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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Watchmen Issue by Issue: The Abyss Gazes Also (Patreon Review for WeirdKev27)

Content Warning: This review will contain mentions of extreme and graphic violence. While i’m going to not show it because I love you all, it is vital and necessary to the story I talk about some of it so if you have sensitivity towards that sort of thing or the deaths of children or dogs, please skip this one.

Times up times here for the watchmen once again. I’m Jake, I review comics, film and animation and for this year i’m taking a monthly look at the watchmen courtsey of my patreon weirdkev27. And i’ts been an enlightning return as while I liked it as a teen having to really drink everything in has made me appricate it more the second time around.

That said while I had to wait till the end of the month for this one as it was the easiest to rework in my schedule when I hit some sliippage, I wasn’t that put off. And it’s not due to quality: This issue is easily the best so far, the most iconic in the series with MANY of the most memorable moments of it comign from this, and one of the most intense and captivating issues i’ve ever read.... but it’s also bleak, gory as hell, and hard to stomach. This issue is a dive into Rorschach’s mind and just what turned Walter Kovacs into the obessive right wing murderous nightmare he is. And the results are well...

It’s a great issue but I was dead serious, as I always am, about the content warning. If you’ve read this one or at leats know rorshachs backstory, then you know why i’m like this this go round. And if you don’t.. well be prepared to gaze into the abyss because what stares back.. is a lot.

The issue is, as you could probably guess, another character focus, but while it does focus on one of our leads in Rorshach.. it also focuses on his pyschatrist, dr. malcom long who wants to study our formerly fedora clad man of many creepy rants to help him. And to possibly get a book deal but unlike the sam hamm script after it, it DOES feel like Long geninely WANTS to help Rorshach and comes off as the only friendly face in the prison: the guards don’t seem to like him any more than the police, the prisoners naturally all want him dead and taunt him in his cell every night, Long is the only one genuinely WANTING to change him for the better instead of just see him as a bloody smear on the wall as quickly as possible.

The problem is that Therapy requires the person to actually WANT to change on some level: to adress their problems and manage their mental illness. It’s what I hope to get some day and why I take medication. It helps. But while Rorshach IS clearly mentally ill on some level, and the story sadly does the classic dovetailing of mental illness with violence, he’s HAPPY as what he is. He’s vengance in an unjust world and he dosne’t WANT to change or come back from the edge. He won’t compromise.. even in the face of armageddon.. so Long was doomed from the moment he sat down.

The issue is framed by the twos sessions and Rorshachs flashbacks as we learn WHY he ended up like this and that he’s suprisngly tragic. I still don’t LIKE him as a person.. but I do feel sorry for him. While again the story mistkaes mental illness for violence, to moores credit he also shows Rorshach didn’t get this way out of nowhere: a society unwilling to get him help, a mother who actively hated him, and a traumtic incident to end all incidents got him there. Just because he’s an asshole at the end dosen’t make it any less tragic the world failed him so badly. That a man who ended up despite all this becoming a hero.. wound up as only marginally better than the monsters he fights.

So we see that path during the first sessoin even if Long, sadly dosen’t get that insight to actually help his patient: we get our first really iconic bit as Kovacs says a bunch of nice stuff.. while imagining a dog with it’s head split open.

You were warned and it ONLY gets worse. IT’s why i’m also, as you could probablyu noticed not mocking rorshach as usual: it’s just.. not an issue for that.

Our first flashback shows him walking in on his mom .. who was a prostitut, had sex in the home and abuses her son when the john leaves because he walked in. Yeah this work.. dosen’t have the best views on sex work, and I wince at the sterotype of prostitues who are moms doing all their work in the home. It paints them as stupid and neglegent and all sex workers who happen to have kids as badly needing the money> Which does happen.. but geninely just because you work in sex dosen’t mean your a bad parent. Anyone in any line of work can be a bad parent. The only things I can give moore is it likely wasn’t intentional, and that it does answer why Kovacs is such a dick towards said sex workers: he had a terrible experince himself. It dosen’t remotely justify it, but it adds depth to his actions instead of just bein ga right wing ass

His next flashback during the same section is of some kids bullying him.. till he snapped and just started snarling into one like a beast, a sign of who he’ dbecome.. and what was lurking underneath. The rage, the pain, and the lashing out at a society he correctly sees dosen’t care about him.

Dr. Long works on the case at home, and we get updates on what happened next: the incident caused Kovacs home to be investigated.. and thus him to be taken away and him to do FAR better. He got good grades in school and seemed fine.. though his reaction to his mom’s death, good indicated he hadn’t forgotten nor forgiven how she treated him.

So at the next session Long admits he got that Roshach wasn’t engaging and asks him too.. and Ror admits he dosen’t LIKE dr. long, feeling a rich man can’t understand what he went through, but agreeing to actually talk to him about Rorshach. It shows the tragedy as well as why Rorshach remains unlikeable: He was through a lot... but he also refuses to empathize, to see that Dr. Long is TRYIGN to help walter and isn’t being condescending or anything. He gets he had a hard life and treis to understand it. The work isn’t working because Long is fat or wealthy, it’s not working because Rorshach dosen’t want it to and woudl prefer to break a geninely kind, decent man wanting to help him.. than actually GET help.

So we get the story: after leaving the orphanage at 16 Kovacs worked in garmets, not minding except having to work with women’s clothing. It’s there he found the mask and we find out why it shifts, something I hadn’t even noticed till now: it’s a special fabric made my mahattan. the client abandoned the dress so walter took it home and played with it, as frankly I would in that situation then forgot about it, again as I would. It wasn’t till two years later when he heard about the woman who ordered it’s rape and murder that something change. He heard how her forty neighbors, all above.. did nothing. Some even WATCHED.

So Kovacs made a face he could look at in the mirror..and Rorshach was born.. but as Kovacs says not really.. it was still walter in the mask. not the Rorshach he BECAME. Kovacs also points out there are more severe cases than his but the doctor isn’t visiting THEM... and makes a valid point there. I do like that: while I do think Dr. Long is a good man he’s not infaliable, as seen right after when he assumes the kitty genovese incident was just an excuse to do this.. when what caused Walter to become Rorshach was much deeper.. and that Rorshach did beocme a hero for good reason. To protect those who couldnlt

Long then recounts an incdient after that.. and we get one of the most iconic scenes in the comic as an inmate tries to intemdiate rorshach.. and soon wins his darwin award as rorshach flings a hot tray of food at him burning the man. And as he’s carried away he says the line bart..

“I’m not locked in here with you.. your locked in here with me”... Long is starting to realize how wrong he was, Kovacs isn’t getting better.. and Long is getting worse, neglecting his wife for the case.. or as he muses

Ror procedes to prove how far gone he is claming Kovacs was soft for having friend sfor having mercy.. for in short being a good hero, venting his resntment at everyone quitting and again adding a layer to his respect for the comedian: while he was still an ass about the sexual assault and always will be, we see he saw a kindred spirit: someone who didn’t give up and who saw the world was fucked up and kept up the work anyway. Granted he dosen’t seee that the work was jut an outlet for the comedian to kill and abuse people, so again, asshole, but it does make it more than just being right wing that makes rorshach respect him and shows WHY he dove so hard into this: i’ts not just the conspiracy.. it’s a person he admired and kept him going dying and him wanting to know WHY.

He ends it by saying “We are compelled” and Malcomn Long.. wonders why. He’s also unnerved to find out the newstand he goes to is the same one Roshach went to.. it’ trivial but I’d be spooked too. Still Malcom’s wife has a party planned with some couple friends to try and smooth things over, and things seem better... so yeah.. about that..

See.. now we get what caused Walter to become Rorshach.. the Rorshach we know. And find out about the dog with it’s head split open. This.... is what haunted me and kept me away a bit. The stuff with him slowly breaking malcom dosen’t help.. but this.. it chills my bones. It utterly unsettles me and i’mnot the hardest mark for horror: horror stuff can shock me. But this.. may be one of the most intense and unsettling things and we hardly see anything... and that just makes it worse

So Walter was investigating a kidnapping, a chlid was taken for ransom on a stupid mistake as her father wasn’t rich like they thought and taking it personally for reasons you can probably guess, Walter looked for her. And while he foudn where she was clearly kept, he also found butchers tools, a childs clothes in the incenerator... and the worst thing the attack dogs the guy had.. feasting on human bones. I.. I can’t even use a reaction image for this it’s so fucking disturbing. And Moore to his brilliance.. dosen’t show any excess gore or anything dosen’t show the child being devoured. All it takes is the implications and the sights of the dogs fighting over the remains..a nd that.. that is enough. It’s enough to leave me barely able to write the rest of this and it’s enough to kill walter kovacs. Rorshach then picks up the cleaver.. and well .. you know what happens next.

So we get a naturally brutal death for the monster, as he first THROWS THE DOG CORPSES AT HIM, which as a dog lover all this dog stuff.. jesus christ it’s a lot, then chains him to the furnance, gives him a saw and jigsaw style tells him “won’t get through chain in time’ ... giving him an obvious implication.. and then lighting the place up.

And from that Rorshach took his philosphy: there is no meaning, no purpose, no greater design.. only what we make. No one shaped it.. it’s us.. just us.

Naturally he ruins the dinner party talking about the incident, and his wife runs out on him like n ass instead of seeing you know, he’s heavily fucking traumatized... and he ends the issue starring into the abyss.. but finding nothing. There is nothing left for Dr. Long.. or anyone

This issue is a masterpiece.. but as you might of guessed it is a lot. It made me respect Rorshach as a character a lot more, see far more complexity and thankfully Dr. Long’s story isn’t over just yet. Though thankfully this part of it is. Thank god. This issue is brilant, intrancing.. but fuck is it a lot. It’s probably Moore’s best work.. but it’s also easily darkest. So be careful when you hit this chapter.. nad be good to each other. Because yes, maybe something didn’t shape this, I belivie something did though I have no idea what. Beleivie what you belivie as long as it dosen’t hurt others. But even if it didn’t.. even if all we hav eis the meaning we make.. there’s no reason to not be good to each other. There’s no reason to not help one another and there’s no reaoon to not care about what we do have, what meaning we have made. Rorshach wasn’t wrong people can be terribhle and sometimes violence is just there... but they can also be good.. and despite everything, especially in the past week.. i have to belieive there’ shope and that we can make this world better again and that a select few can’t ruin it no matter how hard they try. Thank you for reading.

#watchmen #dc comics #rorshach #malcom long #alan moulder #dave gib

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cassidyfuller03 · 2 months

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♡bon scott♡

I love him so so so much :( ♡

#bon scott #acdcband #rockstar #rockstar aesthetic #rockstar gf #70s #70s rock #groupie #rock n roll #its a long way to the top #angus young #malcom young

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pieflavoredartz · 1 year

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CLICK FOR BETTA QUAILLTYYYY 🥳

its his freakin day ‼️n yea i had ta add a sprinkle of kiraboss, dawg. who do u think i is 🤨🤨

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larkral · 11 months

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Happy Wednesday! It's open windows season in my corner of the world, and I cannot get enough of the crisp spring air and birds singing outside my windows. And my younger child shouting "It's an airplane!" every time a plane flies overhead (this happens frequently. We live 3 miles from an airport).

Thanks for tagging me @blackberrysummerblog and @rimeswithpurple!! Quiet around here this week :)

I've been shoving some new scenes into the final chapters of ADA, editing ADA, talking with @petedavidsonscock about writing an OMGCP fic together (EXCITED ABOUT THIS), as well as writing meta on Good at Something and noodling on Simon's Two Mums. Which is to say: I have more WIPs on the go than I have had for more than five years. I know this is like, an unfathomably small number of WIPs for most people, but for me it's a lot! (I also have minimum 3 more ideas for dangerverse floating around. Anyway. Uh, ignore those.)

So listen, both of Simon's mums are me. Don't act so surprised. But I am so deeply in love with the character I've created for Simon's barrister mum. She's badass and I want to have her kick some ass for me, if she has a spare moment. A snippet of Zadie Stephenson below. (Bow before her.)

"Ah, Ms. Stephenson, Ms. Shaw, I was just telling Mr. Wellbelove and Mr. Grimm about your situation," Cadwallader says, and every face in the room swings to look at us, save one of the men talking to Cadwallader, who turns at a more stoic pace, face masked with grave indifference. Aside from the three men, there's an elderly couple sitting in two adjacent padded chairs, they look but don't move to approach us. Cadwallader waves us towards him, and the stoic man's face gives the impression of an eye roll, even though his eyes are locked on us. I zero in on the stoic man before we can be introduced. "Zadie Stephenson," I say, reaching aggressively for a handshake. It seems to startle him into reaching back, and his shake is as firm as mine. "Malcom Grimm."

<3<3 my friends. I hope you also enjoy the gift of birdsong today, and any WIP words you want to share. @stitchyqueer @thewholelemon @confused-bi-queer @raenestee @facewithoutheart @cutestkilla @hushed-chorus @sillyunicorn @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @basiltonbutliketheherb @ileadacharmedlife @asocialpessimist @bookish-bogwitch @aristocratic-otter @captain-aralias @petedavidsonscock @takitalks @artsyunderstudy @yeonjunenby @carryonvisinata @takenabackbytuesdays @martsonmars @nausikaaa @nightimedreamersghost @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @ionlydrinkhotwater @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @shrekgogurt @forabeatofadrum @palimpsessed @fatalfangirl @valeffelees @imagineacoolusername @orange-peony @j-nipper-95 @whogaveyoupermission @wellbelesbian

#wip wednesday #simon has two mums au #simon snow #malcom grimm #i will admit that i initially called him “Mr. Pitch” because of course I did #What do you mean I've given Simon a ridiculously long name replete with S's?#rainbow did it first #Simon Snow Stephenson-Shaw #just carrying on the proud tradition

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ultravioart · 11 months

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Ngl it's pretty tiring seeing people misinterpret Rammatra's character as a memed up "racist against humans/exterminator" bc one: yikes, and two: litterally every interaction he has shows that he respects human individuals, just not the collective of humanity's inaction to stop injustice, nor individual humans that are *actively murdering his kin.*

He is trying to prevent omnic extinction, and is doing it in a way he thinks will work (in his story he tried pacifist routes, and they did not work).

Ramattra is the essence of "He is bad guy, but not bad guy." because his story is about war and trauma and how the horrors of war breaks a person. You can understand how he got to where he is, even if you don't agree with the radicalized viewpoints. And I don't mean the "stand up and fight omnic genocide" viewpoint, that is not radical, that is logical.

The major pushing point from freedom fighter to "uh what are you doing" is that Ramattra is willing to hack/take control of sentient omnics and force them to fight and die in war against thier will if it means they can win the war and prevent omnic extinction. His rushed desperation and willingness to deny an omnic's free will is what lost Ramattra his dearest team mates in NullSector, isolating him even further, (isolation which may or may not lead to more radical views down the road). From what we know NullSector still only uses drone (nonsentient) omnics, but that could change, now that NullSector joined Talon.

Ram is defaulting to his R-7000s programming due to trauma. Exactly what Bastion went through in the animated short, but instead of choosing nature and connections with others, Ramattra is pushing away all interpersonal connections and defaulting to artificial base programming: which just so happens for R-7000s to be leading omnics into war against humanity. But on top of that Ramattra also has an authentic take of: Winning, no matter the cost, as soon as possible, to save as many omnics as possible. It's a desperate attempt to save his people, because at the end of the day he was never fighting for himself. He is fighting for his people's future.

TDLR; Ramattra doesn't want human extinction, he wants to prevent omnic extinction. VERY different things.

#overwatch 2 #ow2 #rammatra #text #long text #genocide mentioned #< idk how to tag this since its a fictional story #and due to writing being haphazard there are unfortunate allegories #tbh omnic metaphors are a mess they really should have just made them robots and not comparable to any group #bc the way it's written implies minorities attacked first and were mindless labor. yikes.#doesn't help that the fandom constantly compares ram to magneto.#absolutely the fuck not. magneto faced irl historical events #and i refuse to sit there when ppl are comparing the holocaust to omnics like wtf.#ram is NOT comparable to magneto. omnics are NOT comparable to the jewish community.#ram is NOT comparable to Malcom X. Omnics are NOT comparable to the USA black community.#i am begging people in this fandom to not do crap like that. PLEASE.#and i don't mean people rightly pointing out the weird allegories ow has. i mean the people making tasteless comparisons “in appreciation”

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