User blog comment:GrandMethuselah67/Character Sheet: Akira/@comment-4867780-20161002030120/@comment-4867780-20161008100659

I always found this part really strange, because... what stops Dr Manhattan from saying "screw you future" and doing something else instead ? Nothing at all, right ? Throw in the butterfly effect, and he basically has the power to redefine his entire future at every second. Transcendentally advanced, but somehow didn't realize that different causes lead to different effects XD This really feels like a blatant nonsense, narratively enforced to keep Dr M from brilliantly solving every problem and utopiazing the entire world.

And nobody wants that, because all utopias really do is make the audience feel miserable in comparison, same reason protagonists only ever find happiness just before the ending (if they are lucky). Fiction is meant to escape the suffering of reality, but escaping too well throws it right back in your face. Quite the unfortunate paradox ^ ^;

Plot twist ! Bradley turned the entire world into a totalitarian Utopia not to make it a better place or even rule it but to simply... protect himself from it. Well played, I would never have guessed. But after learning of his childhood and young adult circumstances it does make sense, especially when bringing to light the inherent paranoia of totalitarian rulers.

After all, if they felt secure in their position, then why such extreme levels of surveillance and oppression ? Because in the end they are just one man, one weak fragile little thing that half of his subjects could easily put down singlehandedly given the chance, and virtually everyone in their country has good reasons to want them dead. Now, this mere thought would give even the most hardened dictator cold sweats on an everyday basis ^ ^; No wonder they are so paranoid and ruthless, in their head their very life is constantly at stake.