V for Vendetta TL (based on the movie)

Since the graphic novel came out in the 80s, and is pretty dated IMO, I'll base this TL on the movie instead.

So, the Norsefire party rises to power by using biological weapons on England, and so on.
 
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JSmith

Banned
Dont forget the limited nuclear war fought between the United States and China that helped allow Norsefire to rise/stay to/in power.
 
I have always found the name Norsefire a really daft name for a political party/organisation. I just don't think it could be taken seriously.
 
I have always found the name Norsefire a really daft name for a political party/organisation. I just don't think it could be taken seriously.

I always felt like that might be the name of their street thugs (like the SA) or the name their rivals called them (like Nazis)
 
Yeah. There was a limited nuclear war between China and the US in the movie's backstory, I totally forgot about that. The US has also fallen on desperate times, judging from the TV pundit's rant in the first scene.

In the graphic novel, it was a global nuclear war that resulted in Norsefire's rise to power. Apparently, the whole of Africa was destroyed. The film director then pointed out that a nuclear war on that scale would kill all life on the whole planet, so they went with biological weapons instead.

V for Vendetta would probably take place in the 2020s.
 
I always felt like that might be the name of their street thugs (like the SA) or the name their rivals called them (like Nazis)
It just doesn't sit right within the lexicon of relevant UK political names in the modern era. I get that the author was trying to draw direct inspiration from the fascist/nationalist groups of the 1920s onwards, but it just sounds stupid today. I mean you may as well have the Official Monster Raving Loony Party being used as a right wing front. In terms of 'branding' of names, there about the same value.
 
The comic book is more interesting to explore as an AH TL. It had a clearly established PoD (Michael Foot wins in 1983, possibly because there's no Falklands War) and a more logical rise of Norsefire. Didn't they seize control in the book rather than get elected in the film?
 
In the 1980s there was also the intended parallel of Norse Fire with National Front (NF) who were the main far right party of the time.

I realistic pseudo-fascist party in Britain would be no doubt branded in a far less dramatic way, National Union, British Democrats, etc. - looking around the globe the most sucessful far-right groups go for moderate sounding names with as many references to freedom, democracy and liberty as they can get away with.
 
I always guessed that the US was collapsing due to the Pandemic caused by Norsefire's virus, as Britain was the only country which had cure, that was the reason for the aid pleas.

Of course Norsefire would have had to have one term in Government beforehand to actually manufacture the virus, as seen in the Film.
 
Was there? Did miss that one, however it makes more sense for a fallen US.

Something that confuses me about the movie is the timeframe. To me it looks a bit contradicting.
It´s never stated but the movie seems to take place in the 2020s. However, V says that he thought of revenge for 20 years, and spent 10 years restoring the tunnel. Further, in Valerie´s flashback, she says that she starred in her first movie in 2015, where she met her girlfriend for the next three years. That would make her deportation to Larkhill in 2018, which means that the movie takes place in 2038. This makes more sense considering that Finch states that he has been a party member for 23 years, since 2015. If the movie takes place in 2020s then he became a member in the 1990´s. Which would make the movie an AH-story since there was no Norsefire-party in Britain at the time.



Yeah. There was a limited nuclear war between China and the US in the movie's backstory, I totally forgot about that. The US has also fallen on desperate times, judging from the TV pundit's rant in the first scene.
 
I have always found the name Norsefire a really daft name for a political party/organisation. I just don't think it could be taken seriously.

It show how bad thing, they got so poweful people allow them to be in power despiste the fact they have a terrible name

I think the novelisation of the movie goes on a bit more about the background, the U.S having fallen in a civil war against christian fundamentalist

Finch declaration and some of V exposition of the plot, make me think Norsefire in the movie much more a splinter of the conservative party (Hence why Finch loyalty can be trace back to the 90's)
 
I haven't read the novelization of the movie, but I'm fairly sure the background story involves more terrorism, more wars in the Middle East, and a limited nuclear war between China and America which results in America collapsing as a country.

IIRC, Norsefire got elected into power democratically (probably due to fear of terrorism). That much is obvious in Valerie's flashback. Then their doctors developed a virus and unleashed it on the UK, which terrified people into giving emergency powers to Sutler. Obviously, he never gave those up.

All in all, I agree with Lord Brisbane - you can't take the name "Norsefire" seriously. It's like Alan Moore was dumping pre-WW2 fascist group into this century.
 
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I think Moore himself admitted that he got the effects of nuclear war wrong in the backstory for the comic. Anyway, for all intents and purposes perhaps it's best to bring this closer to the comic itself, in the eighties/nineties--and of course keep the dictator's name to 'Adam Susan', or at least not 'Sutler'--as let's face it, even a panicked country wouldn't vote for someone with that name.

Furthermore, I also suppose a rise of fascism in eighties Britain would make a bit more sense if there's a lingering communist presence, something they mentioned in the comic. Also no existing widespread internet to subvert the regime.
 

JSmith

Banned
Something that confuses me about the movie is the timeframe. To me it looks a bit contradicting.
It´s never stated but the movie seems to take place in the 2020s. However, V says that he thought of revenge for 20 years, and spent 10 years restoring the tunnel. Further, in Valerie´s flashback, she says that she starred in her first movie in 2015, where she met her girlfriend for the next three years. That would make her deportation to Larkhill in 2018, which means that the movie takes place in 2038. This makes more sense considering that Finch states that he has been a party member for 23 years, since 2015. If the movie takes place in 2020s then he became a member in the 1990´s. Which would make the movie an AH-story since there was no Norsefire-party in Britain at the time.

This is made confusing and contadictory by the movie especially Finch's statement that hes been a party member for 23 years.To make a timeline of the movie/movie novelization its best to ignore that statement or to view Norsefire as a Conservative offshoot and stretch Finch's membership back until the 1990's. The movie was meant to be taking place sometime in the 2020's even if some of the dialogue suggests otherwise.

From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V_for_Vendetta_(film)

In the near future (some sources say 2020), Britain is ruled by a totalitarian government under the fascist Norsefire party

Differences between the film and graphic novel

Further information: V for Vendetta
The film's story was adapted from an Alan Moore graphic novel originally published between 1982 and 1985 in the British comic anthology Warrior, and then reprinted and completed by DC. These comics were later compiled into a graphic novel and published again in the United States under DC's Vertigo imprint and in the United Kingdom under Titan Books.[59]
There are several fundamental differences between the film and the original source material. For example, the comic is set in the 1990s, while the film is set in the future (sometime between 2028 and 2038): Alan Moore's original story was created as a response to British Thatcherism in the early '80s and was set as a conflict between a fascist state and anarchism, while the film's story has been changed by the Wachowskis to fit a modern political context. Alan Moore, however, charged that in doing so, the story has turned into an American-centric conflict between liberalism and neo-conservatism, and abandons the original anarchist-fascist themes. Moore states, "There wasn't a mention of anarchy as far as I could see. The fascism had been completely defanged. I mean, I think that any references to racial purity had been excised, whereas actually, fascists are quite big on racial purity." Furthermore, in the original story, Moore attempted to maintain moral ambiguity, and not to portray the fascists as caricatures, but as realistic, rounded characters. The time limitations of a film meant that the story had to omit or streamline some of the characters, details, and plotlines from the original story.[4] Chiefly, the original graphic novel has the fascists elected legally and kept in power through the general apathy of the public whereas the film introduces the "St. Mary's virus," a biological weapon engineered and released by the Norsefire party as a means of clandestinely gaining control over their own country.
It is implied that certain events in the film take place over a much shorter period of time than in the graphic novel. At one point in the latter, Evey's head is shaved completely bald; by the end, her hair has grown back. In the corresponding sequence in the movie, Evey's hair is merely cut extremely short; it remains that length until the end.
Many of the characters from the graphic novel underwent significant changes for the film. V is characterized in the film as a romantic freedom fighter who shows concern over the loss of innocent life.[60] However, in the graphic novel, he is portrayed as ruthless, willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Evey Hammond's transformation as V's protégée is also much more drastic in the novel than in the film. At the beginning of the film, she is already a confident woman with a hint of rebellion in her; in the graphic novel she starts off as an insecure, desperate young woman forced into prostitution. V and Evey's relationship, though not as obvious in the book, ends in the film with pledges of love. In the graphic novel's finale, she not only carries out V's plans as she does in the film, but also clearly takes on V's identity.[5] In the film, Inspector Finch sympathizes with V but in the graphic novel, he is determined to stop V and goes as far as taking LSD in order to enter into a criminal's state of mind.[5]
 
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I'll go with the AH option, rather than full-blown future history that places the beginning of the entire thing after 2011.

I still think the movie backstory has better potential, so I'll go with that.
 
Yeah, eventually. I'm up to my eyes in work right now, so it might take some time.
Also, I just got back to AH after I got kicked for a week when I trolled a bit on another thread.
 
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