Nottingham's Legacy: Passive Hero

You know what's really hard about writing this particular script?

(besides the fact that it's the Sherwood Cycle Swan Song and even though there's still one more script to write the series as a whole is basically over😭😭😭)

Oliver is a Passive Hero.

Awesome.

What is a Passive Hero, you ask?

Rocky in "Rocky Balboa".

Or the title character in "Ivanhoe" (he spends half the book and a good deal of the film adaptions suffering blood loss and basically in hiding and immobile).

Even--according to some--Katniss Everdeen(as witnessed by this writing forums thread)

And Cameron in most of "Ferris Bueller's Day Off".

There is still a character arc, and the character does change; but it's a slow change, and it comes through an almost deus ex machina type of event or events. 

Aka, the story is heavily plot-driven.

Basically, a passive hero is someone who is a pawn of fate. They get dragged through the story because fate demands it; their actions are reactions to an outside force. They complete their "arc" because the plot says they do.

Which still makes a good character (see examples above) it just means that I as a writer need to work harder to make Oliver appealing. 

Not impossible, just challenging.

So that'll be cool. 

Nottingham's Legacy: All Grown Up

I have been with these people for a while, and the best part about writing multiple plays with the same characters is watching them grow.

And grow up.

Ravenna goes from a naive spoiled little goody two shoes into a fiery leader who can stand on her own two feet.

Cassian goes from a cocky and slightly egotistical little boy to a reckless teenager with a possible death wish, the successor of Robin Hood and a leader in his own right.

Tirzah loses her prickles(not not her blunt tongue) and lowers her personality walls and becomes a loving and protective mother.

Jean-Luc grows from a little boy with a big mouth and a violent temper to a mercurial stoic member of the Locksley Pack to Sheriff of Nottingham.

Tarquin and Sorcha go from being hostages to Royal Envoys.

And as these characters grow up, not only do they change, but their character soundtracks change as well.

Which is all sorts of fun.

(note: we haven't seen Mini-Jean-Luc, Mini-Declan, Mini-Mei, or Mini-Cassian yet, but  we will see them later, I promise.)

Cassian/Ravenna

Leading the Pack by Sam Tinnesz 

Rewrite the Stars by Zac Efron and Zendaya

Monsters of the North by The National Parks

Good Life by G-Eazy & Khelani

Jean-Luc/Tirzah

Sail by AWOLNATION

You Put Up With Me by Tyrese

But I Do Love You by LeAnn Rimes

Faith (feat. Ariana Grande) by Stevie Wonder

Tarquin/Sorcha

Make It Last (feat. Jewel) by Tyrese 

Impulsive by Wilson Phillips

Army of One by Coldplay

If I Die Young by The Band Perry

Nottingham's Legacy: Combat Soundtrack

You guys, there is a lot of combat in this show. 

Like, a lot.

Not quite as much as there was in "Wolves", but pretty close.

And it's darker and grittier(like all out brawling sometimes, which I love).

There's a particular three on two fight between Declan, Mei, Enzo, Olympe and Gisbourne that is currently my favorite--but I'm still in the drafting process, so we'll see if that particular fight remains my favorite(think armed/parkour/fisticuffs type of fight and you might get the same beautiful picture I get in my head).

As with everything concerned with my scripts, I have to have a soundtrack for all the combat, because of course I do.

Since that soundtrack is ridiculously long, I'm only gonna share the highlights.

And there's Godsmack and Breaking Benjamin and Red and hip-hop/rap in this soundtrack too.

Because of course there is.

Pray 4 Love by Travis Scott (Combat Theme)

Jungle by X Ambassadors & Jamie N Commons (Combat Theme)

Made for This by The Phantoms (Combat Theme)

Keep Hope Alive by The Crystal Method (Tirzah)

Fighter by Jung Youth & Sam Tinnesz (Oliver)

Go Hard or Go Home by Wiz Khalifa & Iggy Azaelia (Aislinn)

Hide by Red (Tarquin/Sorcha)

Speakerbox by Bassnectar (Declan/Mei/Enzo/Olympe/Gisbourne) updated: Malakai is also in this one.

Warrior by The Phantoms (Jean-Luc/Oliver/Cassian)

Good Day to Die by Godsmack (Jean-Luc--my second favorite fight)

Still Alive by Red (Cassian/Ravenna)

Defeated by Breaking Benjamin (Oliver)

It Has Begun by Starset (Oliver)

Nottingham's Legacy: Olympe

Because every story needs a villain(or villainess), here's the one for "Nottingham's Legacy".

Her name is Olympe.

And she's wonderfully awful.

Think Milady de Winter meets Cercei Lannister meets Regina in full Evil Queen mode.

Olympe has been hired by Guy of Gisbourne (yep, Gisbourne's back!) to kill Oliver. Which is kind of fun. She's also one of the coldest a most dispassionate villains I've written, which makes some scenes perfectly heart-wrenching to write.

Her animal parallel is a Stingray

She's persistent and tenacious and when she sees her target, she pounces, paralyzes and "consumes" them(the paralyzing part can be literal, thanks so some really interesting poison research); and she has this uncanny ability to balance her emotions and practice restraint. She doesn't aggressively attack unless you attack her first.

Olympe's model came from "Aladdin", the same film I got Declan's model from. She's also played Pink Ranger and was in the reboot of "Charlie's Angels". This woman is a powerhouse of an actress and perfect--in my head at least--to take on Olympe. Naomi Scott.

Here's her soundtrack. 

The Chain, by Evanescence

Awake, by Godsmack

Payback, by Juicy J, Kevin Gates, Future & Sage the Gemini

Mask Off, by Future

Sacrimony(Angel of the Afterlife), by Kamelot

War and Peace, by Godsmack,

What You Keep Alive, by Red

Lithium, by Evanescence

E.T. by Katy Perry

Where Did You Sleep Last Night, by Sleigh Bells

Monsters, by Ruelle

Redose, by The Prototypes

Nottingham's Legacy Mini-Detour: Scorpion's Nest Mini-Soundtrack

A group of scorpions is called a nest.   

Why do I even bring this up?

Because I kinda sorta got distracted and started writing about how Mei/Declan/Enzo met and created a whole soundtrack just for them.

Because of course I did.

 

(yes, there are some repeats, but enjoy it anyway)

Get the Job Done, by Huxley Ware, Tiguan, & Ceezlin

(google for a music video)--YouTube is being dumb 😛

The Broken, by 3 Doors Down

Voodoo, by Godsmack

Don't Wanna Fall, by Seven Lions, Last Heroes & HAILENE

Giants, by Dermot Kennedy

Unstoppable Now, by The Phantoms

Burn with Me, by Whilk & Misky

Marry Those Eyes, by MKTO

I Need to Know, by Marc Anthony

Kill My Mind, by Louis Tomlinson

Bad Boy For Life, by Black Rob, Mark Curry & P. Diddy

Intentions (feat. Quavo), by Justin Bieber

Familiar, by Liam Payne & J Bavin

Rescue Me, by OneRepublic

Are You Even Real? by James Blake

Bleeding Out, by Imagine Dragons

How You Remind Me, by Nickelback

Forever, by Red

Broken People, by Logic & Rag 'n' Bone Man

This Is a War, by The Phantoms

Kinda Love, by Olivier Dion

If I Die Young, by The Band Perry

Be Like That, by Kane Brown, Swae Lee and Khalid

Tattoos Together, by Lauv

Fire on Fire, by Sam Smith

Until We Go Down, by Ruelle

Brother, by X Ambassadors

Savage, by Sam Tinnesz

Blood on Blood, by Bon Jovi

Where I Want to Be, by The Dangerous Summer

Time After Time, by Cyndi Lauper

Giants (feat. SOYEON, DUCKWRTH, Thutmos & League of Legends), by True Damage, Becky G & Keke Palmer

Watch Me, by The Phantoms

Walk Me Home, by P!nk

Wolves (feat. Silverberg), by Sam Tinnesz

You're welcome.

Nottingham's Legacy: Mai

Mai is the third Dark Horse in Nottingham's Legacy.

 

And 

I

Love

Her

So

Much!!!

Ok, if I'm being really honest, Mai was a total surprise. One of those characters that pops into the story and flatly refuses to leave and then you figure out it won't work without her.

Yeah. Mai to a T. And "Nottingham's Legacy" isn't the only part of the Sherwood Cycle she's in(but that's for later).

She's also connected to Declan, and she and Enzo help make up the trio that I like to call the Scorpion's Nest(again, more on that later).

 

Mei is stubborn and feisty(yes, I know, like most of my female characters), but she's got a stronger moral compass than either Enzo or Declan...which makes things interesting, especially when it comes to keeping and telling secrets.

In other words, the perfect balance between Enzo and Declan.

Being part of the Scorpion's Nest means that one of her parallels is a scorpion, but, like Enzo, Mai has two parallels. Her other animal is a dolphin.

Dolphins have a slew of symbolic meanings: peace, harmony, protection, playfulness, joy, resurrection, inner strength, and cooperation. They trust their gut more than anything else, and create a balance with those they are around.

Which suites Mai perfectly.

Mei's model has been dancing in the back of my head for a while. I saw the trailer for "Ocean's 8"(haven't seen it though) and one particular actress caught my eye. I saw her again in "Crazy Rich Asians" and then "The Farewell"(jaw, meet floor); and she lent her voice to "The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance" before doing "Jumanji: The Next Level"(saw it twice in the same day and pre-ordered it as soon as that was possible) and it was that and "The Farewell" that sealed the deal for me:

Awkwafina

Soundtrack

Marry Those Eyes, by MKTO

Don't Wanna Fall, by Seven Lions, Last Heroes & HALIENE

Bad Girls, by MKTO

How Bad Do You Want It (Oh Yeah!), by Sevyn Streeter

Ready For The Fire, by Valley of Wolves

The Great Divide, by Breaking Benjamin

Nothing Else Matters, by Godsmack

Le chemin (feat. Sita), by Kyo

Landslide, by The Chicks

Rescue Me, by OneRepublic 

Good Life, by G-Eazy and Kehlani

You Put Up With Me, by Tyrese

Nottingham's Legacy: Enzo

Dark Horses are in every single of of the plays in the Sherwood Cycle, because I love them that much.

Except in this one.

In "Nottingham's Legacy", there are three.

One of them--Declan--you already met, so I'm going to introduce you to the other two, starting with Enzo.

So I told you that Declan is basically Jean-Luc 2.0, right?

Well, Enzo is the type of person I would call Declan's Dark Side, for lack of a better description.

There are a whole lot of things about Enzo that came as a surprise. For instance, he has two "animal parallels". The first one is a scorpion, due to his close connection with Declan(you can read all about scorpion symbolism in the link above); and the other one is a seahorse.

In Ancient Greece and Rome, the seahorse was a symbol of power and authority and they both thought the seahorse was some kind of sea monster(there's even a legend that seahorses guide drowned sailors to the Afterlife), which is a little odd, considering it's size, but whatever.

The seahorse is a symbol of perspective, bravery, patience, serenity, persistence, protection and a desire the help others, which are all facets of Enzo's personality. He's stubborn and persistent and due to his close connection with Declan, he's one of the plot's catalysts.

I saw the film "Straight Outta Compton" four times when it was released. I loved the music; I loved the story(if NWA all wrote memoirs I'd read the covers off of them) and I loved that actors that portrayed members of NWA. Particularly this one:

This is Corey Hawkins. He's also in "24: Legacy"(which was surprisingly good), "Kong: Skull Island"(ditto), "Walking Dead"(which I haven't seen yet--I know!!), and the upcoming "In The Heights"(which I'm really excited about!!!!).

Enzo is a corsair and a former assassin, but he isn't as dangerous as any of the previous assassin characters in this cycle. He's one of those people who thinks everything down to the last detail before acting--almost like Jean-Luc, but not quite. He's also Declan's voice of reason, which is nice because everyone needs one of those.

And, just like everyone else in this particular play, his soundtrack is really eclectic. And I'm totally ok with that.

Soundtrack

Voodoo, by Godsmack

Lights Up, by Harry Styles

Christmas At Sea, by Sting

Pray for Me, by The Weeknd, Kendrick Lamar

The Hills, by The Weeknd

Animal by Def Leppard

Bad Boy For Life, by Black Rob, Mark Curry & P. Ditty

Saints and Sinners, by Godsmack

Last Way Out of Here, by Paoloalto   

Nottingham's Legacy: Aislinn

All of you know by now that I like having amazing leading ladies to go with my leading men, and this particular leading lady is no exception.

Her name is Aislinn, and she is Tarquin and Sorcha's daughter. She's got Tarquin's spunk and idealism and Sorcha's amazing inner strength, which makes her a great foil for Oliver.

And she tells it like it is--which I think is something that quite a few characters this time around need to hear--but she does it with a lot of understanding that feels less like pushing someone in the direction they're supposed to go, and more like gently nudging and letting them come to the conclusion in their own time, if that makes sense. She leads people by doing, not just talking.

Her animal is a deer.

Deer symbolize grace, compassion gentleness, meekness, independence, discernment and subtlety, to name a few on the very long list. Aislinn is in possession of all of those things.

The other thing I love about this girl is that her celebrity model's name also starts with "A".

I first saw this amazingly talented actress in "Hunger Games",

and then in "Everything, Everything" and "Rio 2".

I haven't seen "The Hate U Give", but she's in that one too.

Her name is Amandla Stenburg.

Aislinn's soundtrack is just as eclectic as the rest of the soundtracks in this piece.

And I'm not altogether unhappy about that.

Feel Good (feat. Daya), by the Chainsmokers

Miss Independent, by Kelly Clarkson

Fallen Angel, by Three Days Grace

Great Escape, by Kevin Rudolf

There for You, by Martin Garrix & Troye Silvan

Trial Run, by Olivier Dion

Mean It, by Lauv & LANY

Go Hard or Go Home, by Wiz Khalifa & Iggy Azalea