The ILC Favourite Characters Of All Time

I wrote a much more boring letter, which got printed.

(126 points)

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Hero-of-sorts from Watchmen, based on the old Charlton comic The Question (though I'm unsure whether Watchmen was during one of the characters lower-profile eras). For all that Owlman was the analogue of Batman, it's Rorschach that the subsequent decades of writers seem to have taken as a template.

And Rorschach with his self-conscious "life as art" attitude is actually a pretty Nietzschean superhero, so that quote fits in more than one way, although it's a pretty lame Nietzsche quote as Nietzsche quotes go. (I guess it's the popular favorite because it feeds off the legend of his madness?)(Chris F)

Actually, Pal Joey/Taxi Driver era Peter Boyle coulda made a great Rorschach. He's too old now. (HUK-L)

I always thought the "free to carve my own morality into the world" issue was kinda problematic regarding Rorschach's personality. If he was free to choose his morals, why would he still cling to the sort of conservative ideas he had previously? I don't think real extreme rightists ever go through such a moral epiphany.

This is perhaps exemplified in his confrontation with his landlady once she has turned him in. He is there, Rorschach forced to be Kovacs, and recognises one of her children as him in his youth. Despite his sense of honour in what he does, he recognises the days of heroes are over and cannot run the risk of the child potentially turning into another version of him - so protects the child from the absolute knowledge of his mother's life and gives him another chance.

Rorschach really is the most interesting character in the whole comic; everyone else sort of serves the function they've given in the story, but he's goes through an arch of personal change. Okay, there's also Dr. Manhattan "humans are worthy" realization, but I never found that (or the whole character) as convincing as Moore may have intended.

I think the whole conclusion of Watchmen is a lot more morally ambiguous than certain people are making out - Moore never really asserts an authorial opinion on Veidt's plan. Obviously our gut reaction is that it's an atrocity, but if it does, debateably to be sure, 'save the world', then can it be a wholly bad thing? I think Moore's intention is more to show notions of good and evil to be far more fluid and nebulous than they are generally portrayed in this type of fiction than to provide a simple reversal of expectations.

Oh, I think he does, though in a clever way. The ending of Watchmen is well-known for it's openness - "I leave it entirely to your hands"; does Seymour pick up Rorschach diary or not? - and it's clear this is Moore's way of saying, "I leave it to readers to decide whether or not Veidt did right or wrong"... But he also sneaks in his own opinion inside the pirate story, which parallels the main story all the way through, and in which the protagonists ends up doing most hideous things only because he thinks he's protecting his loved ones, so in the end he is condemned for his sins and has to enter the black pirate ship. The fact that Veidt is his alter ego is made clear when Veidt says, "sometimes I dream of swimming towards a black ship...".

This is the only time I can remember ever being tempted to use the acronym QFT.

Wait, so we're both right, except you're righter. Yellowcard for you.

18. Scrooge McDuck (Uncle Scrooge)

(134 points)

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There was a sober, stoic quality to Carl Barks'
stories and artwork that reached its ultimate
expression in the brisk, no-nonsense character of
Scrooge. Initially a cartoonish miser in the mold of
his Dickens namesake, Scrooge eventually evolved into
a remarkably original character – a modern version of
that classic American archetype, the self-made man. He
made his fortune, he says, by "being tougher than the
toughies, and smarter than the smarties – and I made
it SQUARE!" (Justyn)

His Scrooge can be greedy as hell, but ultimately Scrooge always chooses his fellow beings before money - witness the tear-jerking story where he's willing to give up everything he owns to save his beloved sled dog from drowning. (Tuomas)

Best moment: Rolling around in his money bin. (d a simpson)

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