V for Vendetta: Difference between revisions

[[File:vforvendetta.jpg|frame]]

 

''should ever be forgot.'' }}

 

The title character is V, a government experiment [[Gone Horribly Wrong]]. Armed with extraordinary strength, intellect and [[Super Reflexes|reflexes]], along with some home-made high explosives, he escapes from the facility that created him and sets about committing terrorist attacks against the fascist government of Britain. He is [[The Faceless]] throughout the comic, wearing a Guy Fawkes mask in order to conceal his true identity. The fact that Guy Fawkes was arrested for trying to blow up the king has something to do with it, of course.

 

 

 

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** ''"'''V'''oilà! In '''V'''iew, a humble '''V'''audevillian '''V'''eteran, cast '''V'''icariously as both '''V'''ictim and '''V'''illain by the '''V'''icissitudes of fate. This '''V'''isage, no mere '''V'''eneer of '''V'''anity, is a '''V'''estige of the '''V'''ox populi, now '''V'''acant, '''V'''anished. However, this '''V'''alorous '''V'''isitation of a bygone '''V'''exation stands '''V'''ivified, and has '''V'''owed to '''V'''anquish these '''V'''enal and '''V'''irulent '''V'''ermin '''V'''anguarding '''V'''ice and '''V'''ouchsafing the '''V'''iolently '''V'''icious and '''V'''oracious '''V'''iolation of '''V'''olition! The only '''V'''erdict is '''V'''engeance; a '''V'''endetta held as a '''V'''otive, not in '''V'''ain, for the '''V'''alue and '''V'''eracity of such shall one day '''V'''indicate the '''V'''igilant and the '''V'''irtuous. '''V'''erily, this '''V'''ichyssoise of '''V'''erbiage '''V'''eers most '''V'''erbose, so let me simply add that it's my '''V'''ery good honour to meet you and you may call me '''V'''."''

** In the comic, after {{spoiler|Finch}} takes acid he comes up with:

* [[Age-Inappropriate Dress]]: Evey's prostitute outfit.

* [[All There in the Manual]]: The musical interlude, This Vicious Cabaret, pretty much outlines all of V's plans, but the initial reading makes it look like a summary of the preceding chapters.

* [[Anarchy Is Chaos]]: [[Averted]].

* [[Anti-Hero]]: V.

** And Finch.

** Adam Susan has some of this, as well, but not his movie counterpart, Adam Sutler.

** Ten fingermen, all armed with Beretta Inoxes with 15 round magazines, and Creedy with his magnum, emptied their magazines into him... he took ''at least'' [[Up to Eleven|a hundred-fifty]] bullets and still managed to kill them all.

* [[Apocalypse How]]: Type 1 in the book, Type 0 in the movie.

* [[Attempted Rape]]: In both versions, V meets Evey when he saves her from a police gang-rape.

* [[Audible Sharpness]]: whenever V breaks out his knives expect lots of "cutting the air" noises. In V's grand battle they even have ''visible'' sharpness.

** Averted in the graphic novel due to lack of sound effects entirely.

* [[Author Filibuster]]: The reality is a bit more complicated. As [[Word of God|Alan Moore]] himself says: "''The central question is, is this guy right or is he mad? What do you, the reader, think about this?''" Given that V's terrorist actions are hardly whitewashed or excused, one can easily make the argument that the true hero of the piece is Evey who looks to be forging a middle ground between Norsefire's order and V's chaos.

'''Mr. Finch:''' Chaos. }}

* [[Badass]]

** In the movie, {{spoiler|The 1812 Overture}}.

* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: Averted. V even mentions he'll kill all the guards before they have time to reload.

* [[Break Them by Talking]]: V to Lewis Prothero, though the ''coup de grace'' that really breaks him involves more than talking.

* [[Bulletproof Human Shield]]: V uses this tactic to outmaneuver the constables in Jordan Tower.

* [[Byronic Hero]]

* [[Captain Obvious]]: in the film:

'''V''': "Your powers of observation continue to serve you well". }}

* [[Casting Gag]]: [[John Hurt]] as the Leader.

** Physically, yes, but he really {{spoiler|is masturbating to England herself}}

*** So he's {{spoiler|lying back and thinking of England}}?

* [[Coat, Hat, Mask]]

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: From ''both'' sides, although opinion's vary on whether V was justified with his.

* [[Crazy Prepared]]: V.

* [[Dark Messiah]]: V can be interpreted as this

* [[Dissonant Serenity]]: In [[The Movie]], V's rampage at the very end can come across as this, probably because of that mask. Also, massive explosions set to gorgeous music.

* [[Domestic Abuse]]: Derek Almond towards Rose, and Helen Heyer towards Conrad.

* [[Doomed Moral Victor]]: as a part of the [[Thanatos Gambit]]

* [[The Dragon]]: Almond functions as this throughout the first chapter.

* [[Dual-Wielding]]: V's main weapons are multiple knives.

* [[Elaborate Underground Base]]: The Shadow Gallery

* [[Evil Sounds Deep]]: Going by the vocal line in "The Vicious Cabaret," V seems to have a relatively low voice. This probably explains why they chose someone like Hugo Weaving to play the part in the film.

* [[Evil Versus Evil]]/[[Grey and Black Morality]]/[[A Lighter Shade of Grey]]: Opinions vary as to how to interpret the Fascism vs Anarchy of the graphic novel. General consensus is that V is probably better than Susan and the majority of Norsefire, but still not exactly a great guy, while some of Norsefire's lower-ranked members (like Finch) may or may not be better people than V himself, if somewhat misled. [[Flame Bait|And we shall not go further into it.]]

* [[Expressive Mask]]: V's mask never moves, but it still manages to convey emotion through shadow and angles.

* [[The Extremist Was Right]]

* [[Fictional Political Party]]: [[A Nazi by Any Other Name|Norsefire]]. In the film, the party came to power after a democratic election. In the graphic novel, they came to power after first Thatcher's government fell, a liberal party replacing Thatcher withdrew from NATO and caused the [[Cold War]] to go hot, resulting in the most far right policies being seen as vindicated, but Alan Moore models them as a [[Fictional Counterpart]] to [[wikipedia:British National Front|the British National Front]].

* [[Foot Focus]]

* [[Gag Dub]]: [[My Way Entertainment]] does this for the first meeting of V and Evey in "V for Vocabulary."

* [[Genre Savvy]]: Evey knows a reporter is lying because she has a habit of blinking when she's reporting a false story.

** Invoked by Finch when he speculates what will happen at Parliament.

'''Finch:''' What usually happens when people without guns stand up to people '''with''' guns. }}

* [[Girlish Pigtails]]: Evey sports them as part of her disguise as an underage prostitute.

* [[A Good Way to Die]]: {{spoiler|V's}} death in the film.

'''{{spoiler|V}}''': "That is the most beautiful thing you could have ever given me..." }}

* [[Happiness in Slavery]]: [[Discussed Trope|discussed]], [[Deconstructed Trope|deconstructed]], then outright [[Defied Trope|defied]] by V, saying the people's happiness comes from having never compared their lives to freedom.

* [[Hero Antagonist]]: Finch spends the entire book tracking down the protagonist and investigates Larkhill's past to discover why V has such a murderous rage for its former staff. When he figures out the truth, he acknowledges the government is wrong and should be changed but also reaffirms his belief that V is still a dangerous murdering terrorists and he needs to be stopped, too.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: {{spoiler|Rosemary}}.

** {{spoiler|V goes through an anti-heroic sacrifice.}}

* [[The Kindnapper]]: V kidnaps Evey twice, both times motivated by some form of benevolent intentions. The first time, he saves her from being raped by the government's secret police. The second time, he is testing her -- albeit in a horrible way -- to see if she is worthy of being his successor.

* [[Kirk Summation]]: It's scarily reminiscent of the trope-naming [[Hannibal Lecture]], except that [[Grey and Black Morality|the guy he's delivering it to is so much worse]].

* [[Knife Nut]]: V, especially in the movie.

* [[Knight in Sour Armor]]: Eric Finch

** Archbishop Anthony Lilliman was a pedophile who stood by while V was administered the serum, so V had Evey dress as a prostitute to get close to him, and killed him with a cyanide laced communion wafer.

** Dr. Delia Surridge injected V with the serum, so V poisoned her in her sleep. However, she got off easy compared to the others, as she actually regretted her actions.

'''Surridge''': "I'm so sorry." (''Dies peacefully'') }}

* {{spoiler|[[Legacy Character]]}}

* [[Liberty Over Prosperity]]: One of V's points during his [["The Reason You Suck" Speech]] to all England (and/or humanity in general) is that they have accepted trading their freedoms in exchange for security. He does mention that he doesn't mean that they should go back to the Stone Age, but that they need to stop stagnating.

* [[Life Imitates Art]]: Oh so very much.

* [[Live Action Adaptation]]

* [[Living Legend]]: V deliberately invokes this so that he can inspire people. More so in the film.

* [[Locking MacGyver in the Store Cupboard]]: Give the Man In Room Five a garden plot, he'll grow roses. Give the Man In Room Five some gardening chemicals, he'll make napalm and mustard gas...

* [[Loners Are Freaks]]: The Head, Adam Susan, is completely obsessed with technology and his own idealization of fascism, and has virtually no interest whatsoever in social or romantic pursuits. At his advanced age, he is a virgin convinced that his own computer system is in love with him. When he finally decides to be a better leader towards the end and actually get to know his people, he's revealed to be quite socially awkward and shy.

** Her name also sounds like the letters "E" "V" -- "E" being the fifth letter of the alphabet and "V" being, well, V, and also the roman numeral for 5. As well as V being the fifth letter at the end of the alphabet.

* [[Meaningful Echo]]: Evey's rebirth is meant to echo V's "birth"; the movie makes this abundantly clear by using the footage of V at Larkhill merged into Evey on the roof.

* [[Morality Pet]]: Part of the reason Evey is in this graphic novel is so that V can be shown being kind to someone, making him more sympathetic.

* [[Moral Myopia]]: Lewis Prothero, as V notes, cares a great deal more for his rare doll collection than he ever did for the people he sent to the ovens at Larkhill.

* [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast]]: In the film. It's against a country's best interests to elect a man named ''[[Adolf Hitler|Adam Sutler]]''.

* [[No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me]]: V takes revenge on those involved in the concentration camp and the experiments which created him.

* [[No Name Given]]: V. He states: "I do not have a name. You can call me V".

* [[No Place for Me There]]

* [[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup]]: Justified. All the backup died. V was the only survivor. He then burned the facility to the ground, and later {{spoiler|kills the scientist and steals her diary}}.

* [[Oh Crap]]: The security guard's reaction to seeing V's rather incendiary undershirt.

** At the close of the first arc, Finch presents an [[Oh Crap]] moment to the surviving members of the Head: that the idea of V being a serial killer murdering those who wronged him is, in fact, the optimistic and comforting view. The alternative is that V was killing those who witnessed his transformation, and thus may have been able to stop him from executing his real plan.

** In the comic, the same day V promised to destroy Downing Street, Dominic is controlling the policemen to make sure that Downing Street is not attacked, and hoping that V is actually dead, and then a bell starts to sound. Dominic identifies that bell as the Big Ben... but then he remembers that ''the Big Ben had been blown up the previous year''. And then {{spoiler|Evey as}} V appears.

* [[Pair the Spares]]: Implied with {{spoiler|Evey and Finch}} in the film version, during {{spoiler|Finch's monologue about everything being connected}}.

* [[Passing the Torch]]: {{spoiler|Evey ''becomes'' V}}.

* [[Pet Rat]]: Alistair Harper and his gang are hired in this capacity by the government when the existing police force isn't enough.

* [[Pet the Dog]]: V does this with Evey occasionally - reading to her, dancing with her etc.

* [[Playing with Syringes]]: V's origin.

* [[Police Brutality]]: Norsefire Fingermen, and in the film the regular police gun down an innocent man (admittedly he was disguised as V) when V takes over a news studio. It's played to look like they shot the real V, though judging from the reactions of the various people watching the news it's not very widely believed that they did it.

* [[Refuge in Audacity]]: Gordon's last-minute script-change to his show, assuming that he was too famous to just be disappeared. {{spoiler|[[Tempting Fate|He was wrong]]}}.

* [[The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified]]: In the film, the revolution against the government is seen as completely positive. The graphic novel presents both the government and V's ambitions as being extreme.

* [[Samus Is a Girl]]: {{spoiler|While the original V isn't a girl, Evey finds (to her benefit) that with the cloak and mask and everything, he easily ''can'' be.}}

* [[Secret Test of Character]]: {{spoiler|V puts Evey through a fake dungeon, starving her and shaving her hair to test her loyalty to the cause and her moral fiber. She passes}}.

* [[Shout-Out]]: At one point in the comic V is depicted reading the novel ''V.'' by [[Thomas Pynchon]], one of Moore's acknowledged influences.

** As noted above, when a man robs a store while wearing a V mask, he yells "[[Sex Pistols|Anarchy in the U.K.!]]" before fleeing.

* [[Show Within a Show]]: ''The Storm Saxon Show''

* [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Heroes]]: V is , amusingly enough, a Type V. Unless you agree with his pro-anarchy rant, in which case he's Type IV. The film softened him to a Type III.

* [[Sociopathic Hero]]: V. Literally. Finch describes him as being a clinical psychopath.

* [[Subtext]]: {{spoiler|In the movie, during Finch's monologue about everything being connected, there is a brief shot of future-Evey with her hair grown back, next to a vase of Scarlet Carsons. The mirror on the wall shows a reflection of a relaxed-looking Finch drinking some wine}}.

* [[Super Reflexes]]

* [[Sympathy for the Devil]]: V. Yes he is a murderer and terrorist, but his cause is a worthy cause, and the people he fought were mostly [[Complete Monster|Complete Monsters]].

** [[The Dog Bites Back]]: {{spoiler|Rose}}.

* [[Those Wacky Nazis]]: The Head's name was changed from Adam Susan in the book to Adam Sutler in the film. Truly, there never was a [[Incredibly Lame Pun|subtler pun on Hitler]]...

* [[Tranquil Fury]]: Vengeance with a smile.

* [[Traumatic Haircut]]: Evey's torture.

* [[Unexpected Successor]]: "Queen Zara": in order for Zara to become queen over half the British Royal Family has to be killed off, forced to abdicate or pass up the throne.

* [[Viking Funeral]]: {{spoiler|V gets a modern take on one; laid to rest on the train that delivers his bomb to Parliament.}}

* [[Villainous Breakdown]]: {{spoiler|The Head's computer is hacked and he is sent an anonymous love letter (from V obviously). He is affected so heavily he is turned into a [[Woobie]] for some people}}.

* [[Voice of the Legion]]

* [[Wall Slump]]

** {{spoiler|Also: metal sheets. Which are not entirely bulletproof, but do stop V from dying where he stands, instead allowing him to slowly bleed out as he stumbles his way back to his lair}}. What, you thought they'd pull the {{spoiler|[[Only a Flesh Wound]] card?}}

* [[You Are Number Six]]: Played straight. The camp dehumanized V to the point where nobody knew him as anything but the Man in Room Five, so he took it as his new identity.

 

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[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]

[[Category:Hugo Award]]