Today's assignment in the Scarlet read-along is to discuss what we love about the legend of Robin Hood:
I think that characters who do bad things (stealing) for good reasons (to feed the poor) are the best kind of heroes. Let's face it, it's much more fun to read about a band of scheming rascals than it is to read about a bunch of goody-two-shoes. However, knowing that your heroes also have hearts of gold means that you don't have to feel guilty about rooting for them to win.
There are a lot good-hearted thieves in fiction, but one reason I'm particularly drawn to Robin Hood is that, although Robin and his merry men are probably mostly fictional, the legend is set in a very real time in English history; during the Crusades, the absence of King Richard the Lionheart and the rule of his brother, King John. I've heard that Scarlet does the historical fiction side of the story as well as it does the action-adventure side, which is one of the reasons I've been so eager to read it.
I love the ballads, in which Robin loses fights as often as he wins them(usually he says,"You're a good fellow, I like you, join my band."), does cheeky things to the Sheriff's frustration and helps those in trouble, such as Alan A Dale and the knight in the Geste of Robin Hood( a story that made its way into the Richard Greene TV series episode "The Knight Who Came To Dinner"). There's been some good RH fiction in modern times, my favourite bring Sherwood by Parke Godwin, an American writer who could do a really good British hero. That one is set in the time of William The Conqueror, with Robin fighting as a rebel and the Sheriff being actually a decent man.
ReplyDelete"Let's face it, it's much more fun to read about a band of scheming rascals than it is to read about a bunch of goody-two-shoes."
ReplyDeleteTHIS. Lol. That is an awesome way of putting it. :)
I was going to quote the exact same line that Jessica did! haha. So true. I think heroes with a little bit of a bad side but who have hearts of gold are more relateable, because most of us do have a darker side, and most of us also want to see justice served and for the downtrodden to have someone who will crusade for them and look after them. Plus the bad guys who are good guys usually have the best lines in books and TV shows and movies lol
ReplyDeleteYes! It's so easy to love Robin Hood because he's a good guy doing bad boy things...how can that not appeal to anyone? I hope that you end up happy with Scarlet, it's one of my absolute favorite reads this year--I loved it so so much!
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