Writer Of Wrongs wrote:
Rorschach and Veidt appear on the face of it to be polar opposites (although ultimately, they represent the same thing: people who set themselves up as different from the rest, with a different look and a different set of rules for the purpose of controlling others’ destiny). We have the unkempt, taciturn, right-wing outsider against the slick, eloquent, liberal celebrity. The former deals in absolutes whilst striving to maintain a black and white view of the world, of evil and good, whilst the latter makes his decisions somewhat more carefully, considering the pros and cons and going with the option that presents the most pros on balance whilst believing that all actions, his own included, should be judged by their consequences alone... so that the end justifies the means.
And it is this side to Veidt that informs his decision not to kill Rorschach, not only in chapter one but also again in chapter five when he could just as easily have lain in wait for him at Moloch's apartment and dispatched him with relative ease there as well.
To Veidt, everything is grey... but admittedly some grey areas are of a darker shade than others. To do what he perceives as being the right thing in any given situation, Veidt simply looks for the lightest available shade of grey and chooses it accordingly.
So in chapter one, Rorschach does not present any credible threat to Veidt's plan so there is simply no need to have to neutralise him.
By chapter five, Rorschach has become more of a concern but Veidt chooses not to kill him since to do so would constitute the darkest possible 'shade of grey solution' in that particular situation. Instead, Veidt can still effectively manage the threat simply by framing Rorschach and having him incarcerated instead... the lightest available shade of grey open to him.
Contrast this solution with that involving The Comedian. From the very outset, Blake openly represented a seemingly much more credible threat to Veidt: he was a reliable witness who had actually discovered Veidt's plan in its entirety first hand having infiltrated his secret island and so could alert the authorities in a much more believable, detailed fashion. The only option was for Blake to die, which Veidt considered to be the lightest shade solution available to him in that particular scenario.
So much for Hayter and Tse, eh?
Good analysis. Moore of course, as a writer, cannot always take the prosaic, real-world way out of connumdrums like these -- certain plot points just have to be accepted as "suspension of disbelief", especially since we are dealing with a comic book reality here, albeit one more carefully based in real-world physics and limitations.
I would suggest, too, that perhaps Veidt simply feels a bond toward Rorschach, initially, same as Dreiberg, and doesn't wish to kill one of his fellow costumed adventurers. Unless he has to. he has a history of antagonism toward the Comedian, however -- this personal dislike may have tipped the scales against Blake, once he stumbled onto Veidt's plan. Rendering Rorschach helpless or using him as a font for disinformation may have struck Veidt as inherently less risky and more useful than an outright confrontation.
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