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Subj: Watchmen fandom: Walter Kovacs = Peter Pan Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 at 09:40:27 pm EDT (Viewed 415 times) | |||
A lot of intelligent essays have already been written, by folks much smarter than myself, about the appeals of Rorschach from Watchmen, ranging from his qualifications as an embodiment of the Objectivist ideal to his status as a dark lens of the deconstruction of the superhero genre, but as well-reasoned and interesting to read as these thoughts have been, I can't help but feel like they're ... well, missing the point a bit, because as Alan Moore himself has noted, Rorschach has demonstrated a proven ability to draw in a wide variety of fans, including those who don't analyze his character to anywhere approaching that degree. So, why do so many folks go for Rorschach? As the title says, I believe it's because he's a dark mirror of Peter Pan. Depending upon which shrinks you listen to, people have the potential to become emotionally frozen at whatever ages they experience their most severe traumas. In fandom, there's a tendency to think of the Blair Roche case as Rorschach's most severe emotional trauma, simply because, as Rorschach himself told Dr. Long, that was the night that Walter Kovacs "died," but I'd argue that this take overlooks the fact that, as horrible as the discovery of what had happened to Blair Roche must have been for Walter Kovacs, it's not necessarily the sort of event that would have automatically turned just ANY person to go through it into Rorschach, which leads us into the OTHER most notable trauma in Walter Kovacs' life, which is HIS ENTIRE GODDAMNED CHILDHOOD. More specifically, when he was 10 years old, Walter was finally removed from the "care" (and I use that term loosely) of his mother, and while we as adults might see that as an END to Walter's traumas, considering how much Sylvia Kovacs' mistreatment of her son justified his hatred for her, the fact remains that, to 10-year-old Walter, Sylvia was the only world he knew, so to be removed from that environment (even if it was in his best interests, which I don't doubt it was) must have been terribly traumatic for him. So, even though he grew up into an adult who was, for a few years at least, able to be passably rational and appropriately socialized, as he was during the Crimebusters meeting, this is why I contend that a part of Walter Kovacs never outgrew being that angry, afraid 10-year-old boy that he was when he got sent to the Charlton Home. In short, 10-year-old Walter was Walter Kovacs' emotional floor, and when the trauma of learning Blair Roche's fate tore down all the emotional growth and progress that adult Walter had made, 10-year-old Walter was all that was left. Walter Kovacs didn't "die," as he claimed, but instead, he simply ... regressed. Consider how much Rorschach's behavior and attitude resembles some of the worst traits of 10-year-old boys, and how they'd act if they had absolutely no parental supervision whatsoever. He's stubborn, callous and vindictive. He doesn't like to bathe or change his clothes, he snacks on sugar and doesn't bother cooking his meals, he thinks girls are gross, and he resorts to kicking, hitting, shouting, screaming and throwing tantrums whenever he doesn't get his way. Why does Rorschach appeal to so many fanboys, including me? Hell, why wouldn't he? After all, he's the part of us that still wishes we could indulge our own inner children in such a fashion, and every time he successfully kicks the asses of people who are bigger, stronger and more powerful than him, it can't help but feel a little bit like ... vindication to us. As Rorschach, Walter Kovacs is all the short-tempered, single-minded willfulness of a small child, fused with all the well-honed combat and strategy skills of an adult who's survived decades of Hell, and if he was a real person, I'd argue that this should scare the shit out of everyone who understands what that actually means, because the only prospect that could possibly be WORSE would be Rorschach with all the powers of Dr. Manhattan, and if you want to know what THAT would be like, just watch The Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life," with an eye on Bill Mumy's character. TL;DR: Rorschach is basically the bad little kid in all of us, and that's why so many of us love him. | |||
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