Lord Ruthven wrote:
MrEgotistical wrote:
I'm still confused over what happens that makes Manhattan realize this miracle. Why Laurie's lineage and the revelation of her father is enough to be a miracle in his eyes to come back
Dr. Manhattan has become so very far removed from his own humanity and that of everyone else around him. He only sees the big picture, and that almost in terms of a science project. His conversation with Laurie, and the resulting emotional turmoil she goes through, helps to bring his focus back down to the individual. Looking at the seeming randomness of events that led to Laurie being born, and the fact that it was
she who was born. If it wasn't for the thermodynamic miracle of her existing, then she wouldn't have been at the Crimebusters meeting and all the interaction the Dr. and she had since that point in time would never have happened.
Multiply that by a few billion, for each and every single person on the planet - Dr. Manhattan discovers his own reason to return to earth.
This revelation of the thermodynamic miracle ultimately fuels his decision to leave our universe for another and maybe create some life of his own - setting into motion more thermodynamic miracles that he can study with a new found sense of fascination and learning.
I find this to be a nice contrast between Rorschach's belief. Important points highlighted in bold:
Quote:
Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning its illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world. Was Rorschach. Does that answer your questions, Doctor?
Of course, you may percieve this as somewhat contradictory to Rorschach's established black-and-white moral code, and we know that, despite this, he's intended as quite an inconsistent and hypocritical character, although I think it should be understood that he knows his "morality" is only what he's chosen to impose; his worldview, and it need not matter to anyone else but him. Like he said, he's "free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world", a classically nihilistic ideal, yet all his actions are determined by his own fixated set of moral values without no room for compromise.
This is contrasted to Dr. Manhattan's apparent belief in fate, although that may also be contradictory. He sees time as simultaneous, yet tells Laurie, "We're all puppets. I'm just a puppet who can see the strings" and, due to his perception of predestination, just follows a routine. Fate could be associated with religion and/or God, yet Dr. Manhattan doesn't seem to be a Theist; more like an Agnostic or Atheist. I don't know whether or not it's him or someone else I'm thinking of who said, "I don't think there's a God. If there is, I don't think it's like me", but he also muses that, "Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. A clock without a craftsman."
I guess the most amoral and nihilistic person of them all is the Comedian, who just makes everything into one big joke. However, when he realizes that nuclear war is impending, perhaps faster than he expected, he just breaks down and all that emotion comes pouring out. He gets drunk, breaks into Moloch's house and basically cries in despair over what's going to happen, while apologizing for his crimes. Maybe it was all just a mask (get it?). He's still a human being with emotion, at the end of the day, and he's probably not the macho-aggressive sociopath that he makes out to be. He nonchalantly talks about the planet's destruction, yet when it actually happens, he can't take it and doesn't understand why it's such a joke or what makes it so. All this really makes me feel as if his backstory should've been fleshed out a bit more, in the actual comic itself rather than in prequels and/or spin-offs like
Before Watchmen, which won't be written by Alan Moore.
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