Robin Hood is a supporting to main character on Once Upon a Time. He was an outlaw and leader of the Merry Men, father of Roland, husband of Maid Marian, and former love interest to Regina Mills.
He is portrayed by Sean Maguire.
Biography[]
Before the First Curse[]
In the Enchanted Forest, during Queen Regina's unhappy marriage to King Leopold, a fairy named Tinker Bell is convinced she can help her obtain a second chance at happiness by attaining true love. Using pixie dust, Tinker Bell leads Regina to a tavern. From the outside looking in, she points out the dust has left a glowing effect on a man with a lion tattoo on his arm, who is Regina's true love. Because the man, Robin of Locksley, has his back turned away from the window Tinker Bell and Regina are peering into, they are unable to see his face. Tinker Bell urges her to go in, but shortly after the fairy leaves, Regina becomes afraid and flees, without meeting her destined love.
As a petty thief, Robin steals a horse from a poor farmer despite already having two horses of his own. While camping for the night, he awakens to find the farmer's daughter, Marian, aiming an arrow at him. She tells him the horse is important her family's livelihood and, without it, they won't survive. Realizing the error of his ways, he later forfeits his two horses to Marian and her family. The pair later fall in love and marry.
Leaving his thieving days behind after marrying Marian, Robin opens a tavern business with his new wife. They face trouble from the Sheriff of Nottingham, who demands tax payments in two days or Robin will be jailed and their business closed. The Sheriff further threatens that Marian, left desperate without her husband, will surely come to him for favors. Later, the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, agrees to give Robin golden tipped arrows if he fetches him an elixir of the wounded heart from Oz. Arriving there by a portal, Robin frees Will, who promises not to alert a guard about his plans if he brings him some of the elixir as well. Wearing a guard's uniform, Robin sneaks into the Emerald Palace, where he begins filling two elixir vials. When the Wicked Witch surprises him, he drops the second dose before saluting her, not knowing her guards aren't supposed to speak to her. Even more suspicious now, Zelena demands to know why he is stealing from her. With his cover blown, Robin grabs an enchanted bow to fire at her, but she creates two more illusions of herself to confuse him. As Zelena realizes Rumplestiltskin sent him, she dissipates the illusions and hurls a fireball at him. Robin dodges, letting his arrow go as he does, causing it to fly around the room until it hits a steam engine. With the room fogged up, Robin escapes and returns to Will, lying about not getting the elixir. However, upon learning Will wanted the potion to heal heartbreak over his sister's death, Robin secretly slips him the elixir. On his return home, Robin is backed up by his Merry Men as he defies the Sheriff, stealing his gold, and giving it to the poor. Renaming himself Robin Hood, he shows Marian a six-leaf clover from Oz, which he'll use to glamour himself to keep the Dark One from recognizing him. Robin decides to be a thief again, except to only steal for the needy, as Marian agrees to stay as long as she can be with him.
Humiliated after Robin Hood makes him the laughingstock of Nottingham, the Sheriff begins harboring a grudge against the thief for stealing the woman he loves. As the couple continues to elude the Sheriff, Marian becomes pregnant and falls deathly ill. To keep Rumplestiltskin from recognizing him, Robin uses the six-leaf clover from Oz to glamour himself as another man and breaks into the Dark One's castle, risking his life to steal a wand to heal Marian. Rumplestiltskin catches him in the act and Robin Hood fires an arrow from his enchanted bow, which eventually hits the Dark One in the chest. Triumphantly, he prepares to leave the castle, but an unharmed Rumplestiltskin stops him. Imprisoned, Robin endures torture for days on end. Rumplestiltskin's household servant, Belle sympathizes for him, and out of mercy, she sets him free. As Robin Hood escapes, he takes the wand and manages to heal Marian to full health. While the two are rejoicing in a lover's reunion, a stray arrow shot by Rumplestiltskin misses Robin and hits the carriage, startling both of them, which hastens their getaway on horseback.
Afterwards, Robin meets Belle again and they have other adventures together. The latter also finds out about him being disguised while invading the castle.
Later, Marian gives birth to their son, Roland. At some point after this, she dies, with Robin blaming himself for "inadvertently putting her in harm's way during the job". The circumstances of how he comes to believe this is uncertain, especially since Marian's actual death was an execution on the Queen's orders, and it's not known if he knew how she died.
After the First Curse[]
After the breaking of the Dark Curse, Robin Hood arrives at the abandoned castle of the Dark One, Rumplestiltskin, and takes up residence there until a confrontation with two intruders, Mulan and Neal. Neal introduces himself as Rumplestiltskin's son, Baelfire. Robin decides to trust Neal's words and believes no one would make such a claim unless it was true. Additionally, he mentions being indebted to Rumplestiltskin for sparing his life in the past. Robin allows Neal to look around as he is searching for a magical item that may help to find his family, Emma and Henry, and picks up his father's old walking stick. He grasps the item and swings it around; prompting a hidden door to appear. Robin is surprised at this, as he once tried to wield the stick before, and nothing ever happened. Through Neal's words, he shares knowledge of his father's enchantment of the walking stick with blood magic that only allows the caster or those of his blood to be able to use it. From within the door, Neal discovers a crystal ball. Reluctantly, he agrees magic is the only thing that can help him now and attempts to get the ball to activate by touching it, which causes no change. Mulan suggests to him to think about how he feels about Emma, and it will guide him to see her. Neal follows her instructions, and the crystal ball shows him an image of Emma in Neverland.
While Neal is panicking over finding a way to Neverland so he can be with Emma and Henry, Robin's allies, Little John and three men from their group, the Merry Men, enter to investigate the commotion. Robin assures his friends that Neal and Mulan mean no harm. From underneath Little John's feet, Roland crawls out and runs into Robin's arms. Neal comes up with the idea of how to traverse worlds; suggesting that Robin's son can use a summoning incantation to call the Shadow so he himself can gain a pathway to Neverland. Once Robin learns the Shadow is notorious for snatching young boys and whisking them away, he is extremely resistant to the idea. However, Neal reminds him that his father saved Robin's wife, which allowed her to give birth to Roland, and therefore he is in Rumplestiltskin's debt. Robin finally relents, and in preparation, Roland is told what he must say in order to lure to Shadow to the Enchanted Forest. After Little John brings Roland back, Robin goes through the plan with his son before he, Neal and Mulan stand in their attack positions. When Roland summons the Shadow, nothing happens at first, before the Shadow plunges down from the sky. The Shadow makes a grab for Roland, but Mulan slices off one of its arms, with Neal grabbing onto the creature, who promptly flies back to Neverland. In the aftermath, Robin offers Mulan a place among the Merry Men, but she declines and states she needs to talk to someone before it's too late. He curiously wonders if it's a loved one, to which she suggests that it might be. By nightfall, Mulan reappears at the Merry Men's campsite and accepts Robin's offer.
Before the Second Curse[]
Robin Hood and his Merry Men saved Snow White and Regina (who returned from the undone Storybrooke, with every other cursed resident) from a flying monkey, who was really going for Regina. Except for Regina, Snow was very grateful. When Snow introduced herself, Robin recognized her immediately expressing that he meets her face to face at last and refers to how their faces graced on wanted posters side by side. After that, Robin and his men, along with Roland, join Snow's company where he reunites with Neal and Belle. But when they got near the castle, they were attacked by another winged monkey, which Regina turned into a plush toy, saving Roland, and giving it to him as a gift. The group made a connection with the beast and that they are dealing with the Wicked Witch of the West who reinstated in her castle. As Regina goes to infiltrate the castle to bring down the shield spell that the witch casted, Robin accompanies her as a dept of his gratitude for saving his son.
When Charming has been receiving nightmares about losing Emma in fear that he might go through the same thing with their second unborn child, Robin conforts him expressing that he knows the feeling. He told David about some roots that Friar Tuck told him about that can potentially help with the problem. But he forewarned that legend says that the place where the roots and flowers are, is haunted and it is near a tall tower. Charming assures that he is not afraid of a ghost story, not when his family is at stake, and makes for his journey.
Robin is among a crowd of visitors where Charming reunites Rapunzel, who he rescued from the tower and befriended, to her parents.
After learning that Zelena wants the Charming's second unborn child, they had a council with Regina, Robin, Belle, Grumpy and Granny attending. They decided to go to the dark one castle to find Rumple (who was resurrected and held prisoner) for help. Robin requests to join the party for he has seen deadly traps in the castle when he was there. Regina does not accept his company, overconfident that she can take her chances, but Snow and Charming are not and allowed him to join in.
During & after the Second Curse[]
Robin, Roland and the Merry Men were some of the residents swept from the second curse casted by Snow White to reach for Emma, when they had no other options
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Trivia[]
- Robin Hood and his Merry men have a connection to Snow (aside from the Evil Queen) for they know the famous princess and her reputation; Maid Marian gave up her freedom to ensure hers; and Snow White was a Bandit too.
