP, but I've read Black Summer, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed.

And I generally really like Warren Ellis' work. Little too heavy-handed, probably because it was a miniseries.

I'll give him points for tackling the idea, but he didn't execute it very well.

[Bryan]

6. No, I don't think so

I identified like crazy with the Dan Dreiberg Nite Owl, though. Well-meaning, middle-class, middle-of-the-road, quiet, pudgy, full of thwarted longings-it was fascinatingly uncomfortable.

[MilesColtrane]

8. Lately, I've been identifying with Dr. Manhattan.

blue balls....

[Dr. Strange]

10. Dude, you're killing me.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[RandomThoughts]

9. Might it be,

That films like the watchmen are warnings of what is in all of us, helping us to see what we want to be, and what we do not want to be.

Personally I think interpretations thought of as facts, cause so many of the contradictory views in society, that they are the source of many problems.

When I learned how many things I thought, were how I just wanted to interpret things, I was able to listen to other peoples views without such a closed mind.

Do I want to interpret, no, do I want to know it is a limitation or even hindrance of the human condition, yes.

(Well interpretation for art or to just imagine, is ok, but not when discerning reality.)

Quote from Wesley. "The first lesson a Watcher learns is to separate truth from illusion. Because in the world of magics, it's the hardest thing to do"

And most illusions are self imposed.

[Orsino]

11. I think we can all identify, just a bit.

Unless we've led completely sheltered lives, we've all seen a piece of the ugliness that drove Walter to become Rorschach. Very few of us, however, have every plumbed those depths, so equally few are able to say with confidence how we would react.

[Blue_Tires]

12. i would have had more respect for him

if he went after Nixon and the higher-ups instead of being a simple garbageman picking off ordinary muggers...talk about missing the forest for the trees...

and in a movie full of campy, self-important dialogue, more than a few of his lines made my eyes roll...imo there are better examples of the revenge-bent, absolutist vigilante...

[Bucky]

13. The point of the character is that he's a man who's lost perspective

So, no, no matter how depraved someone else's behavior, I don't descend into barbarism myself.

I thought that was the whole point of replacing Bush with Obama. We fight evil in the world best by being not evil.