[Music] hello everyone and welcome to episode 78 of analyzing evil featuring our patron pick from may 2022 ozymandias from watchmen an anti-villain with a desire for greatness and the fulfillment of a noble purpose ozymandias is the savior of the world that nobody asked for a genius with delusions of grandeur whose desire to save the world ends up being the brutal undoing of millions of people in this video we'll be examining who this man is and what led him to take the horrific action he took in this story but we'll also be scrutinizing that action to determine whether or not there's a definitive moral stance that can or should be taken on this issue to do that we'll be going through every piece of watchmen media that exists in this franchise as of the making of this video now i know there are a lot of watchmen purists out there who consider the original comic series the only canonical story in the series and the writer of the series alan moore is one of those purists and while the prequel before watchmen the sequel's doomsday clock and the hbo series watchmen and the film adaptation of the original story all detract from or add to the original story in various ways we'll still be taking a look at each of these entries in this video to give you the most accurate picture of ozymandias that we've been given in the current canon however the watchman universe is currently split into two timelines those being the doomsday clock timeline and the hbo series timeline so we will be examining the actions she takes in those stories independent of one another before we begin though let's first talk about our sponsor for this video audible as some of you may already know i'm a big fan of audible not only do i use audible to find and listen to new and exciting titles in my free time but having access to any book i need to read to cover these characters in spoken word form is incredibly helpful as you can utilize audible from anywhere and on virtually any device their expansive library is host to an unmatched selection of audiobooks and podcasts from any genre you can think of and audible also produces their own original content a portion of which you can access totally free by signing up for their audible plus membership package a package that i highly recommend as not only will you have access to these free choices each month but you'll also earn a credit each month that you can use towards anything in the audible library i've recently started listening to the poppy war by rf quang a gripping fantasy story that draws inspiration from various events in chinese history that i can't recommend enough right now you can try audible free for 30 days by going to audible.com vile and using the code vial at checkout or by texting vile to 500-500 so go to audible.comfile and use the code vial at checkout or text file to 500-500 to start enjoying some old favorites and pick up some new titles for your library today thank you audible for sponsoring this video now without further ado let's begin adrian alexander white was born in new york city shortly after his parents fled nazi germany in 1939. starting from the age of two adrian displayed an immense intellect that shouldn't have been possible for a boy his age and by the age of four he had read through all of his father's encyclopedias and though this gargantuan feat must have been no easy task the young adrian craved the opportunity to consume even more knowledge an opportunity that was presented to him upon entering public school at the age of six however unfortunately for adrian his supreme intelligence was met with skepticism and hatred as his teachers couldn't believe that a child of his age could possibly score as high as he did on their aptitude tests and the other children ridiculed him for being a hyper-intelligent freak as children are want to do with those who they perceive as being different than they are hiding his intelligence in order to blend in and avert any unneeded suffering at the hands of his mentors and peers adrian went through his first year of school in a relatively average way but this didn't prevent those who already knew of his secret talent from abusing him anyway and every day at school adrian would be harassed by bullies who stole his lunch and beat him up afterwards his parents wanted to get the school faculty involved to stop the violence being perpetrated against their son but adrian denied them that right stating that given time he would work this problem out on his own and he did so by signing up for martial arts classes and training daily until he had the ability to resist his antagonizers breaking one of these bully's legs in the process and prompting his principal to call for his expulsion which fortunately for adrian was averted due to financial assistance from his father this desire to handle his own problems would be the first time adrian displayed his independent streak as the intellect that adrian possesses has given him the belief that he can do anything and everything all on his own if he puts his mind to it and though this is one of his more admirable traits it serves as one of the driving forces behind the belief that he develops over time that he is the only one able to stop the inevitable destruction of the world to get to that point though adrian embarks upon a journey after his parents perish in a tragic accident while he's still in school shunning the inheritance his parents left to him in true independent fashion adrian set a course for turkey to follow the path of his hero alexander the great the hero of his father and his middle namesake through this journey adrian discovers the glorious path alexander carved through the ancient world and through this discovery he comes to a very important conclusion that though alexander tried and succeeded in some ways to force the new world into something new brilliant and homogeneous he failed and after having a psychedelic vision where it was revealed to him that it was his destiny to succeed where alexander failed adrian vows to pursue that path with everything that he has but not as adrian veidt as ozymandias a name taken from the great ramses ii who was known as the king of kings a title that the newly forged adrian meant to earn just as he had earned everything else initially he started out as a costumed hero not unlike his contemporaries as he sought to apprehend the criminals who had supplied his lover with drugs and bring them to justice for causing her death and thereafter he continued to fight crime until captain metropolis attempted to create a new superhero group that would serve as a successor to the minutemen here he assembled the would-be members of this new group the crimebusters to form an alliance that would strive to fight all crime that existed in the united states at that time however whatever intentions adrian had in regard to this group would be derailed in this very meeting when captain metropolis describes the group's goals to the assembled the comedian begins to argue that their efforts to fight crime would be futile as soon after he pointedly remarks that everything the crimebusters might accomplish would be pointless in the face of nuclear armageddon which during the height of the cold war seemed like a real possibility this statement caused adrian's worldview and goals to completely change as the weight of the comedian's words were as he saw it an inevitable truth that couldn't be ignored and someone needed to save the world from assured destruction and that someone was ozymandias but before we continue any further with adrian's plan let's talk about the man himself as i mentioned earlier adrian is a highly independent person and because of his status as the purported smartest man in the world he also has a massive ego that can be seen as the base for every trait he possesses including his independence while he's handsome charming witty charismatic and seemingly kind-hearted all those traits are overridden by his extreme narcissism and this narcissism is ultimately what serves as the greatest detriment to adrian's efforts to do good and we'll be exploring this aspect of him more in depth as we unravel his plan but there's another aspect of adrian that serves as the second most detrimental component of his personality a component that ties into his independence that being his isolation from the rest of society though adrian maintains a small amount of relationships with other people and he's able to socialize effectively he's placed himself at such a lofty position in the world that he's out of touch with reality to the point where he believes that he's the only person capable of saving it because he's the smartest man in the world and no one knows better than he does now following his epiphany that he's the man who needs to save the world adrian sets to work in expanding his already vast fortune in order to fulfill the demands of his plan and he does so by having his company manufacture a line of cosmetics called nostalgia and two years prior to the keen act adrian unmasked himself in front of the public so he could begin selling his image in the form of various merchandise and media a stream of income that would ensure he had the necessary funds to see his plan through to completion after ruminating for a time on the particulars of this plan adrian came to the conclusion that he would need to manufacture a catastrophic event that would cause humanity to come together and combat a threat greater to them than they were to each other and he formulated this manufactured event by researching various science fiction stories finally finding the solution to this problem after many hours of research through the tv series the outer limits a show about a group of scientists who conspired to transform one of their own into an alien creature in order to unite humanity against a common threat a plan that in the show eventually fails now you might think that the smartest man in the world would pick up on this failure and choose a different course of action but being the totally self-confident narcissist he is adrian instead chooses to model his own plan off of this one and he plans to perfect it where these fictionalized would-be do-gooders failed so adrian's plan now is to create a giant cephalopod that's been genetically spliced with the dna of a deceased psychic human and after he's done so he planned to drop this creature into new york city by using teleportation technology that he derived from the powers of dr manhattan after years of logistical preparation he sets his plan in motion by having the comedian killed an event that triggers a domino effect wherein the former members of the crimebusters once again become entangled with one another as they attempt to find out who's targeting costumed heroes accelerating this further is the fabricated attempt on adrian's life and the ostracization of dr manhattan as adrian had several people that had close contact with dr manhattan poisoned with radiation causing them to develop cancer thereby discrediting john as a dangerously radiated being who was more of a danger to the general population than he was a boon adrian accurately predicted that jon would feel guilty for the harm he caused and would proceed to remove himself from society and a dr manhattan unconcerned with humanity would ensure that adrian's plan would succeed as no one on earth would be able to stop him with jon out of the way if you couldn't already tell this plan starts out quite monstrous as within only a few days of it being set in motion he's already caused the deaths of four people the comedian the assassin he hired named roy chess moloch and hollis mason and he's nearly assured the deaths of the people aside from moloch who he poisoned with radiation but it's the realization of his plan that proves to be the most horrendous aspect of it as not only are three million people killed in the process but the after effects of this psychic being's power causes thousands perhaps even millions of other people to go insane and kill themselves or those around them and even more still suffer heavy trauma following this event in the film things played out a bit differently in that ozymandias used the power he harnessed from dr manhattan to eliminate 15 million people throughout the world by destroying a few key major cities but regardless the outcome remains the same triumphant ozymandias declares that he's done it he's saved the world and the people who have come to try and prevent his devious plan from succeeding are forced into silence out of fear of the ramifications that could follow should they reveal the ugly truth about what happened in new york city though the brutality of his plan is reprehensible it did achieve the desired effect as following this event the united states and soviet union declare an end to hostilities and the beginning of a new era of unprecedented peace and cooperation however before pursuing ozymandias with night owl rorschach sent his journal into a local news outlet that eventually reveals the truth of what ozymandias has done and as a result in the doomsday clock timeline the world has descended into chaos once more and is now on the brink of destruction once again now adrian seeks to remedy the folly of his actions by enlisting the help of the man he had once tried to rid himself of dr manhattan so with the resurrected babastis ozymandias travels to an alternate dimension where dr manhattan has made his home the dimension that contains the earth where all the dc heroes originate here he finds a world that is undergoing its own chaotic struggle that being what to do with the various superhumans that populate their society inserting himself into this conflict ozymandias fans the flames of war that threaten to engulf this world orchestrating the escalation of the conflict between the superhumans of the us and the superhumans of russia and he does so by causing an explosion with the powers of babastis while superman is in moscow trying to defuse tensions with the two superpowers in doing so adrian planned to bring dr manhattan into contact with superman and the rest of the heroes by giving them a trail to him through the energy given off by the explosion caused by babastis and in doing so he wanted manhattan to see the paragon of virtue and peace that is superman so he would be inspired to return to their own version of earth and attempt to mend the problems that have come as a result of his efforts to end those very same problems his new plan works in a way as john does indeed come to the realization that humanity is worth more than he had initially assumed but the result of that ends with the incarceration of ozymandias in his own fortress for his crimes in the hbo series timeline adrian's secret remains a secret and he's able to continue working towards uniting the world and creating the utopia he's always envisioned however it's not turning out the way he's wanted it to and when he gets into contact with dr manhattan and discovers that he's been experimenting with creating life on europa a moon of jupiter he takes up jon's offer to travel there and shape this formless world with unlimited potential into the paradise he wants it to be so for eight years adrian becomes familiar with all the peculiarities of this world and turns it into his own personal fiefdom only now he's encountered a new problem that he never imagined could become a problem for him in the paradise he had so long for boredom without problems to solve adrian comes to realize that this paradise is actually a prison for his hyper-intellectual mind a place where there is no opportunity for growth through surmounting adversity just the complacency of a god with nothing to do but sit back and watch his creations flit about in a perfect world so he begins to abuse the unlimited supply of artificial people that jon provided him with and he even manufactures an opponent for himself from one of them that he dubs the game warden and he proceeds to conduct experiments on the others that are designed to figure out a way for him to escape europa subjecting them to all manner of horrific life-threatening tests and cruel acts of barbarism for his own entertainment eventually we learned that adrian had meant to recruit the help of his erstwhile daughter by sending her a message using the discarded bodies of his subjects and after returning to earth to witness her insane plan to become a god he plays a crucial role in stopping this plan from coming to fruition by using his squids as frozen bullets an action that actually makes ozymandias the savior of the world in this instance however he's only the savior of a world that he desecrated with his mad plan to save it through destruction and just as in the doomsday clock timeline he's incarcerated for his previous crimes and now that we've become familiar with who ozymandias is and everything he did what is there to say about the morality of his plan well in order to discern that it's best that we compare what he did to a similar event that occurred in our own world the bombing of hiroshima and nagasaki even to this day the necessity of this action is debated amongst historians there's no doubt that the atomic destruction of these cities caused the surrender of japan and it theoretically saved more lives than it ended due to the cessation of all hostilities afterward however that's the issue here it theoretically saved lives by dropping these bombs you've taken all opportunity for any other of the dozens of solutions that could have led to the ending of world war ii to be realized and replaced them with this unfortunate sacrifice of mostly innocent human lives perhaps japan would have surrendered not too long after the date of this event if it hadn't occurred as the soviet union had recently joined the rest of its allies in declaring war upon japan and the prospect of fighting a war they were destined to lose considering the odds that were stacked against them might have been enough motivation for them to surrender this is only one of several possibilities but again the problem here is that we'll never really know what would have happened if those bombs hadn't dropped we can speculate on what would have happened using the information we have surrounding the situation but we still won't know for sure what would have actually happened regardless we can say that this action was taken to stop a war that could have spelled the end of millions of lives had these bombs not been dropped and this is the same problem that we encounter with what adrian did there's no doubt that his actions led to the end of the cold war and a certain level of world peace but as with the bombings of hiroshima and nagasaki he's cut out all other opportunities for any of the other less extreme solutions to be realized in bringing his plan to completion three million people lose their lives and even more suffer extreme consequences because of this action as we've already discussed and though the end of the cold war is certainly a good thing the cold war ended well enough in our own world without the need for such drastic measures to be taken it's possible that this alternate timeline dominated by a three-term nixon presidency could have been guaranteed to end in mutually assured destruction but it's just as likely that the cold war would have ended in the same way that it did in our own world there were a few times during the cold war that hostilities almost reached the point of no return like the cuban missile crisis which in the watchmen universe was actually solved by ozymandias or the false alarm incident in 1983 an event where an early radar computer malfunctioned and gave off a false reading that nuclear warheads were headed to the soviet union from the united states but humanity managed to survive nonetheless it's still very possible that the world could end in a horrific way and recent world conflicts have highlighted that unfortunate reality but is it really worth expending millions of lives for a solution that might be wholly unnecessary is taking the most extreme action in the face of uncertainty a good thing maybe it is or maybe it isn't the reason that this topic has been hotly debated ever since those bombs fell is because we don't know and it's your individual biases and views that will ultimately decide whether or not actions like these are necessary evils perhaps you're the kind of person who views these situations as a matter of statistics as the likelihood that the number of casualties that came as a result of the various conflicts that raged during the cold war and afterwards would far outnumber the 3 million lives that were lost due to adrian's actions is a real possibility or maybe you err on the side of reserving extreme actions like these to be used as an absolute last resort or a monstrous suggestion that should never be considered at all or maybe you're like rorschach who views injustice as injustice and there isn't anything further to say on the matter and there can be no compromise in this situation regardless what we can say about what ozyamandius did is that it was an action taken by an incredibly narcissistic man who under the rightfully earned moniker of smartest man in the world decided to take matters into his own hands without consulting anyone else beforehand ozymandias never even thought to stop and consider the input of others on this matter he simply had the goal of uniting the world as his hero alexander the great once tried to do and he would unite it by the sheer force of his own will the savior of the world that has never needed nor wanted the help of anyone else when pursuing what he believes to be right so in the end we're left with uncertainty personally i view the actions that ozymandias took in this story as being evil for the reason i touched on earlier that being that what he did was the implementation of an extreme solution in the face of the unknown that might not have been necessary had he taken a moment to step back and suppress the panic he felt at the possible impending doom the world faced he might have realized that he could have resolved this situation with diplomacy or something similar but as i said earlier the morality of his actions are up to interpretation and he very well could have sacrificed three million people to save billions but again we'll never truly know and it's also impossible to tell if the pc brokered with this act of genocide will hold it will if his actions remain a secret but as we can see in the doomsday clock timeline once that secret is no longer a secret the world evolves into a chaos that could arguably be worse than the chaos that came before so my friends this is what i have to leave you with a narcissistic egomaniac with a savior god complex who tried to save the world by horrifically altering the lives of millions of people and though i may consider what ozymandias did as an unnecessary evil you may feel differently and i encourage you to share your opinions in the comments down below thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed as i said a moment ago let me know down below what you think of ozymandias and his plan and whether or not i missed anything and feel free to leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured in a future episode while you're at it if you like this video hit that thumbs up button and make sure to subscribe if you haven't already a big thank you to all of my subscribers and to my patrons and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now [Music] join the channel's discord server and read it to interact with myself and the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed below to keep up with the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon