Wait a minute. Didn’t Rorschach kill a couple guys (notably the short gangster) in the prison riot? And his way-over-the-top violence was lots scarier than simple killing would have been (I’m thinking the deep-fryer incident here…)
Yeah, Rorschach killed lots of people. We only saw him kill five (and two of those in self-defense) but it’s clear there were others, too.
–Cliffy
Well, the guy that Rorschach threw hot cooking fat at was about to stab him with a prison shiv.
As for the “short gangster” (Big Figure) he had already made it clear to Rorschach that once the prison riot started, he and his henchmen would kill him. It was three-to-one. It was due to Rorschach’s strategic skills more than to “way-over-the-top” violence that made him come out on top (it was BF’s henchman that was carrying the arc welder; all Rorschach did was bust the toilet, letting the water out on the floor…)
Clear that there were others?
Cite please.
Okay, there are the 2 guys that Rorschach admitted to killing, the childknapper & the rapist. Then you have Big Figure.
That makes 3.
I don’t think you can count the prisoner who got the hot fat burns, simply because if he hadn’t been in a prison hospital he probably would have survived. Also, the guy with the torch, that wasn’t murder that was stupidity on the torch bearers part. Extension cord torn & frayed, but I think I’ll step into a big puddle of water. Fine.
That’s not murder, that’s stupidity.
So, that’s only 3 people that Rorschach can be directly blamed for killing.
As for the guy he threw down the levator shaft, neither Laurie nor Dan said nor implied that the guy was killed by what Rorschach did.
Any other evidence of Rorschach’s killings is gonna need a cite.
WSLer, I do count the guy with the torch simply because Rorshach was the one who broke the toilet bowl, causing the water to spill all over the floor.
I’ll grant you neither Dan nor Laurie mentioned the fall as killing Captain Kamikaze or whatever his name was, but I would be willing to bet that most elevator shafts in the Big Apple are tall enough that a fall down them would be fatal.
In the course of the series, we see Rorshach kill three people, inflict injuries on two punks he is questioning, force an old man into a refrigerator and threaten to break his arm, take out half a SWAT team, throw hot cooking fat in a man’s face, break an assailant’s thumbs, kill two dogs, and beat the shit out of a mugger. We see signs that he killed a fourth person and hear two of the good guys talking about a man he threw down an elevator shaft.
Given all that, WSLer, why do think he would have had qualms about killing other people if he had thought they deserved it?
I think the elevator-shaft guy’s name was “The Savage Skull”. He dressed as a villian so he could get beaten up.
R didn’t take out “half” a SWAT team; he burned one guy and sent another to to intensive care with a shattered sternum.
There is an implication that he strangled an attempted rapist/mugger/both (“sometimes the night is good to me”).
No matter how you “count” them, it’s pretty clear R killed these people. Whether or not he murdered some of them in the legal sense may be debatable. What does it matter, really? R seemed perfectly happy killing people. Get off his back, already!
Bryan: I think The Savage Skull was the reformed villain who bumped into the original Night Owl in the grocery store (only Moore’s genius could think of a scene like this)
Okay, so I exaggerated a little about the SWAT team. Still, I don’t think those cops will be quite so gung ho the next time. :smack: 
I quite agree with you that Rorshach had no qualms about killing; it’s friend WSLer who disagrees.
I think Rorschach had qualms about killing, they came over where people fit in his twisted vision of how black & white the world was/should have been.
That’s a great point and I completely agree: look at his expression/reaction when he goes to retrieve his “face” (after the jailbreak) and confronts the landlady.
He can’t fit her into his black/white worldview.
Fenris
*The Watchmen. * Holy cow. I haven’t thought about that comic series in years. I bought it back in high school (or maybe early in college?) when it first came out. Fantastic stuff. I think I’m gonna have to dig it out of the box in the basement and have another read.
I remember also that I had the damnedest time finding two of the issues, but eventually tracked them down at a convention. Too late, I had already read ahead. :smack:
Here’s a link to The Annotated Watchmen, a great site with a lot to say about the book, including timelines and explanations of lots of the symbolism.
To me, it always seemed that Rorschach had no qualms about killing, he simply tried to fulfill his mission without it.