So I just read "Watchmen"...

[Guynemer]

...and there's something I didn't get.


What were all those artists and writers and whatnot doing on that island? What did they have to do with that psychic thing?

[Drake Tungsten]

Weren't they designing the creature and writing the fake story about what it was? It's been a while since I read it, but that's what I remember...

[Guynemer]

Why would they be writing a story about it?


Other than this issue, I loved it. Very disturbing, bleak, fascinating. Obvious inspiration for Heroes.

[Drake Tungsten]

Why would they be writing a story about it?

So Ozymandias would have an effective explanation for the creature to psychically place in the minds of the populace.

[Guynemer]

I don't remember that at all.

Plus, if something like that suddenly appeared in Manhattan, I think most people would jump to same conclusion anyway.

[Drake Tungsten]

I looked it up on Wiki...

Using a teleportation device, Veidt moves a massive, genetically-engineered, psionic creature into the heart of New York City, knowing that the teleportation process will kill it. In its death-throes, the creature releases a "psychic shockwave" containing imagery designed to be so violent and alien as to kill half the residents of the city and drive many survivors insane. With the world convinced that the creature is the first of a potential alien invasion force, the United States and Soviet Union withdraw from the brink of war and form an accord to face this apparent extraterrestrial threat.

Someone had to design the violent and alien imagery, hence the artists and writers working for Ozymandias.

[Guynemer]

Ahhh... I just assumed the creature's shock from teleportation cause the psychic death whatnot. Seems like a simpler, more elegant explanation, though the hints and whispers of disappearances and kidnappings throughout the story would've been for naught. Thanks, Drake.

[bipolarbear]

So are you planning on reading more of Moore? LXG is a good one to jump into next.

[Wycoff]

Re: So I just read "Watchmen"...

Originally posted by Guynemer
...and there's something I didn't get.


What were all those artists and writers and whatnot doing on that island? What did they have to do with that psychic thing?

They were busy desigining that giant squid deus ex machina that ruined the entire story.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Originally posted by Guynemer
Other than this issue, I loved it. Very disturbing, bleak, fascinating. Obvious inspiration for Heroes.

Also the inspiration for The Incredibles, though that's rarely noted.

[DinoDoc]

I never really understood why they bought into the self-serving delusions of Ozzy by not bringing him down or at least killing him.

[Vesayen]

They thought they were filming a movie, when in reality it was all a cover to develop the creature.

Then Ozymandias killed them all, to cover it up.

Assembling that sort of talent and that sort of rescources is impossible to hide, so they hid it under the cover of a movie being filmed. The people involved themselves, did not know the truth and some of them seem to know about the monster itself, elluded to in a vague comment one of them makes about the special effects budget, or something to that effect.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Vesayen
They thought they were filming a movie, when in reality it was all a cover to develop the creature.

Wasn't talking about the minions. Doctor Manhattan et al. were the ones I was concerned with.

[Drake Tungsten]

Wasn't talking about the minions. Doctor Manhattan et al. were the ones I was concerned with.

Why would they risk ruining the tenuous peace between the US and USSR by exposing Ozymandias' plan after it had already happened?

[DinoDoc]

Given the nature of the morals of the universe, what was to be gained by not killing him for his crimes? Or at least letting Rorschach off him if they were to squemish.