instead of period pieces being about whatever boring ass problematique fuckin cringe british noble family they should be about illegalists and propaganda of the deed anarchists
1. unlike the inbred mouthbreathing aristocracy, anarchists were all actually hot af. we all know period pieces are at least a solid 40% about having hot people in cool costumes. look at the tiddies out ravachol woodcut and tell me you don’t want that
2. way better drama. who bombed a judge today? passionate arguments about whether or not you can kill cops in general or just to prevent arrest! we need to save marius from the guillotine! is leon a cop?! these are all objectively better plot points than sir worstshire doing a breach of etiquette
3. vindication against shitty characters. like the villains in so many period pieces get deaths that are like he died in his sleep after six decades of being a horrific colonizer… no! someone does something shitty, they get exploded! do you know how much old-timey anarchists loved bombs? it was a lot. they blew stuff up all the time. it was great
4. we actually get to explore how the period worked. there’s an opportunity for real history that looks at how society functioned as a whole instead of just whatever frou-frou etiquette you need to know for the suitor’s ball. like looking at working class conditions, legal systems, international relations, and, yes, occasionally the day-to-day lives of the nobliesse (if just to learn their schedule for ideal assassination times) were all things the anarchists did
5. sympathetic main characters. we are talking robin hood motherfuckers here. we’re talking anti fascists. like agnes elizabeth paid for her dress with irish rent money, your fav anarchist nicked his gun off a spanish cop he stabbed. they are not the same
in conclusion, shoot a president.