Robin Hood (2006 BBC series)

Sir Robin of Locksley, alias Robin Hood after outlawed, is the main protagonist of the 2006-2009 TV Series Robin Hood. He is portrayed by Jonas Armstrong.

He was seen as a hero across Nottinghamshire for giving up his own titles to save the peasants of Locksley and other villages across Nottingham. While beign thoughtful, brave and selfless, he is also arrogant, naive, risks other people's lives for his own glory. Robin fought for King Richard in Acre, Israel, during the Third Crusade with his manservant Much whom Robin made a free man after his return from Palestine. After his return, Robin decided to save four pesants of Locksley from death by hanging on a rope, considerring their punishment to severe for their crimes. Automatically, he lost his lands, house and title and was Outlawed. Then, he formed the gang of Outlaws, with Much, Will Scarlett, Allan A Dale, John Little and a Saracen named Djaq.

Robin continued 'Stealing from the Rich and giving to the poor,' until his wife Marian of Knighton was stabbed by Guy of Gisborne, his childhood enemy. He dispatched the gang and confronted Gisborne, challenging him to a fight, which he lost. Guy threw Robin down off a large rock and into the River Trent. He was recovered by Brother Tuck, a wise African monk, and the gang was reborn.

At the end of the series, Robin rebells against Prince John and conquers Nottingham with an army of peasants. However, Nottingham is latter attacked by an army led by former Sheriff Vaisey of Nottingham, during the fight is cut in the neck with a poisoned knife, by Isabella Thornton, causing him to die in the end.

Before the series
Born in 1163, Robin is the son of Malcom of Locksley and his deceased wife. His young character is revealed in third series, in a flashback episode about the events in 1174. He was shown as childish, arrogant, reckless and he nearly killed a man when he wrongly shot an arrow. He was also coward, as he put the blame on his fellow Guy of Gisborne, who was nearly killed by Vaisey, the later Sheriff of Nottingham, If not spared by Guy's father, Sir Roger of Gisborne. However, after believing that his father died in a fire, along with Gisborne's parents, and learning that he is the new Lord of Locksley, Robin quickly matured, taking responsibility for the peasants of Locksley and stopping Vaisey from exercising authority in his lands as he begun the tax collection.

In 1186, Locksley and his manservant, Much, left England to fight in the Third Crusade. Due to their elite training, they were both accepted into the King's Private Guard. While fighting for the Crusaders against the Muslims, Robin saw death and some of the men died in his own arms, on the Crusaders' side. One night, in the middle of a ceasefire causing peace negotiations between the two belligerents, the King was being ambushed by Saracens in Acre. Locksley was woken up by a scream and quickly ran off his tent, discovering that the King's camp is under attack. He killed two Saracens, before challenging a masked one. The figure wounded Robin and ran into the King's tent. Locksley was found by Much and quickly recovered, beign able to enter the tent and see the Saracen (later revealed to be Guy of Gisborne), ready to stab the King. Robin saved the King's life by attacking the Saracen and the two put up a fight. When he turned to run, Robin pulled his arm, and cut his tattoo. Locksley then collapsed and was stabbed by the attacker, watching the Saracen as he ran away. This attack rekindled the flames of war between the Christians and Muslims, but Robin was sent back to England, due to his wound.

Season 1
Robin of Locksley returns to England in the first episode of the series, with his manservant, Much, after 5 years of participating in the Crusades. He is introduced saving Allan A Dale from being cut a finger by Sheriff's guards for hunting goats in the forest. Upon his return, he instantly takes over Locksley estate from Guy of Gisborne, who was appointed by Vaisey, the Sheriff of Nottingham. Locksley shows himself terrified by the cruel justice and tries to confront the Old Sheriff Sir Edward of Knighton about the situation in the county, but Sir Edward informs him that he is not the Sheriff anymore, only for Robin to be distracted by her daughter, Marian, still being with her father. Locksley then learns from his servant, Dan Scarlett, that his sons, Will and Luke, are being hanged by the Sheriff. Robin instantly goes to Nottingham to confront the Sheriff, who, to his surprise, is Vaisey of Nottingham. To his surprise, Robin discovers that four peasants from Locksley: Will Scarlett, Allan A Dale, Luke Scarlett and Benedict Giddens, are being punished to death by hanging for minor crimes and does anything in his power to try and save the peasants. At the execution day, Robin, seemingly defeated, reads the proclamation attending on their lives, but later, in a flash of conscience, he knocks down a guard, takes his Long Bow and arrows and frees the four. Robin is outlawed and is nearly killed by a Guard, just to be saved by Marian. Robin later escapes with Will, Alan and Much, going to the Sherwood Forest. The Outlaws were settling down for sleep when they were ambushed by Little John's Gang. Robin and the gang, except Will were tied up. Robin was later caught by the Sheriff's guards, who dubbed him Robin Hood, but rescued by both Marian and the two gangs. Later, after the escape, Robin, Much, Will, Allan, Little John and Royston White form the gang of Outlaws, with the objective of providing the poor.

The gang is later ambushed in the forest by the Sheriff's guards, however they were distracted by a small baby in the bushes. When they realize the ambush, they had a massive battle with guards. The guards nearly knocked out Robin, only for Roy to interfere and be knocked out instead and taken away to Nottingham Castle where he was imprisoned and tortured. The Sheriff later brought White's mother, Mary, who thought he was dead, and blackmailed him that If he doesn't kill Robin Hood, his mother will be hanged. Meanwhile, Robin has a problem with the baby they encountered in the woods. Roy is freed and returns to the gang, deciding to kill Robin, however, fails, being caught by doing so and stopped by the others. Confronted by the gang, Roy apologizes for his action, informs the gang about the Sheriff's blackmail and reveals that the baby encountered in the woods is called Seth, and that he's the son of Gisborne and Annie, a servant girl. Robin and the gang decides to rescue Mary from execution and succeeds, but is nearly caught by the guards. Royston White then sacrifices his own life to make sure that the gang, Mary and Annie made it out safe and is killed by the Sheriff's henchmen, while shouting, "My name is Royston White, I fight for Robin Hood and King Richard!"

Robin continued to work for the peasants of Nottinghamshire, although he was putting his life in danger almost every time he did. He thought of himself as representing King Richard when villagers thought he was the last glimmer of hope in England. Robin helped the poor when he was being framed for assassinating, feeding Clun and saving England from Greek Fire. He also saved the villages from a massive tax rise, which would happen after the Abbess, Cedric and Flaxton steal most of Vaisey's money. Instead of handing the money back, Hood gave it to villages that need it, to prepare them from the hike.

One day, a 8th September, King Richard I's birthday, Robin Hood goes to settle down some personal issues. Not only the fact that Gisborne and Marian were now engaged, but Hood also has a flashback of fighting in Acre, when the King's tent was under attack. He saw himself get stabbed, and remembered the insignia of the Saracen Assassins assigned to kill King Richard. The Saracen who got so close to killing Richard had the sign tattooed on his right arm, that Robin cut. Later that day, after raiding the celebration of the King's birthday in Locksley Manor, Robin saw the cut Tattoo, on the arm of Gisborne. He instantly realised that Gisborne went to the Holy Land to Kill the King. It all added up. Gisborne had said to him upon his arrival at Locksley Manor that he'd seen him fight, and he recognized the eyes. Robin captures, tortures and nearly kills Gisborne. However, when Djaq came in danger though, Robin handed over Guy, for safe return of Djaq. When the transition was made, The Sheriff, with Djaq's special acidic formula, burnt off Gisborne's tattoo, and asked him to think twice about painting his arm like a girl.

Back on working for the peasants of Nottingham, Hood discovers that the Sheriff has acquired a new 'Black Powder.' When the Sheriff gets it though, the Provider, Lambert has three conditions, one of which being; it should never be used as a weapon. When the Sheriff disagrees, Lambert refuses to provide the Black Powder. He is tortured until the Sheriff finds the location of the Formula book, which he gave to Robin Hood's Gang. When the gang throw the formula on the fire, Djaq, takes it out and keeps it, where she used it again on Robin's birthday the year later, to frighten the Mercenaries surrounding the Barn in Nettlestone Village. Then, when a man, nicknamed Harold by Much, burnt down the Christian Church in Locksley, and then attacked Djaq the Saracen, Much imprisoned him. Harold explained how when he saw a boy fishing, he looked in the river and sees bodies, and how the Saracens muddled his mind and to some extent control his actions. Much relates to him as they were both Crusaders, Much fighting in Acre and Harold in Tripoli. By Much listening to him and with the help of Scientist Prince Malik, a visitor to Nottingham and nephew of Saladin, Harold is partially cured of the condition and returns to Jerusalem to fight alongside the King. Robin also helps Little John find his son, Little Little John, and his wife Alice Little, and comforts him when they move away from Nottinghamshire with Alice's new man, Luke Cooper.

One day, news reaches Nottingham that the King is returning, which means that Marian is going to marry Gisborne, as promised of her. Robin's immediate reaction is to try and stop the wedding. Gisborne shows Marian the gold he is giving her once they are married. However Marian in disguise as the Night-watchman, decides to steal the gold and give it to the poor. Robin is there too, in Locksley Manor, and is protecting and detected Night-watchman, the gang hold the guards and Gisborne at gunpoint and he allows the Nightwatchman to make her escape, sort of. With a quick jab, Guy stabbed Marian, unaware that it is her disguised as the Night Watchman, she appears to die, despite Robin and Djaq's efforts to save her. In despair, Robin admits that he loves Marian and regrets that he didn't ever tell her about his feelings. She survives, her 'death' attributed to the shutting down of her body following the stab wound, and hemlock, applied by the treacherous physician Pitts, shot upon order by Gisborne's Archers. Marian decides to go ahead with the wedding to Guy, and Robin, furious and heart-broken, abandons his men. He viciously rebuffs Much's attempts to comfort him and as the wedding goes on, he packs up to leave Nottingham. He stops in his tracks when he hears Much interrupting Marian's wedding and reaches the ceremony in time to see Marian leave Guy at the altar. He gives her a ride to the castle after Gisborne reveals his true colors. At the Castle, Marian gets off the horse and they go in different directions in a hope to save her father, but Robin calls her back and they share their first kiss in the series. Robin gets his fighting spirit back, saving Marian's father Edward from being killed by the Sheriff, like Walter of Merton was, and redeeming himself to Much by preventing the Sheriff from slitting his throat.

Season 2
The season opens with a shot of Robin lying half-buried under the leaves of Sherwood Forest with an arrow in his eye, apparently dead. A mysterious blond woman named Davina and her guards, passing through on their way to Nottingham, are about to pickpocket Robin's remains, but he leaps up—revealing it to be a hoax designed to catch rich travelers unaware—and he and his band ambush them, stealing among things a ring off Davina's finger. It's revealed that the ambush was just a test for the new base and hideout of the Outlaws, designed by Will. However, they discover that the woman's ring has the Sheriff's insignia. Later on, Robin, Allan and Much go to Nottingham, and a bored Allan abandons the group and goes to gambling in a tavern, only to be arrested by Gisborne. Robin then meets a woman named Rose, who is tied to a post in the square, claiming she's taking punishment on behalf of her children. The Sheriff emerges and declares that her kindness is useless, as the children are going to lose their hands anyway. Robin leaps in to save them, but is captured by the sheriff's men. "Rose" takes off her disguise and is revealed to be the blond woman the gang ambushed earlier—Davina, the Sheriff's sister. It was all a ruse to capture Robin. Tied up and nearly killed by being dropped in a pit of snakes, Hood learns that the Sheriff, Gisborne and a group of disloyal nobles are forming up the Black Knights cult, which attempts to assassinate King Richard and replace him with Prince John as King of England. With distraction from the Nightwatchman (Marian), Robin is able to escape, not before punching Davina into the pit, where she is bitten and killed by her own snakes. Robin lifts her out and is about to leave when the sheriff returns. Robin pulls a bow on the sheriff, but Davina reveals that if the sheriff dies an unnatural death, there is a standing order for all of Nottingham to be razed to the ground. Unsure if she is bluffing, Robin makes his escape, leaving the sheriff cradling the body of his dying sister. All the outlaws speculate about what they would have done had Robin died, but Robin tells them they would be able to carry on their work without him, saying "We are all Robin Hood!", a motto that catches on and is frequently reiterated by several members of the gang throughout the second season. This is the moment when Hood decides to turn his attention to stop the Black Knights and protect King Richard, but doesn't turn his back from the poor.

Personality
Robin was an incredibly selfless person, who put the other's needs and even lives before his own, as he gave up his titles, lands and was outlawed to save the peasants. He gone to far to even attack Nottingham every time the Sheriff wanted to kill inocent people. He was clever, heroic and knew how to establish his own authority without beign too restrictive (sometimes). However, due to his talent for escaping dangerous situations, such as chains, dungeons and even gallows, he is too arrogant and sometimes too self-confident.

Robin possessed a strong sense of idealism and, furthermore, had a egalitarian psychology of "stealing from the rich to give to the poor", which was too liberal for the Dark Ages. While being this egalitarian, Robin was also very loyal to King Richard, his friends and—most of all—Marian. He remained loyal to King Richard even after he tried to have he and his gang executed in the Season Two finale, because he knew that the Sheriff had "spun him a story" and that it wasn't the king's fault.

However, Robin can often show a dark side, which emerges the times when he is faced with treachery or when he remembers the fights in the Crusades. This dark side is shown to have shape when Robin disbands the Gang and tries to kill Gisborne for vengeance over Marian's death, but Hood is able to overcome it and focus on his fight for a better future in England. At the end of the series, Robin even brings to forgive Gisborne for killing his wife and calls him "friend", the two making peace with each other as Guy died in Robin's arms.