Remember, remember!
The fifth of November,
The Gunpowder treason and plot;
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!
Guy Fawkes and his companions
Did the scheme contrive,
To blow the King and Parliament
All up alive.
Threescore barrels, laid below,
To prove old England’s overthrow.
But, by God’s providence, him they catch,
With a dark lantern, lighting a match!
A stick and a stake
For King James’s sake!
If you won’t give me one,
I’ll take two,
The better for me,
And the worse for you.
A rope, a rope, to hang the Pope,
A penn’orth of cheese to choke him,
A pint of beer to wash it down,
And a jolly good fire to burn him.
Holloa, boys! holloa, boys! make the bells ring!
Holloa, boys! holloa boys! God save the King!
Hip, hip, hooor-r-r-ray!

The original Guy Fawkes was a domestic religious extremist that was attempting to blow up the British Parlament to usher in a new Catholic reign by striking a fatal blow to a Protestant ruling class. V For Vendetta is the story of a domestic terrorist that uses the face of Guy Fawkes to confuse and confound an authoritarian regime that had gotten too powerful and too extreme.

There something to be said for the methods of both the original Fawkes and “V” from the movie. Both of them used extreme methods to effect change, both because of their perception of how the world treated them and their perceived lack of a voice. Neither of them ultimately survived their plots, much like recent mass shooters that we’ve had in the US. How do you prevent something like a Guy Fawkes from happening again?