Whether V is really a hero or just a lunatic who would rather screw over the world than be controlled by his government. Alan Moore readily encourages readers to come up with their own interpretation of V. A common complaint about the movie is that it lacks the ambiguity of the original.
A fairly common interpretation is that Valerie and V are, in fact, the same person.
Some contemporary reviewers find the idea of "concentration camps" for homosexuals, eradicate homosexuality even as an abstract concept, etc. to be sort of an invocation of Godwin's Law by comparing Thatcher's Britain to Nazi Germany. However, in the early 1980s one of Margaret Thatcher's advisors did indeed make the suggestion, as a public health policy, that all gay men should be put into quarantine in closed institutions as a strategy to stop the spread of HIV infections. Alan Moore's Word of God says this aspect of the dystopia was a direct commentary on the implications of such proposals. The real life idea never took off.
Although Moore wasn't referencing it, gay concentration camps really did exist for a time in communist Cuba.
Gay men, like Jews, were not safe from persecution in the Third Reich and were, in fact, sent to concentration camps. Norsefire being explicitly fascist, this isn't such a stretch. What was worse, once the Allies had liberated the camps, many gay men were kept in prison.
Catharsis Factor: Rosemary Almond shooting Adam Susan in the face at point-blank range, killing him instantly, is pretty cathartic after the nutcase spends the entire book upholding an evil totalitarian regime.
Lewis Prothero, the Voice of Fate, is the chief propagandist for Adam Susan's fascist regime, selling hatred and bigotry as part of his job. In his earlier role, Prothero was the head officer of the Larkhill concentration camp, where he had prisoners starved, abused, beaten, tortured, and killed, while personally operating the ovens for "disposal". Prothero would oversee four dozen souls administered experimental drugs which caused madness and agony, with only the mysterious "V" surviving in what Prothero disparagingly termed "The Funny Farm".
Bishop Anthony Lilliman spends his days preaching hateful rhetoric and promoting "one race", masking an even darker past and secret life. Years ago having taken part in the Larkhill concentration camp and its rampant abuse and murder of minorities and others Lilliman considered inferior, Lilliman now indulges his pedophilic tendencies to rape and molest underage girls once a week in what he calls "children's hour". Having illicit pictures and magazines of children littering his abode, Lilliman's only concern when his latest victim, a supposed 15-year-old girl, shows up late is that she's "too old" for him, before nonetheless trying to rape and kill her when she resists him.
Crazy Is Cool: V is an Anti-HeroPsycho Knife Nut who speaks philosophically, manages to make the populace of England revolt, hides out in an underground base full of lost cultural items, and wears a Guy Fawkes mask with intentions of making it the face of a revolution.
One joke suggests that the events of the book are just the revenge fantasies of the concentration camp inmate who's believed to become V.
Another theory holds that the events of the series are real, but V is imaginary - his background either a forgery or borrowed from someone else. In other words, Evey was V all along and her interactions with "V" were just hallucinations keeping her from noticing her own dissociative identity.
Draco in Leather Pants: Yes V is the protagonist but that doesn't really make him a good person. The comic makes very clear that V is almost as capable of bastardry as the Dictatorship, even if he has much better intentions.
Magnificent Bastard: "V" is a masked revolutionary dedicating to crafting "The Land of Do-As-You-Please" from the fascist hellhole Britain has become. Destroying Parliament, V later seizes control of the broadcasting center of London to inform the country of his intentions and escapes by having the station head dressed up as him and used as a decoy. Slowly eliminating all of those at the Larkhill Concentration Camp who could have identified him, V is revealed to be manipulating almost everyone else, hacking into Britain's dictator, Adam Susan's supercomputer and guiding a widow of a man he'd killed to eliminate Susan. V proceeds to force Evey Hamilton into being his successor by forcing her to accept her true self under torture, and later even works his own death into his plans to convince Evey to become his successor and tear down the established order.
Misaimed Fandom: The Guy Fawkes mask has become a symbol on the internet for libertarians and anarcho-capitalists, despite both V and Alan Moore following more traditional, anti-capitalist schools of Anarchism.
The Norsefire government has already crossed it by the time the story begins by using the rebuilding of society as an excuse to wipe out various minority groups at Larkhill camp.
V himself crossed it either by torturing Evey to make her come around to his way of thinking or by systematically ruining Rosemary Almond's life in order to radicalize her into assassinating Susan.
Adam Susan's punishment from V, namely, being driven insane by orchestrated romance with a supercomputer, can definitely fall under this since, while played for horror rather than laughs, it bears an unfortunate surface resemblance to Plankton and Karen's relationship.
When Evey finally imagines herself taking the mask off V's corpse and seeing her own, younger face as a 16-year-old prostituting herself, it's an affecting moment that shows she sees him less as an individual being and more a symbol of the revolution. It's also marred by both the art being obviously copied and Evey's facial features being just a little too large for the panel, making her look like a Margaret Keane painting.
Values Resonance: The comic raises question of how much violence is acceptable to combat fascism, which has become a hot button issue in The New '10s. Moore himself has stated that he was inspired to write the comic by his experiences as a member of British antifa groups at the time.
The Woobie: Rosemary. A gentle, faithful but abused Housewife suffering at the hands of her ungrateful husband that politics have turned into a total asshole. It's heavily implied that either her or Derek is barren and they couldn't conceive. Seeing her falling to the bottom of society after Derek's death, suffering humiliation after humiliation to the point of being obligated to endure a life as a showgirl certainly evokes compassion. Especially when she's pushed so far over the edge that she eventually snaps and kills Susan herself.
Given V's knowledge of the terrorist attack that led to the rise of the Norsefire government (assuming he isn't just manipulating Finch and Dominic) some fans wonder if he might have once been part of Sutler's cabal before being sent to Larkhill for either protesting or knowing too much, which would give his character elements of The Atoner.
Valerie's first girlfriend Sarah is said to have "grown out of" their infatuation. Was she bisexual instead (and when Valerie was a teenager, it was believed it didn't exist)? Or did she hide her attraction to avoid persecution?
Did Gordon really make the ill-advised decision to air his satire of Sutler out of arrogance? Or was he sick and tired of living as a closeted gay man and thus had a death wish?
Was V really about to blow up a television studio and kill lord knows how many innocent people in the process? Or was the bomb he was wearing fake and/or programmed to disarm no matter which wire was cut?
Changing the villain's name from 'Susan' to 'Sutler'. Fans of the original comic feel it's Anvilicious, as the new name sounds too much like 'Hitler'. The other side argues that the new name is less heavy-handed if one doesn't know it was changed from 'Susan', and a villain named Susan could have caused Narmwhen said out loud.
Natalie Portman's English accent. Some found it atrocious and unbelievable. Others felt it was a decent effort.
Can't Un-Hear It: Hugo Weaving as V is the one thing those for and against the adaptation admit is the best part.
The Norsefire Party's High Chancellor Adam Sutler and Party Leader Peter Creedy are the sinister duo behind the Three Waters incident, leaving tens of thousands dead and allowing for their fascist regime to take over. Interning identity groups the bigoted dictatorship disapproved of, they saw Muslims, homosexuals and political dissidents imprisoned and killed while Creedy's "Fingermen" ran rampant, allowed to murder those disobeying laws and raping women as they saw fit. Sadistic and petty, Sutler and Creedy greedily take any measure they can to maintain power, with Creedy's avarice even leading him to kill Sutler to try and take power himself.
Lewis Prothero is the narcissistic, arrogant "Voice of London" who regularly broadcasts hateful, bigoted propaganda across the country to whip up the populace and inspire fear as well as rage towards their fellow man, keeping them all under Norsefire's control. Prothero's real vileness, however, comes from his past as the commander of the Larkhill prison camp, where he abused, experimented on, and murdered the occupants at will, leading to dozens of bodies on Prothero's hands. When his scientists discovered an effective viral plague, Prothero worked with his employers Sutler and Creedy to unleash it in public and kill thousands before profiting off the antidote and ensuring Norsefire's grip on the country for years to come.
Crosses the Line Twice: Lewis Prothero. A Narcissistic pundit that spews hatred and propaganda on his program? Disgusting. A man so narcissistic that he has mirrors and televisions all over his home, including shower, so he can look at himself and listen to his own rants? Hilariously petty.
Director Displacement: The film was actually directed by James McTeigue (in his directorial debut) rather than the Wachowskis, though the latter did write and produce the film, and by all indications were very much in creative control throughout production.
The little girl with the coke bottle glasses who is one of the first people V's actions seem to resonate with and continues to appear throughout the film.
Fans Prefer the New Her: Evey is furious at having her head shaved by V (she even yells at him for it when she finds out), but Natalie Portman looks incredible with it. The lady herself even agreed; one of the reasons she did the film was the thought of getting to shave her head.
Genius Bonus: When V poses as an informant to the police, he calls himself Rookwood. Ambrose Rookwood was one of the participants in the Gunpowder Plot.
In the European Spanish dub, V, a vigilante that rebels against a corrupt system, was voiced by Armando Carreras, a veteran voice actor that only a few years later would be completely blacklisted by most dub studios for having spoken up against the business' corruption and cronyism.
When looking through Prothero's resume as Military Commander, Dominic mentions "Syria. Before and after." The film came out six years before the start of the still-ongoing Syrian Civil War.
V talks about the government engineering a virus as a biological weapon to use on their own populace in a attempt to secure their control. A similar theory would later become a common one regarding the COVID-19 pandemic's origins over a decade later, though in the latter case it was more likely than not accidental.
Rupert Graves and Eddie Marsan play officials within the Norsefire security forces. Both of them would play Inspector Lestrade in different adaptations of Sherlock Holmes (the BBC series and 2009 film version, respectively). Especially considering Graves' character is something of The Watson.
V isn't a very nice person but it's hard to blame him given his backstory and the setting he resides in.
Ever since leaving Larkhill, Dr. Delia Surridge is wracked with guilt over the horrific human experimentations she conducted there. She was tempted to commit suicide but kept on, knowing that V would come for her eventually. When he does, she's relieved.
Magnificent Bastard: The enigmatic "V" himself is a cunning, charismatic anarchist with a love of theatre and poetry. Once a victim of the atrocious Larkhill camp where he was horrifically experimented on to the point of losing his memories of who he once was, he began plotting the Norsefire Party's destruction as revenge for himself and his fellow camp victims. He starts his plot destroying the Old Bailey statue on November the 5th to the banned tune of The 1812 Overture before breaking into a news station and broadcasting a rallying speech to all of Britain to join him on the next year's November 5th. After brilliantly orchestrating his escape, he spends the next year killing those involved with Larkhill and setting up his revolution, exposing the truth of Norsefire's rise to power to Eric Finch and offering a deal to Peter Creedy. He finally sends replicas of his iconic Guy Fawkes costumes Across Britain, inspiring Insurgency throughout the UK, all while predicting the decisions Sutler would make, ensuring the dictator's demise. After killing Norsefire's leaders, he dies peacefully in Evey's arms confessing his love to her, before she finishes his plan to destroy parliament.
Like you wouldn't believe. From a single Epic Fail Guy comic to the face of worldwide protests. Today, V is the face of Anonymous. Along with the now-famous "V" speech. Evidently, Moore is actually quite proud of this fact, but is a little annoyed that it was sparked not so much by his comic as by "the rubbish movie".
"Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea... and ideas are bulletproof."
Meta-example, as it did this to Guy Fawkes. It's true that Fawkes entered Parliament with honest intentions, but few today actually remember what those intentions were. He wasn't trying to take down an authoritarian government to replace it with freedom and democracy, but merely to install a different authoritarian government. He wanted England to move away from the Church of England, which was oppressing the Catholic Church, back to the Catholic Church (which would then have oppressed the Church of England). The history of Catholic oppression in England is still a contentious issue to this day, however, with a lot of Historical Villain Upgrade and Historical Hero Upgrade.
The movie has spread the misconception that November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day, honors Guy Fawkes as a plucky rebel and hero. It really celebrates the fact that England narrowly averted a terrorist attack on the capital, and Guy Fawkes was the terrorist responsible. Effigies of Fawkes are burned on the holiday because he's the bad guy, in case you missed the message. It's like thinking a memorial to the September 11, 2001 terror attacks honors Osama bin Laden. Adding to this, Fawkes wasn't the mastermind; he was The Heavy of the operation and somewhat incompetent at that. One of the reasons he was sent to be the triggerman was because he was deemed relatively expendable compared to the more important conspirators. One guesses "Robert Catesby Mask" doesn't have the same ring to it.
Though the film does play the hero angle a bit more straightforward than the comic book, it's still made very clear in the film that V is a terrorist who took his likings of Fawkes' philosophy too far. He's an Anti-Hero, not just a straight hero.
V's vengeance-fueled roar while standing in the burning ruins of Larkhill Prison just sounds so epic. It could have been ridiculous but instead it's pure awesome.
The whistling sounds his knives makes whenever he throws or twirls them are pleasantly cool.
Movement Mascot: V is something of a half example. His mask has certainly become an icon for a wide variety of social movements (and even Anonymous identifies with it) but it's typically labeled as a "Guy Fawkes mask." While this is technically true, V for Vendetta codified the look of the Guy Fawkes mask. Full V cosplays are rather rare at protest, but not unheard of.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Natalie Portman's British accent is kind of Cockney in the first half and shifts to more of a London accent in the second half. Audience reception was mixed, to say the least.
The general who orders his men to stand down rather than open fire.
The robber who shouts "Anarchy in the UK!", because of course the context of the movie is just too perfect to pass up the opportunity to use that line.
Valerie has a larger role than the former two, but she only appears during the sequence of Evey in prison. It's a Small Role, Big Impact if there ever was one!
Sliding Scale of Social Satisfaction: Categorized as "Revolution is Key". The book's whole premise is that anarchy can be a positive force, at least when the alternative is fascism. This is furthered when in the end, the revolutionaries succeed at taking down the government. Whether it's for better or worse, it remains to be seen.
Unintentional Period Piece: The film is clearly set amidst the Iraq War (referred to obliquely as "America's war"), which is implied to have raged on until 2020 and beyond. This rather dates the film - while this was a concern in 2005, in actuality the U.S. vacated its troops Iraq in 2011, and it didn't appear to spark a wider morass as is implied, it generally being seen as something far in the past and not strictly relevant to the present day. Throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s, many key politicians who were in favour of the Iraq War at the time have admitted its status as a boondoggle, and, in 2021, the US had pulled out of Afghanistan as well.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Some fans didn't like the complete omission of the British Royal Family Puppet Queen briefly mentioned in the comics and some of the symbolism and world-building there.
The Woobie: Valerie, a young woman who is first disowned by her own parents for coming out as a lesbian. Then later on in life finds her first true love, only to have the world around them turn to fascism and hatred, and loses her loved one who is arrested in a scary, sadistic prison. She's also arrested shortly after and sent to the same prison, where she too is dehumanized to the extreme, with only used toilet paper to write her memoirs on, shortly before dying, and being thrown in a ditch.
, etc. to be sort of an invocation of Godwin's Law by comparing Thatcher's Britain to Nazi Germany. However, in the early 1980s one of Margaret Thatcher's advisors did indeed make the suggestion, as a public health policy, that all gay men should be put into quarantine in closed institutions as a strategy to stop the spread of HIV infections. Alan Moore's Word of God says this aspect of the dystopia was a direct commentary on the implications of such proposals. The real life idea never took off.