Watchmen Ending
When it comes to hero storylines, most people would expect the hero to win and for there to be a good ending. In Watchmen, however, that is not the case. The novel ends with the villain, Veidt, succeeding in blowing up part of NYC. Most would consider this a bad ending. Is it though? Although Viedt's way of going about his plan, his overall goal was to end the war and create peace. Is that not a good thing? Morals had to take a step back in order for him to achieve widespread peace. Would others not sacrifice their personal feelings for the greater good? Although Laurie, Jon and Nite Owl (and maybe to an extent Dr. Manhattan), were originally trying to stop Veidt, they set aside their personal feelings because they came to the agreement that this disaster was the best option for them to pursue the chance of peace.
Dr, Manhattan obviously knew of the ending that was on it's way, so I think he was trying to prepare Laurie for that. He had conversations with her about the lack of importance of individuals. He still had some inkling of emotion, because of that. I believe he brought Laurie to Mars when he did was so that she wouldn't get caught in the blast. He may not care for many people anymore, but he does care for her.
Another thing I noticed about the ending was the fight between the two women on the street. The only thing that was able to stop their fight was the explosion that hit them. Perhaps that is symbolism for the fact that the explosion was the only thing that could stop the war on a wider scale as well.
(P.S., lets also notice the bloody clock after the destruction)
I really love the way you explained that "morals had to take a step back in order for him to achieve widespread peace'.
ReplyDeleteI think this was such a great way of wording it and I completely agree that this was, in fact, the case at the end of the comic. I honestly loved the overall irony of the ending of the story and the fact that it kind of proved the old saying of having to take a step backwards sometimes to be able to move forward. The way it all unfolded was so interesting to me and I think that it was honestly fantastic how they put such a big focus on the idea of looking at the bigger picture. I think it was a really good overall message and theme that was shown in the ending.
Hey Sarah , the ending to watchmen was very different from you basic happy lovey dove endings that we read a lot of. It's very interesting that the watchmen put aside their own feelings to have the explosion go off although I may have to slightly disagree with you with the explosions. I personally believed that it wasn't an explosion to a teleportation of a monster which was Cthulhu which I talked about for my blog that was sent into the city. But either way it was still a decision that the watchmen mad which is very important since it reflects to the idea of the ending of World War II. It was the same choice we had to make in order to get peace because if we didn't the war could of ended worse. I also think its interesting seeing Jon being a little confused with the out come as yes he could see the final out come but he was so intrigued when the "bomb" went off since he knew it wasn't actually a bomb that went off yet and he took Laurie their when the monster killed everyone. Very interesting post!
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