(no subject)
For the past week or so I've been doing some heavy-duty thinking about how to feasibly AU Watchmen's ending without completely annihilating the characters in the process and I'm very frustrated at Mr. Moore. Ironically enough I'm not worrying about the plot of how the ending is changed - MAGICAL BLUE MAN WAVE HAND is pretty much the extent of thought I've put into it - but figuring out how to AU it without killing Rorschach again or turning him into something that...isn't...Rorschach is much more difficult. Dan and Laurie are, surprisingly enough, giving me trouble too - but only because I can't quite figure out how they would all fit together and I'm trying to figure Dan out better (what I've come up with is a passive aggressive nice guy who is selfish in a lot of ways but is a good person and that does not help me at all).
This wouldn't be so difficult to get my head around if I could solidly say I understood what Rorschach's death stood for and why Adrian works the way he does and why Jon did what he did instead of any number of things he could've done (outside of the 'he's gonna do it so he did it' explanation). I guess it's good that I at least get that I don't get it but that still keeps me at square one: HUR DUR WHAT'S GOING ON IN THESE GUYS' MINDS? My biggest question here is whether or not Rorschach would commit suicide. I'm leaning towards yes, given the fact that he essentially did - like hell he thought he was going to stay alive at any point at the end - but if faced with the end of the world and with his life, I don't know that the answer would be different. Adding Dan and Laurie to the equation is like adding 0, because movie!canon showed us that even with Dan tailing after him it didn't make a difference - and GN!canon doesn't help me, either, because Dan just sort of watched him walk off.
So comes the question of whether or not Dan and Laurie would really be able to help Rorschach, even if he did come away from Karnak alive - and how badly would they want to help him, and would he even accept their help at all? As far as I remember it's purely fanon for Rorschach to not like accepting help from people (well, I don't know if the whole Dr. Long thing counts), but something like this is bigger than letting someone stitch him up. But then I have he seems like he wants to make friends without knowing how - and Dan wanted to break Rorschach out, and Laurie, aside from thinking Rorschach is a creepy creepster (which he is) has no real issues with him as far as I can tell. Dan and Laurie seem to be getting along sportingly at the very end of the GN, chuckling and bein' blond/e and talking about being superheroes - but that doesn't change the fact that they were pretty severely fucked by Adrian and what they had to do - or rather, what they couldn't do - on November 1st.
I do think Dan would want to help Rorschach, and Laurie would probably just be happy to be chillin' with someone else who's alive and who doesn't know the future and who's not glowing and who doesn't have a genetically altered cat, but whether or not they could help Rorschach (from the brink of suicide or from his inevitable entanglements with Adrian/the law/housecats) is a different story entirely. They have their own issues to work through and Rorschach...gah. I don't know. Would Rorschach's influence keep Dan and Laurie in NY? How severely are they in trouble with the law? Did/would Adrian pull strings to clear their records, or are they now completely alienated from Adrian? I don't doubt that Dan and Laurie would want to stay away from Adrian and just not think about it (which might explain the blond/e chuckling) but what about Adrian? Would he be willing to help them? Probably; even at the end he's a pretty level, chill dude. He probably gave them a ride back to Archie, or would've if they let him, but that doesn't invalidate the fact that he would probably see Rorschach as a threat if he was still alive and want to keep tabs on them.
And how could Dan and Laurie get Rorschach to keep quiet about it all?
ALL THESE THOUGHTS. IN MY BRAIN. CAN'T SLEEP.
I should probably just drop it and go 'OH YEAH RORSCHACH'S A HUGE HYPOCRITE' and 'DAN HAS BEAR HUGS' and 'LAURIE WANTED TO BE A VETERINARIAN SHE WILL HELP' and 'ADRIAN WHO'S ADRIAN?' and 'COPS WHAT NOOOO' or, better yet, I should just stop worrying about it altogether, given the fact I have no post-GN fic planned at the moment and should worry more about how exactly Rorschach will feasibly heal in any way with healing!sex and...other...stuff.
On the plus side, I'm having an awful lot of fun figuring out how kid!Schach and Rorschach would interact. I've decided that kid!Schach would be terrified of Rorschach but refuse to show it and Rorschach would kind of want to hug him but would instead just try and ignore him. Also, Dan and Laurie would be ENDLESS HUGS OH U SO CUTE U UGLY LITTLE GUY and he would be all 'um' and man a large part of my brain is filled with adorableness. (Kid!Schach gets sick! Kid!Schach slowly gets more used to Laurie! Kid!Schach has a nightmare! Kid!Schach starts school! DOHOHOHO)
Yes, these are typically the kind of thoughts I entertain when I have thought about other stuff too much and it is past normal people's sleep time. It gets cyclical very fast.
This wouldn't be so difficult to get my head around if I could solidly say I understood what Rorschach's death stood for and why Adrian works the way he does and why Jon did what he did instead of any number of things he could've done (outside of the 'he's gonna do it so he did it' explanation). I guess it's good that I at least get that I don't get it but that still keeps me at square one: HUR DUR WHAT'S GOING ON IN THESE GUYS' MINDS? My biggest question here is whether or not Rorschach would commit suicide. I'm leaning towards yes, given the fact that he essentially did - like hell he thought he was going to stay alive at any point at the end - but if faced with the end of the world and with his life, I don't know that the answer would be different. Adding Dan and Laurie to the equation is like adding 0, because movie!canon showed us that even with Dan tailing after him it didn't make a difference - and GN!canon doesn't help me, either, because Dan just sort of watched him walk off.
So comes the question of whether or not Dan and Laurie would really be able to help Rorschach, even if he did come away from Karnak alive - and how badly would they want to help him, and would he even accept their help at all? As far as I remember it's purely fanon for Rorschach to not like accepting help from people (well, I don't know if the whole Dr. Long thing counts), but something like this is bigger than letting someone stitch him up. But then I have he seems like he wants to make friends without knowing how - and Dan wanted to break Rorschach out, and Laurie, aside from thinking Rorschach is a creepy creepster (which he is) has no real issues with him as far as I can tell. Dan and Laurie seem to be getting along sportingly at the very end of the GN, chuckling and bein' blond/e and talking about being superheroes - but that doesn't change the fact that they were pretty severely fucked by Adrian and what they had to do - or rather, what they couldn't do - on November 1st.
I do think Dan would want to help Rorschach, and Laurie would probably just be happy to be chillin' with someone else who's alive and who doesn't know the future and who's not glowing and who doesn't have a genetically altered cat, but whether or not they could help Rorschach (from the brink of suicide or from his inevitable entanglements with Adrian/the law/housecats) is a different story entirely. They have their own issues to work through and Rorschach...gah. I don't know. Would Rorschach's influence keep Dan and Laurie in NY? How severely are they in trouble with the law? Did/would Adrian pull strings to clear their records, or are they now completely alienated from Adrian? I don't doubt that Dan and Laurie would want to stay away from Adrian and just not think about it (which might explain the blond/e chuckling) but what about Adrian? Would he be willing to help them? Probably; even at the end he's a pretty level, chill dude. He probably gave them a ride back to Archie, or would've if they let him, but that doesn't invalidate the fact that he would probably see Rorschach as a threat if he was still alive and want to keep tabs on them.
And how could Dan and Laurie get Rorschach to keep quiet about it all?
ALL THESE THOUGHTS. IN MY BRAIN. CAN'T SLEEP.
I should probably just drop it and go 'OH YEAH RORSCHACH'S A HUGE HYPOCRITE' and 'DAN HAS BEAR HUGS' and 'LAURIE WANTED TO BE A VETERINARIAN SHE WILL HELP' and 'ADRIAN WHO'S ADRIAN?' and 'COPS WHAT NOOOO' or, better yet, I should just stop worrying about it altogether, given the fact I have no post-GN fic planned at the moment and should worry more about how exactly Rorschach will feasibly heal in any way with healing!sex and...other...stuff.
On the plus side, I'm having an awful lot of fun figuring out how kid!Schach and Rorschach would interact. I've decided that kid!Schach would be terrified of Rorschach but refuse to show it and Rorschach would kind of want to hug him but would instead just try and ignore him. Also, Dan and Laurie would be ENDLESS HUGS OH U SO CUTE U UGLY LITTLE GUY and he would be all 'um' and man a large part of my brain is filled with adorableness. (Kid!Schach gets sick! Kid!Schach slowly gets more used to Laurie! Kid!Schach has a nightmare! Kid!Schach starts school! DOHOHOHO)
Yes, these are typically the kind of thoughts I entertain when I have thought about other stuff too much and it is past normal people's sleep time. It gets cyclical very fast.