[Outside, in the snow, Rorschach comes across a copy of Jon standing in the snow]
Rorschach: Out of my way. People have to be told.
Jon Osterman: You know I can't let you do that.
Rorschach: Suddenly you discover humanity. Convenient.
[Takes off his mask]
Rorschach: If you'd cared from the start, none of this would've happened.
Jon Osterman: I can change almost anything ... but I can't change human nature.
Rorschach: Of course, you must protect Veidt's new Utopia. One more body amongst foundations makes little difference. Well, what are you waiting for? Do it...
[Jon hesitates]
Rorschach: DO IT!
[Jon makes Rorschach explode into a pile of blood]
The inevitable end for principle: should we be surprised? Utopia after utopia, age after age, life after life - slowly it dawns on us that departure from principle merely prolongs and reiterates without bringing about change. Yet principle itself - as embodied in Rorschach above - is finite in its ability to effect any real change. At best, it changes its agent, along with the few lives touched by that same agent; at worst, it ends in any number of ways far less inspiring than a bloody molecular explosion.
It appears, then, that we have a choice: to prolong the insipid, without either condoning or condemning its fitness for longevity; or to cut to the chase through adherence to principle, with the vain (in both senses of the word) hope of leaving a worthwhile legacy, if only for a few, and for a time.
Whichever choice one makes, however, the world still turns, the stars still shine, and the memories still all fade. The questions of choice remain, however; they have been with us since the beginning, and they will see us to our end, and to the end of this galaxy's next great civilization. And even then they will linger, beautifully and perfectly unanswered.
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