Line #176 ComicBook/VForVendetta


1	[[quoteright:349:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/v_for_vendetta.png]]
2
3	->''Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November,\
4	the Gunpowder Treason and Plot.\
5	I see no reason why the gunpowder treason\
6	should ever be forgot.''
7
8	''V for Vendetta'' is a comic by Creator/AlanMoore and David Lloyd. Starting in March, 1982, it originally ran in a British anthology comic called ''Warrior'', and later in its own ten issue comic published by DC. It features several of Alan Moore's trademarks: Anarchy portrayed as a positive force, mixing fiction and historical fact, and [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism large amounts of cynicism]].
9
10	It's the late 1990s in an AlternateHistory, and Britain is ruled by the Norsefire Party, a Christofascist government headed by "the Leader", Adam Susan, that came into power after WorldWarIII broke out in 1988, during which the United Kingdom avoided getting hit by any nuclear weapons, apparently the only European nation to do so. Cameras are on every corner, surveillance vans roam the streets, and the government has long since rounded up any deviants or undesirable citizens that would otherwise taint the purity of Britain.
11
12	On November 5th, 1997, a young woman named Evey Hammond, with a job that pays too little to live on and no prospect of anything better, goes out after curfew to try her hand at prostitution. A run-in with a few rapist policemen is interrupted by a mysterious man in a Guy Fawkes mask, a man who kills several of the policemen and takes Evey to a nearby rooftop, giving her a spectacular view of his next act: blowing up the Houses of Parliament.
13
14	He later brings Evey to his ElaborateUndergroundBase, where he introduces himself as V. Though frightened by the man at first, Evey decides to join in his campaign against the ruling powers of Britain, one that quickly spirals from a few acts of destruction into something that threatens to plunge the entire country into anarchy - which is, of course, exactly what V wants.
15
16	Also featured in the story are several government officials and the people that surround them, and how the acts perpetrated by V affect their professional and personal lives. The regular citizens of Britain are also featured, for what V does to those in power affects them as well, directly or otherwise.
17
18	As noted by David Lloyd in his foreword in the collected edition, this is a story for people who don't switch off the news.
19
20	[[Film/VForVendetta A film adaptation]] was released in 2006 with reasonably good reviews and box office success, though Moore, as with all other film adaptations of his works, publicly disowned it and asked to have his name removed from the credits. The BBC announced they were working on another adaptation in 2017, but little has been heard from it since. It has been confirmed that the third season of the Creator/MGMPlus show ''Series/{{Pennyworth}}'' will adapt elements of the comic and act as a {{prequel}}, featuring predecessors to V and showing how the show's British Civil War will lead to the rise of the Norsefire government.
21	----
22	!!This series provides examples of:
23
24	* ActualPacifist: Evey refuses to help V when she realises he's murdering people, and at the end she says of the rioting Londoners, "I won't help them kill. But I will help them build."
25	** [[spoiler: Minor subversion, as Evey was about to shoot Alistair Harper for murdering her lover before she was captured by a disguised V]].
26	* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: After [[spoiler:Finch]] takes acid he comes up with:
27	-->'''V: V'''aulting, '''v'''eering, '''v'''omiting up the '''v'''alues that '''v'''ictimized me, feeling '''v'''ast, feeling '''v'''irginal... was this how he felt? This '''v'''erve, this '''v'''itality... this '''v'''ision... La '''v'''oie... la '''v'''érité... la '''v'''ie.''
28	* AfterTheEnd: Specifically, a nuclear war in 1988. While the state of the world as a whole is never directly addressed, Europe and Africa in particular are said to be "gone". Given that Africa contains little or nothing of interest to a nuclear power's targeteers, it may be surmised that the war's aftereffects have ravaged the world even more thoroughly than the weapons themselves must have.
29	* AgeInappropriateDress: Evey's prostitute outfit. She is only sixteen at the start of the comic and is turning to prostitution to make a living.
30	* AlliterativeTitle
31	* AllThereInTheManual: 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.
32	* AnarchyIsChaos: {{Averted}}. V explains in detail that traditional anarchy is not without order. There is far too much information to cover here but needless to say, Moore makes it very clear where he stands politically.
33	* AntiHero: V is an UnscrupulousHero or an AntiVillain, depending on how much you agree with his pro-anarchy rant.
34	* AntiVillain
35	** V, when he is at his darkest, is more than willing to sacrifice innocent lives and at one point [[spoiler:tortures Evey for days if not weeks, making her think it's the government, in order to make her understand his philosophy and test her resolve.]]
36	** Finch works for the government as a detective but doesn't really agree with its methods, growing increasingly disenchanted during the course of the story.
37	* ApocalypseAnarchy:
38	** {{Invoked}} by V, who's trying to bring about the end of a fascist system by increasing the amount of disorder. He inspires the population to more acts of violence and vandalism, which causes the government to crack down, which leads to more uprising...
39	** Inverted in the backstory, in which a minor apocalypse brings about a brief phase of chaos which leads not to anarchy, but fascism.
40	%% * ApocalypseHow: Class 1 -- Planetary-scale Civilization Disruption.
41	* ArcWords: The repeated V/Five motif.
42	* ArtisticLicense: Moore has admitted he knew basically nothing about nuclear weapons when he started the comic, and so it's insanely optimistic about how many people would survive a nuclear war, which of course depends on how widespread the war is, as a limited war might lead to this situation.
43	-->'''Alan Moore:''' I came up with a character called "Vendetta", who would be set in a realistic thirties world that drew upon my own knowledge of the Gangster era, bolstered by lots of good, solid research. I sent the idea off to Dave. His response was that he was sick to the back teeth of doing good solid research and if he was to draw one more "28 model Duesenberg" he'd eat his arm. This presented a serious problem.
44	* AssholeVictim: Several, but some stand-out examples are [[spoiler: Prothero, Liliman, and Harper]].
45	* AttemptedRape: V meets Evey when he saves her from a police gang-rape brought on by her soliciting undercover cops. Also at the hands of Liliman, but he didn't get as far.
46	* AuthorAppeal: Alan Moore has long been identified as a sympathizer of Anarchism. It shows here.
47	* AuthorFilibuster: The reality is a bit more complicated. As [[WordOfGod 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 more positive, constructive version of anarchy.
48	* BadgesAndDogTags: Colin Clarke serves as a dark example in the "Intermission" story "Vertigo". A cruel Fingerman who takes out his personal problems on a random citizen where he can come up with an excuse, it's revealed when V puts him through the same deadly "walk around the building" trial that he, Colin, is himself a military veteran and draws on his experience to actually have a good chance of surviving [[spoiler:which it's implied -- this is the last we see of the story -- didn't prepare him for a banana peel being in the way]].
49	* BatmanGambit: V's entire plan involves manipulating the government heads into national collapse.
50	* BeardOfEvil: Invoked by V's mask.
51	* BecomingTheMask: V is more of a symbol. Whoever wears the mask, is essentially V. [[spoiler: Evey takes the mask and the role of V after his death]].
52	* BewareTheSuperman: V, if you consider him a villain. His backstory is basically the archetypal superhero origin story in its most distilled form (downtrodden man is injected with experimental chemicals that give him peak-human abilities, dons a costume and goes off to fight evildoers) but his experiences also drive him insane, leading him to become an anarchist terrorist instead of a crime fighter.
53	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Britain is free of TheDictatorship that had been ruling the country, but V lost his life in the process, and we don't know how well Britain will be able to take care of itself without a government in charge. The comic also ends with Evey possibly guiding the future society as the new V, and implies that she will train a successor of her own.]]
54	* BlackAndGrayMorality: 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. Especially since it's a vigilante terrorist vs a tyrannical dictatorship.
55	* BookEnds: V kidnaps someone (to save them from a gang/mob).
56	* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler: Rose gives one of these to Adam Susan.]]
57	* BreakTheCutie: [[spoiler:V does this to Evey]]. It leads her to a HeroicBlueScreenOfDeath and after she reboots she TookALevelInBadass.
58	* BreakThemByTalking: V to Lewis Prothero, though the ''coup de grâce'' that really breaks him involves more than talking.
59	* BuryYourGays: Among the people who were tested alongside V, there were two lesbians called Valerie and Rita, who due to hormone injections not only died, but in Rita's case [[BodyHorror developed vestigial fingers in her leg]]. Also Ruth, Valerie's lover, who committed suicide [[spoiler: out of regret for having betrayed Valerie under torture]]. According to Finch, this was the fate of most of Britain's LGBT people.
60	* ByronicHero: V.
61	* BystanderSyndrome: Writ large for the country. Norsefire came to power blaming the lack of recovery on undesirables: minorities, the elderly, the mentally handicapped and LGBT people. The population accepted this as when the government began their purge most people did nothing. ''[[{{HeadIntheSandManagement}} They weren't really English so who cares.]]'' This is best exemplified in a rioters inner monologue who is furious the government publicly executed an English looter "like some Paki."
62	* CaptainSpaceDefenderOfEarth: The idealized Aryan hero Storm Saxon from the show-within-a-comic.
63	* CargoShip: In-universe example: Adam Susan for the government computer system, FATE. [[spoiler:The idea that FATE could ever return Susan's affections is part of what drives Susan insane.]]
64	* CaughtWithYourPantsDown: [[spoiler: Uhhh... is the Head masturbating to his ''[[{{Squick}} computer?]]'']] Physically, yes, but he really [[spoiler:is masturbating to England herself.]] So he's [[spoiler:lying back and thinking of England]]?
65	* CelibateHero: V, more than likely, chooses to be celibate. His sexual preference, if he has any, is anyone's guess.
66	* ClassicalMusicIsCool: V keeps a room full of rare high culture artifacts in his ElaborateUndergroundBase, including many recordings of classical music, which he deeply appreciates. Evey, who has never heard such a thing, is overawed.
67	* CoatHatMask: V.
68	* ColdBloodedTorture: From ''both'' sides, although opinions vary on whether V was justified with his.
69	* CopeByCreating: Subverted. Delia Surridge thought that the Man In Room Five's making strange intricate patterns on the floor of his cell with fertilizer and grease solvent was just him trying to cope with the trauma of his experiments through art. In reality, he was [[MacGyvering using the various chemicals]] to create gunpowder, napalm, and mustard gas for his eventual escape.
70	* CorruptPolitician: Norsefire were brutal opportunists.
71	* CrapsackWorld: It's a post-nuclear wasteland, the second coming of the Nazis has taken power over Britain, and the only person who dares to stand up to them is an apparently insane terrorist who wants to replace them with... nothing.
72	* CreateYourOwnHero/[[CreateYourOwnVillain Villain]]: Moral ambiguity aside, the constant is that V was born from the inhuman experimentation conducted in Larkhill.
73	* DamnedByFaintPraise: Happens to the show Storm Saxon by V comparing it to the surveillance footage of rioting England: "Sometimes I miss Storm Saxon. The dialogue was better."
74	* DarkMessiah: V has this written all over him. A ruthless demagogue who secures the fanatical following of a substantial multitude by presenting himself as a savior.
75	* DisasterDominoes: V sets this in motion for Norsefire. Scenes of the effects are interspersed with him setting up and toppling a massive number of dominoes shaped as his logo.
76	* TheDogBitesBack: Rose killing Adam Susan, with V being involved in causing the trope to happen.
77	* DomesticAbuse: A rare instance where both sides of the coin are portrayed simultaneously. On one hand, we have Derek Almond as the violent, abusive and ungrateful husband towards the gentle, faithful and enduring Rosemary. On the other hand we have Helen Heyer as the domineering, manipulative and cheating wife of the loving and good-natured Conrad. Both Helen and Derek regularly belittle, insult, shame and beat up their respective spouses for whom they feel nothing but contempt.
78	* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Subverted, when V broadcasts his communique; over BTN's network.
79	* DoomedMoralVictor: As a part of the ThanatosGambit.
80	* TheDragon: Almond functions as this throughout the first chapter. [[spoiler: Harper eventually serves as this to Helen, being a DragonWithAnAgenda to Creedy]].
81	* DramaticAmmoDepletion: [[AssholeVictim Richard Almond's]] "hobby" of terrorizing his wife with an unload revolver comes back to bite him in the ass when he runs into V. He pulls his gun, only to realize too late that he forgot to load the bullets into it. V promptly kills him.
82	* DramaticUnmask: Averted with Evey having the chance to unmask V, but deciding that the anarchist's true identity would not be worth diminishing his role's symbolic value if she unmasked him.
83	* DualWielding: V's main weapons are a pair of knives.
84	* ElaborateUndergroundBase: The Shadow Gallery.
85	* EmergencyAuthority: The Norsefire group has been using these sorts of powers to maintain order in Britain, resulting in a dystopian PoliceState society. After [[spoiler:the Leader]] is assassinated, the ambitious head of the [[StateSec Fingermen]] tries to grab power and become the new de facto head of government with this as his justification.
86	* EpiphanyTherapy:
87	** Evey has this after [[spoiler: she's realised that it was V making her think she was in prison]], but it's done so harrowingly that it's justified.
88	** Finch has one when, during an [=LSD=] trip to [[ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim get inside V's mind]], he [[spoiler:experiences himself suffering V's Larkhill trauma, and realizes that no one's been keeping him in his "prison" of a job except himself]].
89	* EvilOverlord: Susan was arguably a WellIntentionedExtremist, but his prejudices and the ways he went about fulfilling his goal clearly seat him in the "evil" territory (torture, genocide etc.). And his argument that he needs to be in power to support and bolster England kinda goes into "Overlord" territory.
90	* EvilVersusOblivion: The justification for the Norsefire Party's rule - since England is the last surviving nation in their part of the world, they insist that the populace needs to sit back and take whatever the party demands, lest civilization fall apart completely. To say that V disagrees would be an understatement.
91	* ExplainExplainOhCrap: A subdued one, but near the start Mr Susan hears Finch's theory that V was killing everyone who knew his past, just to cover it up and get to the main part of his plan. He initially dismissed the idea that someone would create a pile of corpses just to cover something up...and then realises what he and his people have done over the years. And that V might be more of a problem that he supposed.
92	* ExpressiveMask: V's mask never moves, but it still manages to convey emotion through shadow and angles.
93	* FanDisservice: Evey strips her remaining clothes off when she's standing on top of the building in the rain, after she's had her EpiphanyTherapy, but she's so skinny and traumatised that she looks like a camp victim -- which is, of course, kind of what she is.
94	* FascistButInefficient: The Norsefire Government, as it's supporters point out the Norsefire dictatorship "stabilized" a post-war England. However, they utterly failed to progress past that. When the story begins, there are massive shortages and substantial rationing; with propaganda suggesting by 1998 some limited rationing will be released (it won't). Furthermore, the fact that there is a thriving black market means other countries and their economies have recovered enough to export. Lastly, having actually completed their purge of "undesirables" the government lack a boogeyman to pin all of their ineptitude on. As a result, they have to constantly invent enemies and take increasingly repressive acts to remain in power. Frankly some in the government actually seem relieved when V begins his campaign.
95	* FictionalPoliticalParty: [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Norsefire]]. They came to power after a Labour Party government replacing Thatcher withdrew from NATO and caused the UsefulNotes/ColdWar to go hot, but Alan Moore models them as a FictionalCounterpart to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_National_Front the British National Front]].
96	* FinalSolution: Like [[ThoseWackyNazis their real-life counterpart]], the Norsefire Party rounds up and kills off everyone who doesn't conform to their "Nordic race" mould.
97	* FlingALightIntoTheFuture: Valerie's letter. She knows she will die (either from the injection or execution), but she writes out a beautiful love letter to whoever it is in the next cell over, trying to offer them solace, strength, and hope for a better future.
98	* FunetikAksent:
99	--> '''{{Mook}}''': Cor, that's smashin' that is, Dennis. Guz down a treat. Drop out o'the Bishop's private stock, izzit?
100	* FromNobodyToNightmare: Two cases, before the war, Susan was nothing more than a police chief constable. In the upheaval that follows, he takes the opportunity to form Norsefire, take over England, successfully carry out a genocide of various undesirables, and rule the country with an iron fist for several years. His genocide creates the second instance of this trope, turning another nobody slated to die in his camp into the vengeful anarchist V.
101	* GambitRoulette: Everyone is manipulating everyone else. V is, more often than not, the puppet master, though.
102	* GirlishPigtails: Evey sports them as part of her disguise as an underage prostitute.
103	* GraffitiOfTheResistance: The A-in-a-circle sign is used, along with the V.
104	* HackedByAPirate: [[spoiler: V has actually been manipulating the Fate computer for years. The "pirate flag" is just the final stroke to drive the Leader completely over the edge.]]
105	* HappinessInSlavery: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]], [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed]], then outright [[DefiedTrope defied]] by V, saying the people's happiness comes from having never compared their lives to freedom.
106	* HeroicSacrifice
107	** [[spoiler:Rosemary]].
108	** [[spoiler:V himself]] goes through an anti-heroic sacrifice.
109	* HiddenInPlainSight: V's hideout is in the Underground at '''V'''ictoria station, with the sign modified to show V's trademark circled letter V. When [[spoiler:Finch]] finally finds this out, his face shows he realizes how ''obvious'' it was.
110	* HidingBehindReligion: Norsefire maintains at least one seemingly Christian church. However, it blatantly contradicts the teachings and edicts of God/the Bible and seems to be maintained only for cynical nationalist reasons. To name a few, the hymn seen endorse "one race", contradicting the great commission from Jesus: "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," Matthew 28:19. It's run by SinisterMinister Liliman (see below) who refers to God and the supercomputer FATE interchangeably, while blatantly stating his sermon was what the computer wanted him to say and the implied fate of non-white Christians under the Norsefire regime.
111	* HigherUnderstandingThroughDrugs: Finch takes a dose of LSD in the abandoned concentration camp, which gives him some rather creepy visions, but also helps him figure out various things, including [[spoiler:the whereabouts of V]].
112	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Almond tortures his wife by pretending to shoot her with an unloaded gun. Later he runs into V and threatens to shoot him... with the still-unloaded gun.
113	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: Every chapter begins with the letter V.
114	* IllegalReligion: All religions outside of what the Norsefire version of Christianity have been made illegal.
115	* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Almond plays a sick game with his wife where he pretends to go crazy and shoot her -- but his gun is not loaded. Then he finally catches V, and tries to [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim Just Shoot Him]] -- [[ChekhovsGun with the still-not-loaded gun.]]
116	* KickTheDog:
117	** V's [[spoiler:torture of Evey]], although it's more like an invoked version of KickTheMoralityPet.
118	** Rosemary's treatment at the hands of the government. Obviously the government treats everyone poorly but Rose's husband was a high-ranking official. You'd think even they would be more sympathetic.
119	*** [[spoiler:The government might have been more sympathetic had it been up to them, but '''V''' puts preparing his 'most ''special'' rose' before assuaging a widow's grief.]]
120	** Certain crimes (such as prostitution) are classified as "Class H" offenses, which means that their punishment is solely under the discretion of the arresting officer. This means, to put things bluntly, that the arresting officer can do whatever the hell he wants with you without you being able to do a thing about it, which is music to the ears of the sadists and bullies that many of the cops in this fascist government are. This is showcased in the scene where Evey almost gets raped and murdered by the Fingermen after they catch her during her first time as a prostitute.
121	* TheKindnapper: 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.
122	%%* KnightInSourArmor: Eric Finch.
123	* LadyMacbeth: Helen Heyer. So obsessed with power is she that, as her husband and lover lie dead or dying on her living room floor, she is so incensed their passing would mess with ''her'' plan that she hooks up a video camera to their television set just so her dear hubby can watch himself die.
124	* LaserGuidedKarma: How V kills the last three employees of his old "Resettlement Camp".
125	** Lewis Prothero ordered V to be part of the experiment that drove V mad and valued his dolls more than the inmates; V dressed his dolls up as prisoners and loaded them into an incinerator, driving him insane. For the final touch, his face was painted to look like one of his dolls when he was delivered to the police.
126	** 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 by forcing him to consume a cyanide-laced communion wafer. The whole point is that V forced Archbishop Lilliman to confess to ''him'' and to repent in a blasphemous mockery of the Christian rite (though Lilliman's lifestyle was practicing many things Christian teachings oppose). The cyanide-laced communion wafer is horrifying to the clergyman because his faith dictates that no matter what the wafer is made of before it is consumed, it will become the "flesh of the savior" through the "miracle of transubstantiation" the moment it enters a pious man's mouth.[[note]]This understanding of transubstantiation isn't [[ArtisticLicenseTraditionalChristianity true to the real concept]], but it's unclear if this is an error on the part of the characters or the creators.[[/note]] However...
127	--->'''Finch''': When it reached his abdomen, it was '''still''' cyanide.
128	** Dr. Delia Surridge injected V with the serum, so V poisoned her in her sleep. However, she got off easy compared with the others, as she actually regretted her actions.
129	** Delia also talks about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment Milgram Experiment]], in which test subjects [[JustFollowingOrders obeyed orders]] from white-coated lab technicians to shock another person, which they believed was up to the point of death (in reality it was just an actor pretending) and speculates sadly that [[HumansAreBastards there is something inherently wrong with human beings]] to help explain her crimes. Also, notice V did not show Delia Valerie's letter, the FlingALightIntoTheFuture that saved V and Evey from desperation. No redemption for you Delia!
130	** Susan knows he is oppressing his people, but he is doing it to ensure their survival. When he realises his infatuation with FATE is over and he cannot escape this way, he really wants human contact from the people he saved by oppressing them, and welcomes the high party woman he has seen a lot of times but whose name he could not remember [[spoiler: ...and she has a gun.]]
131	** Once everything falls apart at the end of the story Helen Heyer finds herself trapped in a world where she can no longer manipulate anyone, whether because the people are too strong willed or just so disinterested in her that they can't be bothered to do her bidding and just ignore her while she cries and screams in impotent rage.
132	* LegacyCharacter: [[spoiler:Evey takes on the mantle of V and is even shown grooming the third person to wear the mask.]]
133	* LibertyOverProsperity: One of V's points during his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech 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.
134	** Finch reflects exactly this at Larkhill camp: He pretended to work for the party so society can survive and to heal from his son and wife's deaths... but at the end, finds that the sacrifice was not worthy and abandons Norsefire.
135	** Susan reflects: ''Freedom to my people? The freedom to die from hunger or freeze? I don't think so.''
136	* LockingMacGyverInTheStoreCupboard: 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 gunpowder, napalm, and mustard gas.
137	* LonersAreFreaks: 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.
138	* LoopholeAbuse: Class H offenses are crimes where punishment is at the sole discretion of the detaining officer. Under normal circumstances, this means it's a minor crime and it's up to the officer on the street to decide if it's worth prosecuting at all. However, the exact wording of the definition means that a sufficiently sadistic person can take it as a license to punish the perpetrator in any way they see fit. Given the kind of people that go into the Fingermen, that interpretation is used freely.
139	* LukeIAmYourFather: Evie wonders if V is going to reveal that he is her father. [[spoiler:He says he isn’t.]]
140	* ManipulativeBastard: Some of Norsefire, but notable examples are Roger Dascombe and Helen Heyer.
141	* MeaningfulName
142	** Evey, the pronunciation is similar to "IV", being the Roman numeral for "4", and also the number of the room that Valerie was kept in.
143	** 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.
144	** Also the last character in the name is Y, being the 25th letter which 5 is the square root of. And 2 5 seperated is two five, leading into 2 halves to the whole of 10 completing the cycle.
145	** The herb rosemary is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosemary#Medicine a common symbol of remembrance]] in Western culture. Fittingly, Rosemary Almond is a vengeful widow who never forgets her grudge against Adam Susan, [[spoiler: and is the one who ultimately assassinates him]].
146	* MenUseViolenceWomenUseCommunication: While there is no shortage of violent men in the series, the most prominent being Derek Almond and Allistair Harper, Helen Heyer who is just as ruthless and scheming as the men she acquaints with only uses her connections to influence the events towards her own ends.
147	* MonochromeCasting: Every character in the graphic novel (except for some people in flashbacks or hallucinations) is Caucasian; a stereotypical black FunetikAksent is depicted in the in-universe series ''Storm Saxon'', but it's anyone's guess who's playing them. This is due to [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Norsefire]] carrying out their idea of a FinalSolution, so every non-white person in England ([[FridgeHorror and it's implied in other parts of the world]]) is either dead, in hiding or left the country.
148	* MoralityPet: 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.
149	* MoralMyopia
150	** 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.
151	** V himself is guilty of this -- he claims to care about people, but the cold, sociopathic way in which he [[PayEvilUntoEvil kills so many Fascists]] and slaughters {{Mooks}} makes it clear that really, he only cares about the people he's decided to like. And having been driven mad himself, he sets out to do the same to Evey if "necessary".
152	* TheNameless: V. He states: "I do not have a name. You can call me V."
153	* NobleTopEnforcer: Finch, head of the Nose.
154	* NoDoubtTheYearsHaveChangedMe: V takes revenge on those involved in the concentration camp and the experiments which created him.
155	* NoPlaceForMeThere: V's speech to Evey about the two faces of anarchy, destroyer and creator, has a strong subtext of this, [[spoiler:especially since as he tells her this, he knows that he will soon be dead]].
156	* NoPlansNoPrototypeNoBackup: 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]].
157	* NotInThisForYourRevolution: Finch has said more than once, to Adam Susan's face, that he disapproves of the Norsefire party. When we see him do so, Susan notes that it's only because Finch is so good at his job, leading the Norsefire regime's security forces, that he is still alive.
158	* NotThatTheresAnythingWrongWithThat: Evie wonders why V has never tried to sleep with her, and says that maybe he doesn't fancy girls. But if that's the case, "there's nothing wrong with that."
159	* OhCrap
160	** At the close of the first arc, Finch presents an OhCrap 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.
161	** 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 Big Ben... but then he remembers that ''Big Ben had been blown up the previous year''. And then [[spoiler:Evey as]] V appears.
162	* OneLetterName: V, which is a name taken from the door of a cell he escaped from.
163	* OrderVersusChaos: V's objective is to abolish all law. He does not, however, want to abolish all ''order''. As he tells Evey, he doesn't want people rioting in the streets; he desires an orderly society that remains so even without a government. V advocates ''actual'' anarchist principles, as opposed to simple mayhem; as noted above, it strictly and consistently averts the AnarchyIsChaos trope.
164	* TheOtherDarrin: {{Invoked}} and {{Exploited}} by V. Part of his reason for getting Lewis Prothero out of the picture, other than just revenge, is that the Norsefire propaganda machine has casted him as the voice of Fate, as they couldn't create a convincing enough computerized voice. After Prothero has been driven insane, Norsefire is forced to find a new voice for Fate, meaning that they can no longer maintain the illusion to the public that Fate itself has an actual voice, seeding a subtle sense of distrust towards the government in them.
165	* PassingTheTorch: [[spoiler:Evey ''becomes'' V.]]
166	* PervyPatdown: Alistair Harper discusses an instance of OffscreenVillainy in which he arrested a married couple, beat up the husband, then performed a strip-search of the woman and took the opportunity to feel her up.
167	* PetRat: Alistair Harper and his gang are hired in this capacity by the government when the existing police force isn't enough.
168	* PetTheDog: V does this with Evey occasionally -- reading to her, dancing with her etc.
169	* PoliceBrutality: Norsefire Fingermen engage in this as a matter of course.
170	* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: The titular character from the StoryWithinAStory show "Storm Saxon". Intended in-universe as the show is racist propaganda against black people; it's premise is like the racist movie ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation\|1915}}'', except a British TV show instead of a US movie.
171	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Norsefire. ''All'' of Norsefire. [[ThoseWackyNazis It comes with the territory]].
172	* PompousPoliticalPundit: DoubleSubverted with the pro-Norsefire radio program ''The Voice of FATE'', ostensibly hosted by the computer system itself. It's actually done by Lewis Prothero.
173	* PrefersTheTrueForm: When V visits the doctor who helped in his torture years prior but now lives as TheAtoner, she calls him beautiful when he removes his mask.
174	* ProfoundByPopSong: V occasionally quotes song lyrics, knowing that Evey will find them profound because she's too young to remember most of the classic rock songs. Towards the end, she's infuriated when one of his cryptic messages is that he's "[[Music/VelvetUnderground waiting for the man]]" - by that point, she's spent enough time listening to his old records that she recognizes the reference.
175	* PsychoSerum: The testing V endures while at Larkhill, drives him a little insane.
176	* PunchClockVillain: Eric Finch, arguably.
177	* PuttingOnTheReich[=/=]ANaziByAnyOtherName: Norsefire are Neo-Nazis, so it's not too odd. The dictator even gets a monologue saying why fascism is a good thing. The song sung by the cabaret singer in Chapters 5-6 ("I like the ''boots''" etc.) [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this, citing everything from ''Film/TriumphOfTheWill'' to "blond and blue eyes" to the "Heil Hitler" salute.
178	* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: V gives one to [[spoiler:''the entire country'' by taking over the Norsefire equivalent of Creator/TheBBC]].
179	* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:Delia Surridge]], who tells V she's sorry for what she's done to him. V had already decided to show mercy to her, and gives her a quick, painless death.
180	* RedemptionInTheRain: Evey after her "birth".
181	* SamusIsAGirl: While the original V isn't a girl (probably), Evey finds that with the cloak and mask and everything, he easily ''can'' be.
182	* SecretIdentityApathy: Evey has the opportunity to unmask the dead V. However, after fantasizing various faces of who is under the mask, including her father, Evey decides that even if he were her father, that would still not be worth diminishing what V stood for and so decides never to learn the literal truth.
183	* SecretTestOfCharacter: [[spoiler:V puts Evey through a fake dungeon, starving her and [[TraumaticHaircut shaving her hair]] to test her loyalty to the cause and her moral fiber. She passes.]]
184	* SelfDisposingVillain: After destroying Jordan Tower, V doesn't need to kill any more of the Norsefire Government. The leaders- and some of their wives- all turn on one another in a desperate scramble for power and revenge.
185	* ShoutOut
186	** At one point in the comic, V is depicted reading the novel ''[[Literature/{{V}} V.]]'' by Creator/ThomasPynchon, one of Moore's acknowledged influences.
187	** The chapter titled "The Land of Do-As-You-Please" is a shoutout to Creator/EnidBlyton, of all things. Specifically her ''[[Literature/TheFarawayTree Faraway Tree]]'' books.
188	** Throughout the book, V plays various songs on his record player including "Dancing in the Street" by Martha Reeves And The Vandellas, Beethoven's 5th and "Streets of London" by Ralph [=McTell=]
189	** He also likes to quote people, including Creator/WilliamShakespeare, Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}, Music/VelvetUnderground, Creator/AleisterCrowley, Creator/MarkTwain, and various others
190	** V's book shelf is full of them
191	** ''The Storm Saxon Show'' is essentially a racist {{Expy}} of ''ComicStrip/DanDare''.
192	* ShowWithinAShow: ''The Storm Saxon Show''
193	* SinisterMinister: Lilliman. Accessory to murder and torture, promoter of Fascism, explicitly a paedophile, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking gives creepy sermons]].
194	* SociopathicHero: V. Literally. Finch describes him as being a clinical psychopath.
195	* SmokescreenCrime: V starts his wave of terror by murdering or maiming a string of government officials who were once assigned to the Larkhill Detention Camp during the government's round-up of gays and immigrants, which leads Finch to discover that V was imprisoned there. However, Finch notes that every single other employee at Larkhill is now dead and the records of anyone who might have survived the camp are missing; with two of the officials dead, and the other left incurably insane, there is nobody who could identify V or guess at his true motives, meaning that the government has every reason to suspect that V's killings were just revenge against those specific victims. [[spoiler:The reality is that the killings were only the beginning of a larger campaign to completely topple the government.]]
196	* TheSpook: Finch discuss this trope with Susan. V had killed Larkhill personnel that tortured him. The interesting part is that [[UnreliableNarrator the only proof the government has of that story is the documents V had left for them to find]]. What if this is just a smokescreen? What if this was done not as a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, but to erase all proof of V's past? What if this is only the beginning of something more great? How can they hope to stop him?
197	* StarbucksSkinScale: Finch hallucinates victims of a concentration camp and makes the analogy as he states he misses the diversity England once had.
198	* TheStarscream: Creedy, among others. Par for course with a fascist regime.
199	* SubParSupremacist: The more racist a character is, the more defective they are.
200	** At the lower end of the spectrum, Bunny Etheridge and Conrad Heyer are government tools with poor nerves.
201	** Toward the middle, Richard Almond's bullying behavior and Louis Prothero's boorishness are masks for Almond's impotence and Prothero's cowardice.
202	** And at the top, Adam Susan is both a vile racist and an imbecilic manchild, barely able to function without his computer system to tell him what to do.
203	* SuicideByCop: [[spoiler:It certainly appears that this was V's ultimate fate. He's behind Finch, but waits until Finch turns and sees him before attacking, and Finch simultaneously shoots at him. Later on Finch wonders why V would do that, since he moves like "greased lightning" and could easily have taken Finch down before Finch even knew he was there.]]
204	* SympathyForTheDevil: V. Yes he is a murderer and terrorist, but his cause is a worthy cause. In fact, that particular ''Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}'' song appears in the graphic novel.
205	* TakeThat: Adam ''Susan'' is based on another 80's famous politician with the name of a girl, Ronald ''Reagan''. And in this universe, Susan did not survive the attempt on his life that Reagan did.
206	* ThanatosGambit: Strongly implied that [[spoiler:part of V's BatmanGambit with regard to Mr. Finch was to let himself be found at Victoria Station, so Finch could shoot him in the stomach and kill him. Finch notes that V appeared behind him and didn't even attempt to kill him. It's possible that at the culmination of his plan, V decided that his work was done and that dying would help keep the flame of anarchy alive in Britain in the form of Eve and her protegé.]]
207	* ThouShaltNotKill: Evey
208	* TrailOfBlood: Evey follows one to find V.
209	* TranquilFury: Vengeance with a smile.
210	* TraumaticHaircut: Evey's torture.
211	* TrophyRoom: The Shadow Gallery.
212	* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The comic is from the early 1980s and is set in the late 1990s.
213	* TwistedEucharist: V confronts Bishop Anthony Lilliman, who at the Larkhill concentration camp had stood by and watched V being given the serum that drove him mad. V presents him with a communion wafer and asks him if it's true that it becomes the body of Christ when ingested. The bishop confirms this, whereupon V has him swallow the wafer, which he'd laced with cyanide. "And you know what?" says detective Eric Finch afterward. "When it reached his abdomen, it was still cyanide."
214	* UnexpectedSuccessor: "Queen Zara": At time of printing, Zara Phillips was 7th in the British Royal Family line of succession (and the youngest, being born in 1981). Either the others died in the war and related chaos, or Norsefire "disappeared" that many before settling on a suitable royal figurehead.
215	* UnreliableNarrator: As Finch points out to Susan, everything they ''think'' they know about V comes from clues like the diary that V deliberately gave to them, and certainly altered. Since V killed everyone at the concentration camp that ostensibly created him, we have no other witnesses - the government can't even be completely sure he was ever at the camp. (Unless V lied about its origins or faked it, both of which seem unlikely, Valerie's letter suggests that he was indeed the man in room 5 -- but only Evey and the readers ever get to see ''that'' particular piece of evidence.)
216	* TheUnReveal: The identity of V is [[spoiler:now simply "V"]]. He removes his mask a couple of times, but he's always angled so that his face is never shown. He is described as being "beautiful", at least by his doctor (though she had previously described him as ugly while at the camps, so it's possible this was a symbolic near-death change of perspective).
217	* ToKnowHimIMustBecomeHim: Early in the series, Finch says that in order to crack the V case he'll have to "get inside his mind [and] think what he thinks." Eventually, he does just that by [[spoiler:visiting what's left of the Larkhill camp and taking [=LSD=]]]. As a result, not only does he [[spoiler:deduce where V's hideout is located]]; he ultimately [[spoiler:comes to sympathize with V's view of the Norsefire regime, though not V's tactics, and ends up quitting his job]].
218	* VikingFuneral: [[spoiler:V gets a modern take on one; laid to rest on the train that delivers his bomb to Parliament.]]
219	* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:FATE is hacked and used to send Susan an anonymous love letter (from V obviously). He is affected so heavily he is turned into a {{Woobie}} for some people]].
220	* WaxingLyrical:
221	-->'''V:''' [[Music/TheRollingStonesBand Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm a man of wealth and taste.]]
222	* WellIntentionedExtremist
223	** V himself is a rare {{Anti Hero}}ic example.
224	** Also, Adam Susan -- he's killed more people than V, by far, and for reasons just as if not more extreme, and he's completely dumbfounded when [[spoiler:he gets shot]].
225	* WesternTerrorists: {{Deconstructed}}.
226	* WhamEpisode: It's implied that the key formative event in the Man in Room Five's transformation into V isn't the experiments upon him, or the cruel and indifferent treatment he received from the prison camp's staff. It's [[spoiler: the note from Valerie, which he delivers to Evey exactly as he received it himself. It has a similar effect upon her]].
227	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The Army is mentioned on TV as fighting an insurgency in Scotland. However when martial law is declared no troops are deployed to London.
228	* WhatTheHellHero: Evey's initial reaction to [[spoiler: V's torture of her and when he kills the Bishop]]. She forgives him for both times, though.
229	* WidowMistreatment: The sudden murder of her abusive husband Derek sends poor Rose Almond on a dark path, as her pension is denied, she's forced to pimp herself out to one of Derek's rivals for money (after which he himself is murdered, giving her an undeserved reputation as a BlackWidow), then ends up having to get a job as a cabaret dancer, during which she's raped by her boss. [[spoiler:All of this ends up having been orchestrated by V in order to drive her insane; convinced that the government was responsible for all her suffering, she ends up assassinating Adam Susan, sending the government into a succession crisis from which it never emerges.]]
230	* WithholdingTheirName: V underwent a MeaningfulRename, where they discarded their old name/identity to become a symbol of revolution. When asked, V states: "[[NoNeedForNames I do not have a name.]] You can call me V."
231	* WrittenSoundEffect: Most comic books have at least some, but here it's an {{Averted Trope}}. There aren't any. Not one.
232	* YouAreNumberSix: Played straight. The camp dehumanized V to the point that nobody knew him as anything but "The Man in Room Five", so [[MeaningfulRename he took it as his new identity]] ("V", the Roman numeral for "5", was inscribed on the door to his cell). He may not even ''remember'' his original name and identity.
233	* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Absolutely. To the Nth degree. V even explicitly describes himself as a terrorist.
234	----
235	''England prevails.''

Context ComicBook / VForVendetta