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Reign of Terror: Difference between revisions
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Finally, [[La Résistance]] has won, the revolution has occurred and the tyrannous [[President Evil]] has been deposed. This should be the end of [[The Empire]], the establishment of a new era of freedom, peace, prosperity and equality.
Well, as soon as [[Les Collaborateurs]] have been judged, condemned and executed, of course. And we need to take care of all the enemies and reactionaries within us who still wish to undermine the new regime. And I'm afraid those people who fought for the revolution along with me have just been revealed to be [[We ARE Struggling Together!|traitors as well]]! I have no choice, I have to seize more powers to deal with all the dangers which threaten our ideals, create a [[Secret Police|special force]] charged to [[Witch Hunt|investigate those who would betray the revolution]] and [[Kangaroo Court|an extraordinary jury to condemn them quickly]].
[[Utopia Justifies the Means|It's all for the sake of our freedom so direly gained, of course.]]
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Named after the Reign of Terror in [[The French Revolution]], when the guillotine was used and overused against many people.
Compare and contrast with [[Full
{{examples
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
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== [[Film]] ==
* The Norsefire party in ''[[V for Vendetta]]'' engineered this, first through fear-mongering and inducing xenophobia in the populace, then by the spread of a horrific virus to throw everything into a panic, and then, when they had gained power, by means of a Gestapo-like organization devoted to removing any citizens who posed the slightest threat to the government. The whole plot is a [[Satire, Parody, Pastiche|pastiche]] of the [[Those Wacky Nazis|Nazi reign]].
* In the Woody Allan film, ''[[Bananas]]'', the rebels overthrow the evil Central American dictatorship. Then the new leader goes batshit insane and starts his [[Reign of Terror]]. So the rebels get Woody to be leader instead. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
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* ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' has the Committee of Public Safety taking over the Peoples Republic of Haven which is modeled exactly on the historical French government.
** Although it has parallels to Soviet Russia as well.
* The rule of The Citizen in ''[[Mistborn|The Hero of Ages]]'' has become this, leading to some of our heroes to attempt a [[Full
* The Egyptian novel, ''The Thief and the Dogs'' has this as the setting's backstory. Said Mahran (the main character) was a [[Just Like Robin Hood]] thief fighting against the colonialist European government during the revolutions of the 1950's. [[It Got Worse|Unfortunately for him,]] his closest allies in the movement, Ilish Sidra and Rauf Ilwan, basically seize power for themselves. The result? Egypt is no better off than it was before (really the only difference is the totalitarian leaders are Egyptian instead of Euroean) and Said is out for revenge as the book starts.
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*** Or as the writers probably intended, "paranoia is self-destructive" and "it's [[Lonely At the Top]]".
*** It's left up to the audience to decide whether the mirror was really cursed or if it was all part of the dictator's paranoia.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* As did ''[[The Time Tunnel (TV)|The Time Tunnel]]'' .
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== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Look to The West]]'' has a close analogue in its own version of [[The French Revolution]], led by Jean-Baptiste Robespierre. He proclaims the "doctrine of continuous warfare," by which the Republic must be in a continuous state of war in order to terrify its people into submission. When [[Full
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Truth in Television]], alas.
* Averted in the [[Velvet Revolution]].
* The [
* The [
* The [
** To be more precise, both the Reds and the Whites engaged in large-scale terror and repression, especially during the Russian Civil War. Interestingly, the majority of the deaths were incidental, as both the Red and White Armies 'conscripted' men and grain from the villages, leaving them with no one to till the fields and no food to eat. The majority of the deaths were caused by starvation, diseases related to starvation and [[No Party Like a Donner Party|cannibalism.]]
* Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England from 1653 to 1658, was also this. Though his reign didn't contain much actual terrorizing as such, not that wasn't already in place before he took over anyway. Indeed, while he and his supporters took over for the reasons above and even had a brief period of direct military rule the actual Protectorate was notably unbloody compared to the preceding years, the infighting between allies being so one sided in 1653, what with the army still being just the one faction at this point. They even drifted back into pre-war forms, sort of a cross between this trope and a [[Full
** Played very much straight in Ireland, where Cromwell is still remembered as unholy terror, though again, Cromwell was not actually reigning in Ireland at the time he was there. What he was doing was carrying out the Rump's will to ensure the Irish (who most English despised) would never be in a position to cause trouble ever again and take revenge for wildly inflated tales (with some substance) of Protestant massacres by the revolting Irish in the 1640s. Cromwell explained his tactics as trying to prevent an effusion of blood by scaring them into submission basically. It didn't work immediately, and this trope is really the only recourse once you've started down that path. Ireland suffered greatly, and while it must be remembered that some of the massacres committed by Cromwell's men are ''also'' inflated and taken out of context, said massacres were not the only reason he was reviled by the Irish. More galling to them was his confiscation of all land owned by Catholics East of the Shannon River, and his [[The Exile|banishment of them]] to lands West of the Shannon, saying that they could go "To Hell or Connaught."
*** Some of Cromwell's massacres were ''not'' blown out of proportion, however - it is estimated that Cromwell's troops killed roughly 3,500 people (soldiers and civilians) at both Drogheda and Wexford after the battles there. Fortunately, he was persuaded not to do so after the Siege of Clonmel; being impressed (and one would imagine, exasperated) that he lost some 2,000 men in the fight there. Coincidentally, Clonmel is this troper's hometown.
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[[Category:Politics Tropes]]
[[Category:Reign Of Terror]]
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