000 - [Application]
Character Name: Adrian Veidt
Series: Watchmen (movie because movie Adrian is more... redeemable-ish. Also, comic version takes it to a whole new level of "fucked up," which while I adore, I know I simply can't ever... replicate.)
Age: 46, though they might have aged everyone down in the movie by ten years... which would make the timeline incredibly cramped, but whatever, I guess?
From When?: Plane crash. 1986. He lives in the series, but I'll just have him die in a plane crash because... seriously, what else could kill this man but a random, extremely unlikely, completely unpredictable, and out of control freak accident.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Because he's a cold hearted murderer. :| And because it wouldn't make sense for him to be a warden. First, he can't relate to other people. Next, he is judgmental towards those who disagree with or deviate from his ideals of what a person should be. Criminals, murderers, sadists -- they can rot in hell for all he cares. Finally, in order to save the souls of other people, he'd have to first come to terms with his own crimes and guilt.
Item: N/A
Abilities/Powers: Very intelligent. He's capable of predicting outcomes of events at a national, and maybe even global, level. He also knows how to read and manipulate people, setting them up so they'll be just where he wants them to be. Also one of his world's preeminent martial-artists, he's incredibly strong and fast, fast enough to catch bullets. :|
No superpowers, though. He's just a freak.
Personality:
Adrian doesn't like to cause any needless suffering. He's not like the sadistic criminals, ruthless dictators, corrupt politicians, or greedy businessmen of his world. He sees himself as morally and intellectually superior to those who destroy recklessly out of fear and desperation.
No, he doesn't see himself like them at all. After all, he doesn't just destroy recklessly. He has a sense of vision about the new world he is creating, and he sincerely believes that he is creating an objectively better world for all who remain alive.
Tread lightly when dealing with this man. While he puts on a benign image for the public (humanitarian, pacifist, and even a vegetarian), he is not what he seems. He's a textbook example of "too good to be true."
A cold and calculating utilitarian, he won't hesitate to sacrifice the innocent for what he perceives as the greater good. He loves humanity purely in the abstract. To Adrian Veidt, it's the accomplishments of the great conquerors and thinkers of the past that represent humanity and make it worth preservation.
The lives of ordinary men simply don't mean very much to him. He can't appreciate them. When it comes to individuals, he's completely detached from people, stating flat out that he's never been able to relate to anyone other than Alexander the Great.
Always calm and in control, having once sworn that any encounter will always be on his terms, if not on his territory. He accomplishes this by practicing a great deal of foresight and carefully choosing what people see of him. His attitude towards the press and other people that he doesn't know on a personal level can pretty much be summed up with: "Please. Don't fuck with me, gentlemen." Towards 'friends,' he'll put on a much more, well, friendly visage, though it's all based on lies. There is never any real connection, although he can make people think that there is.
Growing up during an era of heightened Cold War and faced with the heavily charged political situation of his world, it's not abnormal that he would have anxiety about nuclear warfare. It's a very real threat that every ordinary person can feel; it underlies almost all conversations. It's seeped into the culture. People are aware that they may not live for much longer, yet what can they do but go about their daily lives as best they can?
It cannot be stressed enough that he simply does not think like an ordinary person. Instead of focusing on the normal day-to-day issues of dealing with friends, family, work, dating, etc., he spends years obsessing over and thinking up ways to solve all the problems of the world, by himself, while still being able to keep up a relatively 'normal' appearance. His scheming is not just the result of hubris or delusions of grandeur, either. He really is that powerful, he really is that terrifying, and he really did blow up the city thirty-five minutes ago, in a way confirming all the anxieties of the age.
On the Barge, he'll put up the icy "don't fuck with me because I'm better than you" attitude towards those who are rude (fff of course, we can't have rudeness) or those who he perceives as incompatible with his ideals. He won't be making a spectacle of himself or who he was, though he'll certainly come off as more than slightly egotistical.
Towards the people he has no reason to dislike, he'll be nicer, gradually seeming to get close to them. He'll plan to have them think him intelligent, if perhaps a little cold, but overall a decent person. People who attempt to get to know him on a deeper level will either be met with flat-out lies (lies that he can afford to make; he has no intention of becoming a well known liar) or vague but satisfying answers.
He'll be aware that his warden will know everything about him, and he'll also be well aware that this warden can choose to reveal everything about him at anytime. He knows it's likely that the truth of what he's done will come out eventually, to someone who has no business knowing, but he'll do his damnedest to ensure that he is in control of when and how that happens.
Path to Redemption:
It seems emphasized in the movie that part of what created a man capable of killing 15 million people is complete emotional isolation. Whether it's possible to break down barriers that someone has spent a lifetime perfecting is questionable, but I don't think he's beyond redemption, at least in the movie version. It's clear that while he might not regret his actions, he does recognize that he's done a horrific thing, though he would argue that it was, of course, necessary. Getting him to admit to feeling any guilt, even to himself, would be a feat.
He would also never regret his actions, so long as he still perceived them to be in the best interests of humanity. Doubt about this would be key to his undoing: the thought that his actions might have been in vain, that war will continue regardless, that all he did was postpone the inevitable. Picking at the holes in his insufferable ego works too -- reminding him that he's not Alexander, not a pharaoh, and in all likelihood, not even someone for the history books.
Of course, it's expected that any warden reading Adrian Veidt's file for the first time will think him a complete fucked-up monster. This is not your average sadistic killer, after all. However, constantly shouting that he was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG will not earn his respect. In fact, he's likely to consider the warden's (and other people's) opinion on the matter irrelevant and worthless, since the warden was not there and could not possibly know enough about the politics of his world to judge whether his actions were beneficial or not.
He won't be able to respect goodness without intelligence. And he obviously won't be able to respect someone who is going to be intimidated or scared shitless by him. Basically, someone who is good without being naive, intelligent and logical, and definitely not easily intimidated.
History:
Movie!Adrian, according to actor Mathew Goode, is the son of former Nazi party members who immigrated to the United States. Whatever their affiliation with the Nazi party, Mr. and Mrs. Veidt have been characterized by Adrian as "intellectually unremarkable." This is in contrast to Adrian who achieved extraordinarily high grades at a young age, grades so high that they aroused suspicion. Noticing this, Adrian then took care to hide his intelligence and achieve only average grades.
By the age of seventeen, both his parents were dead. He received a sizable inheritance, which he quickly gave away to charity, wanting to prove to himself that he was capable of achieving anything from nothing. He then departed for Northern Turkey on a pilgrimage to follow the footsteps of his then idol, Alexander the Great.
By the time he arrived to Alexandria, the final resting place of Alexander, he had become somewhat disillusioned. Alexander had not done enough. Alexander had only united most of the world, and even worse, he had failed to ensure the survival of his kingdom.
The night before his return to the United States, he wandered into the desert and ate a ball of hashish. According to Adrian, the visions he was granted showed him that Alexander had only resurrected the age of the pharaohs whose wisdom was "truly immortal." Upon his return to the states, he borrowed the Greek name of Rameses II, Ozymandias, and began costumed crime-fighting.
In his early years as a masked vigilante, he did some research on his predecessors, the superhero group called "The Minuteman." Investigating the disappearance of one of the members ('Hooded Justice') led him to Dockland, where he met Edward Blake, or "The Comedian," for the first time. Blake would claim to think that Veidt was a criminal and then proceeded to kick his inexperienced ass.
Adrian would keep this incident in mind over the years, studying Blake's fighting style and picking out weaknesses. Meanwhile, he would continue to fight crime, becoming more and more disheartened with the facade of societal good, culminating with the first meeting of the Watchmen. At the meeting, Blake, through some harsh words, opened Veidt's eyes to the real problems that the world was facing, mainly a seemingly inevitable nuclear war. He continued crime fighting, but described it as hollow, because he knew that what he was fighting were symptoms and not the disease. In an increasingly complicated world, throwing a fist at a few criminals seemed so inconsequential. Naive, in fact: schoolboy heroics.
In the 70s, he was able to predict that the media would soon turn on costumed heros, and so he retired before they had the chance, revealing his identity and marketing his former superhero image. Soon, he was both a celebrity and a billionaire, selling everything from patents, to perfume, to action figures, to hairspray, to sneakers, to... Well, the Veidt logo is pretty much ubiquitous throughout both the comic and movie. Keeping in mind the lessons that he learned from the Comedian, he began working with Dr. Manhattan under the ruse of developing clean and renewable energy resources.
In 1985 his plan to save Earth from nuclear warfare was complete. Blake, who had been working for the government and keeping tabs on the former Watchmen, was able to figure out Veidt's plan. Subsequently, Veidt kills him, thus setting in motion the main events of the movie.
Then they get on a bus and everyone dies!
Sample Journal Entry: [Text post. Last name purposely omitted, for now. Also he knows more than he's letting on.]
Let's start with some basics.
My name is Adrian, from New York in the year 1986.
Now, who is willing to share some information in return? Just a name would be fair enough, although I wouldn't be ungrateful for anything else you'd like to offer. Maybe I should be asking for survival techniques, but that really isn't an issue anymore, is it?
Sample RP: If he had been given the choice between redemption and hell, Adrian would have gladly accepted the latter. He would've accepted hellfire with the same serenity as the Buddhist monks who had immolated themselves during the Vietnam War. He'd have made a lovely martyr.
That chance had been taken from him, however. He could only imagine the face of an omnibenevolent god looking down on him, so happy to be able to say, "Look, Adrian. After all you've done, here I am, still willing to save you." Where had this 'god' been in 1985?
He needed no second chances. He had done things right the first time. That left two options: either staying on the barge forever or finding a way to cheat the afterlife. The first was not bad, as it would be a testament to his strong will, if nothing else. The second meant playing with forces that were beyond his experience.
He was not reckless, but he was bold. Should opportunities line up in his favor, he would take them. Until then, he would wait. Eternity lay before him, and he had already learned the importance of patience.
Such thoughts had already become familiar to him, always resting in the back of his mind. He hardly needed words to associate the ideas to anymore, leaving him free to focus on more immediate concerns, such as the beat up looking tom cat that had appeared from around the corner. It was rubbing against his legs now, purring, leaving behind dust and fur on his otherwise immaculate black dress slacks.
He picked up the squirming, fussing animal, intent on handing it over to a warden, preferably to be placed, at least for now, safely in the CES. He didn't want some lowlife torturing and beheading the thing for the sheer amusement of seeing another creature suffer. Small kindnesses, he supposed, but honestly, to the powers that were keeping him here, it was probably like turning one's collar up against a tidal wave, or throwing a punch to knock out the would-be murderer as bombs began making their way across the Atlantic Ocean. There were connections, of course: ironies, hypocrisies, tangled ideologies. Wretched worlds held so much in common.
Special Notes: Like I said, I'm going by the movie. He's really the only character who had significant changes done to his personality. That being said, information from the comic that doesn't contradict the movie, I'm still going to use.
Series: Watchmen (movie because movie Adrian is more... redeemable-ish. Also, comic version takes it to a whole new level of "fucked up," which while I adore, I know I simply can't ever... replicate.)
Age: 46, though they might have aged everyone down in the movie by ten years... which would make the timeline incredibly cramped, but whatever, I guess?
From When?: Plane crash. 1986. He lives in the series, but I'll just have him die in a plane crash because... seriously, what else could kill this man but a random, extremely unlikely, completely unpredictable, and out of control freak accident.
Inmate/Warden: Inmate. Because he's a cold hearted murderer. :| And because it wouldn't make sense for him to be a warden. First, he can't relate to other people. Next, he is judgmental towards those who disagree with or deviate from his ideals of what a person should be. Criminals, murderers, sadists -- they can rot in hell for all he cares. Finally, in order to save the souls of other people, he'd have to first come to terms with his own crimes and guilt.
Item: N/A
Abilities/Powers: Very intelligent. He's capable of predicting outcomes of events at a national, and maybe even global, level. He also knows how to read and manipulate people, setting them up so they'll be just where he wants them to be. Also one of his world's preeminent martial-artists, he's incredibly strong and fast, fast enough to catch bullets. :|
No superpowers, though. He's just a freak.
Personality:
Adrian doesn't like to cause any needless suffering. He's not like the sadistic criminals, ruthless dictators, corrupt politicians, or greedy businessmen of his world. He sees himself as morally and intellectually superior to those who destroy recklessly out of fear and desperation.
No, he doesn't see himself like them at all. After all, he doesn't just destroy recklessly. He has a sense of vision about the new world he is creating, and he sincerely believes that he is creating an objectively better world for all who remain alive.
Tread lightly when dealing with this man. While he puts on a benign image for the public (humanitarian, pacifist, and even a vegetarian), he is not what he seems. He's a textbook example of "too good to be true."
A cold and calculating utilitarian, he won't hesitate to sacrifice the innocent for what he perceives as the greater good. He loves humanity purely in the abstract. To Adrian Veidt, it's the accomplishments of the great conquerors and thinkers of the past that represent humanity and make it worth preservation.
The lives of ordinary men simply don't mean very much to him. He can't appreciate them. When it comes to individuals, he's completely detached from people, stating flat out that he's never been able to relate to anyone other than Alexander the Great.
Always calm and in control, having once sworn that any encounter will always be on his terms, if not on his territory. He accomplishes this by practicing a great deal of foresight and carefully choosing what people see of him. His attitude towards the press and other people that he doesn't know on a personal level can pretty much be summed up with: "Please. Don't fuck with me, gentlemen." Towards 'friends,' he'll put on a much more, well, friendly visage, though it's all based on lies. There is never any real connection, although he can make people think that there is.
Growing up during an era of heightened Cold War and faced with the heavily charged political situation of his world, it's not abnormal that he would have anxiety about nuclear warfare. It's a very real threat that every ordinary person can feel; it underlies almost all conversations. It's seeped into the culture. People are aware that they may not live for much longer, yet what can they do but go about their daily lives as best they can?
It cannot be stressed enough that he simply does not think like an ordinary person. Instead of focusing on the normal day-to-day issues of dealing with friends, family, work, dating, etc., he spends years obsessing over and thinking up ways to solve all the problems of the world, by himself, while still being able to keep up a relatively 'normal' appearance. His scheming is not just the result of hubris or delusions of grandeur, either. He really is that powerful, he really is that terrifying, and he really did blow up the city thirty-five minutes ago, in a way confirming all the anxieties of the age.
On the Barge, he'll put up the icy "don't fuck with me because I'm better than you" attitude towards those who are rude (fff of course, we can't have rudeness) or those who he perceives as incompatible with his ideals. He won't be making a spectacle of himself or who he was, though he'll certainly come off as more than slightly egotistical.
Towards the people he has no reason to dislike, he'll be nicer, gradually seeming to get close to them. He'll plan to have them think him intelligent, if perhaps a little cold, but overall a decent person. People who attempt to get to know him on a deeper level will either be met with flat-out lies (lies that he can afford to make; he has no intention of becoming a well known liar) or vague but satisfying answers.
He'll be aware that his warden will know everything about him, and he'll also be well aware that this warden can choose to reveal everything about him at anytime. He knows it's likely that the truth of what he's done will come out eventually, to someone who has no business knowing, but he'll do his damnedest to ensure that he is in control of when and how that happens.
Path to Redemption:
It seems emphasized in the movie that part of what created a man capable of killing 15 million people is complete emotional isolation. Whether it's possible to break down barriers that someone has spent a lifetime perfecting is questionable, but I don't think he's beyond redemption, at least in the movie version. It's clear that while he might not regret his actions, he does recognize that he's done a horrific thing, though he would argue that it was, of course, necessary. Getting him to admit to feeling any guilt, even to himself, would be a feat.
He would also never regret his actions, so long as he still perceived them to be in the best interests of humanity. Doubt about this would be key to his undoing: the thought that his actions might have been in vain, that war will continue regardless, that all he did was postpone the inevitable. Picking at the holes in his insufferable ego works too -- reminding him that he's not Alexander, not a pharaoh, and in all likelihood, not even someone for the history books.
Of course, it's expected that any warden reading Adrian Veidt's file for the first time will think him a complete fucked-up monster. This is not your average sadistic killer, after all. However, constantly shouting that he was WRONG, WRONG, WRONG will not earn his respect. In fact, he's likely to consider the warden's (and other people's) opinion on the matter irrelevant and worthless, since the warden was not there and could not possibly know enough about the politics of his world to judge whether his actions were beneficial or not.
He won't be able to respect goodness without intelligence. And he obviously won't be able to respect someone who is going to be intimidated or scared shitless by him. Basically, someone who is good without being naive, intelligent and logical, and definitely not easily intimidated.
History:
Movie!Adrian, according to actor Mathew Goode, is the son of former Nazi party members who immigrated to the United States. Whatever their affiliation with the Nazi party, Mr. and Mrs. Veidt have been characterized by Adrian as "intellectually unremarkable." This is in contrast to Adrian who achieved extraordinarily high grades at a young age, grades so high that they aroused suspicion. Noticing this, Adrian then took care to hide his intelligence and achieve only average grades.
By the age of seventeen, both his parents were dead. He received a sizable inheritance, which he quickly gave away to charity, wanting to prove to himself that he was capable of achieving anything from nothing. He then departed for Northern Turkey on a pilgrimage to follow the footsteps of his then idol, Alexander the Great.
By the time he arrived to Alexandria, the final resting place of Alexander, he had become somewhat disillusioned. Alexander had not done enough. Alexander had only united most of the world, and even worse, he had failed to ensure the survival of his kingdom.
The night before his return to the United States, he wandered into the desert and ate a ball of hashish. According to Adrian, the visions he was granted showed him that Alexander had only resurrected the age of the pharaohs whose wisdom was "truly immortal." Upon his return to the states, he borrowed the Greek name of Rameses II, Ozymandias, and began costumed crime-fighting.
In his early years as a masked vigilante, he did some research on his predecessors, the superhero group called "The Minuteman." Investigating the disappearance of one of the members ('Hooded Justice') led him to Dockland, where he met Edward Blake, or "The Comedian," for the first time. Blake would claim to think that Veidt was a criminal and then proceeded to kick his inexperienced ass.
Adrian would keep this incident in mind over the years, studying Blake's fighting style and picking out weaknesses. Meanwhile, he would continue to fight crime, becoming more and more disheartened with the facade of societal good, culminating with the first meeting of the Watchmen. At the meeting, Blake, through some harsh words, opened Veidt's eyes to the real problems that the world was facing, mainly a seemingly inevitable nuclear war. He continued crime fighting, but described it as hollow, because he knew that what he was fighting were symptoms and not the disease. In an increasingly complicated world, throwing a fist at a few criminals seemed so inconsequential. Naive, in fact: schoolboy heroics.
In the 70s, he was able to predict that the media would soon turn on costumed heros, and so he retired before they had the chance, revealing his identity and marketing his former superhero image. Soon, he was both a celebrity and a billionaire, selling everything from patents, to perfume, to action figures, to hairspray, to sneakers, to... Well, the Veidt logo is pretty much ubiquitous throughout both the comic and movie. Keeping in mind the lessons that he learned from the Comedian, he began working with Dr. Manhattan under the ruse of developing clean and renewable energy resources.
In 1985 his plan to save Earth from nuclear warfare was complete. Blake, who had been working for the government and keeping tabs on the former Watchmen, was able to figure out Veidt's plan. Subsequently, Veidt kills him, thus setting in motion the main events of the movie.
Then they get on a bus and everyone dies!
Sample Journal Entry: [Text post. Last name purposely omitted, for now. Also he knows more than he's letting on.]
Let's start with some basics.
My name is Adrian, from New York in the year 1986.
Now, who is willing to share some information in return? Just a name would be fair enough, although I wouldn't be ungrateful for anything else you'd like to offer. Maybe I should be asking for survival techniques, but that really isn't an issue anymore, is it?
Sample RP: If he had been given the choice between redemption and hell, Adrian would have gladly accepted the latter. He would've accepted hellfire with the same serenity as the Buddhist monks who had immolated themselves during the Vietnam War. He'd have made a lovely martyr.
That chance had been taken from him, however. He could only imagine the face of an omnibenevolent god looking down on him, so happy to be able to say, "Look, Adrian. After all you've done, here I am, still willing to save you." Where had this 'god' been in 1985?
He needed no second chances. He had done things right the first time. That left two options: either staying on the barge forever or finding a way to cheat the afterlife. The first was not bad, as it would be a testament to his strong will, if nothing else. The second meant playing with forces that were beyond his experience.
He was not reckless, but he was bold. Should opportunities line up in his favor, he would take them. Until then, he would wait. Eternity lay before him, and he had already learned the importance of patience.
Such thoughts had already become familiar to him, always resting in the back of his mind. He hardly needed words to associate the ideas to anymore, leaving him free to focus on more immediate concerns, such as the beat up looking tom cat that had appeared from around the corner. It was rubbing against his legs now, purring, leaving behind dust and fur on his otherwise immaculate black dress slacks.
He picked up the squirming, fussing animal, intent on handing it over to a warden, preferably to be placed, at least for now, safely in the CES. He didn't want some lowlife torturing and beheading the thing for the sheer amusement of seeing another creature suffer. Small kindnesses, he supposed, but honestly, to the powers that were keeping him here, it was probably like turning one's collar up against a tidal wave, or throwing a punch to knock out the would-be murderer as bombs began making their way across the Atlantic Ocean. There were connections, of course: ironies, hypocrisies, tangled ideologies. Wretched worlds held so much in common.
Special Notes: Like I said, I'm going by the movie. He's really the only character who had significant changes done to his personality. That being said, information from the comic that doesn't contradict the movie, I'm still going to use.