407: Sneak Peeks (1 and 2)

To be fair in Robin’s Character…can we look at it from his point of view please? This man wife died 30 Years ago, he’s been a single father for about three to four years….he’s a very different man than when Marian last saw him. Even in the 30 years, I know some of you will pull the time was frozen thing, but the curse was broken for 2 of those 30 years, and Marian was dead at least two years before the Dark Curse was cast, so even still…it’s four years without Marian, long enough period for that love, which didn’t seem that far…I’d say Robin and Marian were married a year before Roland was born, evidence is the page in Regina’s book that looks like Robin marrying Marian only few years before the curse. Might I also add…that we still have no flashback, so the possibility of Marian leaving her ex boyfriend the Sherriff for Robin can still come up.

The point is…Robin Hood has changed! He mourned, and moved on…it happens folks! He fell in love with Regina, all his heart belongs to Regina and Roland basically now…well, Marian may have a small percentage of his heart ONLY due to the fact she’s the mother of his child. So…yeah, it’s very believable why Robin can’t just up and fall back in love with Marian, he mourned the woman! He came to terms with her passing! It was over and done with! But Emma Swan tampering with fate, brought her back which disrupted Soul Mates In Love.

Many complain OutlawQueen was rushed, while I do agree it could’ve been expanded…they were soul mates with an instant connection, love at first sight! OutlawQueen was a romance that was long overdue it’s time. And trust me…Adam and Eddy don’t want to set off the OutlawQueen/EvilRegal/Hoodie fan base, so Robin was the man with the Lion Tattoo. 🙂

Another thing…how can Outlaw Queen receive so much disdain when some of these other ships didn’t have the merriest, or wonderful background buildup either? Rumple originally locked Belle up as his slave for months before he fell in love with her. Snow White stole from Charming in the EF, and while in Cursed Storybrooke, she knowingly had an affair with David Nolan. Neal and Emma were both thieves in love. Killian was in love with Emma’s baby daddy’s mother, and centuries later fell in love with Emma. All OutlawQueen did was Regina killed Marian, who FYI could’ve gotten out of it had she snitched on Snow White, and then Regina has made up for it by saving Marian’s life more times than I can count!  So….what’s the issue?

The point is…Robin Hood has changed! He mourned, and moved on…it happens folks! He fell in love with Regina, all his heart belongs to Regina and Roland basically now…well, Marian may have a small percentage of his heart ONLY due to the fact she’s the mother of his child.

It’s all well and good if he mourned Marian and moved on, that happens. But if he cares so much about his son getting his mother back, why isn’t he making more of an effort to try and save her now? He can see that it PAINS Regina to be around him…so he’s gonna go visit her in a private place she retreats to and keep saying, “But I HEART YOU.” The way he’s carrying on is making this whole thing so much harder for Regina, and he seems clueless about that. Like, dude, step off, give the woman you care about some space because it hurts her to even see you right now, and at least attempt to find enough love for your wife to be able to save her life if only for the sake of your son.

All OutlawQueen did was Regina killed Marian, who FYI could’ve gotten out of it had she snitched on Snow White,

ALL Regina did was kill Robin’s wife. That’s ALL, so no biggie? And implying that Marian deserved to die for trying to protect a good person like Snow is outrageous victim blaming.

Regina gleefully sentenced Marian, a perfect stranger, to death, because Marian chose to be a hero rather than a traitor to her princess and her kingdom.

Also, WR, you mention that death is stalking Marian a few times, but is that true? Maybe it’s just the opposite–the lady just won’t die!

So far she’s been saved by RH, Belle (who made it possible for RH to use the wand and save her life), Emma, and Regina (as you keep pointing out). Maybe fate doesn’t actually want her dead, and her role in fate’s plan is to make heroes out of those who meet or are inspired by her! Wouldn’t it be neat if Regina’s transformation to heroism was inspired by such a brave woman?

You know, if we’re going to look at it from different perspectives, after all.

Heck, I’d love to see them go to the underworld mostly because I want Rumple & Belle to go there, Rumple to face off Death with a game, and win Nealfire back.

BUT.

Sometimes people DO do the right thing even if it puts their family at risk. Sometimes people just can’t believe that, say, the Evil Queen is so evil she’d actually kill an entire village or an innocent woman with a young child just because she wants to get revenge on an equally innocent princess, because they could never see themselves being so evil. (I think that’s part of why Belle can’t help seeing Rumple in a better light–the utter darkness to which he’s succumbed on occasion is just beyond her comprehension, when the smallest failure to be a hero on her own part is soul-shattering to deal with.)

There are, in fact, countless examples in history of people choosing to die for a cause in the hope that their choice might make a difference, and even more examples of people willing to go to prison or otherwise suffer to try to change a horrible state. Marian was living under an evil, murderous queen who cared more about her revenge than about her people (though I will grant that she was good at knowing the names of her staff…you know, before she snapped their necks for the slightest failure). Snow White became a symbol of hope and a chance to change things–she had the right to claim the throne, and as her escapes and thievery against the crown mounted, she showed that she had the strength to fight back (even when she wasn’t ready to yet).

Marian’s decision wasn’t a choice to abandon her son (though it had that effect). It was a choice to try to make a better world for her son by keeping her people’s hope alive in the face of utter evil.

I’d like to add my (a male) point of view to this discussion.

Robin Hood is between a rock and a hard place right now, due to magic disrupting his life. What I like about Once is the way they use magic to place the characters in a morally gray area. It becomes hard to know what’s right and what’s wrong.

Robin Hood was faithful to his wife. She died. He mourned. He found love again with Regina. His dead wife comes back to life through the magic of time travel. Ok…

So far he’s done nothing wrong. At this point, he is an honorable man and a source of good in Regina’s life. Without a doubt, Regina has become a better person because of Robin. Even in the current situation, Regina is trying to do the right thing because she believes in Robin’s code, and she wants to be worthy of the love they share – even if it means losing him. Robin is also prepared to lose Regina, or else he wouldn’t have gone back to Marian, but losing Regina is easier said than done.

After falling in love with Regina, Robin Hood returned to his wife. He’s honoring his code. HE’S DONE NOTHING WRONG! Being honest with Regina about his feelings for her doesn’t make Robin Hood a bad person or unfaithful. There isn’t a switch in the brain that allows him to just turn off his love for Regina. He obviously still loves and cherishes his wife, or he wouldn’t have gone back to her.

At times, I feel like people’s views on marriage determines the way they side with characters on the show, but other than snow and charming, there hasn’t been many respectable marriages in Once. Regina was basically forced by her mother to marry King Leopold, so it never bothered me than Tink tried to set her up with Robin Hood. Tink’s matchmaking could’ve saved a lot of lives by providing a better path for Regina. For the fans that have a beef with David and Mary Margret’s affair in season 1, HELLO! They were cursed. And technically, David married Snow first in the enchanted forest, so as far as i’m concerned, their affair was true love at it’s finest – though complicated and morally gray.

In my opinion, Robin Hood lying about his feelings for Regina would be worse than telling her that he still has feelings (the truth). Don’t put a guy down for being honest. Nobody lied to Marian about what was going on with Robin and Regina. She knew the truth, realizing that it was a tricky situation. What really made me hurt for Regina when Marian came back was that Robin didn’t hesitate to go back to Marian. It was the right thing to do, however, to have the characters pretend (or lie to themselves) by denying that those feelings exist, would be the bigger sin.

If Robin and Regina were making out in the room with Marian the Popsicle, I could see why people would be disappointed in Robin. All Robin has done so far is been honest about his feelings for Regina, which developed at a time when he was free to pursue a love interest. It’s not his fault that his true loves kiss won’t work on Marian.

For Robin to do the right thing in this situation, whatever the right thing is, he has to be able to communicate about his feelings.