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"I've seen knights in armour panic at the first hint of battle. And I've seen the lowliest unarmed squire pull a spear from his own body, to defend a dying horse. Nobility is not a birthright; it's defined by one's actions."
Robin of Locksley

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a 1991 period-ish action-adventure movie based on the Robin Hood myth, directed by Kevin Reynolds and starring Kevin Costner in the title role.

The story is familiar; Robin of Locksley, a Crusader, escapes Jerusalem alongside a Moor named Azeem (Morgan Freeman), who accompanies Robin because of a Life Debt. They return to England and discover that Robin's father (BRIAN BLESSED) has been killed by the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman), and Locksley's lands stolen by the Sheriff. Oh, and the Sheriff is also now apparently a devil worshipper and is being assisted in his evildoing by his cousin, Guy of Gisbourne (Michael Wincott). Robin and Azeem become outlaws, and steal from the rich and give to the poor. Men are made merry, bucklers are swashed, and they all live Happily Ever After (except the Sheriff, obviously). It's also fairly dark compared to most Robin Hood adaptations.

The movie opened to decent reviews, was a box office success and was nominated for quite a few awards, including an Oscar. Noted for Kevin Costner Not Even Bothering with the Accent and Alan Rickman's gloriously hamtastic performance.

The Mel Brooks 1993 parody Robin Hood: Men in Tights largely lampoons this movie, although it acknowledges other elements of the legend.

Another Robin Hood film simply called Robin Hood was also released the same year, but avoided theatrical release in the US due to this movie. As well, there's no connection other than subject matter to the 1948 adventure film The Prince of Thieves.


Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves provides examples of:

General examples

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    #-E 
  • Action Dad: Lord Locksley, who suits up in armor and is killed fighting off cultists. Also, Little John has eight children by his wife Fanny, and he's still willing to go into battle.
  • Adaptation Distillation: The movie excises Prince John entirely so as to give Robin a single, more direct nemesis in the Sheriff of Nottingham. It also pares down what are, in some versions of the myth, loads of characters from the Merry Men.
  • Adaptation Expansion: At the same time, the movie strives to give Robin and those Merry Men a much more thorough background, pulling aspects from various other adaptations (most notably, having a Middle Eastern Muslim Merry Man, taken from Robin of Sherwood) and adding a few new ones of its own (like Little John's wife and children). The Sherriff's whole subplot with his witch advisor and real mother is also new to the movie.
  • Adaptation Name Change:
    • The old retainer figure is typically named Will Stutely (when that character isn't composited with Will Scarlett), but here is named Duncan. Azeem is also largely inspired by Nasir from Robin of Sherwood, though this might be a case of Expy given the different copyright holders.
    • Marian, traditionally a Fitzwalter, is instead portrayed with the surname of Dubois.
    • David of Doncaster is in the movie but he prefers the nickname "Bull", supposedly due to his Biggus Dickus. He helpfully offers to show Robin but is declined.
  • Adaptational Wimp: Little John is on the losing end of Defeat Equals Friendship after he and Robin fight, when traditionally it's Robin.
  • Adapted Out: One of the few versions of the Robin Hood tale that excludes Prince John entirely.
  • Affably Evil: The Bishop acts with the manners of a good priest at all times, such as when he's lying to Robin, or trying to convince Marian to marry the Sheriff.
  • Against My Religion: Azeem, a Muslim, is forbidden by his faith from drinking alcohol. Friar Tuck doesn't have this limitation.
    Friar Tuck: Let us open a bottle and do our best to save each other's souls.
    Azeem: Alas, I am not permitted.
    Friar Tuck: Fine, then; you talk, I'll drink.
  • Age Lift: When King Richard shows up, he is significantly older than he was in-reality in 1194 (he was 36 at the time, but is played by Sean Connery, who was 61 at the time, a solid 25 years older). It is plausible though that, being the king, a life-long soldier and commander, and having previously been imprisoned for two years caused enough stress to age him faster, though.
  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Mortianna is this trope perfectly when she encounters Azeem (the 'painted man' she's been dreaming will kill her).
    Mortianna: Please sir, have pity! Don't harm an old woman...!
  • All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Robin and the Merry Men are able to operate for so long by using guerrilla tactics like hiding in Sherwood Forest and attacking passing convoys. Once the Sheriff hires the Celts and has his men use burning arrows and cannonballs to attack their base in a full frontal assault, the outlaws are almost all killed or captured.
  • Altar the Speed: The Sheriff rushes Marian up to the Bishop's chambers and orders him to marry them. He keeps telling him to go faster and faster as Robin is pounding down the door.
  • Ambiguously Related: Downplayed. Marian Dubois is stated to be the cousin of Richard Plantagenet, though it is unknown how closely related are making George of Nottingham's plan to get a claim to the throne via marrying a random female cousin of his monarch rather iffy.
  • Amputative Sentencing: The beginning of the film takes place in Jerusalem, which is under Arab control (and Sharia law) at the time. It shows a man who is about to have a hand cut off for stealing bread.
  • And Now You Must Marry Me: The Sheriff blackmails Marian into marrying him by threatening the lives of the children he captured in the raid on the Merry Men's camp.
  • Arc Words: "I would die for [you/her]." Also shows up in the song "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You."
  • Arrow Cam: Perhaps one of the best known examples.
  • Arrows on Fire: It's a Robin Hood movie, after all.
    • The Sheriff's men also use flaming arrows (and flaming catapults) when trying to kill the outlaws in the forest. Robin and the other Merry Men are appropriately horrified.
  • Arch-Enemy: Robin Hood has the Sheriff of Nottingham as usual, but with the added touch of the latter killing the former's father.
  • The Artifact: The Bayeux Tapestry being shown, since ultimately the Saxon-Norman conflict (made famous by Walter Scott) does not feature in this Robin Hood film.
  • Artistic License – Geography: Robin and Azeem somehow get off a boat on the Kent coast in the South of England, wander all the way to the north of England to Hadrian's Wall, which is almost 400 miles away from where they started, and is about 180 miles north of Nottingham, double back down to Locksley Manor, which is actually Old Waldour’s Castle in Wiltshire, which is about 300 miles to the south from Hadrian’s Wall, somehow bypassing Nottingham on the way, only to then walk back up to Nottingham, which is over 150 miles to the north of Wiltshire, in less than a day.
  • Artistic License – Religion: In the audio commentary, Morgan Freeman admits to not having done enough research to know that Muslims do not pray with hands clasped, as Christians do.
    • Not strictly a rigid rule in Islam, but strictly speaking, there's no rule against it. Various different groups and individuals with their own interpretations do pray with clasped hands. Considering how liberal Azeem is, he may as well come from a Sunni sect or even created his own unconventional practises.
    • Mortianna, a devil worshipper, refers to the Celts, here implied to be pagans, as, "Those who share our god." Needless to say pagans are not devil worshippers. (Although confusing the two would be a common mistake in medieval Europe.) Also pagan Celts would be polytheistic, which means Mortianna's invocation of sharing a singular god would be even more incorrect.
  • Ascended Extra: In most incarnations, the Sherrif is either The Dragon or The Brute. Here he's The Big Bad.
  • Attack on the Heart: Robin kills the Sheriff with a dagger to the heart.
  • Attempted Rape: As soon as the bishop declares them man and wife, the Sheriff proceeds to force himself on Marian, or try to at any rate. Of course, this wouldn't be considered rape back then, but this doesn't make him one bit less villainous.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: In the middle of the Celts' raid on the Merry Men's camp, Robin starts dumping chests full of gold coins on the bloodthirsty marauders. They stop right in their tracks to pick up said booty, every last one of them, seeming to completely forget about the raging battle surrounding them that they initiated. Of course, they are explicitly identified as "hired thugs".
  • Audience Surrogate: Guy of Gisborne. After Nottingham delivers his "I'll cut your heart out with a spoon!" line, the scene switches to some undefined time later, with Guy asking the question that is now on every audience member's mind.
  • Award-Bait Song: "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You." Originally written from Maid Marian's point of view, the original draft was rejected by Annie Lennox, Kate Bush and Lisa Stansfield before the song was reworked and given to Bryan Adams to become his all-time biggest hit.
  • Badass Preacher:
    • Friar Tuck is just as good a fighter as any of the other Merry Men. When he's sober, anyway.
      • Even when drunk, he's a force to be reckoned with. His introductory scene shows him singing and drinking while driving a carriage, and he proceeds to trounce Robin and nearly escape when the Merry Men attempt to rob him.
    • Azeem counts as a rare positive Muslim example in Western media. He not only talks about his love for God all the time and is devout enough to observe the tenets of his religion, he believes in fighting for justice and has an egalitarian view of race and ethnicity.
  • Bastard Angst: Will Scarlet is Robin's half-brother. Robin's unhappiness at his father's relationship led their father to break things off with Will's mother, which resulted in Will's illegitimate status. Will (who, according to the novelization, had not yet been born at this point) interpreted this as their father choosing his brother over him, and resents Robin for it.
  • Berserk Button: Many characters have them. Most notable is Friar Tuck, who is righteously angry at the corrupt Bishop.
  • BFS: Robin's father's sword. The Sheriff dominates most of his fight with Robin while wielding it, slicing through anything that gets in his way, including Robin's own sword.
    • Azeem's scimitar is a lesser example. There's even a scene where he draws it and his opponent simply turns tail and runs off screaming.
  • Big Bad: Sheriff George of Nottingham, Robin's Arch-Enemy who wants to rule England.
  • Big Brother Instinct/Take Care of the Kids: Marian's brother Peter's last words are to beg Robin to look after her.
  • Big Brother Worship: Her reaction to his death suggests that Marian loved her brother Peter dearly.
  • Black Comedy Rape: One of the most infamous examples of Black Comedy Attempted Rape in a mainstream Hollywood blockbuster, in which the Sheriff is hurriedly trying to wed-and-bed Marian in quick succession while she screams and struggles and Robin desperately tries to batter down the door. The "comedy" comes from the Sheriff crying: "I can't do this with all that racket!", doing some rather questionable gymnastics to force Marian's legs open, and Mortianna trying to make the bride more comfortable during her rape by helpfully putting a cushion under her head.
  • Blatant Lies: When Robin first meets 'Marian' (actually Sarah pretending to be Marian. Sarah is portly and rather plain looking) again after his time away during the Crusades, he is surprised at her appearance.
    Robin: The years have... been kind.
  • Blood Oath: After Robin buries his murdered father, he slices his hand open and swears on his blood that he will avenge his death (something that Azeem finds a little disturbing). His hand appears bandaged for a few scenes afterwards.
  • Blown Across the Room: By a thrown sword, no less.
    • Remember, though, that it's a very large sword (as opposed to the tiny bullets with very little mass that are traditionally causing this trope) thrown by a powerful man into a tiny woman. Not as bad as it could have been.
  • Brass Balls: John remarks that Robin's are made of solid rock following their quarterstaff duel.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: While he's actually addressing Marian and Robin, Friar Tuck looks right at the camera and appears to be speaking to the audience with the last line of the movie.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: The Sheriff of Nottingham embodies pretty much any and all indicators of cartoonish supervillainy, up to and including Satan worship.
    • In his defense, it more seems to be Mortianna involved in those things; she raised him, so she naturally had an influence on his belief system. The Sheriff goes to her for advice and (somewhat reluctantly) goes along with certain things, but there's little to show he actively practices any of it himself.
      • Case in point, he does insist on a Christian priest performing his wedding to Marian. Heck, the fact alone that he waits to be officially married before forcing himself on her shows that he does have some standards.
      • However, in the extended cut of the film, there is a scene where Mortianna advises him to "Recruit the beasts that share our god." It should also be noted that said Christian priest is a willing stooge of the Sheriff, albeit more out of cowardice than conviction. Make of it what you will.
      • Realize also that a marriage performed by a pagan priest would not have been recognized by the Church of England and he would have been outright declared a rapist and pagan and refused what he wanted - nobility.
  • Cat Scare: When Marian is trying to locate the source of a sound, a hissing cat leaps onto the table before her, just before a soldier throws her down onto it.
  • Catapult to Glory: Robin and Azeem are thrown over the castle wall by catapult after the Sheriff orders the gate closed.
    Will: Fuck me, he cleared it!
  • Character Development: Very few people who knew Robin as a child appeared to have liked him back then, so he must have done a lot of growing up while off in the Crusades.
    Marian: How is it, that a once-arrogant young nobleman has found contentment, living rough with the salt of the earth?
  • Chekhov's Gun: A ton. Say what you will about the licenses the film took with history, but by the standards of a blockbuster it's practically a masterclass of economy in storytelling.
    • Perhaps the most crucial is the knife Nottingham gives to Marian. She gives it to Robin, who uses it to stab Nottingham in their climactic fight.
    • Similarly, the statue that the Sheriff had made of himself, which gets used as a battering ram in the climax. Also counts as a Chekhov's Gag, as various characters pause to look at the scar that someone added to the statue after Robin and the Sheriff's first fight.
    • The portrait of a young Robin seen hanging in Locksley Hall early in the film. It looks an awful lot like Will Scarlet, who is secretly his illegitimate half-brother.
    • Another simple, almost literal example is in the scene when the first refugees come to Sherwood Forest. The arrow Robin uses to fend off Will Scarlet's attack is noticeably separate from the others in his quiver the entire scene.
    • In the same scene, Robin promises to any who would seek the Sheriff's mercy that "he will stretch your necks, one by one." This is precisely the fate from which Robin must save many of his men during the climax.
    • Averted due to a relocated scene: when they meet at church during Mass, Marian pointedly requests out of nowhere that Robin "take a bath." However, due to needing an explanation for how Robin got into the castle during the climax, the triggering scene where he rubs crap on his cloak and distracts the guard by Obfuscating Stupidity was moved to the climax. This is not only long after the request was made, but after Marian sees Robin honoring her request.
  • Chekhov's Skill: Firing an arrow amidst distractions.
  • Child by Rape: What Mortianna wants the Sheriff to beget by Marian. When he drags her into the chapel for the forced marriage, Mortianna declares that Marian is "ripe" and will produce a son.
    Mortianna: You must take her now.
  • Close-Call Haircut: Robin cuts off a lock of the Sheriff's hair during the final fight.
  • Composite Character: The Sheriff has a similar personality and appearance to the Sheriff from Robin of Sherwood, but adds the black magic activities of the show's other villain, Baron de Belleme.
    • The Sheriff also seems to be in-part a composite with the usual depiction of Prince John, being a petty, flamboyant Psychopathic Manchild scheming to take the throne. He's also got a penchant for Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil note , which is behaviour the real life Prince John was infamous for.
  • Corrupt Church: The Bishop of Hereford is a textbook example. He willingly works with the Satan-worshiping Mortianna and the Sheriff of Nottingham to sanction marital rape; previously, he had helped to accuse their enemies (like Robin's father) of witchcraft so they could be justifiably murdered. He did it all for money. After Robin and Azeem interrupt the ceremony, the Bishop flees into another room and starts trying to pack up as much treasure as he can before escaping. Of course, that's when Friar Tuck comes in...
  • Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: The Trope Namer. Guy of Gisborne eventually works up the nerve to ask the Sheriff why he wouldn't just use a knife...
    Nottingham: Because it's dull, you twit! It'll hurt more!
  • Darker and Edgier:
    • A fair chunk of this compared to previous Robin Hood adaptations, with some brutal/gruesome deaths and blood, this version of the Sheriff being one of the cruelest and using witchcraft, and a rape attempt.
    • The NES video game, believe it or not, is much grittier and darker in tone than the movie without its signature style of humor and quirks. This is rare for an early-90s home console video game.
  • Deadpan Snarker: The Sheriff. Robin. Azeem, sometimes.
    Azeem(after watching Robin trying to stab Guy of Gisborne through a telescope): How did your uneducated kind ever take Jerusalem?
    Robin: God knows.
  • Death by Childbirth: Averted, but Fanny comes awfully close until Azeem steps in.
  • Death by Materialism: The corrupt Bishop might have been able to escape the castle... if he didn't try to pack up as much treasure as he could before leaving. Unfortunately for him, this gives Friar Tuck enough time to catch up with him. This ends poorly for the Bishop.
  • Defiant to the End: Robin's father finds that he is alone against a few dozen men loyal to the Sheriff, who give him one last chance to join them.
  • Demanding Their Head: Guy of Gisborne promises his men "A crown to the man who brings me Locksley's head!"
  • Demoted to Extra: Guy of Gisborne is a complicated, zig-zaggy example. Gisborne's earliest recorded appearance casts him as a one shot antagonist, but one who was able to give Robin an intense fight, which got him promoted to a The Dragon and Robin's Evil Counterpart in most adaptations. Here, he's a consistently unimpressive Brute who is never a credible threat and who gets killed by the Sheriff well before the climax.
  • Destination Defenestration / Disney Villain Death: How Friar Tuck deals with the corrupt Bishop.
    • Robin performs a rare inversion, swinging in through a window to save Marian.
  • Disney Death: Robin swings from a burning rope. It breaks; he falls; everyone assumes he's dead. Guess what. Later, Mortianna appears to die when Azeem stabs her with a spear, but comes back to try and kill Robin.
  • Disappeared Dad: Lord Locksley was one to Will, explaining his resentment of Robin. In the Re-Cut, Mortianna is shown to be the Sheriff's birth mother. Though his birth father is not revealed, he's implied to possibly be Satan.
  • Disappointing Heritage Reveal: In the Re-Cut: The Sheriff always believed that he was nobly born, but Mortianna raised him after their sudden deaths. She reveals that she's actually his birth mother, and she replaced a nobleman's baby with him so that he could ascend to a position of power.
    Mortianna: You despise me? You are me.
  • Dragon Their Feet: Mortianna tries to kill Robin after the Sheriff dies, but is killed by Azeem.
  • Due to the Dead:
    • When Robin gets home and finds out what's become of his father in his absence, his first action (after he gets over his very understandable freak-out) is to give his father a proper burial.
    • Later, the same care is given to those who lose their lives during the woodland invasion, including Duncan.
    • Robin keeping his promise to Peter, to deliver his ring to Marian and offer her his protection, may also count as this trope.
  • Dying Moment of Awesome: Robin's father and Peter both charge down a crowd alone before their deaths.
  • Eating the Eye Candy: When Marian and Sarah happen upon Robin taking a bath, the men try to cover their eyes. Marian... declines.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • After all the horrible things he's done, the Sheriff is outraged at the notion of forcing himself on Marian before they are properly married. He seems to have no problem with forcing her after they're married (though at that point he probably thinks it's just his right). Note that he was already shown casually engaging in raping the servant girls, so it's less about being opposed to rape and more that he didn't want to sire a bastard, preferring his Child by Rape be legitimate.
    • He also balks at recruiting the Celts, noting that "they drink the blood of their dead".
    • While the Sheriff is in the middle of trying to rape Marian, Mortianna gives him a pillow to put under her head.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: This exchange when the scribe tries to explain why the commoners support Robin Hood instead of turning him in for the Sheriff's ever-increasing bounty.
    Scribe: It won't do no good how much you raise it... The poor y'see, he gives them what he takes, and well sire, they love him.
    Sheriff: Just a minute. Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public... and they love him for it?!
  • Evil Is Petty: "Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings... and call off Christmas!"
  • Evil Plan: The Sheriff of Nottingham kills Robin's father to take his title before trying to force Maid Marian to marry him so he can kill her cousin Richard the Lionheart and take over England.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Alan Rickman as the Sheriff.
  • Evil Sounds Raspy: Michael Wincott as Guy of Gisborne.
  • Exact Words: When Friar Tuck confronts the corrupt bishop, he promises not to "strike a fellow man of the cloth." He then loads him up with his ill-gotten gold and defenestrates him.
  • Eye Scream:
    • Duncan, Lord Locksley's retainer, had his eyes cut out because he refused to believe the accusations leveled at his master. The fact that he's the only servant left on the Locksley estate when Robin arrives suggests he might have been the only one who resisted.
    • Robin kills the executioner by shooting him in the eye with a flaming arrow to keep him from executing the outlaws.

    F-N 
  • False Reassurance: When Friar Tuck comes to confront him the Bishop of Hereford asks if he's really going to strike "a fellow man of the cloth". Tuck agrees that he wouldn't and then shoves the Bishop out of the window without technically "striking" him.
  • Family-Unfriendly Death: Robin stabs the Sheriff in the heart, using the dagger that Marian had given him - which the Sheriff had previously given her.
    • Also Mortianna. Azeem runs her though with a spear, then throws a sword into her head when that doesn't work.
  • Fanfare: Michael Kamen's main title theme is a powerful flourish of brass instruments.
  • Fatal Flaw: Two examples on display during the climax:
    • The Sheriff's is his arrogance. Rather than kill Robin immediately once he's cornered, he takes a moment to gloat, looking at Marian. That moment is all Robin needs to turn the tables.
    • The Bishop's is his greed. Instead of running for his life, he instead stops to gather up his ill-gotten gold, which is where Friar Tuck finds him and proceeds to shove him out a window.
  • Faux Affably Evil: For all his Large Ham and Laughably Evil tendencies, the Sheriff of Nottingham is worse here than he is almost ever portrayed. He is not only a murderous asshole, he worships the devil.
  • Fingore: Downplayed. Robin Hood gets his fingers painfully trapped in the metal slide on a door's aperture at Marian's estate when the servant forcibly closes it on him (the same hand that is freshly bandaged from his earlier Blood Oath!).
  • Fluffy the Terrible: During the wedding scene, the Sheriff's real first name is revealed to be... George.
  • Foil: Between Nottingham's and Robin's weddings to Marian. Nottingham's wedding is cold, dark, secluded within the confines of a castle, not to mention she's being forced into this marriage. Oh and it's being done in the wake of Satanism. Marian's dressed in almost a metallic gown, with her hair pulled back from her face in a confined manner that seems to represent her own imprisonment, and her face is hard and angry. Meanwhile, you have Robin's wedding where everything is bright, warm with so many friends as the attendees, out in the open of Sherwood Forest, with the smell of freedom in the air. The bride wears a flowing white dress with her hair unbound and crowned with a wreath of autumn leaves, and she smiles almost continuously. To top it all off, Robin and Marian's wedding has King Richard's blessing.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • When Robin reveals his name to the future Merry Men at the river, the camera focuses on Will Scarlet shooting him a Death Glare.
    • Later, when Marian visits the forest dwelling, she and Robin have a private conversation where they reminisce about his father, and he confesses how lost he and his father were after the death of Robin's mother. He mentions that his father sought relief in the company of another woman, but then gave her up because it made Robin so unhappy. Cut to much later in the film, and we learn that Will Scarlet is the son of Robin's father and that woman.
  • Friend to All Children: Friar Tuck. When the Sheriff's men infiltrate the forest dwelling, he rounds up several of the kids and herds them to safety.
    Friar Tuck: This way, my lambs.
    • Azeem also gets a nod with his friendly exchange with the little girl asking him "Did God paint you?" And of course, his saving John and Fanny's baby during birth.
  • Funny Background Event: When the Sheriff invites the Celtic chieftain to the council with his allies, one questions his abilities. The chieftain takes a burning log out of the fireplace and calmly presses it against his own palm. Others are impressed and the council continues, while, in the background, the chieftain is visibly stifling a scream, even biting his hand.
  • Give Away the Bride: King Richard requests that he be allowed to do this when he interrupts the wedding of Robin and Marian just before Friar Tuck declares them to be husband and wife. No one objects.
  • God Help Us All: As the Celts prepare to attack the village, Azeem gasps, "Allah be merciful."
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Mortianna. She killed the original George Nottingham and replaced him with her own son, then spent years stoking his ambitions and tutoring him in devil worship before seeing his infatuation with Lady Marian, a cousin of King Richard, as a way to put her grandson in line for the throne of England.
  • Groin Attack:
    • This is how the brief fight between Robin and an armored Lady Marian ends.
    • Also, part of how Robin defeats Little John in their fight is to sneak up on him and hit him in the crotch with the staff.
    • During the final fight between Robin and the Sheriff, Nottingham says that he will be the only one "doing the taking." Marian responds by throwing hot candle wax on his crotch.
  • Happily Married: Little John and Fanny bicker a lot, but it's clear they're also very happy together (considering they have eight children). They're frequently shown to worry about each other's well-being, and when Fanny nearly dies in childbirth, John is beside himself with terror.
  • Hard-Work Montage: After Robin Hood's Rousing Speech ("By God, we take it back!"), the Merry Men set about to training in archery and swordfighting under Robin and Azeem while also crafting weapons and building their hideout in Sherwood Forest.
  • Heroic Bastard: Will Scarlet, who is Robin's illegitimate half-brother.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The Sheriff is stabbed by the knife he gave to Marian, who later gave it to Robin. Subverted when Mortianna survives being stabbed by the spear with which she had attacked Azeem.
  • Holier Than Thou: The Bishop.
  • Hope Spot: The outlaws do a valiant job of defending themselves and even appear to have successfully driven the invaders back. Then the Sherriff's men step forward with fire-tinged arrows and catapults...
  • Horseback Heroism:
    • Robin steals the Sheriff's horse and uses it to escape while stealing food from a marketplace to feed his men, before the woodland encampment is properly established.
    • Later, Duncan gets a variant of this when Marian is captured by the Sheriff's men; he gets a horse from the stable and manages to find his way back to Robin's camp despite being blind. Unfortunately, he has no idea that the Sheriff's men are following him, and he was in fact allowed to escape for exactly this reason.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: While their ages are never brought up, Azeem is quite a bit older than Robin. Morgan Freeman was fifty-four at the time and the fictious Robert Fitzooth, the traditional identity for the Robin Hood of Richard I's time, has 1160 as his birth year, making for a twenty year age difference between the two men.
  • I Owe You My Life: Azeem's whole reason for being in England.
  • I'm Standing Right Here: A rather amusing use of this, as the recently-blinded Duncan curses the Moors and Saracens, with Azeem sitting right next to him.
    Duncan: Curse those Moors and Saracens. Were it not for their ungodly ways, Master Robin would never have left. [Beat] What manner of name is "Azeem"? Irish? Cornish?
    Azeem: Moorish.
  • Impaled Palm: Will Scarlet gets an arrow through the hand when he tries to backstab Robin Hood.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Mortianna is on the receiving end of this from Azeem, who's using the same spear she tried to kill him with seconds before.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: Both played straight and subverted. The subversion is in Robin actually missing a shot. Sure, he was Distracted by the Sexy (so to speak), but come on. He's Robin Hood.
    • Just before the forest battle, several watchmen fire into a crowd of people around Robin and come within inches of hitting them while firing warning arrows.
  • Inertial Impalement: When Azeem gets the spear away from Mortianna, she charges at him. Azeem defends himself with the spear, and based on the look on his face, he wasn't trying to stab her; she did that on her own.
  • Invulnerable Knuckles: The Sheriff of Nottingham punches out an unfortunate henchman who's wearing a helmet and a chain mail coif, and doesn't even flinch.
  • Ironic Echo: Robin intervenes when Guy of Gisbourne has chased a young boy up a tree. Guy tells Robin to butt out, as they are on the Sheriff’s land. Robin (who doesn’t know yet that the Sheriff has murdered his father and seized the family lands) retorts that they are actually on his land, therefore the tree and everything in it belong to him.
    Guy: [annoyed] Might I have the pleasure of your name, before I have you run through?
    Robin: [smugly] Robin of Locksley.
    Guy: Well, well... Locksley. Welcome home. [to his men] Kill him!
    [Robin proceeds to single-handedly wipe out Guy’s men and ends up holding Guy at swordpoint on the ground.]
    Robin: Now, sir... if you will be so kind as to tell me your name, before I run you through...
  • Join or Die: The Sheriff of Nottingham gives Lord Locksley the choice to join up or die. Cue Dying Moment of Awesome:
    Lord Locksley: "GOD AND KING RICHARD!!!"
  • Karmic Injury: During their final battle, the Sheriff slashes Robin across the chin as payback for the scar on the cheek Robin gave him earlier.
  • Kick the Dog: The Sheriff of Nottingham embraces his role as the bad guy:
    Sheriff of Nottingham: Wait a minute. Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public, and they love him for it?
    [Scribe nods]
    Sheriff: That's it, then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans. No more merciful beheadings. And call off Christmas!
  • Large Ham:
    • Alan Rickman, so very much. He only took the part on the condition that he got to play it however he wantednote .
    • BRIAN BLESSED AND Sean Connery are in the movie. AND they each only have one scene. Sean Connery isn't even listed in the credits!
    • Nick Brimble (Little John) sometimes seems to be making up for BRIAN BLESSED only having one scene by doing a damn good imitation of him in half his own scenes.
  • Licensed Game: Received a video game adaptation for the NES. Spoony reviews it here.
  • Lodged-Blade Recycling: Mortianna attacks Azeem with a spear, and lodges it in his leg when he tries to deflect. After a struggle, Azeem ends up with the spear and Mortianna impales herself on it. Later, after Robin kills the Sheriff, Mortianna reappears, charging him with the same spear.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: As mentioned under Re-Cut, below. The Sheriff grew up thinking Mortianna raised him after he was orphaned, but she reveals that she's actually his birth mother. She's a Bride of Satan, and her master plot is to have the Sheriff wed Marian, steal the kingdom from Richard, and father the next King of England - putting her bloodline on the throne.
    • From the theatrical cut there's the reveal, nearly two-thirds of the way through the movie, that Will is Robin's half-brother from Lord Locksley's affair with a servant woman after Robin's mother died.
  • Made of Iron: Downplayed with Mortianna. She shrugs off Azeem spearing her through the torso, pulls the spear out, and attacks Robin with it. A thrown sword to the head, though? That does kill her.
  • Makes Us Even: The Sheriff invokes this by slashing Robin's chin with his sword before their Final Battle begins as payback for the scar Robin left on his cheek.
  • Mama Bear and Papa Wolf: Fanny and Little John, who are this way about each other as well as their kids.
    John: What are you doing, woman? Where's the little 'uns?
    Fanny: They're safe, they're with my mother.
    John: You gone and bleedin' cracked, girl? You'd get hurt!
    Fanny: I've given birth to eight babies, don't you talk to me about getting hurt, you big ox! Anyway, I'm not gonna just sit here and let one of 'em die, am I?
    John: You should be bloody well mindin' the other seven!
  • The Man Behind the Man: The Dukes whom the Sheriff is bribing to help him overthrow the king.
  • Massive Numbered Siblings: Wulf, the eldest son of Fanny and Little John, has seven younger brothers and sisters (the youngest of whom is born midway through the film). Wulf is the only one whose name is ever mentioned.
  • Master Archer: Robin Hood, of course. Azeem also turns out to be a good shot and so is Wulf after being trained.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The witch is shown faking several of her tricks, but a few others are left unexplained.
  • Medieval Morons: Most of the Merry Men.
  • Multishot: Robin fires two arrows at the same time.
    • There's even a nice nod to the improbability of this as a quick shot shows Robin biting some of the fletching off one of the arrows, presumably to make it go wide and hit a second target.
  • Men of Sherwood: The Trope Namers are out in full form, as the Merry Men put on consistently good showings. When the Sheriff's army of Celtic mercenaries launch an all-out assault on the forest encampment, they're defeated without a single on-screen casualty until the Flaming Arrows come out and the entire camp is burned down.
  • Movie Superheroes Wear Black: One of the first cinematic versions in a good while to do away with Robin's then-iconic green tunic and bycocket, the movie opts to dress him in more period-appropriate clothes of neutral and muted colors.
  • Mundane Made Awesome: The Sheriff of Nottingham somehow makes the order to "close the gate" sound utterly badass. Also the lines "Get some troops in here!" and "What are you waiting for?! Get on with it!" Of course, it is Alan Rickman.
  • Neutral Female: Mostly, though not entirely, averted during the final fight between Robin and the Sheriff. Marian (who is unarmed and unarmored) does her best to stay out of the way, which is exactly what she should be doing with those big broadswords swinging around. However, she doesn't hesitate to throw whatever she can get her hands on at the Sheriff when his back is to her. She even appears to be preparing to strangle him with her bare hands at one point, though he disrupts the attempt. She also trips him up by kicking a bench at him and burns him with a candle.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Wulf recognizes Will in the crowd on his way to be hanged. Angry over his apparent betrayal, he attacks him. The Sheriff recognizes Will in the scuffle and, upon hearing of Will's "failure" to kill Robin, adds him to the condemned. When the hangman comes up short a noose due to the addition, he ties Will to the planted barrel of gun powder. Now Robin can't shoot the barrel to save them.
  • Nice to the Waiter: We know Marian's a good person because she treats her servants well and she brings purses full of money to church on Sunday to give to the poor. Conversely, we know the Sheriff's a jackass for many reasons, but among them are the way he treats his scribe and Guy of Gisborne (who is his own cousin in this).
  • The Nicknamer: Azeem has a knack of referring to Robin as "the Christian" more than his actual name due to his crusader background, even after they move to England and it's redundant since pretty much everyone else is Christian.
  • Noodle Incident: We never learn what caused Azeem to be imprisoned, other than that it involved a woman named Jasmine.
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent:
    • Costner's Robin Hood mostly sounds like he's from Nebraska. (Which is odd, since he's actually from California). Apparently he did attempt an English accent but it was so terrible that it would have made Dick Van Dyke sound like a native cockney, so it was decided to stick with Costner's natural voice.
    • Also Sean Connery, but that goes without saying. To be fair to Connery on this occasion, an English accent on Richard the Lionheart would have been inaccurate (he probably never learned English and would have conducted court business in French, though he was a native Gascon speaker so he would have spoken French with what would sound to most modern audiences like a Catalan accent). Ironically, this makes his Scottish accent a decent facsimile of how alien he would have sounded to his English subjects.
    • For some reason, Christian Slater doesn't get a tenth of the mockery that Costner does, but this might have more to do with his not being in the central role, and at least making an attempt at the accent, dropping his R's and pronouncing short A's as Ah's. But this only serves to make him sound sillier.
    • Hence, Mel Brooks did the famous Take That! when in Men in Tights, his Robin comments "Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent". Then again, the language used in England in the 12th century was nothing like what we call English today (Received Pronunciation/Standard English being recent developments). In fact, the language of the English nobility of the time was Anglo-Norman French; Richard himself didn't speak English at all.
    • To be fair, you could make the case for most of the cast being this trope, as even the British actors speak with their natural voices, which run the full gamut of English regional accents - none of which are even remotely from anywhere near Nottinghamshire, or even a Medieval one. The reason Costner's and Slater's stick out so much is because they are either not even trying to do an accent, or their attempt at it fails miserably, and it sounds jarring next to actual Brits.
    • Averted with American actors Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Mike McShane, who both offered very passable English accents as Marian and Friar Tuck, respectively.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: A downplayed example with Sheriff George of Nottingham, in that while he is clearly a dangerous man, we don't actually see him in combat until the climax where it becomes frighteningly clear that he is a swordsman equal to Robin, if not better.

    O-Z 
  • Off with His Head!: When Will Scarlet tries to redeem himself and is caught trying to interfere with the execution of Wulf and the other outlaws, he is initially summarily condemned to hang as well. There’s just one small problem: all the nooses on the gallows are occupied. The executioner’s solution is to bind Will to a barrel and use said barrel as a makeshift chopping block. Thankfully, Robin is able to shoot the executioner just as he’s raising his axe.
    Will: (seeing the lack of room on the gallows) My lord, there’s no more room! I’m afraid I have to decline!
    Executioner: (bends Will over a barrel and binds him in place before whispering in his ear, taking care to leave a string of spittle by Will’s ear) There’s always room for one more.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Duncan's reaction to learning, belatedly, that Azeem is a Moor... mere seconds after having cursed the Moors and blamed them for Robin's predicament.
    • A more serious one is after the Merry Men defend their forest home from hired thugs. Robin looks out towards the Nottingham soldiers in the distance, with flaming arrows and trebuchets, and says "My God" in sheer terror. Azeem is right there with him, offering up his own "Allah be merciful!"
    • Also when Mortianna and Azeem see each other for the first time, each having heard all the horror stories about the other (and, in Mortianna's case, having had prophetic dreams about Azeem).
      Mortianna: The painted man!
      Azeem: The witch!
  • Outdoor Bath Peeping: Gender reversed; Marian sees Robin bathing nude in a waterfall's base and stares without a hint of shame.
  • Parting-Words Regret: Despite their falling out before the story begins, Robin and his father still love each other and regret how they parted in anger when he left for the Crusade. Before he died, Lord Locksley tried to arrange for his son's release from capture, and Robin has a Heroic BSoD when he finds his father's corpse.
  • Period Piece, Modern Language: At the sheriff's orders posters are put up offering a reward for Robin dead or alive, written in modern English, which did not come into existence until the late 14th century.
  • Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Right before throwing the corrupt Bishop out of a window, Friar Tuck offers this beauty.
    Tuck: (adding one more pouch of coins to the bundles he's already shoved into the Bishop's arms) Here's thirty pieces of silver... to pay the devil... on your way to HELL!!
  • Precision F-Strike: "Fuck me, he cleared it!" Also a Throw It In! by Slater.
  • Produce Pelting: As the sentenced-to-hanging men are led out to the gallows, many of those watching throw assorted vegetation at them.
  • Public Execution: After the successful raid on the Merry Men’s camp, Nottingham sentences those captured in the raid- including young Wulf- to death by hanging. When Will Scarlet, seeking to redeem himself, tries to intervene, he is summarily ordered executed as well, only for there to be no more room on the gallows, so the executioner finds a barrel and binds him to it, intending to carry out the “sentence” with an axe. Fortunately, Robin is able to intervene by not only shooting through Wulf’s noose while he’s hanging but also shooting the executioner before he can chop off Will’s head. Little John then manages to run up to the gallows, and, using his brute strength, is able to push it over enough onto one side to save the rest of the condemned Merry Men.
  • Re-Cut: The extended version adds in 12 minutes of new footage, including an entire subplot with the Sheriff and Mortianna. She's his biological mother and using him as a pawn in her Evil Plan to get her own bloodline on the throne in King Richard's absence.
  • Recycled Trailer Music: Disney uses the main fanfare in the promotional clip that plays as soon as one of their DVDs is loaded.
  • Reformed Bully: Robin himself; Marian claims when they first meet again that all her memories of Robin from their youth were of him being a spoiled bully to her, specifically citing how he used to burn her hair for fun. It's one of the reasons she's so reluctant to take him in and accept his offer of protection, even as he insists he's matured, though the fact he says goodbye to her with a hard smack to her backside probably doesn't help his attempts at convincing her.
  • Related in the Adaptation:
    • It often varies in regards to Robin and Will, with their relation being either uncle and nephew, cousins, or completely unrelated. Here they are paternal half-brothers.
    • The Sheriff and Sir Guy are not typically portrayed as being related to one another. Here they are cousins, though likely adoptive, due to Mortianna having switched her infant son with the actual infant son of the House of Nottingham.
    • Marian and Richard are portrayed as cousins. Typically, there is no relation between the two.
  • Relative Button: Guy of Gisbourne intentionally pushes the button, mocking the death of Robin's father to make Robin attempt to fight him right then, when Guy is surrounded by mooks, and be duly slaughtered. Fortunately for Robin, Azeem is there to talk some sense into him.
    Guy: Your father died a coward, cursing your name and squealing like a stuck pig!
    Azeem: [grabs Robin as he starts to move toward Guy] You will bring no justice to your father by dying today!
  • Releasing from the Promise: Robin repeatedly tries to do this to Azeem once they reach England. Azeem refuses each time, saying that Robin doesn't get to decide when Azeem has fulfilled his vow to protect him.
  • Renaissance Man: The Sheriff's scribe serves as his bookkeeper, surgeon, advisor, assistant, and also informant about the public's opinion on Robin.
  • The Resenter: Will Scarlet towards Robin. In the latter half of the movie, we find out why when Will reveals that he's Robin's illegitimate half-brother.
    Will Scarlet: I have more reason to hate you than anyone.
  • Role Called
  • Rousing Speech: Azeem's speech to the people of Nottingham.
    Azeem: ENGLISH! ENGLISH! Behold, Azeem Ibn Bashir Al-Bakir! I am not one of you, but I fight! I fight with Robin Hood! I fight against the tyrant who holds you under his boot! If you would be free men, then you must fight... join us now! Join Robin Hood!
  • Royals Who Actually Do Something: Marian is King Richard's cousin, making her a member of the Plantagenet royal family. She refuses to leave her home and join her mother in London because "I am the King's cousin; it is my station to look after his people while he is away!" She gives refugees the freedom to camp on her estate and distributes money to the poor. She's also quite the Action Girl, as shown in her introductory scene.
  • Running Gag: Robin seems incapable of meeting anyone without getting in a fight, which is a nice nod to the original ballads... where Robin is incapable of meeting anyone without getting into a fight.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Marian is introduced masked, and it's not until she lets out a high-pitched scream when Robin sticks her hand in a candle that her identity is revealed.
  • Say My Name: Marian's infamous "Robiiin!" and his slightly more restrained "Marian!" In the beginning, Lord Locksley uses this as a Battle Cry, screaming his loyalty to King Richard during his last fight. Then the famous moment when Robin reveals to all that he still lives when he saves Wulf from the hangman's noose...
    Sheriff: Locksley...
    Marian: (screams) ROBIN!!!
  • Scary Black Man: Azeem to the British. Less so to the audience, considering he's played by Morgan Freeman.
  • Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Kevin Costner in the movie poster.
  • Secret Circle of Secrets: The Sheriff and his conspirators.
  • Shoot the Rope: To save the kid! Played with in that Robin has to shoot it twice, as the first arrow only frays it. The second one saves Wulf, and reveals to the Sheriff and Marian that he's still alive after the Sheriff was told by Will that Robin was dead after the Celts attacked Sherwood Forest.
  • Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace: Friar Tuck allows the wedding guests a chance to object to the marriage of Robin and Marian, but after the moment of silence and before Tuck pronounces the couple as husband and wife, King Richard steps in to prevent the marriage from taking place unless he is allowed to Give Away the Bride. None object to the king's wish.
  • The Starscream: Given that Prince John is presumably the ruler in King Richard's absence at the time of the film (as he was in real life), the Sheriff of Nottingham is this to him, as he plans to take over the country. However, the Prince is never mentioned in the film at all.
  • Stop Drowning and Stand Up: Robin and Little have this conversation after they're both knocked into the water after a quarterstaff battle:
    Robin of Locksley: Do you yield?
    John Little: I can't bloody swim!
    Robin of Locksley: Do you yield?
    John Little: Yes!
    Robin of Locksley: Good. Now put your feet down.
    John Little: [finds that he is standing in less than 2 feet of water] I'll be buggered.
  • Storming the Castle: Complete with explosions and a Catapult to Glory.
  • Stout Strength: Friar Tuck is able to pull a horse cart full of beer barrels after Robin takes him hostage and makes him pull the cart back to the outlaws' hideout.
  • Super Drowning Skills: Little John can't swim at all, and concedes defeat to Robin when he thinks he might drown. It turns out that the water in which he's floundering only comes up to his thighs.
  • Swashbuckler
  • Sword over Head
  • Sword Sparks: Mostly against stone pillars.
  • The Teetotaler: Azeem is offered mead by Little John, and later invited for a drink by Friar Tuck, who is decidedly not a teetotaler.
    "With regret, I must decline. Allah forbids it."
  • This Is Gonna Suck: When Azeem sees the Celtic hordes through his telescope, he says in a tone of genuine fear, "Allah be merciful."
  • Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Azeem chucks his sword at Mortianna while she is in full sprint, and hits her square on. And she goes flying across the room and hits the wall! It's hinted there may be something mystical at work here, as Mortianna prophesies that Azeem will be the one to kill her, something he seems to feel as well. Averted a few minutes before this, when Robin's sword breaks a little above the hilt, and he throws the remainder at the Sheriff.
  • Title Drop: Marian does it when speaking privately with Robin.
    Robin of the Hood, prince of thieves... is he capable of love?
  • Took a Level in Kindness: The general report on younger Robin is he was pretty much an entitled jerk. Marian remembers him as "a spoiled bully who used to burn my hair as a child," Will Scarlett has even more reason to have a grievance against him, and Robin himself admits responsibility for Will being abandoned and notes regretfully that his father did it "for the love of a twelve-year-old boy who would never forgive him."
  • Tragic Keepsake: Lord Locksley's medallion to Robin. Later, briefly, to Marian as well when she believes Robin to have died during the battle at the woodland hideout. She even wears it during her wedding to the Sheriff, much to the groom's annoyance.
  • Tranquil Fury: Friar Tuck, when he confronts the Bishop, who's trying to escape with his money.
    Friar Tuck: So... you've sold your soul to Satan, Your Grace. You accused innocent men of witchcraft and let them die!
  • Training the Peaceful Villagers: Well, they're not peaceful, and they're not villagers, but they're farmers who have no combat training.
  • Tree Top Town: The outlaws and their families dwell in one in Sherwood Forest.
  • Trick-and-Follow Ploy: When the Sheriff's men apprehend Marian and turn her entire household upside down, they specifically let the elderly and blind Duncan escape so he can lead them back into Robin's encampment.
    Will Scarlet: (with more pity than malice) Blind old fool led 'em straight to us.
  • Tricked into Escaping: Duncan is allowed to escape so that he can be followed back to Robin's camp.
  • Truer to the Text: Downplayed since the film made considerable changes to the lore and actual history, but the decision to excise Prince John completely and just use the Sheriff of Nottingham as the Big Bad brings things back to the original ballads and stories, where he was the sole Big Bad (as the time period wouldn't get associated with Robin Hood until centuries later).
    • There are also some ideas in the film which harkens back to the older tellings which has fallen out of fashion in most modern versions by the time the film was made:
      • Marian fights Robin in her initial appearance which goes along more to the stories were Marian could hold her own and sometimes was the protagonist.
      • The corrupt church theme in the film mirrors how the ballads and plays would lampoon the church with the lower ranking clergy being sincere and helpful while the high ranking bishops and abbotts were greedy and corrupt. Contrast Friar Tuck and the Bishop.
  • Tsundere: Marian at times.
  • The Un-Favourite: Will Scarlet, who was the son of Robin's father and a woman with whom he was involved after the death of Robin's mother. Lord Locksley broke it off with the woman (and basically abandoned his second son) because the affair upset Robin; as Robin himself notes when relating the affair to Marian, he did it "for the love of a twelve-year-old boy who would never forgive him." However, the novelization of the film reveals that Will was born after Lord Locksley broke off the affair, and Will’s mother never told Lord Locksley she was pregnant, suggesting that he was entirely unaware of the child's existence.
  • Under the Mistletoe: While walking to his family home, Robin notices a mistletoe plant and stops to pick some.
    Robin: Many a young maid has lost her virtue to me, thanks to this little plant.
    Azeem: In my country, we talk to our women. We do not drug them with plants.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: Friar Tuck's above-mentioned line about "thirty pieces of silver" is a Biblical reference; this was the amount of money that Judas Iscariot was paid to betray Jesus Christ. However, the way the line is delivered and the shocking defenestration which follows are both so incredibly badass that some viewers didn't really catch the reference.
  • Villainous Breakdown: The Sheriff goes through one of these after Robin and the outlaws put paid to a large chunk of his Evil Plan to overthrow the King.
    Sheriff: In ten days' time, the barons are coming. Robin Hood has stolen what I was to pay for their allegiance, and I am surrounded by fools who do not realise my obligations!
  • Villainous BSoD: In the Re-Cut: The Sheriff, after Mortianna reveals that she's his biological mother.
  • Violent Glaswegian: Implied.
    Mortianna: Recruit the beasts that share our god.
    Sheriff of Nottingham: Animals?
    Mortianna: From the North.
    Sheriff of Nottingham: You mean Celts. They drink the blood of their dead.
  • "Wanted!" Poster: During the movie, there's a shot of a wanted poster for Robin Hood (with his name as "Robin of the Hood"). It's a "dead or alive" version, with the reward being 1,000 gold coins.
  • Waterfall Shower: Taken by Robin.
  • Wedding Deadline:
    • The Sheriff actually gets married to Marian before Robin can stop it, but he dies pretty shortly thereafter, leaving her Widowed at the Wedding. (As an unstated bonus, this means she can legally inherit all of his property, and thereby return everything to the people from whom he stole it - including Robin's lands.)
    • Happens again when King Richard interrupts Robin's and Marian's wedding.
  • Wedding Finale: The film ends with Robin and Marian marrying in a beautiful ceremony in the woods - which King Richard interrupts (right before Friar Tuck declares that they are husband and wife) on the grounds that he should be permitted to Give Away the Bride. No one objects; Marian is delighted.
  • World of Ham: To be expected with a cast like Alan Rickman and BRIAN BLESSED.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Nottingham would kill a child, as evidenced when one of the outlaws, a young boy named Wulf, is made to go to the gallows alongside the adult outlaws, and in fact is the first to feel the noose’s embrace.note  Thankfully, Robin is there to Shoot the Rope. Gisborne as well is introduced chasing Wulf down with men and hunting dogs for poaching, and the newly-returned Robin drives them off.
  • Xanatos Gambit: With a side order of Batman Gambit. Consider the Sheriff's plan of attack on the Merry Men. He sends the Celts in first; if they kill the Merry Men, he wins. If they retreat into the treetops and shoot the Celts (which is what happens), that's fine too. He'll just use his Arrows on Fire and flaming catapults to kill them anyway.
  • You All Meet in a Cell: Robin and Azeem.
  • You Are a Credit to Your Race: Robin practically says this verbatim to Azeem after the battle of Sherwood Forest, adding that he fought better than twenty English knights. The context implies that it is said with no malice and pure admiration.
  • You Have Failed Me: The Sheriff disembowels Guy of Gisborne after stating that "I can't allow a lieutenant to fail me." (At least he didn't use a spoon.) Made arguably worse by the fact that Guy is the Sheriff's cousin, and only seconds before the killing, the Sheriff had been embracing and consoling him over the failure.
  • You Killed My Father: The Sheriff did this to Lord Locksley, which he makes clear to Robin when they confront each other for the big climax.
    • More in the sense of You Stole My Father, Will Scarlet blames Robin for their father leaving his mother. In the end, the two reconcile.

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Alternative Title(s): Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves

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The Sheriff of Nottingham

The Sheriff of Nottingham is peeved that Robin Hood is still at large.

How well does it match the trope?

4.8 (10 votes)

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Main / LaughablyEvil

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