#robespierrre

Was hoping to get this done before Thermidor was over but Taco Bell owns my soul and I worked like 20 hours between two days so that didn't happen. Fingers crossed I can finish it tomorrow

And… so far I haven’t managed to understand SHIT of the plot and I can’t even describe the characters in terms of what they are about. So anyone with no prior knowledge of the context would be even more confused than I was.

Also… Robespierre looked like Danton for some reason… and gave a speech that is an amalgamation of all the Frev propaganda… but at least he didn’t accuse the queen of incest…

I really don’t understand the point of Frev scenes. Napoleon wasn’t there to witness the death of Marie Antoinette and I’m pretty sure he didn’t have a front row seat for Thermidor either, so I wish there wasn’t that much screen time related to the bullet points of Frev, so to speak.

And yeah, everyone has said it before me, but Napoleon is lacking expression to the point that Moai 🗿 would seem expressive compared to him!

I personally believe that Maximilien Robespierre shot himself in the jaw. The first documentary I ever saw on the French Revolution when I was ten or so, says Robespierre shot himself. I just have my own personal information regarding it. There are three (or more) ways historians have said Robespierre got shot and none of them seem to have decided on a specific one, for everyone has their own view of what occurred. The three main are: 

1) Maximilien Robespierre shot himself, the gun startled and landed on his jaw by accident.

2) Maximilien Robespierre was shot by one of the guards raiding the Hotel de Ville. 

3) Maximilien Robespierre, with a loaded pistol, tripped and the gun fired into his jaw when he fell. 

For the first one, I myself believe it is so because it was the first thing that I was ever taught of the french revolution (and it was what initially drew me in). It is not only this, but the others who were executed with Robespierre nearly all attempted suicide. Le Bas shot himself in the head (and didn’t miss) and died; Augustin Robespierre (younger brother) jumped out of the window of the room and ended up paralyzed from the waist down; Hanriot also jumped out a window and he landed in a sewer and was found the next day. For the other two, Saint Just and Couthen, there is no evidence that Saint-Just had a suicide attempt and neither for Couthen who was found at the bottom of the stairs. 

There is a lot of evidence to support the second one. Eyewitnesses say that Robespierre was shot by a guard and later, after the event, Charles-André Merda claimed to of been the one who shot him. 

This is painting is of Charles-André Merda shooting Robespierre by Jean-Joseph-François Tassaert (1765-1835). It was created the next century after the revolution and the 19th century painting sheds another point of view the night of 9 Thermidor, espousing National Guardsman Merda’s claim of having shot Robespierre. There is also the same picture without the gunsmoke, although “no one can be sure which is most accurate”. 

Above is an engraving suggesting Robespierre shot himself… with the aide of a guard. 

For the third one, I added this one because it was acted in La Revolution Francaise (1789), but other than that (excellent) movie I cannot find any other claim to this, though it is very possible it was an accident.