I'm sorry, i've enjoyed this season of Robin Hood for the most part, but its been getting steadily worse.
Aside from the fact that they conveniently forgot that Marian was a skilled fighter recently, and seemingly any man could beat her in a fight (wear-as it was a lucky blow that almost cost her life in the first season).
But in case nobody studied their history, there is a villan to the Robin Hood myth. It was not guy of gisborne (a flunky) the sheriff (he was a tax collector), it was not even Prince John (a stand in doing an impossible job). It was that evil, self obsessed, self agrandising bastard King Richard, the winner of the most incompetent ruler in history award. The reason for the taxes was not to kill the king, it was to serve his eternal lust for glory. He would have happily sold London, if only he could have found a buyer.
On the other hand while John raised the ire of legend (and the noblemen writing the legend) for trying to not only rebuild the country in the wake of his brother's decimation, but trying to fund said sibling's hard on for slaughter and mass genocide, the analysis of his actions suggest an exceedingly competent and capable ruler.
Now i know that Richard supposedly was doing this because he was the whipping boy of the current great corrupt chief criminal of the western world (also know as the Pope), but still no King before or after has fulfilled the pointy hatted bastard's wishes so willingly.
So with the stage set, i should now explain why i am so upset over the season finale of Robin Hood.
Firstly, and quite obviously, the Sherif beating someone who its clearly his superior in training and ability is just frustrating (not once, but TWICE!).
Secondly, that the supposedly very educated King Richard, would not find it strange that the man who had told him about the Black Knights would come to kill him on behalf of the Black Knights, and would also dismiss the words of his exceedingly talented bodyguard.
Thirdly that Marian would fail to arm herself (everybody else seemed to).
Fourthly that even unarmed Marian would still have been able to defend herself (were she to be still in possession of her impressive fighting skills) to a certain extent.
Fifthly is more just a general point about the plot. You kill a hero, saving the life of a worthless scumbag of a king, perpetuating a myth that this butcher was able to masquerade as a decent human being. As a result does said monster do the right thing, pack up his war and go home and do his job, or does he stay in the desert just hoping that at some stage (possibly given BBC writing, towards december 2008) to make nice nice with Saladin... honestly i don't think the black knights would be good rulers of England, but they can't be worse than the management they would be replacing...
So the end result is Robin has lost the love of his life, the Royal Bastard is lazing in the sun, the Sheriff and Gisborn have got away, the two most capable members of the gang and sources of interesting plot twists have buggered off on a honeymoon (how likely is that given the need back in England), they may have Alan back, but they've also lost their spy in their ranks and Gisborn has decided he's a bastard for life. What i imagine next season is a flat boring show without much subtly or complexity
I was fairly forgiving this season, i was prepared to accept the huge anachronisms, the plot twists that are on a par with 24's believable twists, and the sudden inability of Marian to kick butt throughout the season, because it seemed to bring the plot along, but instead of this rather being a rather enjoyable end like last season, i just feel let down, betrayed and upset.
Personally i could forgive a genuine deux ex machina moment right now, i don't care if its someone traveling back from the future with a sarcophagus like device and bringing maid marian back to life (and hopefully carter, he's definitely some additional eye candy :) and also he could present an interesting dynamic given he would be a fighter in the camp equal to Robin Hood's level). However they do it, however convoluted, i know what i want from my Robin Hood series, and i hope the BBC is listening to the boycott that people are planning for next season (ghostly guardian angels do not count as sufficient resurrecting).
P.S. As a finaly railing against the plot, while its entirely likely that Robin may have spoken Arabic, English was not the spoken language of the nobility of england during this time period so its unlikely people of the middle east would have spoken it. Additionally its debatable whether King Richard could speak any english, given his french upbringing and bare 6 months on english soil during his entire life. However i'm prepared to accept that the entire series features people speaking in french and its just translated in our heads by the BBC's clever technology.
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