by Taylor Koch, Columnist

Have you ever seen the 2005 movie “V for Vendetta” or read the graphic novels it was based on, also titled “V for Vendetta”? I’m guessing for a majority of you, that’s probably a no. Have you ever seen that white mask with a black moustache, traditionally used to represent hackers? Yeah, I assumed more people would know about that reference. Today, I would like to talk about the man who inspired the mask, Guy Fawkes.

As usual, let us take a step back and understand the background of the event about to transpire. Throughout the 1500s, the English crown and its surrounding power brokers in parliament became increasingly Protestant in their beliefs. This upset the remaining Catholic population, who still wanted a Catholic king of England, and thus the plot of the century unfolded.

So the original plan was made by Robert Catesby, a devout Catholic and a good swordsman who fought in a couple of Catholic rebellions prior, and Thomas Wintour, who really didn’t have anything noteworthy to yap about here besides being a suck-up to Spain. Oh, you’re wondering what the plan was? It’s quite simple, they would BLOW UP THE HOUSE OF LORDS WHILE ALL THE IMPORTANT ENGLISH POLITICAL FIGURES AT THE TIME WERE HAVING A MEETING THERE. Quite the bold assassination attempt, if I do say so myself. They realized they might need a bit more men, and thus sent Wintour to Flanders to find Guy Fawkes, a Catholic Soldier for the Dutch who was quite skilled. Wintour and Fawkes then pleaded with Spain to help them on their mission, but the Spanish King, Phillip III, turned them away.

They recruited a few more people to help them out before starting the initial planning phase at the Duck and Drake Inn in Westminster. A very manly name to stage a coup under. I know it’s not relevant, but by complete accident, a friend of Catesby was celebrating mass in a nearby room of the Inn, so they also partied that night as well. I just found that kinda funny.

The plan was already underway in about a month when one of their members, Percy, was appointed as one of the 50 bodyguards of the king. Fawkes also managed to smuggle himself in because he posed as Percy’s servant named, and I swear this is real, ‘John Johnson’. How in the crap did this work, lol?

After recruiting yet more people, including Catesby’s servant, who accidentally overheard their plot because they were too loud, they were finally ready. The plot had finally been finalized in October of that year, yes it took them almost a year to do this, but it was finally ready. Unfortunately, the king soon found out about a possible assassination attempt, but did not know who was going to commit it. You see, Fawkes had just been given a pocketwatch and a match to light up the 36 gunpowder barrels, a bit overboard if you ask me, they smuggled underneath the House of Lords. Unfortunately, some guards followed him down there and arrested him on the spot. All the conspirators booked it out of there for fear of getting caught, soon meeting back up in Northamptonshire. Fawkes, however, was tortured greatly. He was put on the rack, a machine to pull all four of your limbs as far away from your body as possible, until he admitted to the crime. After a while of torture, he finally admitted to it.

Now, with that context in mind, why is he on one of the most recognizable masks that nobody can name? I couldn’t, in all honesty, tell you. Maybe it is the relatability of a bunch of Catholic frat bros getting together to blow up the government? For some reason, though, it is a very popular mask to wear during protests against the British government, and it even became the top-selling sling mask on Amazon in 2011. Heck, it even led people to make Richard Nixon masks to mock him during the latter half of his candidacy. People are weird, I’m not even going to try to understand that one. Either way, this has been Tuckey Koch, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this.