HBO Series: Watchmen (2019) (drops 10/20/19) Thread


Because he had to....

That's the whole purpose of the explanation of the paradoxes.

To Angela, its an unseen action that once she gets to that point, explains every action. The chicken or the egg, one has to beget the other.

To Jon/Cal, it's existence. He is both chicken & the egg.
Why did he "have to"? He's just a slave to "destiny" with no free will?
that whole conversation between Angela and John in the restaurant was awesome...great acting

i wonder why John allowed himself to be captured..was it JUST to save Angela?...... what's his plan.

Only he knows. Can't wait to find out though
There is a lot of parallels to the Creation story in that episode.

The actual Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks were the Adam and Eve for Jon because that was the first time he'd seen the ACT or expression of love (making) and recognized it as something special and wonderful. I think that was the connection to humanity that he'd lost prior to going to Vietnam.
All of his clones bore their image because of that. Them springing from an Amniotic Lake is a bit of evolutionist theory though.
It didn't escape me that Phillips and Crookshanks pulled Jon aside, gave him a Bible, specifically discussed The Book of Genesis, and instructed him to "create something beautiful" in America.

Jon is Jewish but the choosing of Cal's body conjures imagery of a Black Jesus and a Resurrection. I was tripping on how they kept Jon's face hidden until the reveal at the morgue. He had to have known that Cal's body was there and gently urged her to look beyond the Whites and Asian dudes.
Remember that she wanted to watch Sister Night because it was someone who looked like her so she'd most definitely be most comfortable with a Black man.

There was something about Angela that reenergized his connection to humanity once again. During the chicken or the egg exchange, Angela asks him if he could pass his powers on to someone else. He theorizes that he could pass on his Atomic components in the egg and that it may very well be possible.
He later discusses with Will that she SAYS that she doesn't want to have children but in actuality she want's a family more than anything.
That leads me to wonder if Cal has left some Atomic DNA for Angela to impregnate herself (her eggs) later, if she isn't already pregnant...hence, the egg. I also took note of the joke she told Cal in the bar about a man creating life in under two minutes.
Will Mary (Angela) bear the Son of a God? Why was it important for Angela to see Cal walking on water?

As an aside, the chicken and the egg being created simultaneously is the argument that I have with one of my brothers who will call me in a drunken stupor and manage to bring up religion..."Adam was made and Eve was made from his rib...blah, blah, blah...," and I tell him they were created together at the same time. "What?!, I don't believe that!"

I'm trying to figure out the significance of the silouhette of Cal and Angela on the wall, holding hands. That seemed to signal something but I don't know what.

Angela showed a display of selflessness that Cal recognized as the moment that he fell in love with her. Given his relation to TIME, which came first, her willingness to sacrifice HERSELF for him or his love for her? Which one sparked that moment, or did it happen concurrently?
*Cue Jackie Wilson's "A Woman, A Lover, A Friend"

I laughed my ass off when Cal showed up at Will's door and told him he was Dr. Manhattan. Will looked him in the eye like,o_O "Nigga please!." and closed the door. :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:

How did Adrian know that Dr. Manhattan was on Europa? A little elephant told him. How did Lady Trieu know?
Turns out that Dr. Manhattan DID put Adrian on Europa and that confirms that the message was indeed to Jon to rescue him.
Why DID Jon transport the Manor House instead of recreating a replica of it? What is it that's important about the actual building? Sentimentality?
The clones were created to revere others. Are they holding Adrian hostage because of abandonment fears from Jon's departure?
As the credits were rolling, you hear the clones asking Adrian if he would stay, and for each "NO"...what the fuck is that noise...what the hell are they doing to him? Smashing tomatoes in his face was NOT the first thing that came to mind. :roflmao:

I can't wait until the final episode. I wanna see what Angela finds at Adrian's "Fortress of Solitude" style of a lair.
What the fuck is Adrian doing with that horseshoe? Is he getting his Count of Monte Cristo on?
 
Manhattan once said that the world's smartest man was no more a threat to him than the world's smartest termite but with his ability to see the future wouldn't he have known that man would one day create a weapon that could harm him?
 
Manhattan once said that the world's smartest man was no more a threat to him than the world's smartest termite but with his ability to see the future wouldn't he have known that man would one day create a weapon that could harm him?
that's why I'm thinking it has to be some sort of a plan here.. he didn't have to be captured
 
She DID shoot the canon cocker, it just wasn't fatal. It wasn't meant to be though for the shit to play out. Cal could've exploded his pumpkin a lot easier.
Dr. Manhattan could have easily altered the path of that bullet to ensure the hit wasn't fatal.
 
Man.
As much as I love the show and its original sources,
It just went trope in regards to Black people not being able to enjoy stable, long lasting relationships in Media.

But at least Angela's character wasn't going to be happy until Dr. Manhattan chose a Black body.
And he actually felt the same way so he could "connect".
For historical reasons of course.
 
He's no more Black than Al Jolson was. He was born white and put on Black face for his woman.
He was reborn Blue. :dunno: After being reconstituted or reformed, is he still a human at all? No. That muhfucka is more than a mutant.
 
The Importance of Watchmen’s Latest Twist
The actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II weighs in on reimagining Doctor Manhattan as a black man, and how his character is pushing the story forward.
SHIRLEY LI
1:50 PM ET

Watchmen, the graphic novel, includes a statement from Doctor Manhattan’s biographer clarifying a quote he once gave a reporter. “I never said ‘The Superman exists and he’s American,’” the writer complained. “What I said was ‘God exists and he’s American.’”

Watchmen, the HBO adaptation from the writer Damon Lindelof, takes that statement a step further: God exists, and he’s not only American, folks; he’s black.
As revealed in Episode 7 and explored further in last night’s flashback-driven installment, Cal Abar (played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), the mild-mannered stay-at-home dad and husband of the masked detective Angela Abar (played by Regina King), is actually Jon Osterman (a German-born Jewish man) a.k.a. Doctor Manhattan. Cal, along with Angela, deliberately blocked his memory of being the product of a physics experiment gone wrong so that they could be together. It’s a monumental twist in the world of Watchmen, and one that even Abdul-Mateen himself couldn’t wrap his head around when Lindelof told him about it after they finished shooting the pilot. “I don’t know what I did on the outside, but on the inside, I was going crazy,” Abdul-Mateen recalled to me over the phone last week. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Doctor Manhattan, after all, isn’t just a typical superhero; he’s more an all-powerful deity, immortal, blue-skinned, and all-seeing. He can manipulate matter, teleport anywhere in the universe, and create or destroy life. In 1985, the show reveals, he terraformed Jupiter’s moon Europa and populated this utopia with his own Adam and Eve—now known as Mr. Phillips (Tom Mison) and Ms. Crookshanks (Sara Vickers). Most important, Doctor Manhattan experiences time at once, rather than linearly: As he talks with Angela in a bar in 2009, for instance, he’s also with her in bed six months into the future, as well as hiding in a manor as a child in 1936.

Abdul-Mateen said he barely had time to comprehend the character’s incomparable powers. “It’s difficult enough acting two things at one time, so trying to be in two places at one time—and not just two, but an infinite number of places at one time—that would have really confused me,” he said. “I tried to think about it, and it kind of broke my brain.” The actor also had to sit through three hours of makeup every day and learned to modulate his voice to emulate the behavior of those he called “hyperintelligent figures,” such as Steve Jobs.

As for being a black man playing one of the most powerful characters in comic history, Abdul-Mateen said the significance didn’t strike him until after the series began airing. Black superheroes exist, of course, but they’re a rarity in Watchmen. Casting Doctor Manhattan as black is not only challenging the classic image of a superhero, but also challenging the comic’s own biases. “I never considered that when I was playing Doctor Manhattan. I was just stepping into the role,” Abdul-Mateen admitted. “What’s been most interesting is being able to look around and to interact with people who are finding that imagery to be really, really powerful, to be a part of this statement that we’re making on the show.”

It’s quite a statement, but then again, it’s Watchmen as interpreted by Lindelof, who—as seen in his previous TV series Lost and The Leftovers—is one of the medium’s most daring writers, using nonlinear storytelling to deliver bold statements and character studies. Across its eight episodes so far, Watchmen has upended its own history to give screen time and voice to the types of characters not usually featured in these stories. The sixth episode revealed that Hooded Justice, the first vigilante in the world of Watchmen, was a black man, and the show focuses on Angela, Laurie (Jean Smart), and Lady Trieu (Hong Chau)—three women of varying ages and races.

But in casting these roles, Lindelof and the show’s writers aren’t merely making a more inclusive superhero show. They’re respecting the original graphic novel’s ethos while also underlining the show’s premise, which interrogates racism and the rise of white supremacy. Instead of simply adding more actors of color to play token parts, Watchmen is criticizing the genre’s preference for reductive (and largely white) male-power fantasies. Pivotal narrative movements have come from unexpected, divergent sources. In Episode 4, for example, the cold open appears to focus on a pair of white farmers (surname: Clark, in a nod to Superman), but turns out to be about Lady Trieu. The series began with a heavy focus on Judd Crawford (Don Johnson), the white chief of police, only to kill him off in favor of focusing on Angela. When Jon has to choose a form for his new identity, Angela comes up with the idea of hiding him in plain sight. She offers him multiple corpses of men who “lived alone, died alone”—a Lost reference—and actively steers him toward Cal’s body, which makes her feel “comfortable.” Not only does a black female superhero make the call, but the decision also reinforces Angela’s intelligence. Jon praises it as an “elegant solution.”

By reimagining Doctor Manhattan, the closest thing it has to a god, Watchmen is furthering its point: People are kidding themselves if they think they’re above race. As trite and obvious as that argument may be, the show could only make it so decisively through Jon, someone who’d “transcended” race. Jon is unable to grasp some human emotions (such as shame, hence his constant nudity), and therefore considers racial issues to be beneath his concerns. Put simply, Doctor Manhattan no longer “sees color.”

Yet his new form has a profound impact on everyone around him. His appearance as Cal perhaps encourages Will (Louis Gossett Jr.)—Angela’s grandfather and the retired Hooded Justice—to accept what Cal says about Judd being a member of the white-supremacist organization Cyclops. And his appearance as Cal makes the former masked hero Adrian (Jeremy Irons) believe that he’s headed for paradise when Jon-as-Cal proposes he teleport him to Europa. Adrian, self-obsessed and egotistical, would likely not have responded the same way had the conversation been with someone who was glowing blue or who was a white man like himself.

For Abdul-Mateen, the role has been deeply resonant. “In a world where white supremacy is the antagonist of our story, it makes sense that a god is inhabited by a black man … [that] God can be black,” he explained. “It’s really humbling to be a part of that narrative.”

https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...en-twist-so-important-doctor-manhattan/603301
 
Everyone who claims love at first sight is it experiencing love at first sight.

Think of it like this, people mistake feelings all the time. For example, the signal that you're hungry is often confused with the same signal your body says that you're thirsty. Often, you'll get a snack but it doesn't satiate you.

Why? Because you misinterpreted the message. He were thirsty, not hungry.

Love at first sight is often mistaken for lust. The two are very close, often misinterpreted, but very different.

Cal, aka Doctor Manhattan experienced love at first sight

We can agree to disagree but I think it is crazy to say "Love at first sight is often mistaken for lust." On BGOL of all places, I would think people would agree that dudes know what lust is. And the two concepts are not at all close.

every "the one" is the one, ole love deficit ass nigga.

I'll admit that your insult is well-targeted.

But "every 'the one' is the one" is oxymoronic. One is singular and you're trying to make it infinite.

Some people's heads are warped from watching too much Disney as children.

Under the theory of "takes one to know one," a love deficit ass nigga such as myself knows well how these Lloyd Christmas guys meet their Mary Swanson and are so starved for love that they can't distinguish it from lust. God forbid the poor fool has a rapport with a woman who he considers to be out of his league.
 
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Basically. He may be godlike but he is not a god. He is severely limited by his own lifespan.

Anything in relation to him is not free will, it has already occurred or occurring, depending on his perspective at the time.

Free will only exists in humanity’s limited view.

I agree, to an extent. Free will is so limited it can be said to be an illusion.

But that's not the same as predestined, which is how the show (present reality, with everyone just playing their part, perfectly predictable and with no choice in the matter.

Dr. Manhattan is not omniscient nor omnipotent.

Hes been saying he doesn't know everything the entire time.

He didnt allow himself to be captured.

He couldnt stop it himself from being captured.

He sure seemed to take his sweet ass time to get out of the way.

that's why I'm thinking it has to be some sort of a plan here.. he didn't have to be captured
Dr. Manhattan could have easily altered the path of that bullet to ensure the hit wasn't fatal.

I'm gonna have to watch the movie again after the finale. I remember when Laurie's father, the Comedian, killed the Vietnamese woman he'd impregnated right in front of Dr. Manhattan, he suggested Manhattan was complicit because he chose not to stop it. The show seems to present Dr. Manhattan as a slave to fate, with no choice at all. The latter is a much more boring (and bullshit) story to me.
 
I thought this show sucked before, Regina King is great, but now this show is awesome. I knew that was going to happen. That towards the end it would pickup. I am going to have to binge watch it again when this season ends. Regina King kept me interested.
 
somebody explain the post credit scene ...:dunno:

i didnt get it ...

n some of y`all replies long as fuck i cant read all tht shit to c if it`s already been explained...

jus sum it up...lol
 
We gotta let this jawn play out. I get everyone saying Dr. Manhattan could've done this and that, but the writers of this show have shown they know wtf they're doing so I'm excited to see why that had to happen

He saw it. It ends the same way. Its the beauty of a paradox.
What do you do when everything you do makes the one tragic thing happen to you?
How can you prevent something that's going to happen because it happens?

Angela didn't tell Will about the crooked Sheriff until everything that happened with the Sheriff, and the pills and the Calvary making their moves happened.

How was she supposed to know that?
He stopped telling her things,remember? All it did was ensure that they'd happen.
So if you tell her what's going to happen it happens. And you don't tell her what's going to happen so it happens
What can do you? Short of leaving earth forever?
Which he tried to do as well lol
 
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