When fanart goes badly, badly wrong

[weewarrior]

I have just seen drawings of Rorschach making out with Batman.

...

I need bleach. Or absinthe. Or a lobotomy.

Oh gods, how can I unsee that?!

Comments

[snopes-faith.livejournal.com]

Oh dear! I think Bernard Cribbins there is pulling the exact same face I would on seeing that. Strangely I can live without wanting to verify if this in fact the case, though :)

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, you can, believe me.

There were also bishoujo versions of all the main characters. And yes, they were really all drawn as girls. The internet, it's so bizarre.

[yetanothermask.livejournal.com]

Where? That's even worse than all the Batman/Joker art I find when I do comicstore_news.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

At Rorschach's Diary (http://rorschachsdiary.livejournal.com/) - which by itself is a rather funny parod#. The newest entry has some links in the comments that are "special."

[selenak.livejournal.com]

....

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Mind you, I just checked FFN, and well, have some summaries:

1. The Girl » by Ty3 reviews
Rorschach meets a strange girl who seems to understand.
Fiction Rated: T - English - General - Chapters: 2 - Words: 1,579 -
Reviews: 3 - Updated: 3-6-09 - Published: 3-6-09

5. Nigh Infernal » by SirenRiya reviews
A relationship between two completely different people is not always
an "Opposites Attract" situation. It's not that simple. And for
Rorschach, a situation that involves attraction is never simple.
Rorschach x OC. Chapter 4 up!

18. More Than Black and White by Eclipsed.By.The.Dawn reviews
Rorschach saves a woman and thinks nothing of it. However, he finds
that he's going to be seeing this woman more than he anticipated.
Rorscach/WalterXOC. It's better than it sounds, I suck at summaries.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

*blinks*

Walter. Right.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

And today, there were more!

3. Walter Kovacs The Eve Journal by Isabelle Chelsi reviews
Walter Kovacs. He owned many journals during his teen years. This one featuring and following the interactions and adventures shared between him and a fellow resident at Karl House. Pain, joy, learning, experience. All expressed through Walter's words.
Fiction Rated: T - English - Drama/Romance - Chapters: 1 - Words: 1,140 - Reviews: 2 - Updated: 3-7-09 - Published: 3-7-09
4. Legacy by lizinfected reviews
I came home from seeing Watchem and wrote this. By the way, I think the movie did utter justice to the original. ANYWAY, I suppose you could call this poem an "ode to Rorschach", if using the phrase doesn't make you cringe.

...someone really missed the point of the Captain Carnage anecdote (which is in the film), didn't they...

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

*cries*

This is unbelievable. I may have more patience for people thinking Sylar is an adorable woobie able to actually emote.

I wonder who would be more disgusted by that: the character himself, or his creator.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Let's just say Alan Moore's disgust would be less vicious, since, scary beard or not, he's not an emotionally crippled and thorougly paranoid sociopath. Rorschach would probably suspect the existence of such stories was due to an evil plot by a liberal villain ("possibly homosexual, must investigate further") out to get him via slander.

But then again, there are Joke!Sues out there, specifically Dark Knight!JokerSues. What did you expect?

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Alan Moore did strike me as mostly peaceful and, though eccentric, not weird in a dangerous way.

JokerSues: not surprising, if facepalm-worthy. I do think however that he is suffering from a bit of Cool Serial Killer glorification even from the people who usually write him (be that Nolan or the DC writers, at least from what I've heard), and I think to get there with Rorschach, you really have to circumvent authorial intend to a practically athletic degree.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Joker: that depends. Alan Moore wrote him once, too, in The Killing Joke, where he is if anything deglamorized. This was one of the inspirations for The Dark Knight in that the Joker wants to prove that anyone can turn into an amoral psycho given enough pressure, but Jim Gordon, despite being kidnapped, tortured, and shown photos of his niece and adopted daughter Barbara which make it look as if the Joker raped and killed her (in actuality, he "only" shot her, which didn't kill but crippled her, thus creating Oracle; in an rather infamous exchange, Alan Moore asked DC first whether he could cripple Barbara Gordon - who was Batgirl after all - and got the reply "kill the bitch for all we care"; editorial misogyny at its worst, for all that this eventually resulted in Barbara as a strengthened character, no thanks to the DC editor), at the end refused to kill the Joker and had him arrested instead, thus disproving the Joker's point. (The movie equivalent would be the ferry passengers not blowing each other up.)

In general, though? Yes, there is some serial killer glamorization going on, plus of course one key difference is that the Joker, no matter who writes him, doesn't have a canonical horror of anything sexual, not to mention canonical bad hygiene and a handshake as the absolutely greatest sign of intimacy. So yes, the obstacles for Rorschach Sues should be greater, but aren't.

(Meanwhile, the slashers are having a new dilemma, as I saw in the Watchmen-debating communities. To wit: on the one hand, since Rorschach is the aggressive character, they want to let him initialize sex. On the other, they apparantly have a BIT more regard for authorial intent in that everyone agrees Rorschach just wouldn't, ever, initialize sex, with Dan or someone else. Not with his hang-ups. Which means they have to write Dan initializing sex. Which again poses a canon problem in that Laurie initializes sex all three times they have it which would indicate Dan's not the type to suggest it first under the best of circumstances, let alone with his crime fighting pal who even in the 70s during their partnership days had the hang-ups from hell.

...not that this stops anyone, I expect, but at least they're debating it first...

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard of that exchange between Moore and the editor. The comic industry seems to be quite scary in that regard - I read girl-wonder.org on occasion, and some things make your head spin.

As for the Joker, I think a rather obvious reason for sue- or woobification would be Heath Ledger. I'm sure there is more fic about him than Nicholson's or even Mark Hamill's Joker.

Of course, Rorschach's sexual and intimacy issues would be regarded as the perfect starting point for a "needs only to find the right woman/man" plot by certain people (see stories above, I presume).

Slashers: at least Rorschach/Dan is somewhat in the vicinity of their actual relationship. My mind boggles a lot more over Rorschach/Ozymandias, which seems rather unlikely from both sides.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As for the Joker, I think a rather obvious reason for sue- or woobification would be Heath Ledger. I'm sure there is more fic about him than Nicholson's or even Mark Hamill's Joker.

I bet, though Mark Hamill's Joker has the canon love interest, so on theory should get the people willing to ship same. (Joker/Harley: just like Simm!Master/Lucy for cartoon watchers?)

Rorschach/Ozymandias:.... Yeah. Brain break in every direction. Though I guess once you've had your mind set on Rorschach having sex, you can read his calling Adrian a prostitute who sold out in their chapter 1 encounter as a barely hidden expression of desire, and position that Rorschach Is Just That Irresistable in lack of any possible explanation why Ozmandias would want to have sex with him. (Much like Snape, whom in fanfiction also the entire Potterverse wants to jump, which I always thought would both irritate and astonish good old Severus to no end.)

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

(Joker/Harley: just like Simm!Master/Lucy for cartoon watchers?)

That would work so well it's creepy. (Would we then go with Batman/Nine?)

and position that Rorschach Is Just That Irresistable in lack of any possible explanation why Ozmandias would want to have sex with him.

I'm sure it's the mask. There are probably lots of fun things they could do with that mask. (I could imagine Ozymandias trying to convince Rorschach to turn it into a smiley.)

(Much like Snape, whom in fanfiction also the entire Potterverse wants to jump, which I always thought would both irritate and astonish good old Severus to no end.)

That begs for a parody from Snape's point of view.

[kattahj.livejournal.com]

I'm only vaguely familiar with Watchmen, so it took me a few seconds to read your post correctly. At first, I thought you meant you'd seen Batman making out with Hermann Rorschach. In a Rorschach test. Which would have been interesting, and entirely your own fault. :-)

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

At first, I thought you meant you'd seen Batman making out with Hermann Rorschach. In a Rorschach test. Which would have been interesting, and entirely your own fault. :-)

In that case I would have been more "huh?" than "wtf?!" (and huh mostly because I really don't find Batman or the concept of him very attractive. I don't care much for broody men.)