𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘰𝘩𝘴.

            an independent & private ADRIAN ‘OZYMANDIAS’ VEDIT of moore & gibbons’ WATCHMEN. low activity. graphic novel & tabletop rpg based. unaffiliated with comic fandom. chronicled by dantalion.

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             so the ‘88 sam hamm script is how you would say... not good. the middle part of the story stays the same, but the end is wildly different: here, veidt’s convinced that it’s the advent of doctor manhattan that spikes nuclear tension and world imbalance, so his plan. is. to hasten nuclear war. and go back in time. and kill jon ostermann. before the accident. and then he gets vaporized by jon. so. i’m not really giving this one credibility. one: crimebusters au is real in this script, and the cast is generally closer instead of being sometimes-partners most of the time. two: veidt replaces rorschach in a few key scenes and is generally more hands-on. making him a former weapons manufacturer is less than inspired ( as thunderbolt is only 3/4 of his original basis; the remainder is almost a bruce wayne/reed richards/tony stark type, though his personality is wildly different, ) but what i do find interesting is the snap-difference between the facade of personality to the ruthlessness of his control over his public image: you can actually see the moment where it drops when he’s conducting an interview and has an iron grip on which questions can be asked. that’s probably the only thing i’d take from this. three: i can’t even make my url relevant in this version because that speech never happens. actually, none of the monologue that makes up all of chapter 11 happens. this script is a disaster honestly. the script was rewritten, but i can’t find a copy of the second draft.               so the david hayter script! the whole thing is moved forward to taking place in 2004. there’s a lot of broad story changes, but i’m going at this from a one-character perspective, so i’ll forget about that. one of the more interesting things to me is that the organizer of the crimebusters gets switched to nite owl, so dan’s half-responsible for inspiring adrian to do anything it takes. adrian’s relationship with dan is actually much more fleshed out: i actually really like the idea of dan meeting up with adrian after the fake-assassination if only because it adds adrian warning dan to get out of the city multiple times even if he essentially says his entire plan there. then, having dan be the one to figure out it’s him throws another layer on it. to me it seems a lot like there’s a general switch between rorschach and nite owl, likely because danl’s an easier audience surrogate. this is the only script where the vivarium exists, except its used as the backdrop of the Big Monologue. anyway, adrian’s plan in this one is to send a box with the message of ‘ CEASE ALL HOSTILITIES. AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS ’ to every world leader, then use solar radiation to obliterate a million new yorkers. adrian means to rule through anonymity, but is killed by dan in the spirit of the now-deceased rorschach by outsmarting him. the most interesting thing here is that it’s explicit that adrian lead them on to help save them without saying too much, but his ultimate downfall is that he underestimates people because he sees himself as so far above them, and it leads to his death.               i cannot find a copy of the 2006 alex tse script because it never got finished, but it was essentially the first rewrite of hayter’s script. from what i’ve read, laurie’s the one who kills adrian in this one: wounded by dan’s having the owl-ship crash into him, which he probably could have survived if she didn’t set him on fire. this is also the first we see adrian using manhattan as a scapegoat for his plans: adrian impersonates jon and fired beams of concentrated energy at major world cities, killing three million total. the hayter & tse script was the one that got rewritten for snyder’s film, but it’s unclear how much of their script survived the extensive rewrites. speaking of which:             i’ve talked about the 2009 film already, save for the changes made to backstory: adrian’s backstory is never explored in any of the scripts, so we get a backstory change in the film companion. matthew goode’s adrian was born in 1950 rather than 39, and was born in germany rather than being born right after his parents’ immigration to america. they were war profiteers and n*zi sympathizers, which is what drives him so far in the opposite direction and leads to him giving up all ties save his name after their deaths. i don’t really like it. i generally don’t like the age changes in this version: it fucks the timeline because so much of the rest is comic-accurate.              i love the adaptation process and discussing it. , it’s neat how you can watch and track storyline changes: adrian’s backstory is cut in every one, manhattan’s the one who tells laurie who her father is in every one, hayter and hamm’s script switch adrian with rorschach for telling manhattan about the deaths and every script since hayter’s replaces rorschach with dan for telling adrian about it. not a single version keeps the original ending; every script save for the final film ends with the antagonist winning, but still dying because of justice and all that. the 2009 script adds topical themes but the 2004 script, despite taking place in 2004, doesn’t. none of them i’m actually using for any more than cannibalized bits and pieces, of course, but it’s fun to look at.