Would Veidt be as detached and overwhelmed as Manhattan, if he had his powers instead of Osteman?
Osterman's entire point is a man who lacks agency. His entire life is dictated by others so when given godlike power he can't imagine using them for anything. Veidt meanwhile is nothing but ambition and drive. He'd be an entirely different beast in the end.
>>155148593Anybody with Manhattan's powers would be detached, it doesn't matter what your previous life was like. You are a completely different thing now. "My dad was controlling" has no meaning now.You tell Manhattan "my wife died last night" and he already knew it, because he already perceives 100 years in the future and you, her and your kids are dead, he knows how you all will die. So that information is as meaningless as saying "my great grandmother died 200 years ago" it has nothing to do with personality
>>155148508Veidt was a psychopath since his early years.For the slight of his parents not believing him over a teacher's accusations of cheating he emotionally disowned them and is shown musing on his future freedom over their tombstones. He's also shown willing to kill his employees and servants for no other reason than he convinces himself he has to.So I suspect he would have been much worse, even when Adrian seems to be aware of futility he just becomes bitter and obsessive rather than disheartened. Seeing his future ineffectual efforts would have just made him contemptuous instead of distant.
>>155148508He would probably be way worse
We've seen that kind of story before. Where someone morally dubious obtains god powers. They make some dystopia because of some personal failing and yada yada Superman punches them and everything goes back to normal. It wouldn't really be much more interesting just because the character in use is Ozymandias.Presumably how it would play out is that he would put together infinitely intricate plans for change to perfect the world but it would never work and in the end he'd just give up and change everything back
>>155148628Thing is, it's precisely because of Manhattan's simultaneous chronology experience that he relives Osterman's life, he isn't entirely removed from the past, just disinterested in present and future matters that are no longer experienced the same way as a mortal would.But even though Manhattan knew the talk show incident was going to happen before it does the part of his abstract mind that has Jon's persona still reacts with present, genuine emotional fury to the news of Janey Slater's diagnosis and the accusation it's because of him.Depending on when Adrian's transformed he might similarly react according to his old self.
>>155148628When people describe his powers like this I honestly cannot tell if you are just describing it wrong because you're trying to simplify, or because you don't actually understand how they worked.
>>155148508Now that I think about I'm surprised part of Veidt's plan wasn't to replicate Osterman's accident and give himself Dr. Manhattan powers.
>>155148919He might have been cooking something.It's claimed the genetically modified telepath's brain was designed to handle the complexities of mental teleportation Manhattan is capable of, and it is true the Squid and its supposed test subject predecessors explode from telefragging, however it's also possible his request to work with Manhattan on teleportation wasn't an altruistic effort to revolutionize transport but intended to get a direct analysis of how Jon puts things back together so he could repeat it on himself, and the giant brain was meant to figure out the threshold or even serve as a biological computer that would do it for Adrian if he could not achieve it himself.Manhattan doesn't press for the truth beyond a remark about Adrian trying to be clever with the remade intrinsic field subtractor just makes him look silly, so we'll never know.
>>155148903Well, excuuuuse me, princess. Can you do the honors and tell the class?
>>155148508prolly yeah
>>155148593Who would've thought? All you need is will power, bro
>>155150150I'm just saying Osterman was always passive, which was painting his detachment. I'm not saying Veidt would somehow remain the same but also godlike, but probably more that he'd wield that power much more pro-actively to achieve his own goals so the path he'd take would be more alien than Jon's.
A god cannot be a man-god.Having the power removes anyone from all meaning humanity has given itself and leaves them to create their own.
>>155150444How about creating some commas?No but I agree with this point. Asking "what is the meaning of life" makes sense when you live it. When you are above it, the question no longer makes sense. You'd be asking questions beyond our comprehension. It would be like jumping from 2d to 3d
>>155148642He's the kind of guy that would go "if people don't want to be saved (by my retarded plan which is good because it came from me), then they don't deserve to be saved at all."
>>155148508I am certain that Osterman being a tremendous autistic cuck is a major part of what made Manhattan so detached and ineffectual, but it's also a necessity for wielding the powers. I think Veidt would have the hypothetical potential to employ the accidents powers to an infinitely greater effect, but that would mean nothing as he'd never reassemble himself out of subatomic particles. The accident involves turbo-dying and then autistically rebuilding yourself atom by atom with nothing but a bunch of oscillating electromagnetic fields. Osterman succeeded, most probably across a quadrillion attempts, because getting to a rigorous and tedious task, failing and trying again and again was his entire life up to this point. Veidt would try once and dissolve into a seeething blip of background radiation as he fails to instantly achieve the desired outcome. Fucker is metaphysically incapable of processing anything other than immediate success. He'd just go poof in the chamber and that's it. It takes a watchmaker's son to pull through. >>155148919>Now that I think about I'm surprised part of Veidt's plan wasn't to replicate Osterman's accident and give himself Dr. Manhattan powers.He is aware of the "turbo death" part and bitches out. He doesn't take risks.
