They like him because he’s basically the protagonist for most of the series. He’s the guy with a goal that he’s pursuing and it turns out his investigation isn’t insane, it’s bang on the money. Maybe it’s just that I’m living in a post-Dexter world, but it just seems so quaint that Moore thinks that Rorschach’s flaws were going to turn people off.
Even the whole “he smells and doesn’t have a girlfriend” doesn’t really make a lot of sense - those are ascetic values that most societies are trained to respect, at least on an abstract level.
Nite Owl and Silk Spectre were intended to be the protagonists of the series, not Rorschach. Moore intended them to be a more neutral, non philosophical point of view while the other characters embodied utilitarianism, pragmatism, and so on.
I mean, you’re supposed to not praise him as an actual hero, since he spends the entire book harassing, assaulting, and looking down on working class and poor folks for no reason other than they are poor and not “American” while simultaneously hating himself and his upbringing for not being fascist/nationalist enough and not being rich like Ozymandias.
“noooo you’re supposed to have contempt for the lumpenprole underdog”
Yes, they love him because he’s lumpenprole and not because he’s a savage vigilante butcher or anything
They like him because he’s basically the protagonist for most of the series. He’s the guy with a goal that he’s pursuing and it turns out his investigation isn’t insane, it’s bang on the money. Maybe it’s just that I’m living in a post-Dexter world, but it just seems so quaint that Moore thinks that Rorschach’s flaws were going to turn people off.
Even the whole “he smells and doesn’t have a girlfriend” doesn’t really make a lot of sense - those are ascetic values that most societies are trained to respect, at least on an abstract level.
Nite Owl and Silk Spectre were intended to be the protagonists of the series, not Rorschach. Moore intended them to be a more neutral, non philosophical point of view while the other characters embodied utilitarianism, pragmatism, and so on.
I mean, you’re supposed to not praise him as an actual hero, since he spends the entire book harassing, assaulting, and looking down on working class and poor folks for no reason other than they are poor and not “American” while simultaneously hating himself and his upbringing for not being fascist/nationalist enough and not being rich like Ozymandias.