The "Guy's noble sacrifice" scenario

[ladykate63]

I've had a few discussions recently, and read a couple of fanfics, that have made me think about what would have happened and how I would have felt if, instead of the Season 2 finale of Robin Hood (and the third season) that we got, the show had gone the route of having Guy redeem himself through a noble sacrifice (not necessarily of his life!)

Comments

[ladykate63]

I don't really have a problem with historical inaccuracy. :) The modern political analogies were a bit heavy-handed at times, but I thought the "modern" sensibility gave the show an interesting edge.

I'm not sure the relative whitewashing of the Crusades on the show was just "for the kids." I mean, they showed some very dark stuff when showing Vaisey's rule in Nottingham. If they wanted to, they could have shown Robin Hood as fighting for the poor because he wants to redeem himself for some of the horrible crimes committed during the Crusades. Actually that could have been quite interesting and could have made for a great parallel storyline for Robin and Guy. But that's not the story we were given, because they wanted to stick close enough to the "established" Robin Hood legend that Robin has to remain a loyal follower of King Richard.

As for historical background ... I'm not sure that historical background adds a lot to my understanding of Guy, to be honest, especially since some aspects of his character don't make much historical sense -- for instance, Guy acts like being a landless knight is something intensely embarrassing, but in fact most knights didn't have land of their own (until, if they were lucky, they got a piece of land in exchange for service to their feudal lord, or married an heiress with lands). It would be a bit like writing a character in 21st Century America who considers it a source of shame and embarrassment that he doesn't have his own business but works for an employer. :-D

Really, there are cases where trying to fit in the "real" historical background just makes it more confusing. E.g.: in Fallout (which does not follow the canon version of Guy's early life), Guy feels very bitter because his parents had to send him away when he was 12 and put him into apprenticeship with Vaisey because they could no longer afford to care for him after losing their lands. But the historical reality is that at the time, most boys from noble families were sent away from home and put into apprenticeship with a knight or lord when they were around 10 years old -- regardless of their family's financial means. So actually, if I went by historical accuracy, I'd have to think that he's feeling sorry for himself for no good reason. Me, I'm happy to just go along for the ride with the fictionalized version of history. :-)

[katrushkalupin]

Well the bit about the family sending children away to train is true enough, but the first born always got the land, whether he got sent away or not. I think in 'Fallout' his bitterness had more to do with the fact that he had nothing to fall back on and GKR's betrayal of his family. In my opinion his anger is totally justified; he was forced into a shitty state of affairs due to Richards rampant B.S.

[ladykate63]

Oh, I totally agree with that, and I think Fallout definitely makes Guy's anger toward Richard sympathetic. Mind you, I never got any sense on the show that Guy harbored a personal hostility to Richard, but bookishy's version definitely worked for me. (Incidentally, I recently came across something that made me realize her portrayal of the events was quite true to history -- a lot of families that lost their lands for supporting Richard in the rebellion against Henry got screwed when Richard came to power. Apparently Richard was reluctant to reward his former supporters in any way because he didn't want people to be reminded of the fact that he had rebelled against the lawful king.)

I'm just saying that in the story it also totally worked for me that Guy was bitter (among other things) about his family having to send him away at an early age, but in fact twelve would have been on the "older" side for starting an apprenticeship.