You know how they say "The slash just writes itself"...?

[rusty_halo]

Is anyone out there watching the BBC "Robin Hood" series?

I just watched the first season this weekend.

If you haven't seen it, watch this. It's a two minute YouTube clip and the slashiness rivals (maybe even exceeds) anything from "Angel" season five.

So, yeah. The show is kind of dumb and I could care less about Robin and his men, but Guy of Gisborne!!! OMG!!! I'm totally in love with him!! He's all fucked up and evil but deep down he really just wants to be loved. Awwww!!! *adores* Plus the guy who plays the sheriff is hilarious and delightfully sociopathic. Between the two of them, I'm happy.

Now, to find good fanfic....

[If you didn't click the link above, seriously, watch the scene. It's awesome!]

Comments

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Yep. *goes to watch the clip* I remember watching that scene, and thinking it was slashy, and then Gisborne does that sigh thing and you're like... where are the Sheriff's hands...?

It could not be any slashier without without kissage.

As for me, I'm not in love with Gisborne. (I think, despite her failings, it's because I'm too sympathetic to Marian's position.)

In that same ep, when Marian tries to commiserate with Guy over his friend who's been imprisoned and tortured, and he says that what's troubling him is it's that the Sheriff is undermining him. And I was like, look, I get that you're evil. I get these are your priorities. But here the woman you want to marry thinks you're showing some human feeling for a friend, and therefore is genuinely sympathizing with you for perhaps the first time, why are you saying this out loud to her?

Silly villain.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Eh, I don't know, Marian's a decent character. And I certainly don't think that a relationship with Guy would be beneficial to her. But good guys are just so boring; I really don't care about Marian. Guy is a villain, so the only standard I hold him to is that he be interesting, and so far he is.

I love that the writers don't pull their punches--some of his actions are utterly despicable--but then they really do go and make him sympathetic. Like, he doesn't know what to do at his own wedding, because he's never been to one before. And he has no family there at all. And look at the way the sheriff slaps him around, and he treats it like a matter of course. He's obviously got an utterly fucked up background, he probably was abused and definitely was never shown any kind of love, and clearly he hungers for love, but he doesn't really even know what it is, and thus far the sheriff is the only person giving him any kind of approval, so he'll do damn near anything to please the sheriff (including being utterly rotten).

But then he starts to fall for Marian and sees his redemption in her, and actually does want want to be good, even though he's clearly still utterly fucked up and has no idea what being good even means, and of course we the audience know that a relationship with Marian would be a terrible idea, but for him it's the only ray of light in his whole miserable existence.... it's just so fucked up and yet strangely sweet--he actually is really naive... you can see that his evilness is probably a matter of circumstance, that he does hunger for something better--unlike, say, the sheriff, who is just pure sadistic evil.

(Which is, again, not to say that I think his actions are morally excusable, it's just that he's a fictional character so I don't care about his morals, just about his level of interestingness.)

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

AUGH! I haven't seen the last ep! *hides eyes from spoilers* (My own fault, it somehow didn't register that you'd seen to the end.)

And don't get me wrong, I like Marian. I just think it is a little suspect that she does start screwing up the Night Watchman thing once Robin's back, when she was doing fine before. Within the show's internal logic, it could be that she's being more daring and risky in her actions. But when it happens over and over (like Robin said) all it does is undermine her otherwise entirely justified demands for respect and support.

I'll read the rest of your comment next week, if I remember. :)

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Oh no, I'm sorry! I thought you'd seen it all.

Oh, yeah, it is silly for Marian to keep screwing up. It seems to be a pretty common thing with "strong women" though, at least on shows written predominantly by men. A strong woman may kick ass, but she can never beat the male lead, and whenever the plot calls for a damsel, well, guess who it is.... >:(

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

Yup. And hey, at least Jack (I know that's not how it's spelled) is pretty kickass competent and "I can't cook." Even when they went to rescue her (as they've rescued most of the merry men at this point, so I'm not too peeved), she kinda ended up rescuing them.

And now that I've seen it, I totally see what you mean about Guy. I never saw much depth to him until his whole Marian=redemption thing. And, "Who should be here?" Aw, poor evil Guy.

And I think you're right about why he does what the Sheriff says, too.

I wish they'd give Marian some complexity, too... some past, or some moral dilemma more complicated than "we must help them/we have to go along to get along."

[meko00.livejournal.com]

Mmm, the Armitage is a very pretty man indeed. Don't really care for slashiness. I mean, if people have a relationship, fine. Hordes of insane fangirls? No, thanks.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Hordes? Um, can you point me to them? Preferably some that can write well. ;)

I like the slashiness, but only as one potential dimension of an interesting relationship. Guy/Sheriff is interesting regardless of whether you see a sexual level there. There's so much going on--Guy's hunger for approval, the sheriff's thrill at manipulating him, the ways that they both use each other....

[meko00.livejournal.com]

Ah. Unfortunately, insane fangirls aren't really all that literate. ;-)

Actually, I've only seen the pilot, but I think I have up until the 7th ep squirrelled away somewhere. Might catch up on it, as I was very impressed by Richard Armitage's acting in North & South. But well, I think I'm deeply, deeply scarred by certain fandoms, so I might not be thinking clearly at the moment. Also, it's two a.m. *coughs* I do like relationships, but unfortunately, I think they far often get a sexual element in television that really wouldn't be necessary... at least not for me. If it's well-written and well-acted, I'm exceedingly fond of what would be termed "gen" in fanfic. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy romantic and/or sexual storylines, but well...

[kittydesade.livejournal.com]

Heheheh. Guy is very much the best part of the show. There's a whole treatise here on why he rocks, but at 12.30 in the evening just after the season finales of woe and sadness, bah, eloquence fails.

But, yes! Guy. Rocks.

[rusty_halo.livejournal.com]

Haha, yes, Guy does rock. I wish the whole show was just him and the sheriff... those two are both awesome. :)

And I'd love to read your treatise on why, if you ever feel like writing it! I'll probably write more but I guess I should watch a bit more first... I've barely had time to process it, and, okay, I did skip over some of the "Robin and his men" plot stuff.... I feel weird writing meta about a show when I'm still iffy on the plot details... (not that I'm watching it for the plot!)