well, what are you waiting for?

[prismaticbleed]

Current Mood: Words can't even say.




I'll admit, I couldn't help but cry when General Grievous died.
I'll admit, I couldn't help but cry when Davy Jones died.
I'll admit, I couldn't help but cry when Nicholas Wolfwood died.

But I was shocked when I read the end of Watchmen...

 

...I never expected to cry so damn hard.


I don't know why he has so many fans.
Maybe it's the mask.
Maybe it's his absurd quirks.
Maybe it's his unusual attitude.
Maybe it's his terrible past.
Maybe it's his trenchcoat and fedora.
Maybe it's all of that. I can't say.

All I know is that for me, it's all those reasons and heaven knows how many more. You know me.

I really admire that guy.
Rorschach. Walter Joseph Kovacs.
He's quite the unique headcase. I really do admire him.

But you know me.
Getting all attached to these guys, asexual neutrois or not.

...


Bloodstained snow.


Somehow I knew it was coming.
Didn't make any difference, though.

I was literally sobbing.
I didn't expect that at all.
I expected, tears, sure... but I didn't expect to just shatter like that. I didn't expect it to hurt so damn much.
But it did.

You know, in my book, the guy died a sort of martyr. No I'm not kidding.
Watchmen was painful for me... so much empathy, so much understanding and alternate motives and motivations. So much.
And yet, everything was so grey...
...You never know what was really the right thing to do.

You never knew if the end result would damn the world or save the world.

That's what made it so damn frightening, so damn heartbreaking. You never knew.


Not even in the face of Armageddon.

Never compromise.


Was that the right thing?
I don't know. I'll never know. We'll never know.
...
In a sad, desperate way, I hope to God it was. I really do.

But I don't know.



Sugar cubes... that always made me laugh. That and the refrigerator ambush. Brilliant.
Oh, and how he would always just sneak into Nite Owl's house...

He was a headcase, sure. His mind snapped for a damn good reason, and it was terribly obvious.
To him, the world was the color of his mask. I don't know if that was good or not. Maybe it was.
But despite all the things he did, even as a masked vigilante, I still think of him as a really good guy.
He's totally indescribable, though. Like an inkblot. The only way to know him even a little is to read the book, to stare right at the pictures on your own... and if you're anything like me, then save the last chapter for a night where you're not going anywhere. You'll need the recovery time. For multiple reasons.
Oh, New York, you broke my heart...


Laurel's mother, on the third-to-last page...

The entire conspiracy, once you understand it...

Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, their last conversation in Antarctica...

The last panel...

...The bloody snow.



I had to close the damn book and just cry for a while. Couldn't get that image out of my head. Couldn't get any of the images out. It hurt.

 

I can't help but laugh a little, though... red hair and freckles. Dear Lord, that still got me long after I was already hooked, haha.

Funny little factoid, actually.
You all know I 'met' Rorschach long before I got the chance to read Watchmen, right? One of my research binges... old Saturday morning cartoons, for a religion paper (seriously). Stumbled across good old Freakazoid, brought up his Wikipedia article by chance.
Somewhere during that time I stumbled across Rorschach's page as well.
I've seen him before, I'd heard about him countless times, but only as glimpses or fleeting mentions. I never knew who this guy was.
I read a little bit... non-spoiler stuff, y'know.
That was when I knew I had to read this guy's debut sometime.
Fast-forward to last week... Entertainment comes in the mail. Certain face on the cover.
I practically had a heart attack, haha. Within the next few days I drove out to Borders, finally bought Watchmen (last copy in the store!), and commenced the unforgettable process of reading the darn thing.
Just finished it an hour ago.
Even so... when I buy a book, I have a horrible habit of reading the beginning in the store, then once I buy it and bring it home, flipping to a random page and panel deeper into the book before continuing it for sure.
I did that with Watchmen right after I finished the first chapter.
Ended up staring at the page where Rorschach gets unmasked.
Flipped to chapter 2, and had the blissful honor of knowing who he was for the entire book beforehand.
That still makes me smile every time.


Life goes on, honey.

Life goes on.



For me it does.

People laugh, say that they're only comic-book characters. Just made-up personalities that can easily be changed and rewritten; just faces upon a page, just ink upon paper. Fragments.
To some people they are.
But...
If you've read Watchmen, and if you ever do read it, then you'll understand what I mean.

Sometimes, the world inside the pages, the faces inside the pages, they become more than that.

I heard someone say, a long time ago... that, if you love something enough, that if you believe in something enough, that if you really value and treasure this one thing, then it becomes real... even if no one else thinks it possible.
I believe that.

Watchmen is only the latest world to enter my universe... but it's one of the biggest.
Any of you who've read it... you were part of that world, somehow, as your eyes travelled through those pages. You know you were.
When that book ended, you couldn't believe it, could you? Did you immediately start flipping back through the pages, practically re-reading the entire thing, seeing it all in a different light, with a new understanding? Did you just sit there after the back cover closed on those 400 pages of a masterpiece, wondering about the alternatives? Was that really the best choice?
There's no way we can know.
And I think we've all thought about that.
We closed the book, looked up in shock, and we were forever changed by what we had now learned... by the world within the pages.
It had become completely, utterly real to us. To all of us.


As for me, I cried.
It was real for me too. It's always so real for me.

That didn't change anything, though.
The conspiracy still followed through to the end.


And Rorschach still died.




"Where are you going?"

"Back to Owlship. Back to America. Evil must be punished. People must be told."

"Rorschach... You know I can't let you do that."

"Huhhh. Of course. Must protect Veidt's new utopia. One more body amongst foundations makes little difference."



"Well? What are you waiting for? Do it!"

"Rorschach..."

"DO IT!"




And the snow turned red.