User blog comment:GrandMethuselah67/Character Sheet: Akira/@comment-4867780-20161002030120/@comment-26322734-20161008055339

Well, no, see there are stark differences between someone like Dr. Manhattan and Bradley psychologically, especially with how their powers effect them.

Dr. Manhattan could perfectly see into his own past and future -- as long as it involved himself, of course. This granted him a self-omniscience so to speak, which made him feel like he no longer had free will since he didn't make decisions, he just saw himself doing things. I'd imagine that feeling like a third person spectator, watching yourself do things you already know the outcome to would definitely lead to detachment, kind of like how the viewer of the TV show gets bored if things are predictable or if there is no tension. Dr. Manhattan's greatest curse, probably, was the fact that he was practically invincible, not just in the physical sense of the word, but in the sense that he always knew what was going to happen to him, and he always knew how to react, so in the process the line between "reacting" (making decisions) and "watching" (watching yourself make decisions) became blurred. And thus began his apathy. He is what is essentially a viewer watching a TV show they already know the ending to.

Bradley is paranoid. He grew up in paranoia. A common psychological trait of totalitarian rulers like Stalin, Hitler, or Mussolini is the fact that they're extremely paranoid, which is why they feel the need to use constant surveillance on their citizens and control them to such a great extent. The state of Bradley's empire is ultimately a reflection of his huge, irrational distrust of humankind in general. First of all, he's the son of a dictator, and he already had high standards to live up to from his father's political allies. The very nature of such a huge totalitarian government is bureaucratic red tape and backstabbing. Before he'd grown so powerful, Bradley had to constantly watch his back. And eventually he'd just mitigated the problem entirely by touch-corrupting them with his Mass Consciousness ability. At that point, Bradley was convinced that the entire world was out to get them, and the only way to keep it from happening was to take it all over and turn it into some kind of twisted utopia.