Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,963
edits
(Import from TV Tropes TVT:YMMV.RobinHood 2012-07-01, editor history TVTH:YMMV.RobinHood, CC-BY-SA 3.0 Unported license) |
No edit summary |
||
(9 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
* [[Alas, Poor Villain]]: {{spoiler|Guy}}.▼
▲* [[Alas Poor Villain]]: {{spoiler|Guy}}.
* [[Alternative Character Interpretation]]: Guy of Gisborne's perceived characterization can range from anything between misunderstood [[The Woobie|woobie]] to [[Complete Monster|sadistic killer]].
* [[Angst Dissonance]]: Throughout season one Robin is haunted by his memories of war in the Holy Land, struggling with nightmares, post-traumatic stress, and survivor's guilt. At the end of season two his beloved Marian is stabbed through the stomach and dies in his arms, something that is only intermittently referred to in series 3, even though she dies in the ''Holy Land'', the source of his entire first-season angst.
* [[Angst? What Angst?]]: After {{spoiler|Marian's murder}} Robin goes on a vengeance-fuelled rampage. Then...he pretty much gets over it. He's back to his cheerful old self by the next episode, in which he meets his new [[Love Interest]].
** As it turns out, he's ''always'' been this way. In the [[Whole
* [[Anticlimax Boss]]: Although Prince John was played by Toby Stephens, which automatically makes his entire performance a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]], it was also true that John was less menacing than the Sheriff of Nottingham and just as easily bested by the outlaws. Foppish and cowardly, Prince John is eventually run out of Nottingham with his tail between his legs.
* [[Ass Pull]]: Where Tuck gets the explosive needed to {{spoiler|destroy Nottingham castle}} from in ''Something Worth Fighting For'' is seen as this, although there ''was'' some attempt to explain it in-story.
** The canopies (sun-visors?) on the parapets of Nottingham Castle that never existed until Robin needed one to use as a hang-glider.
* [[Author Tract]]: The show is filled with not particularly subtle references to the War on Terror and rampant PC anachronisms.
* [[
** Maybe he learned it from [[Cave Dwellers|Ator]].
* [[Cargo Ship]]: In season 1, the Sheriff asks Guy if he's jealous of Marian's horse. The two men are watching her from a window as she grooms it.
* [[Complete Monster]]: {{spoiler|Thornton, the husband that Isabella ran away from. A loathsome bastard with no redeeming features who emotionally abuses his wife and threatens to rape her. Fortunately, he earns himself a well deserved [[Karmic Death]].}}
* [[
** The writers seemed to think that if enough outlaws fell madly in love with Kate (who at various points call her: "a treasure," "a good fighter," "amazing", and "brave, compassionate and beautiful"), the audience would too. They didn't.
*** And "perfect." Don't forget the perfect, spoken ''before'' Kate joined the band (and only in the second episode with her in it!) Oh, Much.
Line 46 ⟶ 28:
* [[Ensemble Darkhorse]]: Guest-star Carter, a crusader looking for vengeance...then redemption ({{spoiler|which unfortunately came in the form of [[Redemption Equals Death]]}}).
** Also Meg. Also {{spoiler|killed}}.
** Will and Djaq. Managed to survive the carnage by being [[Put
*** In fact, many - if not most - of the one-shot guest stars ended up being more popular than many of the main characters, including Matilda, the German Count, Meg, Carter, Queen Eleanor, the Fool, Benjamin Palmer, Davina, Eve, and Sir Jasper.
* [[Evil Is Sexy]]: Guy of Gisborne and {{spoiler|Isabella}}.
* [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]]: In an early first season episode, reluctant hero Allan-a-Dale asks: "What is the point of all of us dying?" as a way of getting out of a rescue mission. In season three {{spoiler|he dies the [[Dropped a Bridge
** Foz Allen and Dominic Minghella are on record for stating that Friar Tuck was omitted in seasons one and two because they "didn't want a comic relief character". When Tuck is finally introduced, he ends up being utterly humorless.
* [[God Mode Sue]]: Archer. Well, there's his name to start with, in honour of the super-special arrowhead-shaped birthmark on his stomach. He's introduced as the [[Long Lost Sibling|long-lost brother]] of not one, but ''two'' of the most important characters on the show. He's irresistable to women, and one of his first scenes involves him bedding another man's wife. He's travelled in the Orient and returned with knowledge of Eastern warfare, which is ultimately used to blow up Castle Nottingham. He's as good an archer as Robin, fights with two katanas, and also chucks ninja-stars at people. He's [[Easily Forgiven|forgiven instantly]] by his brothers after he's left them to die in a collapsed tunnel, and is given the leadership role of the gang by Robin himself. The BBC character profile describes him as a '''master''' of '''all''' weapons.
** The show was cancelled three episodes after his introduction, possibily because our television sets simply couldn't handle all this concentrated awesomeness.
Line 60 ⟶ 42:
** Prince John.
** Robin and Guy, combining the trope with [[Foe Yay]], as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyfwPa9rO5Q this] proves.
* [[Informed Attractiveness]]: Kate, although this has less to do with the attractiveness of the actress as it does with the sheer amount of unwarranted attention Kate got. Much falls in love with her at first sight and Allan pursues her for reasons that are never particularly clear. Robin hooks up with her after telling her she's "[[Informed Ability|brave, compassionate]] [[
* [[In Name Only]]: That guy is Tuck? OK, if you say so...
* [[It Was His Sled]]: {{spoiler|Gisborne kills Marian}}
* [[Jerk Sue]]: Kate. She also had the usual [[Purity Sue]] traits, and was even something of an [[Anti
** On the odd occasion, Robin himself can easily become one of these, although he is for the most part a lot more likable and sympathetic than Kate. The first episode of season 3 is one such example. He's vengeful, arrogant and treats his remaining team mates like dirt. Physically assaulting them and telling them that they're basically wastes of carbon. Even after this display of jerkassery Much gets himself arrested for trying to fight Guy in Robin's honour. Brother Tuck arrives in England just to remind Robin of how super special, awesome and important he is and he even risks Alan, Much and John's lives just to get Robin back to his old self. When all is said and done, they hold no ill will towards Robin for any of it and just accept his rather minuscule apology.
* [[Jump the Shark]]: According to creators Foz Allen and Dominic Mingella the decision to kill off {{spoiler|Marian}} was in order to "open up new storytelling possibilities". It didn't seem to occur to either of them that it's somewhat difficult to tell stories about a dead person, especially one so central to the plot they'd been building for the past two seasons.
Line 69 ⟶ 51:
** As one reviewer put it: "Why don't the outlaws use Kate as a human shield? At least then she'd be ''useful''."
* [[Magnificent Bastard]]: The Sheriff and Prince John.
** Isabella certainly qualifies as a [[Magnificent Bastard|Magnificent Bitch]]. In only five episodes as the Sheriff of Nottingham, she manages to achieve more than the old Sheriff did in two and a half seasons, and is the individual directly responsible for the deaths of {{spoiler|Allan, Robin, Guy and Thornton}}.
* [[Memetic Mutation]]: Has magnified a lot of Kate's negative traits.
** Particularly the forehead braid (which she only had for three episodes) and the "e keeled mah bruvvah!" line (which she only said a couple of times).
* [[Misaimed Fandom]]: [[Fan Dumb|A large portion]] (though not all) of the Guy/Marian shippers. Despite capitalizing on the actors' chemistry with some [[Ship Tease]] between Guy and Marian, the writers were very careful to ensure that Robin and Marian had a respectful and reciprocal relationship, whilst Guy's and Marian's was riddled with [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|violence, threats, blackmail, intimidation, betrayals and hurt feelings]]. However, there is still a portion of the fandom that argue that Marian should have ended up with Guy, an opinion that can be divided into two distinct arguments: those that believe Guy was an accurate portrayal of a socially-awkward 12th century knight, who was therefore justified in everything he did regarding Marian (a view that [[Just Ignore It|requires steadfast denial]] of the show's [[Anachronism Stew]]), and those that paint him as a [[Draco in Leather Pants]], who acted the way he did thanks to his [[Freudian Excuse]], [[Ron the Death Eater|with Marian regarded as an ungrateful bitch for not appreciating him.]]
** Though there are exceptions, the former group's fanfiction usually follows the basic "rape fantasy" scenario, in which Marian is forced to marry Guy against her will, only to find out that he's quite an acrobat in the bedroom, whilst the latter group either has Marian apologize for to him for ''her'' behavior, then treat him to some [[Redemption Equals Sex|Redemptive Sex]], or cuts out Marian entirely and pairs Guy with a self-insert [[Mary Sue]].
*** As for the show itself, it turned out that what the writers were ''actually'' trying to do was [[Deconstruction|deconstruct]] the notion that the love of a good woman can redeem a [[Cute but Troubled]] [[All Girls Want Bad Boys|Bad Boy]]. When Marian finally refuses to play along with Guy's demands and tells him that she's in love with Robin Hood, he {{spoiler|stabs her to death}}, effectively [[Ship Sinking|sending the Guy/Marian ship to the bottom of the bright blue sea]].
* [[
* [[Moral Dissonance]]: Despite the fact that Guy killed Robin's wife, Robin teams up with Guy so that Guy can help Robin kill Guy's sister who has tried to kill each of them far fewer times than Robin and Guy have tried to kill each other. One would hope that this [[Makes Sense in Context]], but it really, really doesn't.
* [[Narm]]: Oh. So. Much. Actually, much of the Narm in the first two seasons (which were rather tongue-in-cheek) would probably be considered [[Narm Charm]], but after the intense [[Mood Whiplash]] of the S2 finale in which {{spoiler|Marian is brutally impaled on a sword}}, the fact that many subsequent episodes ''still'' include ridiculous scenarios results in a veritable onslaught of [[Narm|Narmtastic scenes.]]
** Special mention must go to Guy's "secret weapon" that he plans to use to kill Robin Hood. He's carting around a sinister-looking box, as Prince John's elite team of soldiers surround the outlaws. The box opens...{{spoiler|and out comes the oldest, tiniest, mangiest, most worn-out lion you've ever seen in your life. The outlaws react with terror as the decrepit beast ''waddles'' toward them at a snail's pace, looking like it just wants to find a quiet place to lie down and die.}}
** Let us not forget Robin hang-gliding from the castle parapets. It's played for laughs, but it [https://web.archive.org/web/20090410145348/http://www.robinhood2006.com/gallerys3/Series3/episode2/slides/S3E21100.html still destroys brain-cells.]
** Whenever [https://web.archive.org/web/20100819005155/http://www.robinhood2006.com/gallerys3/Series3/episode13/slides/S3E131146.html Kate] has an [https://web.archive.org/web/20100819090214/http://www.robinhood2006.com/gallerys3/Series3/episode12/slides/S3E12845.html emotional scene], [https://web.archive.org/web/20091120213222/http://www.robinhood2006.com/gallerys3/Series3/episode3/slides/RHS3E31149.html especially] if she has the [https://web.archive.org/web/20091120213823/http://www.robinhood2006.com/gallerys3/Series3/episode2/slides/S3E2842.html forehead braid] on [https://web.archive.org/web/20091120215158/http://www.robinhood2006.com/gallerys3/Series3/episode2/slides/S3E2481.html at the time].
* [[Nightmare Retardant]]: The lion. Seriously, if the outlaws had wanted to kill it, all they would've had to do was kick it over. Gently.
* [[Older Than They Think]]: The idea of Gisborne murdering Marian was one of the ideas for the cancelled fourth series of ''[[Robin of Sherwood]]''.
** This Marian likes to dress up in disguise and go gallivanting around the countryside; in one of the very earliest [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/maid.htm ballads] that featured Marian, she dresses up in disguise and fights Robin to a stand-still in Sherwood Forest.
* [[Replacement Scrappy]]: Kate, who as the replacement of Marian (as Robin's girlfriend), Djaq (as the girl of the group) and Will (as the voice of the peasantry) was utterly ''doomed'' to embody this trope. It didn't help that she was also a text-book example of a [[Mary Sue]], a [[Faux Action Girl]], everybody's [[Shallow Love Interest]] and [[The Load]], with a knack for getting kidnapped, a [https://web.archive.org/web/20091117112106/http://www.robinhood2006.com/gallerys3/Series3/episode4/slides/RHS3E4291.html ridiculous hairstyle], a whiny voice, and the [[Informed Ability]] of [http://www.bbc.co.uk/robinhood/characters/kate.shtml an imagination]. She was not a very popular character.
* [[Relationship Sue]]: Meg, though done surprisingly well.
* [[Rescued
* [[Retcon]]: The S3 [[Whole
* [[Ron the Death Eater]]: What usually happens to Robin in Guy/Marian fan-fic. Amusingly enough, by making Robin a jealous, self-centered, possessive, egotistical, violent man in order to consolidate Guy/Marian, [[Completely Missing the Point|Robin ends up being indistinguishable from canon!Guy.]]
* [[Rooting for
* [[Ship Sinking]]: Despite being one of the most popular ships among the fandom (and at times, among the writers too), the Guy/Marian ship is eventually sunk by Guy himself, not just when he {{spoiler|kills her}} but when he admits to Robin {{spoiler|with his dying breath}} that "she was always yours." Robin then goes on to {{spoiler|reunite with Marian in Heaven}}, at which point she tells him that she'll be his wife "now and forever, my love." Could a ship possibly ''get'' more sunk than Guy/Marian??
* [[Shocking Swerve]]: The end of season two, wherein {{spoiler|Marian}} is killed off. It didn't go down ''quite'' as well as Foz Allen and Dominic Minghella had hoped...
* [[Smug Snake]]: Despite what the fan-girls say, Guy of Gisborne is definitely one of these.
* [[So Bad
{{quote|
* [[Special Effect Failure]]: The lion (although to be absolutely fair, the director does try his best to work around the fact that it's the most harmless, half-dead specimen imaginable).
* [[
* [[Strangled
** Robin and Isabella's first meeting is accompanied by a musical cue that's about as subtle as an anvil drop, and the episode concludes in a [[Narm
*** Much's immediate and inexplicable infatuation with Kate.
* [[Tear Jerker]]: {{spoiler|Gisborne's death saving Robin and by extension all the townspeople, where he finally admits that Marian was 'always Robin's'}}, and then {{spoiler|Robin's death and his final farewells to the gang... well John and Much at least... a few minutes later.}}
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECkDXoeuK0Q&feature=related This.] You don't need to have seen a single second of this show to get choked up at the [[Together in Death|long-awaited reunion]] of the two legendary lovers.
Line 107 ⟶ 89:
* [[Too Cool to Live]]: {{spoiler|Meg}}.
** Also, [[Badass|Legrande]].
* [[Trapped
* [[They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character]]: Djaq. Oh my God, '''Djaq'''.
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: The fate of every single woman on this show, including all the guest-stars. Without exception, they all end up dead, evil, [[Chickification|chickified]], or are unable to stay out of [[Too Dumb to Live|stupidity-induced trouble]] for more than twenty minutes at a time.
** In fact, of the four main female cast members, one is [[Women in Refrigerators|brutally murdered by a man]] who supposedly loved her, one is [[Put
* [[Unintentionally Sympathetic]]: Isabella is clearly meant to be entirely unsympathetic by the end of the show's run, thereby justifying Robin and Guy's (successful) attempt to kill her. In that case, it probably ''wasn't'' such a good idea to have her backstory consist of Guy selling her into an abusive marriage to a sadistic rapist at the age of thirteen, or to have Robin constantly flip-flopping in regards to his attitude and behaviour toward her. Even her ordering the execution of Meg, which is meant to be her [[Moral Event Horizon]], is somewhat understandable, considering that she frees Meg from an arranged marriage only to catch her releasing a prisoner that has already made at least two attempts on Isabella's life. Likewise, the fact that she is one of the few characters on the show to avoid carrying the [[Idiot Ball]] earned her extra points, and even when she's batshit insane she manages to be more competent than any one around her.
* [[Unnecessary Makeover]]: Most viewers prefered Djaq's androgynous S1 appearance than her more feminized look in S2 (especially since it included what became known as the [[Fan Nickname|outer-bra]]).
* [[Viewers in Mourning]]: The backlash for {{spoiler|Marian and Allan's}} deaths were ''not pretty'', and the writer/co-creator responsible for the former's death left the show under rather murky circumstances once the episode had aired. There was less outcry for {{spoiler|Robin and Guy}} considering their fates were pretty much sealed by the season two finale and were seen coming a mile away.
{{worksubpagefooter}}
|