Robin Hood 1x10 "Peace? Off!"

Time for one of my most rewatched episodes! Not sure why I like this one so much, but I do. I think the relationship between Much and Harold is absolutely perfect, I like the exploration of PTSD (called Crusader's Sickness here), and I like that we get to see some other Muslim/Middle Eastern characters besides Djaq and get to see Djaq interacting with them. In some ways it's an absolutely ridiculous episode, but it's still a fun one. Let's get into it!

Thoughts While Watching:

• We open with the man that Much will eventually name Harold being crazy and making super crazy eyes while he burns a church. The villagers are losing their minds, screaming that he's a heretic. I think it's interesting how much of a complete daze he seems to be in when they dunk him under water.
• "It's the devil! Come to save his own." How common would this attitude have been? I know it's a stereotype of the Middle Ages that people acted like this, but was it that common, really?
• "The devil couldn't make it, you'll have to deal with me instead." LMAO
• Lucky guess that he was a crusader. Robin has so many of those.
• What's going on with Djaq in this scene? She sees the symbols and gasps and takes a step back, claims she doesn't know what they are, but then continues to look at him wide-eyed and fearfully for the rest of the scene. She obviously knows something. She may not know exactly what they mean, but she knows more than she's letting on. Why lie? Were they originally trying to push the idea that she's suspicious really hard, hence having this follow the ledger incident at the end of last episode? Because they went no where with it if they were. Was she afraid to speak up and cause panic if she was wrong? Was she already starting to put two and two together that it may have had to do with the Al'Shujaan (no idea if that's spelled right)? Interesting...
• "Yeah, on the wrong side by the looks of him." Excuse me, Will? What the fuck did you just say? On the wrong side? Not the other side, but the wrong side? Tell me, Will. How much do you love Djaq? Because she too fought on the "wrong" side. That's her side you're talking about. Remind me, who were the people who were already living there and who were the invaders and conquerors? Which side lost entire families while most of the crusaders' families were back home living a normal life? The "wrong" side, Will? Are you sure about that? The audacity...Djaq is standing right there. Even Robin, who actually fought in the war, is quick to point out that the other side was, in fact, not the wrong side and has spoken out against the war several times. You've gotta be kidding me... Poor Djaq just stands there and takes it too, probably afraid of seeming too easily offended.
• She's so afraid of him. She absolutely knows something. They keep focusing on her face to let us know.
• "You know, I think that's the first time we've actually agreed on something." Aww, Much and Allan are cute.
• The sheriff's being a misogynist and a racist in this scene. I like this line though: "Hope! I would rather be dead than spend my life hoping. 'I hope for this, I hope for that.'"
• Guy's being a racist again in this scene too.
• Aww, the boys are so cute! I have no idea what Will's talking about, but it's adorable how excited he is.
• This mask isn't even remotely scary. Like at all. Why would they even assume it has anything to do with dark magic?
• This is like the second time Allan has mentioned believing in witchcraft in this show. Interesting.
• HAHA omg Robin's having so much fun with them. Poor John. He's absolutely terrified. Allan is too but at least he'll mostly let it go in a minute.
• "Get a grip" is one of the most modern and out of place lines in this whole show. It's jarring.
• This is the first Guy/Marian scene in this show that I actually find cute or sweet in any way. But then I remember how Guy is just taking the sheriff's advice about how women are basically just animals and you need to prove you can provide for their offspring and it stops being sweet. But Marian is so cute though! She's all smiley and happy. I would be too. I could absolutely despise someone but if they showed up with a horse or a puppy or a kitten or something, I'm melting.
• If you were trying to show her that you can provide for her, then maybe you should have paid for a necklace to give her instead of stealing one, Guy.
• He does seem genuinely happy at the knowledge that he was able to make her genuinely happy though, I'll give him that.
• Can Much get his own spinoff cooking show? I'd watch it. He's so enthusiastic! "This I call The Much Touch." That's gonna be the title.
• Much's recipe for shish kebabs: Get some pork, carrots, onions, and parsnips, chop them up, skewer them on a broken arrow, and cook it over a fire. I want to try this. And look, a squirrel free recipe!
• Much's face when Djaq asks if it's a good idea to give him the knife is like "oh shit, maybe I didn't think this through..." lol
• I'm at least 99% sure that this man is not actually named Harold. Much just named an actual human being like he's his pet dog.
• Much wants to have a food cart. That seems like a good career choice for him.
• The boys are back and they're listening to Allan rambling about his drunk cousin who claimed to see a man turned into a frog. Okay...do you really believe that, Allan?
• Hahaha omg Will's face when Robin gets the mask up in his face.
• Omg, poor Djaq! Harold just flipped out and held her a knife to her throat, Much tried to talk him down, and finally John threw a rock at him and knocked him out. 
• Much: What did you do that for?
• John: Save Djaq! (lmao I don't know why but the way he says that cracks me up. Not even "to save Djaq" but just "save Djaq" in a tone like he thinks it's the dumbest question ever.)
• OMG The sheriff's eye popping thing! Hahaha!
• Okay...and now John is sitting under a painted cross for protection and screaming about a mask being the devil. Wow...
• "This is a lot of gift and tell me, was it a lot of pleasure? And how were you thinking of reciprocating?" SERIOUSLY, ROBIN?! Omg...someone get Marian away from both of these douchebag fucking men. He goes from flirting with her to making horrific sexual harassment comments (to someone he knows is being coerced into a marriage against her will under threat of death) to actually yelling at her because she makes a few mushroom jokes. Meanwhile, she keeps her cool the whole time. This isn't charming, Robin.
• "Apart from being a girl, Djaq is one of the lads." Aww, you're so sweet, Much.
• I feel so bad for Much and Harold with their PTSD. 
• Better for Djaq, Much. This isn't fuss over a painted mask. This is fuss over him trying to kill her.
• Her fake flirting with Guy is actually kind of cute. She puts on a good act. 
• "If I can't sleep, neither can he." Hahaha. Ew, wtf is going on with this spit in the hair thing?
• Why does Will have that tone of voice/look on his face when he announces it's a Saracen leaving the castle? He's kind of coming off as a bigot this episode.
• Djaq has a cute and snarky little smirk when Robin starts taunting Allan about his spirits theory. I love it.
• "The forces of darkness," Allan? Really?
• Poor Prince Malik! Robin kidnaps him with a knife to his throat and starts accusing him of turning people into frogs. 
• Oh, that shot of Will and Allan hiding behind the trees shooting arrows and when Allan blows a kiss to Guy is so adorable!
• Djaq has such a calm and collected look on her face even while Harold's making nasty comments about her being a Saracen. And I love that cute little smile when she saw it worked.
• I kinda love the interaction between Robin and Djaq here. It's cute. She recognizes Prince Malik instantly and starts saying who knows what in Arabic (I'd love to actually know what she says, can anyone translate this conversation?) and Robin's looking at her like she just grew another head. Then she gets up in his face and asks him what he's doing in a pissed off tone and he responds with the same question back but with a heap more confusion in his tone. She says who he is and he just shrugs like "what, is that supposed to mean something to me?" and she has to literally spell it out for him. Once she says that he's Saladin's nephew, Robin and Much are both kind of in shock and Allan just says "oops" in an amused and carefree tone. He doesn't give a shit about causing an international incident. He seems to think it's funny. He looks so cute here though.
• Nobody bows down to anybody in this forest? Really? Because you all bow down to Queen Eleanor next season. Djaq took the lesson here to heart and didn't bow to her when the rest of them did, but she also didn't yank any of the rest of them up by their armpits! It's definitely a double standard, but I also can't help but find it cute that Robin yanks her up like that. I don't know why.
• "This is what happens when cousins marry." Aw, poor Allan haha
• "You and your band of superstitious, ignorant outlaws." All the guys take a step forward like "wtf did you just say about us?" and even Robin makes some threatening crazy eyes. Djaq's just standing there all chill like "yeah...he has a point."
• "What am I supposed to give them, you? How much do you get for lovestruck idiots these days?" LMAO I love it when the sheriff makes fun of Guy.
• I wouldn't have put it together that it's a ransom that quickly, possibly because it makes very little sense to me why a prince (not Saladin, not the one in charge of these decisions) would travel from the Holy Land to England to discuss peace terms with King Richard's little brother, who has very little to do with the war in the first place, why he would be staying in Nottingham, or why the sheriff would then wait months for the message to reach Saladin to ask for a ransom and then months again for the ransom to arrive. It's like the show thinks these people can just get in a car and drive down the street to get from Acre to Nottingham. The total wait time here is probably 3-4 months or more.
• Robin and Allan are both loving this opportunity to check out these women, but none of them are even hot.
• They're all laughing at Djaq and shutting her down, but she's 100% right. Listen up, guys. Your asses would've been toast without her there to save you from your own stupidity.
• "War in the Holy Land is 2,000 miles away, it's not our problem." You're a disappointment, Allan. 
• "It's an example...dunderhead." I love Much!
• The sheriff and Guy are so confused and fascinated by that weird machine thing. It's kind of adorable.
• Love Guy playing dead! Ha!
• LMAO so hard at the sheriff right now!!! He's such a sniveling coward. "Don't leave me!"
• Damn, how many guards do you think die in this episode? How many people in general die in this one episode alone? Where does he find people to replace all these dead guards?
• Aw, Much protecting Djaq is so cute! Those two tend to stick close together during fight scenes fairly often actually.
• Okay...we need to talk about these costumes. Harold is wearing modern camo pants. Blatantly obvious modern camo pants. I've seen the theory before that this was done intentionally to really drive home the point that this story really isn't about a Crusader at all and the whole show is a metaphor for the Iraq War, which is partially true. The original concept for the show and the way it's presented throughout season one is absolutely a metaphor for the Iraq War (though it loses a lot of that in seasons 2 and 3 and it's also mixed with a lot of other problems relating to modern politics and capitalism). But is that really why they gave Harold these camo pants? Or was the costume department just on crack? I mean, all of these outfits are fairly modern. They're somewhat medieval-ish, but I mean, Robin's been going around in a hoodie all season, Marian had that cardigan, I don't know how I would even begin to describe Djaq's season two look, but it's definitely not a genuine medieval wardrobe. Is this just part of that same trend of modernizing the costumes? But this is just so...blatant. Just a total disregard for even trying to make it seem medieval. Maybe it is intentional...I just don't know. But these pants are jarring given the setting. They're definitely making me think of modern soldiers and what this is supposed to represent, so I suppose if this was their goal, they succeeded. I just really feel like these pants needed commenting on, because I couldn't just ignore them and let this pass. Here, I took a screenshot because it's that necessary to discuss these pants:

• ^That is supposed to be a 12th century crusader. Do you see why I couldn't just let it go?
• And I suppose...if we are going to talk about this representing a modern soldier of the Iraq War...we should probably also discuss the implications of the fact that he just single-handedly slaughtered an entire group of Muslim women who are supposed to be exceptional fighters and saved the day by doing so...but I'm just too tired to get into whatever that is supposed to mean right now. It's kind of a little disturbing when I think about it too deeply. Overall, this show (especially season one) portrays Muslims in a very positive light and takes a very critical stance on the Crusades/Iraq War, but whatever is going on here seems a little off.
• "Business as usual, tomorrow." I'm a little surprised the sheriff let them all walk out. Probably because all his guards are dead.
• "Think about it, my friend. Saladin sends his finest soldiers to kill me, yet I survive. It is the will of Allah. Allah wills peace. Saladin may be ruthless, but he is also a good Muslim and even he must follow the will of Allah." I love Prince Malik. This episode is admittedly kind of a mess (I love it, but it is), but he's a great character. I wish we would've seen him again. He would've been great in the season two finale.
• And of course, we end the episode by teasing Much. Does every episode end with making fun of Much? I feel like the vast majority of them do. It's a cute Robin/Much moment all the same.

Final Thoughts:

I hurt my brain thinking about those pants too much. Now I'm sitting here still wondering about what this episode is trying to say about the modern religious/political climate through it's Crusades metaphors. It certainly touches on a lot of things, especially PTSD and its effects on soldiers who have returned from war. It's also worth noting that the villains of the episode include the sheriff and Guy (who are the villains of the entire show or at least this season) who are both portrayed as racist/Islamophobic bigots (especially Guy) and they're both on the "Christian" side (though as I've said in a previous post, I believe the sheriff is actually an atheist, but Guy is Christian) as well as the Muslim assassination squad sent by Saladin, whose motivation was to prevent an unfair peace treaty at all costs, including being willing to kill his own nephew. The good guys include the gang, obviously (made up of five Christians and one Muslim), Prince Malik, who is a devout Muslim and peace negotiator, and Harold, who is deeply affected by PTSD, starts off the episode being afraid of Muslims, but ends the episode escorting the prince back to the Holy Land and joining his mission for peace. So that means that both sides of the war/religions are represented as villains and both sides are also represented among the heroes, so at least it's balanced. 

A few notes on Djaq and Prince Malik: 

• She mentions in this episode that she "served under him" referring to Prince Malik. There's only one other time (that I can recall) when she mentions actually being in the war, which is in a season two episode where she says she's only ever treated men on the battlefield and never delivered a baby before. These comments are sort of vague though and it makes me really wish we had more information about her past. Was she actually a real soldier and if so, how long was she fighting in the war? Why did she join? Did she join immediately after her brother was killed? I want to know more. And actually, I sort of wish they wouldn't have made her a soldier because I don't think that actually fits that well with her character, which I gather is an unpopular opinion in this fandom because I know several people think she acts like a soldier and has a soldier's mindset and while I see their point, I kind of disagree. Their point tends to boil down to how obedient she is to Robin and respectful of his authority as a leader and how that could have come from spending time in the military and being used to following the orders of a general, but I don't know how much I agree with it. I mean, I've read fics that disregard these two statements from her and give her a slightly different backstory where she still finds herself having to dress as a man and fighting against Crusaders, but not as an actual soldier in the army and I just find them a bit more believable. This may partially be because I can't fathom how she could have possibly been part of an army for any extended period of time and managed to hide the fact that she's a woman because she couldn't even last a day in Sherwood with that secret.
• She obviously recognized Prince Malik, but did he recognize her? Too bad I have no clue what they were saying in Arabic or I'd likely have the answer to this question. Did he figure out that she was a woman? If so, what did he think of that? He would have to have some kind of likely strong opinion about finding a Muslim woman, dressed as a man, who used to be a soldier in his/his uncle's army, living with five Christian English men as an outlaw in a forest in England. Although, he seems to have an overall very positive view of her immediately and of the rest of the outlaws by the end of the episode. 
• If she "served under him" does that mean that Prince Malik was a general or something at one point? So not always a peace lover then or what?
• I've seen it happen several times in fanfiction, but do you think that he talked to her alone at some point off screen and offered her a chance to go home with him? I think it's likely that he would have questioned how she came to be there and whether or not she wanted to return home. I wish we would've had the chance to see it. I would like to hear her give her reasons for why she chose to stay. I've also read several fics over the years (and wrote one) where she asks him to deliver a message to loved ones that are still alive back home to let them know she's safe. I think the show should have included this. It seems like a wasted opportunity.
• Will and Allan were both kind of disappointing in this episode. Will was a bit worse with his comment about the "wrong side" and the way he announced that there was a Saracen leaving the castle, but Allan's comment about how the war wasn't their problem was also kind of harsh. For two guys that claim to have feelings for Djaq, you'd think they'd be a bit more sympathetic. Allan's comment was at least somewhat understandable in the fact that it was in response to the fact that Robin wanted them to go risk their lives fighting against an assassination squad to save a naive ambassador who didn't listen to them in the first place. He was probably rightfully wondering how saving this Saracen prince's life by fighting against Saladin's assassins became his problem when he's just an English trickster turned outlaw that signed up to feed peasants. I mean, he has a point. But the actual words he said were very harsh and I'm not even entirely sure he meant it that way, but that's how it came off nonetheless. This wasn't a great episode for either ship, but both boys did seem extremely protective of Djaq when Harold attacked her. But I mentioned before how Will tends to see things in black and white and I think that's apparent here in this episode with his "wrong side" comment. Eventually he does seem to change his mind on this enough to be willing to stay in the Holy Land with her in the season two finale (but both of them were out of character as fuck in those two episodes and you can fight me on this if you want but I stand by it), but at this point he still clearly views things this way which is just another reason why I don't see them being compatible long-term. Again, don't get me wrong, I love Will, just not with Djaq.