Summary
This chapter starts by showing Dr. Manhattan and
Laurie touring the devastation of New York City caused by Ozymandias'
teleported alien. When Laurie can't take it anymore Dr. Manhattan teleports
them to the South Pole to follow a trail of tachyons that he senses will lead
them to the source of the devastation. Meanwhile Ozymandias is explaining in
detail to Rorschach and Night Owl that he was the one who caused the disaster.
Ozymandias explains that in order to save humanity from self-destruction he
created an alien monster by cloning the brain of a powerful psychic, and had it
genetically engineered to be much bigger and more powerful. He programmed
horrifying images of aliens into the brain, so that the metal transmission
given off after its death would force all the people who survived the initial
attack to unit in fear. After seeing all the news stations covering this
disaster, Ozymandias revels in 'victory'. He then convinces the others that
exposing him as the cause of the disaster would push humanity back into its
path of self-destruction. Everyone except Rorschach agrees to keep it a secret
which causes Dr. Manhattan to kill him. After that Laurie and Dan create new
identities and visit Laurie's mom. She tells her that she knows who her real father
is, but she understands why she did it and she isn’t mad. Rorschach's journal
is also possibly picked up to be read by the newspaper he sent it to.
Character Analysis
He is a well-rounded person, he is the smartest
person in the world, very athletic, and also a successful business man. He lied
about how smart he was throughout his childhood, getting only averages grades
so that his teacher didn’t think he was cheating. He inherited his family’s
fortune at the age of 17 after his parents suddenly died in a car accident. He
gave it all away to charity to prove he could become successful on his own. He
travelled through the Mediterranean, following in his idols – Alexander the
Great’s- footsteps. Once he returned to the United States he became a successful
businessman. He is shown to be a ruthless and master strategist, and in this
chapter you see this side of him and find out that he is cause of half of New
York being dead.
Page Analysis
The page that stuck out the most for us would be page 6. Since up till now, they hadn’t fully shown what the monster actually looked like. And Dave Gibbons did a fantastic job of really making the monster look disgusting. As well as there’s also a lot of hidden symbols within the panel. Like the “War?” newspapers, referring to possible wars that may be coming even after the alien attack. As well as on the side of the News building there is another War sign of a GWAR sign that’s missing the G. Another Ironic symbol is the Tales of the Black Freighter book flying in the wind, and we can see the back cover of it. And it says “The Veidt Method”, “I will give you bodies beyond your wildest imaginings”. What’s meant to be a body building sort of ad is into a quite literal meaning of bodies everywhere. As well as the OR ALL DIE on the building underneath the monster. And of course the 5 Minutes till midnight, smiley button on the ground with the blood splatter. Another thing we noticed was that the colours were all different shades of purple mixed in with other colours, not only just in this panel but the whole issue goes on like this. As well as if you look at some of the other pages in this chapter you’ll see that purple is a repeated colour. We think it may be symbolizing Ozymandias as a prominent character in this chapter as purple is a colour he’s often associated with, and is also the colour he usually dresses in. So, Dave Gibbon’s attention to detail and great illustrations, with all the different messages that’s been put in, make this a significant and very interesting stand out page in the book.
Themes
Fear
Fear has always been a big part of the watchmen.
There’s fear everywhere for the citizens of Manhattan, the fear of crime, fear
of getting robbed or raped. Fear of even getting shot. All these different
things that’s putting fear into the citizens mind all surrounded by this great
fear of an inevitable apocalypse. Then finally in chapter 12 Armageddon arrives
for Manhattan, and all the fear they had leading up to this finally came true.
After the tragedy in Manhattan the whole world learns of the alien attack that
killed the entire city, and brought up new fear for everyone else about a possible
follow up attack. But, not only do we see the people in fear, but some of the superheroes
also experience fear throughout the issue. This is why this comic is so
realistic because they feel the same feelings and emotions the people are
feeling too. So, one of the first superheroes we see fear from right away is
Laurie Jupiter. She had earlier gone to mars and after extensive convincing,
finally got Dr. Manhattan to agree to come back to earth to protect America.
But by the time she returns, her fears of the apocalypse she tried to stop
suddenly become reality. The next character we see that expresses fear is Nite
Owl, when Veidt is telling Rorschach and Nite Owl, he gets shocked and fearful
of the idea. So, he tries forcing himself to not believe veidt, and just
denying anything veidt says about the plan. This was not really something new
for Dan to act like. Throughout the comic we see various scenarios of where Dan
gets fearful and nervous, from the time Rorschach pays him a visit to him being
skeptical about patrolling the streets again. Another character who was fearful
was Ozymandias; he was scared that Dr. Manhattan would stop him from going
through with his plan and killing him. And is why he created that machine that
scrambles all the body’s particles and atoms, and tried to kill Dr. Manhattan
with it. Now, ozymandias loved fear. It’s what he wanted to achieve with his
elaborate plan, a fearful planet that will unite just with the simple sense of
fear.
Unity
& Love
Another theme that was found in this issue was
unity and love. Leading up to this issue and the tragedy, people were starting
to show signs of compassion, helping each other out, trying to be friendlier.
Even old friends/mates began to reconnect like Rorschach and Nite owl and Dr. Manhattan
and Laurie. But, as soon as the attack happened everyone became that much
closer. The whole world began to end the wars and hate they had against each
other in order to support each other from the common enemy. And the people
really began to appreciate their lives more and began to really love one
another. A good example of this would be Laurie. After the attack she was so
thankful for her being alive, and realized how much she really had in life. She
continued her relationship with Dan, and they retired from being superheroes
and began to live their lives with each other. And Laurie also came around to
forgive her mother, when at first she was so furious at her for not telling her
who her real father was making her feel as if she got played her whole life.
But, once she recovered her compassion and love she really appreciated her mom
for everything she’s done for her. Even with the insane plan of Adrian veidt’s it’s
exactly what he wanted the world to be like. Regardless of the negatives that
came with the plan it did in fact work and created a loving united world.
Symbols
Clock
(At Midnight)
The clock set at midnight is an obvious one.
Basically meaning that the apocalypse that’s been counting down over the last
couple of chapters has finally happened.
Floating
Ticket (G-3265)
When you first look at it, it just seems like an
ordinary movie ticket. But, after further research we came to realize that the
ticket number 3265 actually stood for a date.
March 2nd, 1965. It was the day Operation Rolling Thunder
commenced, a military operation in which the US dropped countless amounts of
bombs and gas all over North Korea. For which the US justifies as an attempt to
save North Korea from the communists by weakening their military, with the use
of more than double the amount of bombs used by all countries in WWII combined.
Similarly relating to Ozymandias plan of using a nuclear explosion on Manhattan
to destroy the whole city, at an attempt of unifying the world. Two different
intentions but same methods. This ticket may also be referring to something
that may be approaching, possibly another war.
Kristallnacht
/ Krystalnacht
Another interesting war related reference is the
board outside the Madison Square Garden that says Krystalnacht. Or also known
as the “Night of Broken Glass” which many believe was the start of the Nazi’s
brutality and capture of innocent Jews. On that day the property of the Jews
including shops, houses, books, clothes, and more were all destroyed and burned
by the NAZI’s, NAZI followers, and also even fellow Germans. This whole tragedy
okayed by Hitler beforehand. This event like Operation Rolling Thunder both
relate to Ozymandias’ plan of making the world a better place by making some
sacrifices. But, in all cases the overall outcome was and will be not leading
to success. It may temporarily, but not for the long run.
Hiroshima
Lovers & Dan and Laurie
The shadow imprinted on the wall that we’ve seen
over and over again comes into this issue as well. But, now we can relate it to
something else. The shadow of the Hiroshima lover’s looks very similar to the
shadow Dan & Laurie make by the pool. Perhaps relating back to the make
love not war theme that’s been coming up a lot and it can also symbolize the
last surviving good superheroes. Since the rest are either dead, left the
galaxy or turned evil. It leaves Dan & Laurie the only ones to make it out
alive and be able to live their lives. Together as a couple like the Hiroshima’s.
Clock
(5 Minutes Till Midnight) – Button with Blood & Dr. Manhattan’s Arms
Another very interesting symbol is the 5 minutes
to midnight clock. Now, it was quite usual in the previous chapters for it to
be there. But, in the 12th issue it’s quite strange since it’s
already supposed to be 12 o’ clock. At first we were confused at the importance
of his awkward posture but after looking into it you can tell he makes clock,
that’s five minutes to midnight. So, it was still confusing as to why its 5 minutes
till midnight again. But, then Dr. Manhattan’s quote from page 27 pretty much
sums it up. So, when Veidt asks Dr. Manhattan if he did the right thing, and how
it all worked out in the end. Then Dr. Manhattan replies, “In the end?”, “Nothing
Ends Adrian. Nothing Ever Ends.”So we can tell from this that all the effort
that Veidt put into to this elaborate plan was pointless since it didn’t really
didn’t change much but just postpone the inevitable, of the world going into
nuclear war.
Real Life Relation
One real life relation to this would be a 9/11
conspiracy. After 9/11 people started to be suspicious about George Bush the
president at the time. After the speech he gave to the nation, it sprouted much
controversy as to if he was in fact really behind of this tragedy or knew
something about it a head of time. There are several controversies as to what
actually happened but there’s one in particular that either George Bush had
planned it or knew knowledge of the attack a head of time and chose to do
nothing. Why? To gain exactly what Ozymandias wanted to attain of the world.
Many believe he planned it to bring the country together as a result of fear.
But, his main intentions were a bit different from Adrian Veidt’s. His intentions
were supposedly to use the fear to not only unite them, but also use the fear
to their advantage. As we know governments love big tragedies, as they use the
fear surrounding it to do whatever they please as long as they say it’s for the
supposed safety or the well being of the country. At that time Bush used the
attack as motive to attack Afghanistan, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern
countries for what he says is retaliation and preventing further attacks. But,
his real motive was to get his hands on the oil in those countries. Similarly
to know how they’re using the Boston Bombings to invade the online privacy of
innocent citizens. So, there are several leaders in real life who use fear or a
common enemy to their advantage to do whatever they please.
Link To Our Chapter 12 Seminar (Prezi)
http://prezi.com/w0plpvda_h7w/watchmen-chapter-12-seminar-by-deanna-abilash/?kw=view-w0plpvda_h7w&rc=ref-15809632
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