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1[[quoteright:238:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/51nsaks38l_sx336_bo1204203200.jpg]]
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3''El Filibusterismo'' (translated as ''"The Filibustering"'', or more loosely ''"Subversion"'') is the sequel to Jose Rizal's ''Literature/NoliMeTangere''.
4
5Thirteen years after Crisostomo Ibarra's apparent death, a mysterious man named Simoun appears, quickly gaining favor with the Spanish rulers and high society of 19th century Manila. Called ''el Cardinal Moreno'' (the Dark Cardinal), he was the informal adviser to the colony's Captain-General and tours the islands apparently as a jewel merchant. Basilio, the young boy from the previous book, is now a medical student at the college of Ateneo, and he gets drawn into a web of lies and deceit.
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7Like its predecessor, it is considered an important part of Filipino literature.
8
9In 2022, Creator/GMANetwork began airing ''Series/MariaClaraAtIbarra'', which adapts ''Noli'' and eventually this novel with a twist.
10-----
11!!This novel contains the following tropes:
12
13* AllegoricalCharacter: the same pattern from the prequel.
14* AlliterativeName: Placido Penitente, the student who eventually joins Simoun's cause.
15* AttemptedRape: [[spoiler: Done on Juli by Father Camorra. She prevents it by [[DrivenToSuicide jumping off the church balcony]].]]
16* AuthorFilibuster: Several conversations in the book fall heavily into this. Two memorable examples are Isagani's conversation with the lawyer, Mr. Pasta, and a dinner that the students have later in the story to 'celebrate' the halt of their planned Spanish school. Then again, it ''is'' in the title.
17%%* AuthorTract
18%%* BatmanGambit: Nearly everything Simoun does.
19%%* BestServedCold: Simoun's revenge.
20%%* BettyAndVeronica: Isagani and Juanito are this to Paulita. [[spoiler: Juanito wins.]]
21%%* BigBad : [[spoiler:[[VillainProtagonist Sim]][[FaceHeelTurn oun]]]]
22* BilingualBonus: The title itself is Spanish for "The Filibuster." Which aptly describes the nature of this novel.
23* BitchInSheepsClothing: Paulita Gomez, Isagani's sweetheart, is a stunningly beautiful orphan with immense riches, is intelligent, witty, and has a fondness for art. [[spoiler: [[RichBitch And then she dumps Isagani because his being put in prison stripped him of his "appeal" and goes of to marry Juanito.]]]]
24* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler: Simoun dies, but not before atoning for his sins.]]
25* BolivianArmyEnding: Basilio. [[spoiler: It is unknown what happens to him after the wedding of Juanito and Paulita.]]
26* BookEnds: [[spoiler: Father Florentino appears in the Bapor Tabo story arc (first three chapters) and in the final chapter (where his house is visited by Simoun and throws the jeweler's chest into the sea).]]
27* BreakTheCutie: Juli, Basilio's girlfriend, [[spoiler: is nearly raped (by the parish priest) and commits suicide.]] Basilio himself is too, after suffering setback after setback.
28* ChekhovsGun: Remember when Maria Clara gave her necklace to the leper in the first book? [[spoiler: One of the earlier chapters in this book reveal that the leper gave it to Basilio as thanks for treating his illness. Basilio then gave this to Juli as a present. Later on, her father, Cabesang Tales, uses this same necklace to pay Simoun for the revolver he took from him for his RoaringRampageOfRevenge.]]
29* CollateralAngst: [[spoiler:Juli's death and attempted rape drove Basilio to join Simoun's cause against the Spanish.]]
30%%* ContinuityNod: See Chekhov's Gun above.
31%%* CoolShades: JadeColoredGlasses it may be.
32* CorruptChurch: Although the book does go out of its way to show more sympathetic clergymen like the Jesuits [[spoiler:and Father Florentino]]. This was because Rizal was rather fond of his Jesuit teachers in real life.
33* CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: What Tales did to the friar, new tenant, and the tenant's wife was not pleasant.]]
34* CynicismCatalyst: [[spoiler: While Sisa's and Crispin's deaths didn't break Basilio's idealism thirteen years ago, Juli's death did.]
35* DarkerAndEdgier: Than its prequel. It overall contains a more cynical and political narrative.
36* DeanBitterman: Father Hernando de la Sibyla, the Dominican curate of the town of Binondo in Noli, becomes the vice-rector of the University of Santo Tomas in the sequel. He then proceeds to make life hell for the students.
37%%* {{Delinquents}}: Tadeo.
38* DidNotGetTheGirl: [[spoiler:Simoun returned to the Philippines to save Maria Clara only to find out that she died. Basilio got out of prison after being falsely accused of participating with the student rebellion and learned that his lover, Juli, committed suicide. Isagani witnessed the love of his life, Paulita Gomez, being betrothed to another man after he was exposed as one of the participants of the student rebellion]].
39* DiesDifferentlyInAdaptation: Since details are vague surrounding [[spoiler:Maria Clara]]'s death, adaptations [[DependingOnTheWriter usually settle]] on [[DisabledInTheAdaptation her succumbing to an illness]] or being DrivenToSuicide [[spoiler:similar to Juli]].
40* DirtyOldWoman: Dona Victorina, [[spoiler: whose husband ran away from her and successfully evaded her for thirteen years]], becomes the caretaker of Paulita Gomez, and is heavily implied to [[MrsRobinson have the hots for Paulita's suitor]], Juanito Pelaez.
41* DistantSequel: Takes place 13 years after the events of ''Literature/NoliMeTangere''.
42* DrivenToSuicide:
43** [[spoiler:After an AttemptedRape by Padre Camorra, Juli jumps off from the church balcony to prevent any future attempts.]]
44** [[spoiler: Also [[TheHeroDies Simoun]]. After his revolutionary plot is discovered by the ''Guardia Civil'' and already suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, he poisons himself after confessing to Padre Florentino.]]
45%%* DyingAlone: [[spoiler: Maria Clara.]]
46* {{Expy}}: Father Camorra of Tiani is very similar in personality to Father Damaso [[spoiler:who died at the end of the first book]].
47* ForDoomTheBellTolls: Played with: the bells were not exactly tolling in very scene, but Simoun [[{{Foreshadowing}} recalls hearing bells earlier]] in the day of his first attempt at rebellion. Understanding the context leads him into Heroic BSOD (see below).
48* TheGayNineties: ''El Filibusterismo'' is most likely to be set in this decade [[spoiler: because the abolition of the tobacco monopoly in the early 1880s is mentioned in Chapter 1 of ''Literature/NoliMeTangere'']].
49* GoMadFromTheRevelation: [[spoiler: It's implied Juli's brother goes insane after learning that the man he killed was his father and the man his comrades shot down was his grandfather.]]
50* GottaKillEmAll: [[spoiler: Simoun's ultimate plan is to detonate a bomb at the wedding party, killing all of the friars and government officials. Subverted since the bomb never detonates.]]
51* GoodShepherd: [[spoiler: Father Florentino.]]
52* HeroOfAnotherStory: Cabesang Tales starts off as a victim of oppression and transforms into rebel. His rebellion, however, gets no follow up because the book ends with [[spoiler: Simoun's death.]]
53* HeroicBSOD: Simoun has one after [[spoiler: he finds out that Maria Clara has died]] earlier that day. He only learned it from Basilio himself when he visited him that night.
54* IntrepidReporter: Ben Zayb.
55* ItsPersonal: [[spoiler: Basilio, embittered about Juli's attempted rape and suicide, eventually joins Simoun's uprising.]]
56** This is also what drives Cabesang Tales and his father to join the outlaws.
57* JadeColoredGlasses: Simoun's. [[ComicallyMissingThePoint They're blue!]]
58* {{Jerkass}}: Father Camorra.
59* KarmaHoudini: Camorra's rape of Juli is hushed up and he's transferred to another parish.
60* LateArrivalSpoiler: Pretty much every Filipino knows that [[spoiler:Simoun is Crisostomo Ibarra]].
61* LoveMartyr: [[spoiler: Isagani pretty much single-handedly derails Simoun's plan to kill all of the friars because Paulita Gomez was in the building.]]
62* ManipulativeBastard: Simoun has been playing the governor-general for a fiddle since they first met. Also, he contributed to Tales's decision to join the rebels.
63* MarketBasedTitle: The original English translation was titled ''The Reign of Greed''.
64* MeaningfulName: Placido Penitente. "Placid" means calm and peaceful, while "penitent" means sorrowful and regretful. This ties with the fact that Placido is introduced as a very sorrowful character. This wordplay is, in fact, even alluded to in-universe by Padre Millon himself.
65* NiceJobBreakingItHero: When Basilio sees Isagani watching his beloved Paulita from a window at Capitan Tiago's house, he warns him to go away lest he be killed by an explosion (as part of Simoun's BatmanGambit). Because of this, Isagani is horrified by at the thought of seeing his beloved die right before his eyes that he came inside the house to take away the lamp and throw it into the water, [[spoiler: [[SpannerInTheWorks thereby foiling Simoun's plan]].]]
66* OccupiersOutOfOurCountry: [[spoiler: Simoun's, or rather Ibarra's, main goal in El Fili.]]
67* {{Ojou}}: Paulita.
68** [[spoiler:RichBitch]]
69* PayEvilUntoEvil: Simoun's end goal for the Filipinos.
70* PedophilePriest: Father Camorra.
71* ThePhilosopher: Arguably, Sandoval.
72* PutOnABus: We hear no more of Juli's brother Tano when the civil guard marches him off to wherever. [[spoiler: Until his grandfather dies.]]
73* RapeAsDrama: [[spoiler: Juli.]]
74* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Simoun gives one to Basilio, and to an extent, Basilio's fellow students, for trying to build an academy to educate the natives in learning the Spanish language, something he deems will only help erase the natives' identity and further subjugate them to Spanish rule [[spoiler: which is ironic because Simoun previously tried to do the same thing 13 years before]].
75* RedBaron: Cardinal Moreno for Simoun, [[spoiler:Matanglawin[[note]]"Hawkeye"[[/note]] for Tales.]]
76* RedemptionEqualsDeath: [[spoiler: Simoun.]]
77** Debatable as he says nothing while Father Florentino gives his speech. He may not have been listening either.
78* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: [[spoiler: With bandits as the rebels and with Simoun at the helm, it's bound to be this.]]
79* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Cabesang Tales wrecks this on those who took over his farm. [[spoiler:Simoun]] also pretty much wants this after the events of the first novel.
80* RomanticRunnerUp: [[spoiler: Isagani.]]
81* SadistTeacher: Father Millon to Placido Penitente due to his heritage.
82* ScarpiaUltimatum / SadisticChoice: [[spoiler: Juli realizes that the only way to save Basilio from a lifetime of prison and/or forced slavery is to have sex with Father Camorra, although to be fair he doesn't tell her this herself. She tries, and is DrivenToSuicide because of this.]]
83* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler: Tano, Juli's brother. To be fair, he didn't know that the man he shot down was his own father.]]
84* SequelHook: A less-obvious one in current times, but [[spoiler: the jewelry casket of the dead Simoun thrown by Padre Florentino into the sea will be a ChekhovsGun in another novel by another author: Philippine National Artist Amado V. Hernandez's ''Mga Ibong Mandaragit'' (Birds of Prey)]].
85* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: Simoun returns to the UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} just to have revenge against the Spaniards and save Maria Clara. However, Maria Clara dies before he could see her again and his planned revolution failed. Fortunately, he redeems himself in the eyes of Father Florentino.]]
86* ShoutOut: The phrase "Mene thecel phares" is used in a similar context to [[Literature/TheBible the original]].
87** [[spoiler: Ibarra's fate is pretty much a shout out from a certain [[Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo Edmond]] though Ibarra/Simoun dies in the second book.]] It also helps that it's one of Rizal's favorite novels.
88* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Tends more towards the cynical end of the scale than ''Noli''.
89* SpannerInTheWorks: [[spoiler: Isagani spoils Simoun's plans by throwing the bomb-lamp away.]]
90** And he gets bonus points for basically [[spoiler: saying that had he known what Simoun was up to, he wouldn't have done it]].
91* SunglassesAtNight: A very important piece of disguise.
92* TimeBomb: A 19th-century version. [[spoiler: It's the gas lamp - once the wick runs out, the gunpowder hidden everywhere will explode, killing all of society's higher-ups.]]
93* TraumaCongaLine: Basilio ''never'' gets a break.
94* UnclePennybags: Makaraig. He financed the [[spoiler: would-have-been]] school with his huge hoard of cash.
95* TheUnfettered: Simoun.
96* VillainProtagonist: Simoun. [[spoiler: Revealed to be the NotQuiteDead Ibarra]].
97** [[spoiler: Before his death, he narrates to Father Florentino about his actions from the events of ''Literature/NoliMeTangere'' until his downfall, feeling sorry about the failure of his would-be uprising.]]
98* WholePlotReference: To ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''; being [[AuthorAppeal one of Rizal's favorite stories as a child]], it's understandable.
99* WideEyedIdealist: Basilio. [[spoiler: Then he gets broken.]]
100** Isagani, Basilio's best buddy, plays this straight until the end of the book.
101* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: Of course, this has inspired countless debates up to this day in Philippine literary criticism and/or historical studies... considering how [[AuthorTract Rizal has the tendency to be didactic in his novels]].

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