Carl Robinson

"Tch...My arm...it's becoming unbearable!"

- Carl's power awakened "I want no mercy. I want my revenge! This is my war, not yours! I want the conquest upon you, foul Witnesses who stands in front of my way. You are siding with that hag, are you not? I tell you this - I don't care who you are, but you are either with me or you are against me. If you are against me, even God can't have mercy on your soul."

- Carl as the Horseman of Conquest "For once, I blamed you for my father's death... but then I realized that you tried to avoid the death of my father and never wanted to kill me. We should stand on the same side. It will be such a waste for you to be on the side of that megalomaniac... and I believe you can bring miracles as long as you join my side, join our side... to fight for humanity."

- Carl to Pandora, presuading her to stand against the Hidden One

 In construction 

Carl Robinson (born: Carl, the Count of Firenza) is one of the heroes debuted in LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow & Sword of Kings Crossover - The Corbin Files, whose origin story and life story were explained one by one in the crossover, as well as LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow - Death Arc and the upcoming crossover, Firenza Junior, where he was the titular main protagonist and the temporary secondary antagonist. However, in Conquest Arc, Carl had became the titular main antagonist by turning into the Horseman of Conquest by a revived Moloch.

By the end of LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow - Pandora Saga, after the death of the Hidden One and departure of Pandora, Carl willingly to return back to his own time to join forces against Balam Alliance. He later became one of good friends of Katarina Couteau. Later, he joined forces against Michael Langdon before killed by him in his Sorensen form.

Name
Carl is a North Germanic male name meaning "strong man" or "free man". The name originates in Scandinavia. The name equates royal status; it is the first name of many Kings of Sweden including Carl XVI Gustaf. It is popular in Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden, and was largely popularized in the United States by Scandinavian descendants.

Robinson is an English language patronymic surname, originating in England. It means "son of Robin (a diminutive of Robert)". There are similar surname spellings such as Robison and Robeson. Robinson is the 15th most common surname in the United Kingdom. According to the 1990 United States Census, Robinson was the twentieth most frequently encountered surname among those reported, accounting for 0.23% of the population.

Meaning of Firenza
Carl's true family name, Firenza, was a play on two words that both have Italian ancestry.
 * The first word is Firenze, which is Italian word meaning Florence, the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the Metropolitan City of Florence. It is considered the birthplace of the Renaissance, and has been called "the Athens of the Middle Ages". A turbulent political history includes periods of rule by the powerful Medici family and numerous religious and republican revolutions. From 1865 to 1871 the city was the capital of the recently established Kingdom of Italy. The Florentine dialect forms the base of Standard Italian and it became the language of culture throughout Italy due to the prestige of the masterpieces by Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini.
 * The word was originated from Latin word Florentia, meaning "flowering".
 * The second word is influenza, which, in English, means an acute contagious disease of the upper airways and lungs, caused by a virus, which rapidly spreads around the world in seasonal epidemics. In Italian, the word inflenza means influence in English.

Development
Unlike Matt who was merely reshaped in his physical appearance when he appeared in Firenza Junior, in order to fit his heroic theme, Carl underwent several steps of developments, from a misunderstood and abused man to a mighty hero, until the author wanted him to become a villain protagonist who switched his side due to he lost his way.

The physical design of Carl was ensured before the desigh of Matt came out, being a young man with black hair and demonic arm, mutated due to his evil blood. At first

Introduction
At first, Carl was presented as just a normal soldier who had no special talents or power and befirended Matt Butcher, but soon it became clear of his accursed arm that was affected by one of many types of Croatoan Virus sending into him via Moloch's curse that tainted his family blood of his father's line. After knowing his true parentage, the inner darkness within Carl would soon consume him due to the breaking down of his happiness and feeling deeply insecure about his true parentage.

Overall, Carl Robinson's reputation among his allies was highly controversial, since he once was suppose to be a hero but later turned into a treacherous villain for several times despite because of many things inside his dark side - his thirst for power, his fear of being abandoned, his distrust upon others and even himself, his traumatic experience of being cursed and abused, his selfish intentions, the disappointment towards law itself as well as other corrupting effects of The Blackness inside his blood, which was found and stirred by Melancholia who set up the death of Mary Spencer by Carl's hand, which broke the bond and trust between Carl and Esther, changing both of their lives forever and driving Carl insane by manipulating him of abandoning his emotions.

Due to Esther's leaving in rage, Carl was devastated. He thought he did nothing wrong since he saved Esther from a crazy and murderous madwoman (despite the fact that Mary was Esther's sister) who was also a traitor, and Carl was overwhelmed with the guilt which was his last straw. After Maria ordered him to leave (which turned out to be some word of outrage), Carl allowed his inner darkness consumed him at last. He eventually blamed everything on Melancholia, later on every remaining people who were supposed to be on his side (apart from Matt Butcher at first), blaming them for making a woman with an accrused blade to enter the Russian Resistance Base.

After that, Carl set out alone to find the Grand Grimoire, no longer caring about destroying the KnightWalker Alliance as well as winning the war. All he cared about after the incident would soon turned solely revenge upon Pandora, whom he (falsefully) blamed his accursed blood upon her, ignoring Maria's pleadge that the time traveling would be dangerous and Carl's reckless actions would hardly change everything. Melancholia used this and manipulated Carl into giving into his inner darkness, brainwashing him and tried to make him a monster like her.



When Matt confronted Carl about this after the latter had committed a manslaughter of great scale upon the Black Army only trying to find the Grand Grimoire, Carl tried to dissuade Matt from trying to confront Eckidina KnightWalker, since now Carl saw no justice in this war, and he would create his own justice and rewrite his fate. He was feeling obliged to fight against Michael Langdon and Melancholia only because of his thirst for the Grand Grimoire, which would ultimately rewrite his fate by wiping Pandora out of existence after traveling to the past, and Carl even tried to kill Matt when Matt refused to help Carl, not wanting him to get further and deeper into this villainy.

Even so, due to the sacrifise of Noelle Bor who confessed her love to Carl, Carl snapped out of Melancholia's brainwahsing and refused to stay on Melancholia's good side. He managed to mend his relationships with Esther and others after Maria helped Villian to cure Esther (among many others) from the infection of his evil blood, that was tainted with the Blackness and spreaded into the city of Madrid.

However, Carl was still going deeper in the sprial of darkness especially after Michael Langdon drove him back to a timepoint in Sleepy Hollow when Duke Firenza's murder already happened, and Carl eventually found the truth that Pandora was not supposed to be blamed for his father's curse or death. In reality, as the past Melancholia revealed, Carl himself was the true reason behind his father's demise, which was orchastrated by the Hidden One, and Duke Firenza actually killed himself to end his misery. The revalation made Carl to suffer a even worse state of trauma and soon, he was brainwashed by Malice Do'Urden and Jasmine Porcelain, and was kept himself locked within Purgatory.

Later, when Moloch met his first (temporarily) defeat, Carl escaped Purgatory but was held captive by an escaped Lady Van Tassel. Under her corrupting influence, Carl turned worse and started to believe that the false delusions (of which Pandora accursed and killed his father) he put on himself were "real" and even add one more delusion - the entire Team Witness shall take the blame, even including Matt Butcher and Maria Arzonia who were trying to save him. Ultimately, fueled with enough hate and misery Carl became the Horseman of Conquest, a monster he was destinied to become due to his personality weakness.

Psychopathy
Psychopaths are people who exhibit a constellation of antisocial personality disorder traits which include antisocial, sadistic, narcissistic, and borderline behaviour, lack of ability to love or establish meaningful personal relationships and extreme egocentricity. They also do not learn from failure and take it out on others. Psychopathy is sometimes used synonymously with sociopathy, is traditionally defined as a personality disorder characterized by persistent impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, dis-inhibited, egotistical traits. Different conceptions of psychopathy have been used throughout history. These conceptions are only partly overlapping and may sometimes be contradictory.

Sadism
Sadism involves gaining pleasure from seeing others undergo discomfort or pain. The opponent-process theory explains the way in which individuals not only display, but also take enjoyment in committing sadistic acts.[clarification needed] Individuals possessing sadistic personalities tend to display recurrent aggression and cruel behavior. Sadism can also include the use of emotional cruelty, purposefully manipulating others through the use of fear, and a preoccupation with violence.

There were four sub-types of sadism, which he termed Enforcing sadism, Explosive sadism, Spineless sadism, and Tyrannical sadism.

Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dissociative identity disorder (DID), previously known as multiple personality disorder (MPD), is a mental disorder characterized by at least two distinct and relatively enduring identities or dissociated personality states that alternately show in a person's behavior, accompanied by memory impairment for important information not explained by ordinary forgetfulness. These symptoms are not accounted for by substance abuse, seizures, other medical conditions, nor by imaginative play in children. Diagnosis is often difficult as there is considerable co-morbidity with other mental disorders. Malingering should be considered if there is possible financial or forensic gain, as well as factitious disorder if help-seeking behavior is prominent.

DID is one of the most controversial psychiatric disorders, with no clear consensus on diagnostic criteria or treatment. Research on treatment efficacy has been concerned primarily with clinical approaches and case studies. Dissociative symptoms range from common lapses in attention, becoming distracted by something else, and daydreaming, to pathological dissociative disorders. No systematic, empirically supported definition of "dissociation" exists.

Bipolarity Disorder
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is a mental disorder with periods of depression and periods of elevated mood. The elevated mood is significant and is known as mania or hypo-mania, depending on its severity, or whether symptoms of psychosis are present. During mania, an individual behaves or feels abnormally energetic, happy, or irritable. Individuals often make poorly thought out decisions with little regard to the consequences. The need for sleep is usually reduced during manic phases. During periods of depression, there may be crying, a negative outlook on life, and poor eye contact with others. The risk of suicide among those with the illness is high at greater than 6 percent over 20 years, while self-harm occurs in 30–40 percent. Other mental health issues such as anxiety disorders and substance use disorder are commonly associated.

Childhood Amnesia
Childhood amnesia, also called infantile amnesia, is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories which are memories of specific events (times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual who, what, when, and where) before the age of 2–4 years, as well as the period before age 10 of which adults retain fewer memories than might otherwise be expected given the passage of time. The development of a cognitive self is also thought by some to have an effect on encoding and storing early memories.

Some research has demonstrated that children can remember events from the age of 1, but that these memories may decline as children get older. Most psychologists differ in defining the offset of childhood amnesia. Some define it as the age from which a first memory can be retrieved. This is usually at the age of 3 or 4, but it can range from 2 to 8 years. Changes in encoding, storage and retrieval of memories during early childhood are all important when considering childhood amnesia. Some other research shows differences between gender and culture, which is implicated in the development of language. Childhood amnesia is particularly important to consider in regard to false memories and the development of the brain in early years. Proposed explanations of childhood amnesia are Freud's trauma theory (which is not supported by evidence and is generally discredited), neurological development, development of the cognitive self, emotion and language.

Post-Traumatic Amnesia
Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) is a state of confusion that occurs immediately following a traumatic brain injury in which the injured person is disoriented and unable to remember events that occur after the injury. The person may be unable to state his or her name, where he or she is, and what time it is. When continuous memory returns, PTA is considered to have resolved. While PTA lasts, new events cannot be stored in the memory. About a third of patients with mild head injury are reported to have "islands of memory", in which the patient can recall only some events. During PTA, the patient's consciousness is "clouded". Because PTA involves confusion in addition to the memory loss typical of amnesia, the term "post-traumatic confusional state" has been proposed as an alternative.

There are two types of amnesia: retrograde amnesia (loss of memories that were formed shortly before the injury) and anterograde amnesia (problems with creating new memories after the injury has taken place). Both retrograde and anterograde forms may be referred to as PTA, or the term may be used to refer only to anterograde amnesia.

Explosive Sadism
People having this form of sadistic personality are known to be unpredictably violent as they are disappointed or frustrated with their general lives. They lose control when they feel humiliated and/or hopeless and seek retribution for the deprecation and mistreatment to which they sense they have been subjected to. These violent behaviors get expressed through fearsome attacks and tantrums on others, especially on family members, and through uncontrollable rage. Normally, the explosive sadists feel suddenly threatened in some given situation and then shock others by the abruptly changing behavior. These sadists do not generally move about in grumpy or surly manner and as a result it is difficult to know what might set them off. Although the violence that gets released is nearly always directed at a particular individual, it primarily serves as a form of emotional release for the pent up feelings that the sadist had been holding inside himself or herself.

Delusional Disorder
Delusional disorder is a mental illness in which the patient presents with delusions, but with no accompanying prominent hallucinations, thought disorder, mood disorder, or significant flattening of affect. Delusions are a specific symptom of psychosis. Delusions can be "bizarre" or "non-bizarre" in content; non-bizarre delusions are fixed false beliefs that involve situations that could potentially occur in real life, such as being followed or poisoned. Apart from their delusions, people with delusional disorder may continue to socialize and function in a normal manner and their behavior does not generally seem odd. However, the preoccupation with delusional ideas can be disruptive to their overall lives. For the diagnosis to be made, auditory and visual hallucinations cannot be prominent, though olfactory or tactile hallucinations related to the content of the delusion may be present.

Paranoia
Paranoia is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself (e.g. "Everyone is out to get me"). Paranoia is distinct from phobias, which also involve irrational fear, but usually no blame. Making false accusations and the general distrust of others also frequently accompany paranoia. For example, an incident most people would view as an accident or coincidence, a paranoid person might believe was intentional. It is characterized by an unfounded or exaggerated distrust of others, sometimes reaching delusional proportions. Paranoid individuals constantly suspect the motives of those around them, and believe that certain individuals, or people in general, are out to get them.

Early life
Carl is the son of Duke Firenza, a corrupt British Royal Members involved in many scandals. Even though the Duke was corrupt, however, he still cared for his son very much. Due to an expose to the Dark Mirror by accident, Duke Firenza's blood type was changed and became very special. Carl became the heir to this special blood type and had potential ability to become a new and powerful warlock, but due to his mother being a mortal, his magic power was concealed for many years and could not even to be detect by special device.

When Carl was 4, the Second Tribulation, Pandora, came to London under the Hidden One's order searching for an heir to a special blood type. She managed to drive Duke Firenza insane before sacrificed his soul to the Hidden One. Then, Pandora managed to plant some powerful magic inside his arms and tried to brainwash him so that he could become the Hidden One's loyal puppet. However, her plan failed when Matthew Robinson, a close friend of Katrina Crane and Reverend Knapp, who had escaped to London in order to avoid Lady Van Tassel's remaining minions, arrived with a young Laura Stuart to save him from Pandora and drove her back to Sleepy Hollow. Then, unknowing who the child's parents is, Matt managed to adopt the child Carl and they lived for many years until he was killed in actions, and Laura Stuart altered the child's memory.

Matt abandoned magic ever since he tried to hide himself away from the crowd. When Carl was 21, years after Moloch's defeat in Old Timeline, Matthew, with his face of a middle-aged man despite lived for centuries, lied about his age and joined Royal Air Force in order to fight the KnightWalker Family, but was soon killed by Terra of the Left before joining a battle. Terra secretly wanted to know about Carl's secret power so that he could use the young soldier as his puppet. However, Terra failed to find Carl even if he killed his father.

After that, Carl encountered some bullies who bullied him when he was young, and his secret power was awakened. He slayed the bullies and got away with the murder since authorities pinned the crimes to the KnightWalker Family, who had already committed countless man slaughters. After that, to avenge his "father" and destroy the KnightWalker Family, Carl joined Royal Air Force as well.

For many years, even during the times of World War III, Carl lived as an air force pilot. He did not know anything about the true reason behind his adoptive father's death or the truth behind his true parentage.

Anti-Heroes Proposal
Unlike Ichabod Crane, Katarina Couteau or Drizzt Do'Urden, Carl Robinson, despite a de facto heroic protagonist, is the only main hero in a story connected with LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow who was some sort of morally ambiguous personality, since he was relentless to kill someone with his power even if there was no need. He even scolded Matt Butcher that the latter "had no guts" to kill anyone who deserves to die. Soon, this shall slowly drove him into blood thirst of revenge. He was somehow turning selfish and extreme after knowing his true parentage. His heart filled with nothing but revenge, and he deemed anyone who was not on his side or refuse to be on his side (even including other heroes) shall be deemed as his enemies, no matter what the reason was. Carl was a person who was very hard to please and he could hardly ever trust anyone that was not on his side. He did not care if his hand was drench his blood as long as he could get his revenge upon Pandora who he thought it was the cause of his corrupt father's death, despite with heroic intentions. However, Carl failed to notice that the Hidden One was the true person responsible for his father's demise. He also could not realize that Moloch was the cause of the curse on his right arm which haunted him throughout his life. He was also stubborn since he only believe what he saw instead of the true words of the Witnesses. His reckless personality had put many people beside him in danger, and his poor judgement of character made him fall for the lies of false allies like Jasmine Porcelain, even Moloch, who was ironically the source of his greatest sorrow. However, despite all he had done, Carl was not villainous. In fact, he was merely some sort of hero who lost his way.

As Carl

 * 26890606_p0.jpgI am no cousin of yours.
 * Firenza? You lost me.
 * Good Riddance.
 * You know, those shots of yours needs to be improved, Your Holiness.
 * Man, my chances of survival were higher when I was a soldier of fortune.
 * It's frigging chaos out of here!
 * Justice is served.
 * Does he know Firenza?
 * This city's in a crossroads, Matt. The question is, will good men fight for it, do what's truly necessary? The decision is yours to make.
 * Dying for the army is one thing - That is MY choice.
 * Day after day, criminals thumbing their nose at the law. Well, today, I draw a line in the sand. The only question is, where do you stand?

As Conquest/Pestilence

 * Join me, Carl. Be my new vessel. Standing in front of you is the famous Horseman of Conquest, he who shall smite the wicked and plunge them into a fiery pit!
 * I am fighting plague with plague, and I will end the misery with the virus combined with my blood even if this means I need to kill... and yes, I know I would.
 * I want no mercy. I want my revenge! This is my war, not yours! I want the conquest upon you, foul Witnesses who stands in front of my way. You are siding with that hag, are you not?
 * I tell you this - I don't care who you are, but you are either with me or you are against me. If you are against me, even God can't have mercy on your soul.
 * Cure? This virus isn't the disease, it's the antidote! It's the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't need a cure. The murderers, thieves, traitors... Ichabod Crane is one of them. When I get out of here - and trust me, I will - he'll be the first that I judge. He, and all the other human garbage that plague this city. All will be tried, convicted and executed! I will purge Sleepy Hollow, and the innocents will thank me! Their savior! Their executioner!
 * You are two pretenders of Witnesses. When I was in danger, I bet you only stood by and watched me as I weep tears in front of you with agony!
 * You know that feeling, Crane, when you've won the battle, but you know you're going to lose the war?

Quotes about Carl

 * "He is such an uncontrollable time bomb unless he controls him with all his might... but I think we could help him with it. He shall be a wonderful ally." - Katherine Sforza
 * "The only thing different between Firenza Junior and Eckidina KnightWalker was Eckidina had no sense of honor." - Francesco di Medici
 * "I wonder if that child will blame me. If I meet him in the future, I would rather say sorry to him than denying the pure misery I caused... upon him. He will kill me... and I have no regrets to allow him kill me." - Pandora

List of victims of Carl
"Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! ... GUILTY!!!"

- Carl while in a sheer frenzy under his insanity caused by Moloch's remaining power in the Byzantine Parang

Part 1 - Firenza Junior Spin-Off

 * Noelle Bor; accidentally †
 * Mary Spencer †
 * Sister Paula †
 * Stiyl Magnus †
 * Matt Butcher; intended but survived
 * Katherine Sforza; intended but survived
 * Katherine's blood with Croatoan Virus managed to repel Carl from Byzantine Parang
 * Acqua of the Back; intended but survived
 * Aureolus Izzard; intended but survived
 * Future Melancholia †

Trivia

 * Unlike many other characters in LOTM: Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow, Carl's tragedy was not caused by Moloch or his minions. Hidden One and Pandora had caused his tragedy. However, Pandora was always torn by what she brought to Carl.
 * Chronically, Carl Robinson is fifteenth of the characters who had traveled between the story of Witnesses of Sleepy Hollow and Sword of Kings.
 * Michael Langdon
 * Poison Ivy
 * Eckidina KnightWalker
 * Misogi Kugawama
 * Katarina Couteau
 * La Folia Rihavein
 * Mana Takamiya
 * Asuha Chigusa
 * Dr. Victor Frankenstein
 * Adam Frankenstein
 * The Bride
 * Rentaro Satomi
 * Kyouko Kirigiri
 * Sonia Nevermind
 * Carl Robinson
 * Matt Butcher
 * Maria Arzonia
 * In some ways, Carl Robinson could be compared to Azul Jissele and Katarina Couteau since all of them were born with supernatural powers and suffered in their childhood. Carl became matured while he went confronting Carissa and used his power to protect others selflessly.
 * At first, Carl had no intentions to destroy Moloch, since he ONLY want to kill Pandora for revenge, and he even antagonized Team Witness under the manipulation of Jasmine Porcelain. Later, however, he realized that Moloch was a greater threat and thus joined Team Witness.
 * Ironically enough, Carl is the first heroic protagonist of the story to become one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, followed by Ichabod Crane who ironically became the new Horseman of War after saving Diana Thomas from becoming the War. Also, he is the first villain protagonist in the story.

Lin Biao
Lin Biao (Chinese: 林彪; December 5, 1907 – September 13, 1971) was a Marshal of the People's Republic of China who was pivotal in the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War, especially in Northeast China. Lin was the general who commanded the decisive Liaoshen and Pingjin Campaigns, in which he co-led the Manchurian Field Army to victory and led the People's Liberation Army into Beijing. He crossed the Yangtze River in 1949, decisively defeated the Kuomintang and took control of the coastal provinces in Southeast China. He ranked third among the Ten Marshals. Zhu De and Peng Dehuai were considered senior to Lin, and Lin ranked directly ahead of He Long and Liu Bocheng.

Lin abstained from taking an active role in politics after the civil war ceased in 1949. He led a section of the government's civil bureaucracy as one of the co-serving Deputy Vice Premiers of the People's Republic of China from 1954 onwards, becoming First-ranked Vice Premier from 1964. Lin became more active in politics when named one of the co-serving Vice Chairmen of the Communist Party of China in 1958. He held the three responsibilities of Vice Premier, Vice Chairman and Minister of National Defense from 1959 onwards. Lin became instrumental in creating the foundations for Mao Zedong's cult of personality in the early 1960s, and was rewarded for his service in the Cultural Revolution by being named Mao's designated successor as the sole Vice Chairman of the Communist Party of China, from 1969 until his death.

Lin died on September 13, 1971 when a Hawker Siddeley Trident he was aboard crashed in Öndörkhaan in Mongolia. The exact events of this "Lin Biao incident" have been a source of speculation ever since. The Chinese government's official explanation is that Lin and his family attempted to flee following a botched coup against Mao. Others have argued that they fled out of fear they would be purged, as Lin's relationship with other Communist Party leaders had soured in the final few years of his life. Following Lin's death, he was officially condemned as a traitor by the Communist Party. Since the late 1970s Lin, and Mao's wife Jiang Qing (with her Gang of Four) have been labeled the two major "counter-revolutionary forces" of the Cultural Revolution, receiving official blame from the Chinese government.

Wang Jingwei


Wang Jingwei (Wang Ching-wei; 4 May 1883 – 10 November 1944); born as Wang Zhaoming (Wang Chao-ming), but widely known by his pen name "Jingwei", was a Chinese politician. He was initially a member of the left wing of the Kuomintang (KMT), but later became increasingly anti-communist after his efforts to collaborate with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ended in political failure. His political orientation veered sharply to the right later in his career after he joined the Japanese.

Wang was a close associate of Sun Yat-sen for the last twenty years of Sun's life. After Sun's death Wang engaged in a political struggle with Chiang Kai-shek for control over the Kuomintang, but lost. Wang remained inside the Kuomintang, but continued to have disagreements with Chiang until the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, after which he accepted an invitation from the Japanese Empire to form a Japanese-supported collaborationist government in Nanjing. Wang served as the head of state for this Japanese puppet government until he died, shortly before the end of World War II. Although he is still regarded as an important contributor in the Xinhai Revolution, his collaboration with the Imperial Japanese is a subject of academic debate, and the typical narratives often regard him as a traitor in the War of Resistance.

Lu Bu
Lü Bu (died February 199), courtesy name Fengxian, was a military general and warlord who lived in the late Eastern Han dynasty. Originally a subordinate of a minor warlord Ding Yuan, he betrayed and murdered Ding and defected to Dong Zhuo, the warlord who controlled the Han central government in the early 190s. In 192, he turned against Dong Zhuo and killed him after being instigated by Wang Yun and Shisun Rui, but was later defeated and driven away by Dong Zhuo's followers. From 192 to mid 195, Lü Bu wandered around central and northern China, consecutively seeking shelter under warlords such as Yuan Shu, Yuan Shao and Zhang Yang. In 194, he managed to take control of Yan Province from the warlord Cao Cao with help from defectors from Cao's side, but Cao took back his territories within two years. In 196, Lü Bu turned against Liu Bei, who had offered him refuge in Xu Province, and seized control of the province from his host. Although he had agreed to an alliance with Yuan Shu earlier, he severed ties with him after Yuan declared himself emperor – an act deemed treasonous against the Han emperor – and joined Cao Cao and others in attacking the pretender. However, in 198, he sided with Yuan Shu again and came under attack by the combined forces of Cao Cao and Liu Bei, resulting in his defeat at the Battle of Xiapi in 199. He was captured and executed on Cao Cao's order.

Although Lü Bu is described in historical and fictional sources as an exceptionally mighty warrior, he was also notorious for his temperamental behaviour. He switched allegiances erratically and freely betrayed his allies, and was noted for his poor planning and management skills. He was always suspicious of others and could not control his subordinates. All these factors ultimately led to his downfall. In the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the details of his life are dramatised and some fictitious elements – including his romance with the fictional maiden Diaochan – are added to portray him as a nearly unchallenged warrior who was also a ruthless and impulsive brute bereft of morals.

Maximilien Robespierre


Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre (French: [mak.si.mi.ljɛ̃ fʁɑ̃.swa ma.ʁi i.zi.dɔʁ də ʁɔ.bɛs.pjɛʁ]; 6 May 1758 – 28 July 1794) was a French lawyer and politician, one of the best known and most influential figures associated with the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror.

As a member of the Estates-General, the Constituent Assembly and the Jacobin Club, Robespierre was an outspoken advocate for the poor and for democratic institutions. He campaigned for universal male suffrage in France, price controls on basic food commodities and the abolition of slavery in the French colonies. He was an ardent opponent of the death penalty, but played an important role in arranging the execution of King Louis XVI, which led to the establishment of a French Republic.

He is perhaps best known for his role in the French Revolution's Reign of Terror. He was named as a member of the powerful Committee of Public Safety launched by his political ally Georges Danton and exerted his influence to suppress the left-wing Hébertists. As part of his attempts to use extreme measures to control political activity in France, Robespierre later moved against the more moderate Danton, who was accused of corruption and executed in April 1794. The Terror ended a few months later with Robespierre's arrest and execution in July, events that initiated a period in French history known as the Thermidorian Reaction. Robespierre's personal responsibility for the excesses of the Terror remains the subject of intense debate among historians of the French Revolution.

Influenced by 18th-century Enlightenment philosophes such as Rousseau and Montesquieu, Robespierre was a capable articulator of the beliefs of the left-wing bourgeoisie. His steadfast adherence and defence of the views he expressed earned him the nickname l'Incorruptible (The Incorruptible).

Robespierre's reputation has gone through several cycles of re-appraisal. During the Soviet era, Robespierre was used as an example of a Revolutionary figure. His reputation peaked in the 1920s with the influence of French historian Albert Mathiez. In more recent times, his reputation has suffered as historians have associated him with an attempt at a radical purification of politics through the killing of enemies.