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Why it has to be "The Squid"
Seeing how there wasn't a thread for this, I made one. I found the episode somewhat insightful (especially the Cthulu parts). It's also nice to see something new in the experimental thread.
EDIT: I like how Scott says "Hello, there" at the beginning of any of 'his' personal Geeknights/Scott's Box segments, for some reason.
EDIT: I like how Scott says "Hello, there" at the beginning of any of 'his' personal Geeknights/Scott's Box segments, for some reason.
Comments
1st point about common 3rd party threat... The movie ending has the same results...
2nd Cthulhu layer is totally lost in movie, and I can't disagree with you there... but it could be said Comedian was driven crazy from the plans of Veit and the lengths he's willing to go... not a great defense for that but it is still valid on a shallow end.
The movie ending however you gain another message/ answer of "who watches the watchmen"... the threat is constant and not just monster appears but is dead on arrival. Sure the monsters could return but the film threat is much more lasting than a "sure the monster could return"...
Also another reason why the film ending is more convincing for world peace would be that its a global threat not just NYC... The Russians have more of a vested interest.
I definitely can't wait to hear a follow up for once you've seen the film...
I am not sure if I'd declare him insane, but he definitely has some sociopathic tendencies as evident by his actions during the riots preceding the Keene Act and his actions in Vietnam. He certainly gets enjoyment out of violence.
The second Silk Specter is presented as a girl forced to fill her mother's shoes and as an adult still acts like an adolescent.
All 3 of the above also buy into the world at face value and not the underlying strife of life. i.e. all 3 are delusional to want to be or participate in the world as "normal" people.
Dr. Manhattan is so far removed from the human condition that he cannot be judged sane or insane, it would be like attempting to categorize a god / adaptive computer program as sane or insane.
The thing is, in the movie, Veit's plot is still ridiculous. It might not be quite as farcial, but it's still the same idea. It still works.
Y'know how Scott sometimes talks about how religious people should be constantly terrified of the supernatural being that could decide to smite them at any time? Well, that would be reality for the people living in the world of the movie.
I don't know if newer readers quite get this part, but at the time the comics were coming out monthly, tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were pretty high. Everyone thought it was pretty much inevitable that there would be some sort of nuclear crisis, so in the novel when the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. started to put aside their differences to cooperate against the squid, you felt profoundly vindicated and at least temporarily relieved from that constant stress of worrying about the U.S./U.S.S.R. conflict. The movie ending just doesn't pack the same punch.
I agree with Scott in that the enemy to unite the world had to be alien and foreign (in terms of foreign to Earth). But ultimately, the irony inherent to the appearance of the alien is that unbeknownst to the world it was created by humans (ie., all the artists and scientists that were captured and put on the island).
I do assert though that Scott's recording would have held more sway had it been uploaded post-viewing the movie.
Doc Manhattan was certainly the protector of the USA, but that's part of the point of the ending: the people turned away from him when it suited them (because he was petty and vengeful), and reassigned his purpose. That's a commentary on how we build gods and societies: we make gods out of everyday things, and when they no longer please us, we tear them down and build on their ruins. We turned Doc Manhattan into a god (against his will), then tore him down and built anew atop his ruins. The cycle will perpetuate unless we do something to stop it.
It really is the same as the squid ending, when you look at it like that. In each case, we're the ones who have the responsibility to unify ourselves.
EDIT: The movie ending basically says, to me, that we are the ones who seek things to worship. We find things to make into gods, and use those things to further our own ends. When they stop working, we discard them and build anew, using what we're used to as a staging point to go somewhere new. Keeping ourselves tied to our past like that ensures that we will be bound to it in the future, and thus the cycle perpetuates. We make and destroy gods to suit our own ends, and until we realize that, we won't be able to stop it.
But the fact that you give him human traits opens up the possibility to bargain with him, the Russians could have easily tried to talk to him and bargain that they were not the ones that pushed him aside, because we also include in god the fact that we bargain with him, when we ask him for help and when we ask him for miracles and that's not what the comedian lampoons. With the squid is not that we think that there are things beyond us, its that something other than us attacked us, so the war is just extrapolated, instead of being country X against country Y it became Humans against Aliens. Its the same thing with a lot of Sci-Fi, when you place a alien race, humans are no longer France, Canada, USA, etc. its always "The federation", "The Union", etc. you just scale up.
Aside from that, remember that at that point in the movie, Doc Manhattan had left Earth, and the entire world assumed he was gone. He never announced his return. That sends the message that he is aloof and unwilling to deal with us. It essentially makes him exactly the same as the aliens.