“Remember, remember! The fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and plot; I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot!” 
Rarely do I open my writing with a passage. But this quote is one that I post almost as a tradition every fifth of November.
It’s an excerpt from the poem entitled “The Fifth of November” and it is widely heard from the movie V for Vendetta which was also based on the 1988 comics of the same name written by Alan Moore and David Lloyd.
It is one of my favorite movies, and V is one of my favorite characters for one reason: He singlehandedly destabilized the neo-fascist government headed by High Chancellor Adam Sutler (Originally Adam James Susan in the Comics but was changed into “Sutler” in the film as portmanteau of Susan, the character’s family name in the Comics and that of real life Fascist dictator Adolf Hitler”).
From killing all those who did terrible things to him, to making a fool of the Neo-Fascist leader Sutler on television, to distributing thousands of Guy Fawkes masks to the citizens that kind of inspired them to take to the streets and finally express the hatred they have had for so long but couldn’t speak of as they were constantly cowed by the government, to killing the two people who give orders to the military, and lastly, to bombing the parliament… V is the man.
He knew that there was something wrong with the government that ran the society. He knew that something had to be done. And despite being broken by the experiments conducted with him as one of the lab rats, V was able to rise above it all and without anyone’s aid, he was able to make things happen.
For those who haven’t watched the film nor read the comics, you might not be able to appreciate V and all that he was, and who or what he represented.
He is the protagonist in that film and that Comic series. But for him to become more relevant, I will tell you about Adam Sutler, the main Antagonist in the film.
Adam Sutler is the leader of the Norsefire Party and is the ruler of the dictatorship government that ran Britain in this form of fiction. He places extreme importance in order and would stomp on anything that would threaten it which is unfortunate because he sees the people’s Civil Liberties as a threat to his beloved “order” and so he robbed the people of their Civil Liberties.
He rose to power by first exploiting chaos and poverty and panic, he must have been seen as one who could cure society of its ailments because he was placed in power.
When he was finally in the position, he banned all art and literature that was contrary to the views of his party and criminalized political dissent.
He also took control of the National Intelligence and the Military Police, and instead of protecting the people and the State, these two institutions assisted Sutler in his Neo-Fascist rule.
I don’t know if that rings a bell already but the point I am getting at is this, had it not been for V, the people won’t have risen against Sutler’s government.
Had it not been for one person who plucked up the courage to dismantle a twisted rule, V for Vendetta won’t have been a meaningful film.
By the end of the film Evey (played by Natalie Portman), the only character to ever come close to V was asked about V’s identity. Evey simply said “He was all of us”.
Now V for Vendetta may seem unworthy of a 500 word write up at first, but put in the context of the Philippines nowadays, I think he’s worth 500 words more./WDJ