| “ | Voila! In view humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the "vox populi" now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin, van guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance. No doubt this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply say that it is my very good honor to meet you, and you may call me V. | „ |
| ~ V introducing himself to Evey and his most famous quote. |
V is the titular protagonist of the dystopian graphic novel V for Vendetta and its 2005 film adaptation of the same name.
He is a murderous vigilante and a freedom fighter who seeks to destroy the Norsefire regime and ignite a nation wide revolution after he was subjected to inhumane torture and brutal human experiment carried out by the regime. Despite this rather vengeful force of nature, according to author, he's neither good nor evil, but rather something closer to neutral-grey zone, as to be seen as both a hero and a villain. This makes him very unique character, ever seen on fiction.
He's portrayed by Hugo Weaving.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- He is made sympathetic by a tragic backstory of being subjected to horrific experiments.
- He is pitted against the Norsefire regime, which is corrupt, totalitarian, genocidal, homophobic, etc. So, while V is supposed to be a completely morally ambiguous character, it's very improbable that the viewer will root for them rather than him.
- He is made very complex and morally grey, making him an incredibly interesting character.
- He is very affable, witty and even quirky, making him very enjoyable to watch, and he provides some very iconic quotes like the one cited above.
- He remains graceful and polite even when faced with the people who tortured and imprisoned him.
- He is shown to be very smart and calculating. The first act he does is breaking into the BNN headquarter in order to broadcast his speech about how corrupt the country has gotten in order to start a revolution to overthrow the corrupt Norsefire, and he disables Lewis Prothero's phone well in advance so that Prothero won't be able to call for help.
- He also tricked Peter Creedy into making a deal with him to slay the high chancellor Adam Sutler in front of his face as a bargain for him to surrender, so he can have the chance to murder him afterwards.
- To achieve the above, he posed as whistleblower William Rookwood and manipulated Eric Finch into putting Creedy under constant surveillance so that Creedy would believe the government was plotting against him.
- He inspired many to rebel against the government.
- At one moment he reluctantly tortured Evey in order to let her overcome her fear.
- He ultimately succeeds in his goal of destroying Norsefire and killing all the regime figures who personally wronged him.
What Makes Him A Baddie?[]
- He is shown to be extremely vengeful after all the terrible human experiments that were carried out to him.
- After destroying Larkhill Detention Centre, he decided to eliminate everyone who had wronged him or were key figures of the Norsefire regime.
- He tortured Evey to make her overcome her fear.
- His destruction of the Norsefire regime is implied to lead to anarchy and lawlessness in the UK, despite ultimately being presented as a good thing.