First off -- yaaaay I love you and I love this post and I love that we can actually still discuss this episode (and this show as a whole) as Guy/Marian shippers without throwing in the towel just yet. Because, dammit, I am determined to pull something meaningful out of all this! So here goes.
I think the parallel to "A Thing or Two About Loyalty" is PERFECT. I commented with this over on thepodsquad's journal, but last night while trying to distract myself from all this Robin Hood insanity, I decided to take a break from the internet and watch some TV. And in a fit of horrible tragic timing, when I switched on the TV, it was tuned into BBC American and "A Thing or Two About Loyalty" was playing. And... just... I couldn't get away from the crushing irony of it all, both the episode itself and my reaction to it. It's the strongest episode of season one by far, and I love it for all the conflicted loyalties and tentative trusts and misplaced expectations. I thought I loved it even more in light of all the positive progress Guy/Marian made these season, but now being forced to look at it from the perspective of the finale makes me appreciate the way it was played out on a grander level.
Also, thank you for including your thoughts on Marian's reactions during these episodes. I feel like I had such a hard time connecting with her, and even connecting her to herself from earlier episodes -- and I think a lot of what you say makes her actions seem more reasonable. It's a nice relief from hating myself for hating Marian. And then this scene:
That only worsens on Marian’s side when she finds out that Guy did go to the Holy Land to try to kill the king – apparently, she had genuinely believed it for a long, long time when Guy told her that that wasn’t the case back in 1x13.
By this point I was already starting to go into Marian-hate mode for this episode, so it kind of bugged me that she seemed so personally offended by all of this -- like, what, does she feel like Guy owes her something? After the way she's betrayed his trust in every way possible within the first twenty minutes? And for something he did presumably before they had any sort of relationship with or obligation to one another? It struck me as being a very selfish, one-sided approach to their relationship. But, well, going off of what you said... I like that it still reflects some level of instinctive trust which she puts in him, to refuse to believe what I consider to be the one most obvious duhhhh crimes from his past. Also, although I resented much of this episode for making me look back on old Guy/Marian moments and see LIES LIES LIES everywhere, this actually gives me some extra warm fuzzies when I think about their kiss from 1.13. I mean, when she says, "I believe you," it seems like the most false, flat statement ever; and I took her later defense of Guy's word against Robin to be an attempt to forget the things about Guy's past that she couldn't change, whether they were true or not, and hopefully progress to a different future. But, well, the idea that she really truly deep down believed that he never went to the Holy Lands -- I don't think I ever let myself consider that possibility until now. As I learned from Ma after all those years of reading the Little House books, there's no great loss without some small gain, right?
(To be continued in a moment... Character limit and I no longer reside on the same plane of existence.)
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I think the parallel to "A Thing or Two About Loyalty" is PERFECT. I commented with this over on
Also, thank you for including your thoughts on Marian's reactions during these episodes. I feel like I had such a hard time connecting with her, and even connecting her to herself from earlier episodes -- and I think a lot of what you say makes her actions seem more reasonable. It's a nice relief from hating myself for hating Marian. And then this scene:
That only worsens on Marian’s side when she finds out that Guy did go to the Holy Land to try to kill the king – apparently, she had genuinely believed it for a long, long time when Guy told her that that wasn’t the case back in 1x13.
By this point I was already starting to go into Marian-hate mode for this episode, so it kind of bugged me that she seemed so personally offended by all of this -- like, what, does she feel like Guy owes her something? After the way she's betrayed his trust in every way possible within the first twenty minutes? And for something he did presumably before they had any sort of relationship with or obligation to one another? It struck me as being a very selfish, one-sided approach to their relationship. But, well, going off of what you said... I like that it still reflects some level of instinctive trust which she puts in him, to refuse to believe what I consider to be the one most obvious duhhhh crimes from his past. Also, although I resented much of this episode for making me look back on old Guy/Marian moments and see LIES LIES LIES everywhere, this actually gives me some extra warm fuzzies when I think about their kiss from 1.13. I mean, when she says, "I believe you," it seems like the most false, flat statement ever; and I took her later defense of Guy's word against Robin to be an attempt to forget the things about Guy's past that she couldn't change, whether they were true or not, and hopefully progress to a different future. But, well, the idea that she really truly deep down believed that he never went to the Holy Lands -- I don't think I ever let myself consider that possibility until now. As I learned from Ma after all those years of reading the Little House books, there's no great loss without some small gain, right?
(To be continued in a moment... Character limit and I no longer reside on the same plane of existence.)