u/TrhlaSlecna

I feel very conflicted about the ending, mostly the fact that Adrian's plan worked, he suffered no consequences, and our main leads even sided with him in the end. It paints a very nihillistic and misanthropic portrayal of humanity.

I feel like for almost the book's entire runtime, it was condemning people viewing themselves as "above petty human affairs" and thinking they should be given absolute power and authority to save humanity from itself. Adrians story is consistently compared with the mariner, who in the end saved noone and damned himself to hell because of his abandonment of humanity. The Comedian, Rorscharch, and Dr Manhattan all also seem to be written at least partly in support of this theme.

Adrian winning goes completely against that. It says "Actually, human nature is inherently destructive, humanity can only be saved from itself by elite, super-rich smart guys with private islands, with the will to kill those in their way for the sake of the greater good. Regular people just trying their best to help those around them are worthless and can achieve no meaningful, lasting change, and they will ultimately be trampled under those with greater will and power."

I hate this ending, and I feel I must have missed something. What was it?