Watchmen, the HBO television series based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, takes a political stance against violence despite the show’s depiction of ultra-violent graphic scenes. While many superhero shows exhibit violence to some extent, Watchmen is a rare superhero series that depicts violence for the purpose of condemning it as a viable way to resolve conflict.

Initiated by the presence of superheroes in history, HBO’s Watchmen takes place in an alternative 2019, thirty-four years after the alien squid attack known as the Dimensional Incursion Event depicted in the original graphic novel. The series follows Angela Abar or Sister Night (Regina King), a government sponsored superhero and former cop tasked with destabilizing the white supremacist group, The 7th Kalvary, who were behind the attack known as "The White Night."

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The true genius behind Watchmen comes from the classic plot structure of pinning two groups of people against each other that represent right and wrong while showing that both sides are driven by similar motivations of powerlessness. The man behind the attack that killed Angela Abar’s parents in Vietnam became a puppeteer because “he wanted to hold the strings.” Hooded Justice became a vigilante because he knew real justice wasn’t going to be accomplished in the courtroom against the white supremacist group Cyclops. In the final episode of the season, Adrian Veidt (Jeremy Irons) explains to the original Mr. Phillips (Tom Mison) that he had him wear a mask because masks make men cruel. In connection with the moral ambiguity present within Watchmen’s source material, series creator Damon Lindelof showcases the fine line between heroes and villains, and that violence, no matter your good intentions, will only result in more violence.

Veidt’s Violence Corrupts A Utopia 

Jeremy Irons as Adrian Veidt Ozymandias in Watchmen

Unlike the more violent scenes present in Watchmen, such as the racially-motivated attack on Tulsa and the flashback of Veidt’s faux alien attack in New York, the subplot following the former superhero Ozymandias or Adrian Veidt shows the least amount of violence in the series because his character is stranded in a perfect utopia. Created by the superhuman Dr. Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the paradise located on Jupiter’s moon Europa has the appearance of a Victorian castle occupied by multiple clones of the same two people, a footman and a maid called Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks (Sara Vickers) who are modeled after two influential people from Jon Osterman’s childhood. In exchange for a device that will allow him to forget his identity, Dr. Manhattan transports Veidt to Europa’s utopia, knowing that Veidt has always dreamed of creating the perfect peaceful society on Earth.

In the early scenes depicting the new society, Veidt appears content with his peaceful countryside lifestyle and so do the clones, who appear more than happy serving their master. However, now that he doesn’t have a challenge to stoke his intellect, Veidt becomes more and more agitated overtime with his peaceful yet mundane existence on Europa. To occupy his mind, he begins to exhibit more violence upon the clones, including burning Mr. Phillips alive during a play and flinging the dead clones’ bodies out into space through the use of a catapult. While Veidt goes through clones as quickly and carelessly as used tissues, many of the clones that survive are present to witness his acts of violence and begin to learn violence from Veidt’s example. While the violence exhibited by the clones of Phillips and Crookshanks tends to be pretty mild, shouting and throwing tomatoes at Veidt during his court trial, it shows the upright moral values ingratiated into the utopian society are beginning to be deconstructed by Veidt’s display of violence and that violence of any kind has a corruptive influence.

Masked Characters Don’t Achieve Justice 

Hooded Justice in Watchmen

Whether you’re a masked vigilante or a government sponsored superhero, the Watchmen series pushes the message that anyone who puts on a mask is made crueler because of it. The perfect example of this transformation can be found in Hooded Justice, a cop from the 1940s named Will Reeves (Jovan Adepo) who becomes a vigilante once he learns that the white supremacist group Cyclops has infiltrated the police. As an official cop, Will arrests a man who commits a hate crime against a Jewish delicatessen, but the man is let go by Will’s fellow police officers without any punishment. As a warning to stay out of “white folks’ business,” the crooked cops hang Will in a tree only releasing him at the last second. Leaving the noose around his neck and the hood on his head, Will converts these tokens of hate into an emblem for Hooded Justice and sets out with the aim of punishing these criminals outside of the law.

Related:  Watchmen Reveals Hooded Justice’s Identity (& Breaks From The Comic)

While Will may have put on the mask to serve justice to Cyclops, by becoming a vigilante, he’s also ensuring that they never will receive a just punishment. When Will kills the Cyclops members in the warehouse, he may have succeeded in preventing their crimes from continuing, but Will’s violence didn’t achieve any sense of real justice. None of the white supremacists served time in jail, their reputations weren’t tarnished in the eyes of the public, and the law never recognized them as criminals. While those men paid for their crimes in blood, it did nothing to resolve the larger problem, that men just like them will someday do it again.

In the end, the true victim of Will Reeves’ violence was himself since it only increased his anger about the injustice the law allowed to continue. While his wife June (Danielle Deadwyler) formerly supported his vigilante career, thinking it was the best way to achieve justice outside the law, she later condemns it after she sees her husband’s violent reaction to their son Marcus dressing up like Hooded Justice. Not only does Will’s cruelty cost him his family, but he also appears more lost and detached from his former self, which has become consumed by the power of the mask. 

The Most Powerful Character Exercises Violence the Least

Throughout the first season of Watchmen, multiple characters including Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) consistently mention that Dr. Manhattan, with all of his superhuman abilities, has not done anything to bring about peace on Earth despite having the power to do so. Dr. Manhattan's powers, which were obtained during a failed science experiment, include being able to manipulate matter at the subatomic level. With this in mind, Dr. Manhattan is therefore capable of teleporting anywhere and controlling anything with his mind since he has the ability to disassemble and reassemble all atoms. With this amount of power at Dr. Manhattan’s fingertips, Lady Trieu’s frustration that he’s done nothing to stop the injustice’s of the world despite his powers makes perfect sense. However, another ability of Dr. Manhattan’s may be what’s preventing him from taking any action at all. 

Not only can Dr. Manhattan manipulate matter, but his accident also altered his perception of time, allowing himself to experience his own timeline all at once. In the comic, Manhattan compares his reality to a puppet that can see the strings, and that despite his clairvoyance, he’s powerless to change the actions that to him are currently happening. In a classic chicken or egg scenario, it’s hard to decide which came first, Dr. Manhattan’s decision to act or the predetermination of his actions independent of free will. While Dr. Manhattan feels powerless to change any of his actions, one scene in HBOs Watchmen seems to suggest that Dr. Manhattan exercised judgement when he acted the first time around.

Related: Watchmen’s Credit Music Teases New Dr. Manhattan

In episode 8, “A God Walks Into Abar,” Dr. Manhattan explains to Angela why he took part in the fighting in Vietnam. “I was trying to be what people wanted me to be. A soldier, superhero, a savior,” says Dr. Manhattan. “I tried to do the right thing, and if it’s any consolation, I do regret it.” Dr. Manhattan’s description of his motivations provides evidence that some sort of reasoning affected his actions initially. With some sense of control over his actions along with the ability to see his whole life play out all at once, Dr. Manhattan may have had the awareness to see his violent actions in Vietnam, understand that he would regret those actions, and make the decision to never act violently again regardless of feeling the same powerlessness that inspired other characters to act cruelly.

After series creator Damon Lindelof announced his departure from the show, Watchmen's future and possible second season seems unlikely. While the first season left viewers with some unanswered questions, a second season doesn't seem necessary since the series achieved its goal of presenting a complete original story within the Watchmen universe. Following the lead of its source material, HBOs Watchmen expanded on the graphic novel's criticism of superheroes in general. While superheroes may have altered history with their presence alone, it begs the question if they made society any better. HBOs Watchmen, with its condemnation of all violence, seems to suggest otherwise.

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