is Ozymandias really a villain?

Many people list him as a villain, but is he? Really, what he did was for the good of humanity.

By sacrificing millions of lives. That'd be like acknowledging the fact that our earth is overpopulated and the solution is to wipe out half of Asia to drop the population down.

Could it potentially be good for the environment and food supplies? yes. But it is still mass murder.

No he saved the World.At a price sure but in the Watchmen universe i really don't think there was an other way.

Depends on your point of view and what you can justify and what you cannot.

The best villains are always villains who motivations you can, while maybe not agree with, understand and sympathize with. Because they're not really villains in their minds when they believe they're doing the right thing.

And that makes them f*cking terrifying.

his motivation is understandable yet questionable. he sacrificed lives regardless of intent.

@cap10nate: So you'd just wait it out and go like "Oh well joe, nothing we can do flerp derp" instead of doing what will definitely work?

Yeah...

It frightens me that people can even contemplate mass murderers as "not really" being villains...

You get a remote, either you press the button in thirty seconds or the whole world dies. If you press the button only half dies, what do you do? And does it make you villainous?

He is a villain. The problem is he's right.

@dimitridkatsis: Well said.

real talk

Think of it like this we will all die or a small percentage of people will die.

no, who says the world stays unified

so you are saying the ends justifies the means..... this is a phrase cowards and genocidal maniacs embrace.

a great many things were rationalized by this, none of them were good. Many resulted in many innocent lives lost, or people tortured to death to further science.

you are a villain in my eyes just for suggesting that the loss of millions wasa good thing.

yes, you are villainous

Harry Truman was handed this button, by pushing it he was saving many more lives than he condemned. but it still made him villainous, and he suffered with these thoughts until the end of his days. Right and Wrong are not dependent on villainy and heroship, you can be Right and a villain, and you can be wrong and a hero.

I think, in terms of the storytelling, he is a villain. But, not in the conventional way. Obviously, Alan Moore tried to establish these so called "heroes" weren't heroes in the general sense. But if you were to evaluate every character and place them on a so-called villain spectrum, then Ozymandias would be the character to be nearest to the end of the spectrum because of his actions at the end of the story.

@husk: So youd rather let everyone die ? Billions > Millions

Ozymandis had the right intention but poor execution. And I think that when someone makes an extreme unilateral decision that ends the lives of millions... many would call that villainous.

As the "smartest" man on earth, I think he could have figured out other options. Such as convincing Dr Manhattan to his logic (which he did at the end), and having him convert all of the world's WMDs into loaves of cheese.

Assuming Ozy is a good guy, why did he interfere with Dr. Manhattan's ability to see the future? If he believed that Manhattan would have stopped the New York disaster if he saw it coming, why did he not believe that he'd stop nuclear war?

Murder by any other name... is still murder...

Eh, more of an anti-villain.

@darthmummy: Exactly.

Maybe Ozymandis's ego prevents him from relying on Manhattan? That he needed to be the one who is the "savior" of everyone.

He's a human.

if your not going to read my post, don't comment on it.

@husk: I read it id just rather not be apart of an extinction when it could have been avoided

if your saying that you would push the button, you would hypothetically be the villain. as my ORIGINAL POST states; it doesn't mean you are not right, just that you are decidedly villainous. I repeat, you can be right and a villain, as well as being wrong and a hero. the two are not codependent on eachother.

@husk: I understand what you are saying

@sheenlantern: I see.

Depends on viewpoint.

Yes in a sense that he killed innocent lives. No in a sense that he did what was necessary for the greater good.

@reactor: ummm, the entire eastern hemisphere was about to become a burning crater. In fact, the US have done this before, namely during WWII. If they hadn't dropped thbomb, the war would have became much more devastating. So, would you call the US goverment a villain? That is another debate...

If you were facing that choice, what would you have done?

Yes of course, the dude is a mass-murderer on some Joker-scale. The earth is not overpopulated by the way it's just the earths resources that are being incredibly unfairly distributed/divided.

It does, for the simple reason that a lesser of two evils does not suddenly make one "not evil". Worse still, he had taken such measures and choices upon himself to make, at the exclusion of any rights, opinions or desires of anyone else.

How would you like it if someone took a gun to the head of your mother, and fired. Then did the same to your father, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, spouse, and even children, and you don't even know why - just killed em and left? Then later that person says "it was for the greater good, peace out bro". Would you say "now there goes a big goddam hero!" or would you be horrified?

If Ozymandias is a hero then so is Lex Luthor, Ra's al-Ghoul & even the Nolan-verse Bane is a hero with that logic.

@reactor: I'd hate him to death, but if I found out that a large amount of people survived because of it I'd have to deal with it. He'd still be on a hit list though.

@quickfingers26: this makes sense. I don't think anyone sensible would make that choice, but oxy is still the dopest character in the story

He turned out to be one despite his good intentions.

"The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

@hyperlight: I hear that. I liked the Comedian a lot as well.

He's my idol.

Erik for pres 2016.

@quickfingers26: lets just say they all had there own swag to them ha

@thecowwasdelirious: Hello, please remember CV has a no swearing policy for the forums. For future reference, thank you.

I don't really consider him a villain, a great antagonist but villain no. Then again I don't really apply the term villain with any real weight unless in a generic casual informal sense.

This is more or less what I intended to say.