Some thoughts on the first part of the RH s3 finale...
Some background- I've been pretty absent from the fandom lately, which has saddened me, but it has also made it much easier for me to avoid spoilers, which I kinda really don't like at all. So although I'd more or less figured Allan was done for, I didn't know that his death was coming tonight, until right before I sat down to watch the ep, I opened an email that said "OMG I can't believe they let Allan die!" So armed with that news, I spent most of the ep yelling at the screen, the characters, the writers, and everything else I could thing of, and very little time crying.
I knew Allan had to die, I just hoped he would die fighting, with the gang knowing he was on their side, rather than him dying alone, shot in the back, thinking his friends believed he'd betrayed them- and honestly, although they know Isabella might have been behind it, they don't know that he was coming back to warn them. Although the horror on their faces, particularly Much's as everyone has mentioned, made for one touching moment for Allan, frankly Much's fake death was written more sympathetically.
After all they writers had done to abuse Allan, to deny him even a proper, meaningful death, it just really makes me angry. I long lost any faith in this series, but now... I don't even know what to say.
So many fans have already said much about what I thought about Allan's death that it's not really worth me mentioning.Instead, I'm going to switch to the topic of how character death has been handled in this series. Several people have mentioned that Roy, who only lasted four episodes, had a more heroic death. I still strongly argue that his death was a pointless waste because of how it was portrayed- how easy would it have been for Robin and the gang to save him- they'd never have left anyone else behind like that! It seemed kind of silly at the time, though now it seems like it had more of a point than this fiasco with Allan.
With Marian, they got two chances to get it right. Although it was a fundamentally bad idea to kill off Maid Marian, Marian's first death was rather tragic, and could have totally changed the tone of the series, making it much darker. Instead, tada! She came back to life, and it turned... sappier. Series 2, Marian's death and Carter's were both quite upsetting, but they just seemed so wrong. Carter's was a total waste, and while Marian's definitely influenced plot and character development for series two, it marks where the series went totally off the rails. And of course, there was Vasey's death in series three, but then, tada! again!
Actually, for me the most touching death of series 1 was Allan's brother's- Joe showed SO much emotion, and it showed the gang that they couldn't always win. I mean, I guess Roy's death was meant to show the same thing, but I didn't feel like it had as much impact, except perhaps on LJ. Hmmmm, in series 2, I think the death I cried hardest over was Spineless Eddie's, and I didn't even like the guy! But he and Marian had a heck of a last scene, we at least saw his final breaths, and Marian's/Lucy's reaction was stunningly gutwrenching. And don't make me talk about Will's dad, who redeemed himself in his son's eyes and got a bizarre masterpiece memorial for it. Sheesh, even Meg in series 3 got more attention than Allan's death.
So basically, I don't think the people behind Robin Hood have any clue about meaningful character death. The only thing that has made a few deaths touching for me were how well the cast portrayed their reactions- Lucy, Jonas, Joe, Harry... and Allan hasn't even gotten that, except the look of horror on Sam's face. Next episode better make up for it in some way, but all I expect is more bloodshed.
Ok, a huge bug just ran across the floor and made me lose anything else I was going to say, so I'll shut up now, since this probably wasn't the place to say all that anyways!!
Also, if the person who left the message on the Joe fansite guestbook about the HUGE finale spoiler reads this, please know that you helped the Beeb and the writers ruin the finale for me. Thanks a lot.
I knew Allan had to die, I just hoped he would die fighting, with the gang knowing he was on their side, rather than him dying alone, shot in the back, thinking his friends believed he'd betrayed them- and honestly, although they know Isabella might have been behind it, they don't know that he was coming back to warn them. Although the horror on their faces, particularly Much's as everyone has mentioned, made for one touching moment for Allan, frankly Much's fake death was written more sympathetically.
After all they writers had done to abuse Allan, to deny him even a proper, meaningful death, it just really makes me angry. I long lost any faith in this series, but now... I don't even know what to say.
So many fans have already said much about what I thought about Allan's death that it's not really worth me mentioning.Instead, I'm going to switch to the topic of how character death has been handled in this series. Several people have mentioned that Roy, who only lasted four episodes, had a more heroic death. I still strongly argue that his death was a pointless waste because of how it was portrayed- how easy would it have been for Robin and the gang to save him- they'd never have left anyone else behind like that! It seemed kind of silly at the time, though now it seems like it had more of a point than this fiasco with Allan.
With Marian, they got two chances to get it right. Although it was a fundamentally bad idea to kill off Maid Marian, Marian's first death was rather tragic, and could have totally changed the tone of the series, making it much darker. Instead, tada! She came back to life, and it turned... sappier. Series 2, Marian's death and Carter's were both quite upsetting, but they just seemed so wrong. Carter's was a total waste, and while Marian's definitely influenced plot and character development for series two, it marks where the series went totally off the rails. And of course, there was Vasey's death in series three, but then, tada! again!
Actually, for me the most touching death of series 1 was Allan's brother's- Joe showed SO much emotion, and it showed the gang that they couldn't always win. I mean, I guess Roy's death was meant to show the same thing, but I didn't feel like it had as much impact, except perhaps on LJ. Hmmmm, in series 2, I think the death I cried hardest over was Spineless Eddie's, and I didn't even like the guy! But he and Marian had a heck of a last scene, we at least saw his final breaths, and Marian's/Lucy's reaction was stunningly gutwrenching. And don't make me talk about Will's dad, who redeemed himself in his son's eyes and got a bizarre masterpiece memorial for it. Sheesh, even Meg in series 3 got more attention than Allan's death.
So basically, I don't think the people behind Robin Hood have any clue about meaningful character death. The only thing that has made a few deaths touching for me were how well the cast portrayed their reactions- Lucy, Jonas, Joe, Harry... and Allan hasn't even gotten that, except the look of horror on Sam's face. Next episode better make up for it in some way, but all I expect is more bloodshed.
Ok, a huge bug just ran across the floor and made me lose anything else I was going to say, so I'll shut up now, since this probably wasn't the place to say all that anyways!!
Also, if the person who left the message on the Joe fansite guestbook about the HUGE finale spoiler reads this, please know that you helped the Beeb and the writers ruin the finale for me. Thanks a lot.