Post by Dennis of Ravenscar on Jun 25, 2014 10:35:10 GMT
Character Profile
Nasir
“Nasir Malik Kamal Inal Ibrahin Shams ad Duala Watthab ibn Mahmud.”
Nasir is a fascinating character, probably because we know so little about him. To be fair though, throughout the series we are given quite a lot of background information about him, more so than for Little John, for example, but even with all that information he is still quite an enigma. With his lack of conversation we very rarely know what he thinks about anything, so we can only guess from his actions.
So, what do we know about him? The information that is revealed, mostly in the episodes Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, The Greatest Enemy and The Sheriff of Nottingham is that he is (or was) a member of the Order of Assassins, that he was ordered to kill Sarak, and failed, and that he ended up working for Baron de Belleme. From these bare bones I will see if I can come up with a more detailed possible background for Nasir.
First, the Order of Assassins. The thing to remember about the Assassins is that their enemies were the orthodox Muslims, not the Crusaders, and in fact they even helped the Crusaders at times. Their politics were extreme, and is likely that the actual fida’is (assassins) were brought up from childhood to be fanatical believers in the sect and highly trained in the skills they would need to commit their political murders. Nasir certainly has the skills of a trained killer: he is stealthy, he is a good tracker, he is skilled in various weapons and methods of fighting and he can fend for himself. It is not clear, though, whether his beliefs when he is with the outlaws are the same as when he was an assassin. He certainly appears to be a Muslim, as he refrains from drinking alcohol and eating pork, but this doesn’t mean he still fanatically believes in all the aims of the Assassins.
So, what can we ascertain about his history before he joins the outlaws? From his and Sarak’s comments in The Sheriff of Nottingham, we learn that they were both assassins and that Sarak taught Nasir how to fight. They were very close, as Nasir says, “He was my brother”, but then Sarak betrayed the Order, selling their secrets for a price. Nasir was sent to kill him, and attacked him while he was smoking hashish. He cut him across the face and left him for dead. As a professional, there’s no way Nasir wouldn’t have done the job properly unless he didn’t really want to kill his friend.
So what happened to Nasir after this? Did he feel that he had failed? Did his feelings about the cause change after he was asked to kill his friend? For whatever reason, it appears that he left the Assassins and took employment with Belleme. It’s possible that he was assigned to kill the Baron, and working for him was the best way to get close to him. If this was the case, he was taking his time about it, but if he knew of Belleme’s magical powers he would realise he would have to be circumspect. If he had, in fact, left the Order, working for Belleme might just have been a way to survive, using his skills, and way to get out of the normal sphere of influence of the Assassins.
From what we see in Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, Nasir does not appear to be under Belleme’s control, as John is initially, nor does he have anything to do with the devil worship that is going on. He’s not even involved with capturing Marion. He seems to be employed as a personal bodyguard and Belleme must consider his loyalty great enough to make any kind of magical control unnecessary. Even in the archery contest, he leaves it to Nasir’s natural skill to win, only assisting magically in the final round. It’s possible that Belleme keeps him away from his dealings with Azael, suspecting that Nasir would leave if he knew of them.
I’m not entirely sure why he fights with Robin as he is trying to escape with Marion. I think he had been ordered to, but was beginning to have some idea of what the Baron was up to and changed his allegiance during the fight after being impressed by Robin’s skills.
If he had been ordered to assassinate Belleme it seems likely that he would have gone back to the Order once he was dead, so it does appear more likely that he had decided to leave. In The Greatest Enemy two Assassins meet with Nasir. They want to take him back with them, and when he refuses they try to kill him. They were probably concerned that he would give away the Order’s secrets as Sarak had. I would have thought that as a ‘rogue’ Assassin they would have killed him anyway, but since he had not actually done anything wrong perhaps they really did want him back.
So why did Nasir join the outlaws? I think that, given his background, he had a strong need to belong to a group, especially one with a purpose as, in leaving the Order, he had lost his original purpose. His skills would also be useful to the (pretty raw) outlaws, a fact that probably hastened his acceptance into the group, whereas Marion, for example, had more of a problem fitting in with the others. It is noticeable that despite being such an efficient fighter, he does have a softer side, shown in episodes such as The Children of Israel, something that would have been at odds in an Assassin but is an asset amongst the outlaws.
He is clearly a very loyal person and is inclined to follow orders given by Robin. It may be because he is not very confident at speaking English, but he does not usually get involved in tactical discussions with Robin, Scarlet and John, although they often look to him for confirmation of their decisions and they defer to his skills, especially in tracking. In The Children of Israel he clearly does not agree with Will’s plan to attack the Sheriff without Robin, but he goes along with him, because he wouldn’t leave them to fight without him. He could have tried to persuade the others that it was a bad idea, but that’s not his style. He prefers to keep out of arguments between the merries. If there’s trouble he just gets out of the way: he’s the first to leave Nottingham in The King’s Fool, and he avoids telling Marion that Robin has gone off with a woman in The Enchantment, even though he can tell this from the tracks he finds.
The more he is with the outlaws, the more he loosens up, even though he is always ready to fight. In common with most of the other merries, he has a bit of an eye for the ladies, as we can see when he gives Sarah the eye in The Children of Israel, and he really looks like he’s enjoying himself in Lord of the Trees when he ends up with a girl on each knee!
Nasir is a new addition to the Robin Hood legend, but one who fits in well and has become very popular. With his air of mystery and uncertain background there is a fascination to the character that engages your interest, and then, of course, there is his superb fighting ability. It is always enjoyable to see anything done well and the concern in his opponents’ faces when confronted with those swirling twin blades is very satisfying to watch.
Best Moments
Most of his scenes in Robin Hood and the Sorcerer, if only because he looks so cool and mean all the time, but especially the fight with Robin, which really shows off his skills. There is no background music during this scene, which makes it very realistic. Also his appearance at the end of the episode, when he fires the last arrow into the lake.
The look on his face after he shoots an arrow into the tree by Will in The Children of Israel.
The scene in The Swords of Wayland when he tells Gareth his full name and tries to teach it to Little John.
Working his way through the Norman soldiers in Wickham in The Greatest Enemy. The careful way he manages to kill so many of them is in contrast to the Will and John’s desperate fights with them.
All the fighting in the blood game in Herne’s Son is superb.
Written by Lucy of Ravenscar
First appeared in Nothing's Forgotten newsletter issue 6, April 1997