| “ | "Do that, Rorschach?" I'm not a comic book villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke to you if there were even the slightest possibility you could affect the outcome? I triggered it 35 minutes ago. | „ |
| ~ Ozymandias’ most famous quote. |
Ozymandias, real name Adrian Veidt, is the main antagonist of Watchmen.
He was a former superhero and the founder and leader of the titular superhero group the Watchmen who retired and revealed his identity years before the government banned vigilantes to start his own company and become a billionaire philanthropist. He is revealed to be the murderer of the Comedian, who had stumbled upon the plan he was working on all along, using Doctor Manhattan’s energy to successfully massacre millions of people and frame him to unite the world in peace against his staged threat and save the world from the brink of nuclear war. He is the archenemy and polar opposite of the main protagonist Rorschach.
He was portrayed by Matthew Goode.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- He is the definition of Affably Evil. He always remains well-mannered and professional towards others even those who threatened or mocked him like the Comedian or the corrupt fossil fuel CEOs. He was welcoming and friendly towards his fellow teammates of the Watchmen and actively maintained a friendship or at least stayed on good terms with most of them following the disbanding of the Watchmen and criminalization of vigilantes. He comforted Doctor Manhattan when Laurie broke up with him, had a nice reunion with Dan and thanked him for warning him about the supposed masked killer, and was even willing to hear out the fossil fuel CEOs after they admitted they got off on the wrong foot and backed down from threatening him. Even when he knew Nite Owl and Rorschach were coming to stop him, he allowed them to “ambush him” and was clearly holding back, remaining polite with Rorschach himself pointing out how Ozymandias could’ve easily killed them before they even got to his lair if he wanted to. He even genuinely wished the Comedian rested in peace with no hint of sarcasm to it.
- He has a tragic backstory. Growing up, he could never relate to anyone in the world as “the smartest man in the world” which only got worse when his parents died when he was 17 and he felt stupid and alone in this regard with the sole exception of Alexander the Great who he greatly respected and idolized for his vision of a united world which inspired him to become a hero and conquer modern day evils. However, despite his best efforts and heroism including forming the Watchmen, the world only continued to further escalate closer and closer to nuclear war and he eventually realized the Comedian was right that vigilante antics of stopping costumed villains was pointless if the world would wipe each other with nukes which drove him to desperation and motivated him to create his plan to use Manhattan’s energy to massacre millions to save the world from destruction and get them to make peace.
- He revealed his superhero identity years before the Keene Act was passed to ban vigilantism and soon became a self-made billionaire, initiating his master plan to unite the world. He later convinced Jon aka Doctor Manhattan to help him replicate Jon’s power not just for a renewable energy initiative like he told Jon but also secretly to use as a radioactive bomb for his plan.
- He massively funded amounts of tachyon particle research to block Jon’s vision of the future to prevent Jon from discovering his plan and stopping him.
- He figured out the Comedian had been spying on the Watchmen on Nixon’s orders and had discovered his plan, ambushing the Comedian and murdering him to prevent him from exposing him and initiating the plot of the film.
- He secretly planted a radioactive device to give cancer to several of Jon’s loved ones and friends to discredit him and force him to leave the planet once it was exposed during Jon’s TV interview since Jon was his greatest potential threat. However, he wasn’t sadistic about this whatsoever, merely pragmatic.
- He orchestrated an assassination attempt on himself to throw off any suspicion after discovering that Rorschach was investigating the Comedian’s murder. During the assassination attempt, the assassin kills one of the businessmen that was meeting with Adrian, making Adrian responsible and he defeats the assassin and kills him by secretly forcing him to swallow a cyanide pill.
- He murdered the redeemed ex-villain and friend of the Comedian’s Moloch, who the Comedian had talked to about what he had found, and tipped off the police about the murder shortly before Rorschach went to interrogate Moloch to frame Rorschach and get him arrested, so he could move forward with his plans and neutralize Rorschach’s investigation until it was too late.
- He remorsefully massacres his research team after the energy reactor comes online in order to prevent them from discovering its true intent and expose Adrian once the damage had been done.
- He easily defeats Rorschach and Nite Owl aka Dan when they try to ambush him after they had figured out what he had done, with the two not even getting a solid hit on him. He proceeds to tell them how he was responsible for the events of the film and delivers a chilling yet epic line about how he wasn’t some comic book villain and that he already detonated the energy reactor and the heroes couldn’t do anything about it.
- He actually caught a bullet when Laurie genuinely ambushed him and quickly took her down and although he failed to kill Doctor Manhattan, he simply changed course and got Doctor Manhattan to stand down and side with him by turning on the TV and revealing his plan worked.
- His plan successfully tricks and unites the world against the staged enemy of Doctor Manhattan, preventing nuclear war and achieving world peace.
- He convinces the rest of the Watchmen (save Rorschach) that exposing him would only lead the world back to nuclear devastation and that they should remain silent.
- He feels remorse for all his crimes and even lets Dan beat him up to a pulp after Doctor Manhattan kills Rorschach to prevent him from exposing Adrian and remains totally calm, boldly telling Dan that a world united in peace had to require sacrifice.
- In the end, he is a Karma Houdini who gets away with his crimes, with the other Watchmen leaving his lair and going back to their normal lives, remaining silent.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- He gave cancer to several of Jon’s loved ones to frame him and force him to leave the planet.
- The assassination attempt on his life he secretly paid for led to the death of one of the oil CEOs he was talking to and his secretary getting injured in the crossfire.
- He murdered the redeemed ex-villain Moloch and framed Rorschach to get him arrested and imprisoned, causing his identity to be exposed to the world.
- He massacred his research team to prevent them from potentially exposing him once the energy reactor came online.
- He detonated the energy reactor, destroying the world’s major cities and killing 15 million people.
- He attempted to kill Dr. Manhattan and sacrificed his pet Bubastis to do so.
External Links[]
- Ozymandias on the Villains Wiki
Trivia[]
- He is currently the only Magnificent Baddie to be from the Watchmen franchise.