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Why did Dr. Manhattan kill Rorschach? Even Rorschach had returned to America in an attempt to expose Veidt's plan, 1) he's a fugitive and 2) no-one would believe him, moreso due to his mental instability. Dr. Manhattan, someone who's probably more intelligent than even Veidt, should've known that. Or did he just not want to take the risk? Either way, without his journal (which may as well be the ramblings of a madman), it's a certifiably insane fugitive's proofless word against the rich and respected "smartest man in the world".

You just answered your own question. It's better to end something rather than let that possibility come around, and Rorschach didn't want to be a part of a world that didn't know the truth.

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Hmm...that sounds fair enough, from Dr. Manhattan's viewpoint at least. Did he even know that Rorschach didn't have his journal on him, especially with the tachyons disrupting his precognition (funny how he describes time as being simultaneous for him, yet throw in a couple of tachyons and it blocks the future for him - or maybe he was lying)? Then again, did he even know that Rorschach had a journal in the first place, and that he was writing down all the events of his investigation in it?

But yeah, perhaps that just doesn't matter and he didn't want to take the risk. I've always found the "thermodynamic miracle" excuse odd, though. I've made another thread concerning Dr. Manhattan, so we can discuss that there, but I don't know whether or not a woman falling in love with a man who almost raped her and bearing his child is really that big a deal, unless that wasn't Alan Moore's point.

No, Manhattan can only see his own past & future, he never knew about Rorschach's journal.

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Thought so.

Three theories:

1). Predestination: Manhattan has always experienced/remembered killing someone in deep snow so when the scenario came up on him, he acted on cue in a predetermined response. Of course, he wasn't always aware that the someone was in fact Rorschach because, at the material time of the incident, Manhattan's perception was befuddled by Veidt's tachyon interference which played havoc with his usual perceptive clarity across what humans would consider to be the conventional passage of time.

2). Mercy killing: responding to the pleas of Walter Kovacs the man as opposed to Rorschach the ideal (a whole different argument on its own resulting from the character's decision to remove his mask - his face... his very identity - immediately prior to disintegration), Manhattan put him out of his misery rather than allow Kovacs/Rorschach the ignominy of having to live in Veidt's fake Utopia... to live a lie.

3). Laurie: Manhattan left Earth because she left him. He returned to Earth just to take her to Mars and talk to her. He came back to Earth again because of her.
Recall that Dr. Manhattan once waved his hand and teleported Rorschach out of their military quarters because Rorschach was ever so slightly upsetting Laurie. This event was clearly foreshadowing Manhattan's complete removal of Rorschach permanently at the conclusion of the comic.
Laurie had opted to go along with Veidt's plan and keep quiet about it. Therefore, she chose the manner of the world thereafter that Manhattan would leave her to. If she had chosen to expose Veidt, then arguably Manhattan would have arranged that world for her instead.
Had Manhattan have allowed Rorschach to live, he might not have posed a threat to Adrian's peace for those reasons already outlined, but that means he would have be driving both Dan and Laurie crazy trying to persuade them to back him up. Manhattan wasn't going to stand for that... Laurie doesn't like Rorschach so Manhattan gets him out of her luxuriant hair - for good.

^ Never thought Laurie could've been such an essential piece in that decision, nice !

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