Oddly I felt upset everytime Robin and his men shot an arrow or sword & killed one of the Sheriff's men. Much like the new Star Wars movie, one of these men might actually be a nice guy just doing a job to support his family, and didn't deserve to be killed at the hands of Robin and his merry band of outlaws.
Anyone else feel the same way?
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To a degree, I can see where you are coming from.
However, consider this:
- A nice guy isn't going to become an industrialized, trained murderer
.. (no better than a modern 'soldier' that goes to other countries to murder innocent children, or those drone pilots, who can do this from comfortably thousands of miles away with just a joystick)..
..these 'sheriff's men' know what they are in for. If they're nice, they won't choose this (questionable) 'profession'. They're ready to murder, so if they get murdered, it's only right.
- Nice guys wouldn't work against the people, for the rich, and abuse the masses so the wealthy and powerful can rip riches off regular people's and peasants' backs
- Kinda stupid to have a family in a world that requires you to become a murderer so the family can live, such stupidity deserves to be snuffed out
- What's the alternative? To have another washed-down kid-version of the Robin Hood legend, that would be as boring as a saturday morning cartoon, completely 'clean' and 'pure', no tension, no excitement, no interest, no fear, no seriousness - just cartoon chars doing cartoon things.
This way, when people can get injured and die, the stakes are extremely high, and you really fear for the characters. It's also a bit shocking, especially in the modern time, that Robin Hood, the good guy we root for, is actually a bloody murderer, and no one minds!
I have seen so many Robin Hood stories, where no one dies, and no one is 'shot for real', that this kind of thing adds a lot of impact and realism to the show, AND it makes Robin Hood a powerful force to be reckoned with, not just some goofy fox prancing around the forest for fun.
- Remember what happens to Robin Hood - they get him BACK, and they get him well! So he gets what's coming to him.
I think it's an exciting way of portraying that things ARE a matter of life and death, not another disney cartoon for kids.
There must be dozens, if not more, movies and stories, where henchmen get killed. Heck, even the old Star Trek episodes showed the 'red shirts' constantly massacred in all kinds of horrible ways. Why not feel sad for them, too?
I think you have a logic mistake in confusing a 'movie' with 'a nice guy', when you say: "..Much like the new Star Wars movie, one of these men might actually be a nice guy.."
The 'new' Star Wars-movie isn't 'one of these men'.
In any case, even as a kid, I was a bit annoyed by Transformers gun fights - SO many laser bolts and who knows what plasma weapons and bullets flying all over the screen, but absolutely no one getting killed - someone might get injured a bit SOMETIMES, when the plot dictates it necessary, but it just feels so pointless, when no one gets shot by an arrow and dies immediately.
So this show was such a refreshing change to that usual pattern of 'lots of lazerfire signifying nothing' - here, every shot arrow actually counts! It gives you a feel of a scary, powerful thing to be shot with an arrow, unlike those Transformers lazer guns.
Austin Powers made fun of this 'feeling sad for stupid henchmen'-cliché, so maybe you better stick with comedy movies if you don't want to feel 'upset' about heroes killing innocent people.
The Matrix is something you should ABSOLUTELY avoid in this regard - the 'heroes' that we root for, kill so many innocent people that are 'just nice guys working to support family' (without family, they're worthless, right? Because man has no value by itself, it has to be always tied to his usefulness to a group of people that contain a woman, right?
Interesting.
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