Awesome / Robin Hood

aka: Robin Hood 2010

Robin Hood's a famous guy. So are his Merry Men. Likewise, his sworn enemies. And one should never underestimate his girlfriend either. Tales of this lot have been told for centuries, and on the Myth Page you'll find an increasingly long list of ballads, retellings, novels, films, television shows, video games, tributes and cameo appearances by Robin and his associates.

This is a badass bunch of folks, and here are some of their Crowning Moments...

Robin Hood

• Winning the famous archery tournament by shooting his opponent's arrow straight down the centre.
  • His final arrow, in any incarnation, whether it be triumphant or tragic.
  • The Disney version is particularly spectacular in how it showcases just how skilled Robin is: all of his shots are made with the crappiest, most slapdash, least balanced and aerodynamic arrows ever made (one is broken in half and strung clumsily together with a bit of twine. He wins the tournament handily WITH a handicap.
• Whenever Errol Flynn makes a Grand Entrance in The Adventures of Robin Hood.
  • Particularly when he crashes Guy's party with a poached deer over his shoulders, informs the Normans of his intentions, and after sufficiently ticking everyone off, fights his way out single-handedly.
    Robin: I have no stomach for traitors.
    Prince John: You call me traitor?
    Robin: You? Yes. And every man here who offers you allegiance. What else do you call a man who takes advantage of the king's misfortune to seize his power? And now with the help of this sweet band of cutthroats, you'll try to grind a ransom for him out of every helpless Saxon. A ransom that will be used not to release Richard, but to buy your way to the throne.
    Sir Guy: (incensed) Let me ram those words down his throat, your highness!
    Prince John: Oh, no. Later. Let him spout for the moment. (to Robin) And what do you propose to do?
    Robin: (leans forward, coldly) I'll organise revolt. Exact a death for a death. And I'll never rest until every Saxon in this Shire can stand up free men, and strike a blow for Richard and England.
    Prince John: Have you finished?!
    Robin: I'm only just beginning. From this night on, I use every means of my power to fight you.
  • He makes his entrance to that party by beating up a couple of guards with the deer he's got slung over his shoulders.
  • When Robin kills some of Guy's troops for abusing the Saxons.
• Robin proposing to Marian while fighting off Prince John's goons one-handed in the Disney film.

  • That entire fight scene really, as well as a CMOF.

  • Robin Hood and Little John's robbery of Prince John's coach at the start of the movie. Not only do they steal all of the gold on the coach, but also the coach's (gold) hubcaps, the jewels off Prince John's rings, and, just to top it off, Robin ends by literally stealing the robes off John's back!
  • "Traitors to the crown"?! That crown belongs to King Richard! Long live King Richard!
  • The jail break in the climax. That's a monster-sized CMoA. After Robin Hood recovers from his Disney Death, he and Skippy give Prince John an insult as the castle burns.
    A pox upon the phony king of England! Odelally! Odelally!
  • The Sheriff attempts to trip up Robin during the contest, so he shoots another arrow into the air to spin it around and get back on target. Physically impossible? Yes. Awesome? FUCK YES!
• From the BBC's Robin Hood. The moment in Sisterhood when he's dangling above the snake pit, getting tortured by an increasingly furious Guy, who demands to know who the Night Watchman is. Despite the situation, Robin remains completely calm, knowing that Marian's going to turn up in approximately thirty seconds to cause a diversion and save his ass. And she does.
• In Robin of Sherwood (the ITV series); the episode 'The Greatest Enemy'. Robin fighting off the Sheriff's army with just a longbow. He's outnumbered by about 50 highly armoured men-at-arms to one outlaw....and the Sheriff's men are still afraid to advance on him.
• When the Sheriff of Nottingham gets his "nail" for posting Robin's outlaw notice in the Ridley Scott film.
• Robin finally nailing the treacherous Godfrey in the Ridley Scott film. With a delicious Arrow Cam.
  • Robin going to rescue ram stuck in mud which Marion tried to rescue without help or safety measures, but only ended up falling and getting herself stuck in mud along with the ram is cool to watch, and also a moment of funny considering how Robin first chooses to rescue ram first and Marion later after ram is rescued from the mud. When Sheriff of Nottingham insults Marion right after she is rescued from the mud, Robin Hood stands up for her by telling Sheriff that his insolence toward her will be considered a debt between them before he and Marion leave, with Marion giving a "take that" satisfying smirk at Sheriff of Nottingham, also doubles as heartwarming.
• Quality Comics used to publish some pretty good Robin Hood comics back in the day. One of them had Friar Tuck and Robin Hood at the mercy of Prince John in his throne room, with an important scroll imbedded into the ceiling with one of Robin's arrows. Two of Prince John's men attempt to bring a ladder to reach the scroll, to John's fiendish delight. Robin Hood simply shouts for all of his "hidden archers" to shoot at the two men holding the ladder. Of course, there are no hidden archers but the trick does cause both men to let go of the ladder and Robin and Tuck grab some swords fight their way out. Bad. Ass.
• In Disney's earlier effort, The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men, Robin is a simple yeoman who succeeds in completely thwarting Prince John's plans to usurp the crown, outwits, humiliates, and finally kills the Sheriff of Nottingham, and ends the movie knighted an Earl and engaged to the girl who at the start of the movie was his social superior and indirect master. Kid's good.

Marian

• In one of Marian's earliest appearances in the ballads, she dresses up as a man and enters Sherwood Forest to find Robin. They don't recognise each other at first, and battle each other in a fight that lasts for hours. Guess who wins.
• The The Adventures of Robin Hood version of Marian gives the villains (at her trial) a really good What the Hell People speech.
• Marian nailing Trigger in the face with a blackberry pie in the Disney film.
  • Appealing to Prince John in an attempt to secure Robin's life. Sure, it fails, but she's still willing to get on her knees and admit to being in love with Prince John's most hated adversary, and her intervention buys Little John the few minutes he needs to sneak up behind Prince John and threaten him into releasing Robin.
• From Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Marian may get turned into a Faux Action Girl by the end of the movie, but when she first appears she gives Robin a damn good fight, culminating in a Groin Attack that topples him.
• In the Patrick Bergin version, her cold, firm defiance to Lord Folcanet, wich culminates in her being forced to the altar by Folcanet, where she firmly states, "I will not marry him, not before god or anyone else" to the priest.
• From the BBC's Robin Hood. After getting injured as the Night Watchman, Marian looks on as every man in the town square is forced to remove their sleeve so that Guy can inspect them for any tell-tale signs of combat. After giving up, he casually pats Marian on the arm and notices that she's bleeding. Without missing a beat, and with Guy sitting right next to her, Marian uses a fruit-knife to casually slice into her palm to cover for the blood, telling him that she must have accidentally gotten some on her sleeve. It's awesome because it's so understated, and the girl doesn't even wince.
  • The shippers may disagree, but Marian punching Guy in the face at the altar after he coerced her into an engagement and then tried to marry her under false pretences was Made of Win. Not only does she use her wedding ring as a knuckle-buster, but when she rushes from the church she finds that Robin is waiting for her — and after leaping up on the horse behind him she gleefully chucks her wedding veil into the dust behind them as they gallop away.
  • Also Made of Win: Her idea of "one last fling to make her more comfortable in her marriage" was robbing her future husband blind on the very eve of their wedding. After all the hell Gisborne had been putting Marian through throughout Series 1 (and probably since before then), it was such a viscerally satisfying "Fuck you."
  • An early episode has her targeted by the grieving son of one of Guy's victims as revenge. By the time Robin arrives to 'rescue' her, she has talked the young man out of his plan to kill her by pointing out his mother would be hurt too. She then comes up with another way for the lad to get his revenge and actually help his family. And she does this while unarmed and held at arrow point.
• In the Ridley Scott film, when Marion fights a would-be rapist by seducing him into relaxing his defenses and plunging a knife into his neck at the right moment. And then kicks him the face! No need of a hero for her... until later.
  • Marion going to save a ram from the mud on her own without any help and how she doesn’t mind getting her shirt, bodice, skirt and hair (though she does gather her hair and tucks it down the back of her shirt to not get it wet and dirty) dirty. Sure it ends up with her falling and getting herself stuck in the mud because of her not taking safety measures before going into the mud, and leading to Robin saving the ram first, then her, which also doubles as funny moment, but it's cool to see how Marion tries to solve problems on her own without help.
  • Marion and the feral kids rescuing the trapped villagers while the French are attacking Nottingham.
  • Also when the Sheriff of Nottingham is being his usual slimy self and forces a kiss on her and she bites his tongue and spits at his feet. Yeah, Lady Marion is pretty awesome.

Little John

• Winning the quarterstaff fight with Robin on the bridge. If you watch any adaptation in which he loses this battle, then the writer is missing the point entirely.
  • Unless the battle includes breaking the staves into increasingly tiny pieces and Little John nearly drowning in an inch of water.
• From the BBC's Robin Hood. Breaking wooden stocks off his own shoulders in order to save his wife and son.
• From Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves: using his strength to topple the gallows, upon which half-a-dozen men are slowly being strangled to death, including his own son.
• In the Disney version, Little John at the end of the tournament. It looks like Robin's going to be executed, everyone's crying, Marian's whining about how much she loves him, and what does the normally jovial Little John do? He grabs the prince by the neck, points a knife at his back and MAKES the prince set Robin free. This is the one who didn't want to rob the stagecoach and didn't think the jailbreak would work, and HE'S the one willing to growl in Prince John's ear, "Okay, big shot, now tell 'em untie my buddy or I'll..."
  • Just before he has to cut his losses and let Prince John go, Little John was starting to force him to declare Robin the winner and get the kiss from Marian.
    • The Sheriff was successful in disrupting the proceeding, but Little John got him back in a big way: with a super uppercut that sends him flying.
  • While robbing Prince John's carriage, Little John steals the solid gold hubcaps on a whim. And gets away with it!
  • His emptying of the chest full of gold in broad daylight without the guards holding it even noticing certainly deserves a mention. Keep in mind that he's crossdressing at this point, and carrying the loot in his dress. Pretty graceful for a big guy.
  • Leading "The Villain Sucks" Song (about Prince John). Right down to the part about how "ol' Rob will snatch his underwear."

Will Scarlett

• His introduction. Robin Hood sees him on the road wearing his rich red suit and assumes he'd be a good target. After finding out he's going to be robbed, Will asks for a chance to defend himself. Robin Hood says he would give him a chance, but he has no quarterstaff. Will says 'that's fine, I'll make my own' and proceeds to uproot a tree and tear off the branches until he has a suitable weapon. Guess who wins.
• From Robin Hood: Men in Tights. He's given virtually nothing to do throughout the whole movie, but at one stage during the battle in the great hall, Will notices a sniper about to shoot Robin. He chucks his daggers at him, pins him to the wall, punches him unconscious and retrieves his weapons as the guy slides to the ground. Then he turns to the camera to make sure we all saw how cool it was, and says: "Am I good? I'm good."

Much the Miller's Son

• In the The Adventures of Robin Hood, it's Much who takes down a full on (former) knight turned assassin on his way to kill the freakin king of ENGLAND! And let's just say that he made good on his statement to Robin afterwards, "He ain't gonna murder no one no more."
• Much from the BBC's Robin Hood is arguably the hero of the season one finale. After realizing that King Richard is a fake, he immediately interrupts Marian's wedding to Guy and tips her off. His attempts to stop the wedding inadvertently draw Robin back to Locksley and the trio are able to save Marian's father and the other outlaws from the Sherriff's trap because of his actions.

Friar Tuck

• The friendly sword fight he and Robin had in the The Adventures of Robin Hood.
• In the 1991 Patrick Bergin film: "Welcome to Hell!"
• In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Tuck shoves a corrupt priest out of a high window, but not before helping him pack his belongings:
  Tuck: And here's thirty pieces of silver, to pay the devil on your way to hell!
  • Michael Mc Shane, who plays Tuck in Prince of Thieves, deserves special mention as an American who NAILS the English accent.
• In the Disney version, him beating the snot out of the Sheriff when he tries to take the one farthing they have out of the offering box as taxes.
  • His line right before that, "Get out of my church!" says it all.
    • In an understated moment of awesome, not only did Friar Tuck preserve the sanctity of the church by taking the fight outside, but he didn't even lay hands on the Sheriff until that point, pushing him out with belly bumps instead.
  • Made even more awesome by the fact that only the sheriff is armed with a sword. Friar Tuck beats him off WITH A FUCKING STICK!
    • Made even more awesome because he was winning! The only reason the sheriff got the advantage at all was because he managed to slice Friar Tuck's stick in half, rendering it useless. Then, the vultures pulled Friar Tuck's hood over his head, basically blinding him.
    • Not only does Tuck have the upper hand throughout the fight until the vultures intervene, the sheriff is so overwhelmed that he's hardly able to fight back.
    • Sort of. The sheriff does briefly gain the upper hand beforehand when he slashes Tuck's club in half. Still though, despite being reduced to a stub to fight with, he appears to be keeping even ground until Trigger intervenes.

Allan-A-Dale

• In the Disney version, he and Friar Tuck foil Sir Hiss's attempt to spy on and find Robin Hood by using his lute as an impromptu bow.

The Saracen

• Nasir from Robin of Sherwood was a walking Moment of Awesome. Where do we even start?
  • On the strength of a single scene (in which Nasir fights Robin to a stand-still with his swords, only to smile at him and abandon his former employer in order to join the outlaws), Mark Ryan was included as a regular cast member and thereby started the trend of adding a Saracen outlaw to the Merry Men in subsequent adaptations.
  • In one episode Nasir is hunted by a fellow Saracen who works for the new Sheriff of Nottingham. Whilst the other outlaws are about to be executed at the castle, Nasir fights his old enemy, kills him, and then turns up dressed in his face-concealing clothes just in time to hear the new Sheriff ask (what he thinks is) his lackey to dispatch the outlaws. Nasir promptly kills him instead.
  • In another episode he hears from two serfs that Gisborne has attacked the village of Wickham. He infiltrates the village and manages to take out ten soldiers single-handedly before being caught. At one stage he stabs a guard from inside a hut, having made a hole in the wattle wall, then reaches through in order to pull the soldier back up against the wall, making it appear as though he's just sleeping.
  • His awesomeness was silently lampshaded in the series itself. When the outlaws arrive at Wickham for a summer festival, each man is paired up with a village girl. Nasir gets two.
• From the BBC's Robin Hood. Tiny little Djaq takes out two fully armed guards with a shoe.
  • Then caps it off with the excellent line: "Men are so obvious!"
• Achoo from Robin Hood: Men in Tights Shoots the Rope that is about to hang Robin Hood...even though he was aiming for the hangman.

Prince John

• Prince John seeing through Robin Hood's disguise in the Disney film. Said disguise wasn't paper thin, either. Hell, the way he unmasks him was awesome. In the middle of knighting him, he shoves the sword into the tunic he was wearing, and rips it open, not at all making it accidental.
  Prince John: And now, I name you the winner. Or, more appropriately... (destroys Robin's disguise, revealing his true self) ... the loser!
  • Then he just sits there smugly and calmly goes "Seize him..." like finding the infamous bandit in his own kingdom is nothing to him.
  • The whole thing was a great Batman Gambit that PJ came up with on his own, and if not for Little John's intervention, Robin would have died then and there.
• In Robin Hood (2010) he gets to have a massive rant at his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, over Richard's follies: like going off to play at holy war in the crusades, losing territories hard won by their father, and getting himself captured. This meant John had to raise an exorbitant amount of money for the ransom to get him back, which has in turn crippled England.
  • Likewise, the end of his character arc throughout the latter part of the film. Isabella proves herself to have been the right woman to make his queen by revealing Godfrey's treachery, and John shows he truly loves her by sparing her life and acting on her information. He then reconciles with The Marshal to plan their defense of England, and actually conducts himself well in the climactic battle, even personally leading a charge that sees him dismounted but still hacking away at enemies. And the army he's leading was dead-set on marching against him a few days earlier, before he rode into their camp and won their support with a lot of help from the Marshal and Robin.

The Sheriff of Nottingham

• From Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Virtually Alan Rickman's entire hamtastic performance, but particularly this: "Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas!" and his infamous Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon rant, which is now a Trope Namer.
  Sir Guy of Gisbourne: Why a spoon, cousin? Why not an axe?
  Sheriff of Nottingham: Because it's dull, you twit! It'll hurt more!
• The Sheriff of the BBC's Robin Hood gets several of these.
  • After capturing three men identified as Robin Hood's men, he anticipates a rescue and has them hung a full hour before normal execution times, forgoing the opportunity to construct a trap just for the sadistic pleasure of killing men that he assumes are dear to his enemies. Not only that, but he has their bodies concealed within banners on the parapets and reveals them after some Evil Gloating in the courtyard in which he addresses Robin (who he realizes must be hiding in the crowd) and mocks him for his failure.
  • It looks like the Sheriff is done for when King Richard returns to England and stops in Nottingham. He has the Sheriff arrested for treason with various nobles encouraged to testify against him. One does, entering a room before a hooded record-keeper to boldly state he will talk of the Sheriff's treason...at which point the "record-keeper" throws off his hood to reveal the Sheriff. The "King" is an imposter and this whole thing is a test to see who among the Sheriff's "allies" are truly loyal.
  • Having been told that Robin plans to assassinate the Black Knights, Guy, and the Sheriff himself during a secret meeting, he ensures that all of his allies are wearing padded vests under their clothing. Not only that, but he instructs everyone in the room to pretend to die after Robin's attack, presumably just for the fun of popping back up after Robin thinks he's killed them all.
  • As noted on this blog, Sheriff Vaizey's all-time crowning moment has to come in the episode “Walkabout”, just after Robin Hood has stolen evidence implicating the Sheriff in treason. He's so stressed about this that he winds up sleepwalking right into the heart of Sherwood. Coincidentally this is also the day that Prince John needs his seal or else he’ll destroy Nottingham, much to the shock of Guy, who's found himself in charge. So Sheriff’s in the middle of the forest, with no time, no shoes, no money, no weapons, not even his false tooth, and he still manages to form an evil outlaw band, con his way into Robin’s camp, rob the gang blind, screw over his partners, and stroll past the torch-bearing mob into Nottingham, berating Gisborne and sending Prince John's representative packing without missing a beat. Pure. Class.
• In the animated Disney version, his insane attack on Robin at the end, burning down the entire castle just to get at him.
  • Escaping the burning castle is quite a feat as well.
  • When he confronts Friar Tuck it looks like he's talked himself into a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown from the livid priest (see above). But from the point we see Trigger hiding and waiting, it is revealed to be a gambit. The Sheriff suddenly recovers and slashes Tuck's club in half (earning his first proper Oh, Crap! reaction) and the two quickly overpower and sentence him for a hanging, the starting sign that the Sheriff is a Not-So-Harmless Villain and the film's stakes are becoming a lot bleaker.
  • An understated one, but the Sheriff coyly seeing through all the civilian's hiding places for their money in the early parts of the film. He's a buffoonish jerk, but he still has a sharp eye on the town.
• And watching him disrupt Little John's dagger-point orders to Prince John, giving the Prince the opening he needed to order a full-scale assault on Ol' Rob? Worth the uppercut Little John scored on him.

Guy of Gisborne

• From the word "go," Gisborne has always been a traditional Knight of Cerebus, being a villain who actually puts Robin in mortal danger and cutting just as memorable a figure as green-clad Robin in his horse-hide armor.
• The version of Gisborne was all kinds of "Evil Awesome" in the The Adventures of Robin Hood film. Makes sense, considering he was played by Basil Rathbone.
  • Speaking of...the climatic sword fight between Robin and Guy is heralded as one of the greatest sword fights ever filmed. Double fantastic when you learn that Basil Rathbone was considered one of the finest fencers in Hollywood. He's so skilled that he managed to make Errol Flynn (who had a reputation of not being as good) look like he was putting Basil through his paces.
• From the BBC's Robin Hood. As an entire garrison of men attack the city gates with a battering ram, Guy shouts at them, "Will someone get this gate open— In the name of the KING!" Kicks the gate, which is apparently the last straw as the beam holding it breaks into splinters and the gates open. Awesome.
• Guy is the BBC series hatchet man tasked with the decision to kill Marian, yet remained charismatic and entertaining enough to pull off a Face–Heel Turn and arguably become more important in the last series of the show.
• More than one book ensures that Guy's final battle with Robin results in a dangerous wound for the hero, a wound that festers and causes him to seek treatment, leading to Robin's death via bleeding at Kirlees Priory. Thus, Guy is the only main villain whose appearance almost always heralds the finale of the story.

Prioress of Kirlees

• She is the one villain to ever kill Robin Hood. 'Nuff said.

King Richard

• In the Disney version, King Richard is awesome.^note His pun about having "an outlaw for an in-law" is even cited with approval in a biography of the historical Richard The Lion Heart by the world's leading historical expert on his reign, John Gillingham!
  • He would have been even more of one had the original ending been kept: John, having sneaked into the church where a wounded Robin was recovering, is just about to kill him and Marian when he is stopped by the Big Damn Heroes entrance of Richard. Watch John cower, snivel and beg forgiveness, and then hand over the crown.
• He has an even better moment in the Errol Flynn film when in disguise he sees Robin Hood ordering a massive search for himself to protect him from assassination. At that moment, the King says there is no need and doffs his plain black robes to reveal his armor covered by a rich red and gold decorated tunic, it makes for a powerful entrance befitting a King to his heroic loyalists.
  • He does the same unmasking just after Prince John has declared himself king. ("Aren't you a little premature, brother?") John's look of utter horror is priceless. Even better is at the end as John nearly falls over himself backtracking and Richard coldly tells him to get on the first boat out of England and never come back.
• Doing basically nothing except being Sean Connery in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
• Similarly, being played by Patrick Stewart in Robin Hood: Men in Tights and getting a phenomenal kiss from Marian. "It's good to be the king", indeed.

Others

FOOTBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALL!

• Marian's lady-in-waiting, Lady Cluck, taking down the guards NFL Style, set to the USC "Fight On" and "On Wisconsin", in the Disney film.
  • Lady Kluck herself tells Marian, "Run for it, lassie! This is no place for a lady!" right before judo-flipping the Sheriff',' leaving him unconscious while saying, "Take that, you scoundrel!''"
  • Seize the fat one!
• The BBC's Robin Hood had the popular guest-star Matilda, a healing woman who was accused of witchcraft and dunked in the lake in order to extract a confession. She fearlessly screams obscenities at the Sheriff the entire time, and is the only character in the entire series who seems to truly unnerve him.
• All right, we'll give the much maligned Kate one. In the third season of Robin Hood, the outlaws are about to be burnt at the stake. Kate rushes forward, screaming "heretic!" and slaps Robin around the face, taking the opportunity to slip him an arrowhead that allows him to cut through the ropes. Sadly, that was the coolest she ever got.
• Robin Hood and Little John attempt to rob some random peddler, Gamble Gold, in the forest. He proclaims that no one in Nottingham can take his stuff from him, and proves it by kicking both their asses.
• In the 2010 film, Sir Walter Loxley. He's 84 years old and blind, and The Dragon is toying with him for it. Then Walter is able to lock blades with him, and the old man doesn't need sight to know what to do.

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