Theme Slide: Robin Hood

About

Theme Slide is where we explore a public domain character's origin and then I experiment applying different themes to the character's origin and creating a new original version of the character within these themes.

In this Theme Slide we will be exploring the origin of Robin Hood and I will be experimenting with re-imaginings of Robin Hood's origin into a new and original characterization.

Instead of studying old ballads and applying themes to the origins of the legendary tales of Robin Hood, I will be analyzing a number of real life Robin Hoods throughout history and from there will apply themes and create re-imaginings of these real life outlaws and turn them into one original character.

Real-Life Robin Hoods Throughout History

1220s Origin

• Robert Hode nicknamed Robert Hood
• England, Yorkshire
• Outlaw
• HQ: Greenwood Forrest 

1260s Origin

• Robert Lefevre 
• Berkshire, England
• Outlaw
• When brought before the court for his crimes the court clerk changed his name to Robin Hood.

1370s Origin

• Robert Hood
• Scotland
• Celebrated Bandit
• Accompanied by a band of burglars including Little John, his right hand man.

Choose or Combine?

Now the hard part is deciding whether I want to combine the best facts from these historical figures and combine them into one character, or simply choose one and continually apply themes to that one historical figure.

I have decided personally to analyze the similarities of these three historical figures in order to create the most generic version of Robin Hood possible so that it will be easier to apply themes to the character later on.

It is clear to see that each of these outlaws had the first name Robert and that only the second one was actually ever called Robin Hood.

So while my version of Robin Hood will be keeping the first-name Robert, I don't want the character to ever go by the name Robin Hood.

The third Robin Hood was the only celebrated outlaw who was a member of a band of outlaws, so my version should work alone and work stealthily.

They all have the element of the nickname Hood, so my version of Robin Hood will simply be named "The Hood".

Only one of the Robin Hoods was in Scotland, the other two were in England, however in different parts of England, so the Hood will be a wandering outlaw who travels across England.

Robert Lefevre is the only Robin Hood who doesn't have a last-name that sounds like Hood, so the Hood's full name will be Robert Heud.

While only three are listed, there were eight Robin Hoods between the 1220s and the 1370s.

Robin Hood is more or less a persona taken by the outlaws of each generation who wish to become legendary.

In the same way The Hood, will be a persona, starting with Robert Heud and throughout time be taken on by legendary outlaws until the end of time.

Generic Robin Hood Origin

Robert Heud is a wandering outlaw, sticking to the shadows, he wanders through England as an urban legend, the mysterious Hood.

Lawmen hunt him, the rich fear him, and the people question his very existence.

The Hood wouldn't have it any other way.

The legend of the Hood would exist for years to come and whenever one Hood would die or retire, another would take its place.

Conflict

Every story needs conflict, some form of antagonist that threatens everything the protagonist stands for.

To do this the antagonist must pose a threat to the Hood's ability to be stealthy, to travel, and to steal for these are the three elements that truly make-up who the Hood is.

An annoying English reporter should constantly travel in search of finding out who the Hood is and if the Hood is real.

This reporter would be considered crazy by the people because everyone believes the Hood is a myth, however lawmen would love it because it would allow them to predict the Hood's movements based on the reports.

The reporter shouldn't mean the Hood any harm, or even be malevolent, he or she should simply have a strong interest in the Hood and a thirst to know the truth.

Another antagonist of course should be the lawmen but that goes without saying, a true antagonist needs to not only be a threat to the character but an embodiment of all threats to the character.

This can manifest quite nicely into a corrupt king, who has risen to power dishonorably by hiring assassins to kill the previous king.

This king should be obsessed with money and be the richest man in England.

Due to the king's fear of the Hood he should begin building walls to block off different parts of England in an attempt to trap the Hood in particular locations for longer periods of time, put up search lights to make it harder for the Hood to move stealthily, put up insanely large bounties for the Hood's head, and hire reporters to trace his movements and report back to the king.

Not only would the Hood set goals on stealing from the richest man in England, but he also would want payback for the king constantly getting in his way out of fear.

The Hood (Original Character by Nicholas Alexander Benson)

After the assassination of King Lermin his newly discovered heir and very wealthy brother Rutah became the new King of England.

King Rutah, now the richest man in England completely overcome by greed., became paranoid and over protective of his wealth.

To deter thieves and outlaws from stealing his beloved wealth the King added large fortified walls protected by guards to separate England into eight districts and placed spies in every district to report any sign of criminal activity back to the King.

All outlaws and thieves were declared a high priority threat to the kingdom and were to be sentenced to death.

District 8 was specifically designed to not only protect the King but to store the massive amounts of wealth held by the King, it was nicknamed the City of Gold.

While many tried, none were able to out match the many highly trained spies and law men who protected the wealth of the richest men and women of England.

The City of Gold was extremely allusive, it was almost impossible for outlaws to cross from district to district, and each district had to be traversed to in a linear path from 1-8, so the lower your district the least likely it would be that you could ever make it to District 8 before being killed by lawmen or spies.

The higher the district the richer the people, and the more lawmen and spies patrolling the area.

Even the most daring of outlaws were unable to make it far, as the King out of fear would send the best assassins in England to kill any outlaw that was able to make it into District 8.

Young and ambitious with dreams of becoming a legendary outlaw, Robert Heud of District 1 saw the perfect chance for the ultimate heist, and made it his life's mission to steal from the richest man in England.

After years of training in stealth, marksmanship, and sword fighting Robert Heud faked his own death and took on the persona of "The Hood".

Wearing long black robes with a hood that obscured his face, he traveled across the Eight Districts, using his arsenal of bows and arrows, rapiers, grappling hooks and hunting knives he combated lawmen and spies, stole from the richest men in England, and stealthily moved between districts without a trace becoming the scourge of the rich and a myth among the people of England.

While on his travels he began to hear strange rumors of King Rutah, after defeating the greatest assassin in England and stealing his bounty of treasures he found shocking records indicating that the King was not the rightful heir to the throne, that he paid for royal records to be forged and many people to be assassinated to become the king of England. 

In his final act as The Hood he revealed King Rutah for a fraud, stole all the King's riches, and gave all he stole to the people of England before vanishing into the shadows and becoming a legendary outlaw.

The Hood did not care for riches, he stole from the richest men in England not for wealth, not for power, but to show the people that even the impossible is possible, and that one man can create an impact on history.

One man can become a legend.

The Hood lived on, overtime new Hoods would appear carrying on the legacy, even today somewhere out in England, there is someone training, waiting for the opportunity to make an impact, to take on the persona, to become a legend.

Is it you?

The Hood by Nicholas Alexander Benson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

What Themes were Used?

The Hood like many iterations of Robin Hood is an action-adventure story interwoven with elements detective style mystery, and government corruption.

These have been running themes in Robin Hood inspired fiction for years.

The running theme used in The Hood of one man training to become a legend was inspired by Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. 

The idea of The Hood being a persona that is taken on by the legendary outlaws of each generation was not only inspired by history but also was a theme borrowed from the Assassin's Creed series as well as the many character incarnations of Robin from DC comics as they are both examples of different people taking on the same mission and persona over the course of generations.