WATCHMENZERO

I hope it's okay to post this here...

In anticipation of Watchmen's DVD release on July 21 I'm counting down the Top Ten Jeffrey Dean Morgan Watchmen moments at my blog.

So if you want to check it out it's over here:

Top Ten Jeffrey Dean Morgan Watchmen moments at Jeffrey Dean Morgan Unlimited

This might be x-posted to a few comms as well - sorry!

And that pic in the banner? That's the streetcar I take every day. Very cool!!

Cola82 is a cool chick and an awesome artist, but then, I've told you all this already.

One of the things that I love most about the resurgence of fandom that the movie and the Internet have brought to Watchmen is the unexpected popularity of Rule 63 recastings of the story's main characters, revealing that Alan Moore created some wonderfully rich and well-realized female superheroes, even if he didn't realize it himself at the time. ;)

Easily my favorite of all these fan-created characters is the Rule 63 version of Nite Owl II, Danielle Dreiberg, who's one of the most endearing and inspiring superheroes, of either gender, that the genre has given us in my recent memory.

In many ways, Danielle Dreiberg is more Peter Parker than Peter Parker himself anymore; she's an overweight, undersexed, middle-aged, socially awkward, science-geek Jewish fangirl for old-school superheroes, who has one friend she always forgives for being an incurable pain in the ass, and another friend with whom she'd love to become more than just friends, even though she's afraid that he's so gorgeous that he's well out of her league.

Yes, reverse the genders back to their original settings, and all of this is right there in the source material of Alan Moore's Watchmen itself, but by telling the same story about Danielle instead of Daniel, it adds a frisson to the character, and her arc, that's hard for me to explain adequately.

I mean, even though I'm a straight guy, I actually find myself identifying and empathizing more with Danielle than with Daniel (whom I already like), because I almost want to BE her as much as I want to be WITH her.

Anyway, my TL;DR digression aside, Cola82 recently completed the second installment in my three-part commission of Danielle Dreiberg, the female Nite Owl. In the first installment, Cola82 delivered her rendition of the female Nite Owl in costume, and this time, she's given us a glimpse of Danielle Dreiberg in civilian clothes:



I love all the contrasts between these two images, of the bright colors, clear lines and bold pose of Nite Owl, versus the subdued colors, muted lines and pensive pose of Danielle Dreiberg.

I wish I could give Danielle an encouraging hug and kiss in the second picture, because she clearly deserves to have someone feed her hot cocoa and snuggle with her under a warm blanket, until they fall asleep together.

And I LOVE her chubby tummy. :)

Everyone, say thank you to Cola82.

Oh, and the third installment in this series? Will be NSFW. :)

Cola82 is an artist who's skilled, prompt and inexpensive in her work, and she's just completed the first third of my Watchmen Rule 63 commission, starring Danielle Dreiberg, the female Nite Owl, who thus far exists only in fan art and fanfic, but is nonetheless one of the best characters in Watchmen, in spite of not actually being a character in Watchmen (PARADOX!!!).

In fact, Madame Cola is such a talented artist that she can convey this character's adorkably smexy sex appeal even with the first two thirds of my commission being completely SAFE for work, so go ahead and click the pic, to make the BBW even bigger:



I *heart* Danielle and her chubby middle-aged tummy. :)

There are some RPGs out there already, such as Crimebusters and obsoletemodels. I figured by the time any of them came back with a yes or no, a good journal name would be gone. So I snapped up hollisjmason. hollismason is purged and deleted, and will cost you 15 dollars on a name transfer. LJ will not accept dates prior to January 1, 1970 as valid.

I am just adding a short note here that there is now a Watchmen community of communities, found at watchmen_coms. I looked at the current RPG offerings, and all are all going somewhere. Some like the Crimebusters one are very ambitious as well (multiple time lines).

There are likely to be more communities in the next few weeks. I can see the total climb to over 100 by mid year.

If you find a community that isn't listed on watchmen_coms, make a comment here and I'll mention it over on that site. Or, you can just post a reply on that community.

I've been reading the Watchmen Philosophy book recently. The book opens with a long essay on the character of Dr. Manhattan. In the book the writer tries to explain why Manhattan is above morality; that his set of standards and values exceeds normal standards of behavior.

The writer states three things:

1) That Manhattan has difficulty accepting humans as "morally valuable".

2) Manhattan is emotionally detached (a recurrent theme in both the graphic novel and the movie)

3) That the absence of emotionality is the cause of his "moral ambivalence".

My view is that Manhattan is a bit like Mr. Spock. Let me explain --

Spock is half human and half Vulcan. Spock rarely expresses emotion and when he does it is a major event. He is ruled by logic.

This comparison is best shown in the movie when Manhattan rationalizes why he must help Earth. Even though he has left Earth, journeyed to Mars, he suddenly has an epiphany that each human is unique, like the workings of a pocket watch: very complex.

Does Manhattan care? A good question. Sometimes he is so completely detached he experiences no remorse at Comedian's challenge that he could have done something to avoid the death of Comedian's Vietnamese lover and unborn baby. Manhattan looks at him almost uncomprehending. Is this immoral behavior on his part? No. He simply occupies a plane so much higher than human existence that to him humans are like ants crawling in the dirt.

But, following his epiphany, he returns to Earth and challenges Adrian. At last he accepts some form of responsibility. Yet, it goes beyond that, resulting in the demise of Rorschach, who cannot back down, will never surrender.

Manhattan's actions transcend individuals, and like Atlas, for a moment, he assumes the ills of the world and acts.

So, in summary, it looks rather like a logical reason to care to be moral had to be presented to him, as mere emotion fails.

( Episode 4 - Laurie's DreamCollapse )

Hey everyone,

Have you all seen how stunning the 7" single box set from the Watchmen score is?  Its fantastic, and a true must have for any fans of the film.  You should all check it out:


www.watchmenmusic.com

Link here

Link here