Post by enchanted on Jan 14, 2017 12:15:14 GMT
Another question this episode raises is: why does the Sheriff’s attack work so well? And why do Robin, Marion and Much leave the forest, which has always been their place of safety? The answer is that the Sheriff (or any other of Robin’s enemies) has never been this well organised before. He enlists a large number of men to assist in the capture, and has various contingency plans. The ambush in the village is effective due to the number of soldiers there, but the Sheriff allows for the fact that some of the outlaws may get away. By using the techniques of a hunt he is able to wear down the remaining outlaws and make it impossible to find refuge. With the use of dogs to scent them out, they cannot hide, and they can’t keep running for ever. It is to the outlaws’ credit that they do so comparatively well against the Sheriff.
One could argue that the Sheriff's attack worked so well (in the hunting stage) due to the ineptitude of Robin!
Once Robin realises they are being tracked by hounds, he correctly heads for the stream where the hounds lose the scent, so the Sheriff orders his men to follow both banks until they find it again. Presumably our heroes could only follow the stream in one direction, if they'd had the option of the other direction then the trackers would have had a slight quandary as they only had three dogs!
And this is where, I believe, Robin needed to set up a little ambush of his own.
Robin's reply to Marion's request to stand and fight was "there's too many of them and they know where we are".
But the particular ambush I'm thinking of is a hit and run with only three targets, they're leading the hunt, and they're not human! (Sorry dog lovers)
With the dogs disposed of, our heroes simply slip away untraceable.
Even when Robin chose to go to ground the option was still there to shoot the dogs and hoof it.
But then we wouldn't have had the dramatic last stand that the script required!