Post #3451888

A brief summary of depictions of Robin Hood over time: Medieval/early modern depictions: Robin is a working-class socialist hero who aims to kill all rich people and all cops to give wealth to the working class. 19th century depictions: Robin is a commoner who really supports the True King, and he opposes only corrupt nobles and one corrupt cop who aren't loyal to the king. Definitely no ACABing. 20th century depictions: Robin is rightfully a noble who was born rich, but the corrupt prince STOLE his God-given wealth, so he has to fight the corrupt nobles and corrupt cop to get it back. Maybe he'll incidentally help some poor people along the way? 2026: Robin Hood is an irredeemable villain who committed the unforgivable crime of stealing from the rich. Nothing he does for the rest of his life could ever atone for such an unspeakable crime. I think this trend is a problem. I think now is a good time to trott out an old musing I had about Pandora's Tale, the incredible dystopian science fiction queer webcomic by @comicsbyxan@transfem.social . The premise of the comic is that in the future, there is a race of catfolk humanoids called "Helpers" who are bred in a laboratory, brainwashed, and sold as slaves. The protagonist Pandora is a Helper who escapes and joins the resistance. Pandora aims to overcome her brainwashing while fighting to take down the company that brainwashed and enslaved her. Pandora is trans and most of the main cast is queer. A few years ago, I asked myself what would happen if Pandora's Tale became a super duper popular franchise with Robin Hood's level of popularity. Obviously, rich people would not like it, so they'd try to write their own "interpretation" of Pandora's Tale that doesn't challenge them. They wouldn't want Pandora herself to be the protagonist: instead they'd want a human white cishet rich man with inherited wealth to act as the "white savior." Moreover, freeing all slavers would be too much of a change to the status quo, so they'd probably have the protagonist just free one Helper, with an explanation as to why the others are better off as slaves. Also, they'd probably want to change it so that the protagonist's main goal is protecting other rich cishet white people, and he only maybe incidentally frees one Helper. Then I realized I just described Harry Potter. If rich people gave Pandora's Tale the same treatment they have given Robin Hood, they would make house elf slavery. Hence, we need to ensure that rich people never get a chance to rewrite Pandora's Tale.