Britain hasn’t been this bleak since 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the ‘80s. It left the EU, ✅continues to mishandle the pandemic, and is 💧being led by a bigot whose cabinet is stifling the left’s right to protest. Every move Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party make edge us closer and closer to a right-wing utopia. For everyone else, that means a living hell, yet Tory voters don’t seem to care - despite all this, Johnson’s approval rating is going up rather than down. Art can give us an escape, but hiding from the problem isn’t always a good thing. Sometimes it needs to be confronted like in the ‘80s graphic novel, V for Vendetta. A game could bring that idea and story to modern audiences like never before.
The Tories are misusing their emergency powers; peddling fear against refugees with gleeful photo opportunities on fishing boats; dithering on banning conversion therapy; launching anti-trans culture wars by defying the NHS, and demonising Black footballers for kneeling to protest the systemic discrimination - the very same system the Tories themselves uphold. There’s a deep-rooted nostalgia for Britain’s colonial history, a manufactured fear that helping those in need somehow lessens our cultural identity. The Tories are using this to further anxiety amongst voters, pandering to populism and spinning 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:every failure of Brexit into a patriotic victory of flags over sense.
It’s exactly what 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Alan Moore and David Lloyd war𓆉ned us about in 1982, that bleak time nearly forty years ago during Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as Prime Minister. Their graphic novel V for Vendetta is all about the British government utilising fear and propaganda to seize power. The past few years have been nothing but that - and that’s why we need a gam💝e to reinterpret V for Vendetta for the modern-day, putting power into our hands. The wor⛎ld is dire right now. It feels like there’s no hope for us to bring about change. But games give us the means to shape the world. So while as a reader or viewer, V for Vendetta’s potent anti-fascist message comes across, it would come to life like never before with a game.
It’s tough to fight back against an oppressive government, especially when the people are on its side. That’s what V for Vendetta’s story details - a downtrodden society that has given up hope before the titular character V lights a spark of optimism. He waltzes into a young girl’s life, lets loose a slew of fireworks, and makes his point heard. He inspires her, starting a revolution with only two people. That’s a poignant message of how even the smallest minorities can break the mould, but it’s easy to forget that. It’s not too dissimilar to games where we are often the sole re𝔉ason for the world drastically changing. Without us, it’d remain stagnant.
V is faceless, an idea brought to life that ushers in that very change. Sounds familiar, eh? He’s a walking video game protagonist. It writes itself. He alone makes the government tremble in its boots as he pushes for change. But it's nothing new. V is styled on Guy Fawkes, modernizing his story so well that his face - now a mask - has become an iconic symbol of revolution worldwide 400 years after 1605’s Gunpowder Plot. Moore and Lloyd took the message that the government should fear its people, not the other way around, and brought it to the 20th century in style. A film did the same in 2006, but given how things have progressed in Britain, something is needed to modernize V for Vendetta again.
In a game, we would be given agency to make the world better ourselves - that could easily give people a spark in real life, that glimmer of hope we need more than ever. All my life, I’ve grown up with Tories in power and, while the new generation can finally vote, it hasn’t changed much. Protests are held, our voices are heard, and then it comes to the polls and the Tories continue to stay in their cushy seats in Parliament. Little seems to be improving while the left-wing advocates are barely that. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Keir Starmer didn’t fight back against the new bill that made it harder to protest and he’s meant to be the leader of Labour. It felt impossible al𒅌ready, but now the one party who could make a change isn’t, worried they may alienate the voters who currently support the Tories.
British politics is a nihilistic cycle of pessimism that eats itself, and it’s only a matter of time before the Tories take further advantage - history does have a habit of repeatingꦫ itself. That’s again what Moore and Lloyd were telling us in the ‘80s, four decades ago.
A game has power in how it can tell a story, letting you immerse yourself in a world l꧂🤡ike no other medium. The horrors on display would be felt more than ever but fighting back would be even more liberating - we’d be the agents of change that start a revolution. It’s inspiring. V for Vendetta always has been.
Experiencing that first-hand could be the kick we need to show us what’s possible, but it could also shine a light on what the Tories are ushering in. It could help teach young people the problems with Britain, t🌊he bigotry its cul🐻ture is steeped in, and the dangers of complacency. Whatever the case, we need more stories like V for Vendetta, and a game in that world would be more relevant now than ever.