It probably says more about me than about Richard that I have chosen another pin-up style image as a *dud* for my collection of *spooof*s. Perhaps I am a prude. Perhaps I suffer self-imposed repression and simply can’t deal with too much sex-appeal. Perhaps I am over-analytical and find images that openly allude to sexuality too clichéd. Or maybe there is something inherently “duddy” about the following image that I have chosen for today’s *spooof* on Guy-Day. *cheers*
As some of you know, Guy is my favourite RA incarnation. I simply love the dark knight, his scowl, his badness – and his redeemability. The challenge of an evil character is just too delicious and tempting to pass by. Equally challenging, it turns out, has been my hunt for a “dud”. I could not *really* find anything that was completely out of the question. Aw, I love my knight too much. But for the sake of it and just because I am absolutely adamant that today’s *spooof* be a Guy-pic, I chose this one.
And I thought Guy wasn’t really pussy-cat material…
R___A___ as Guy of Gisborne in promo for season 1 of RH.
Image sourced via RAnet
This picture is, in truth, a bit of a sweet-and-sour dish. I cannot really fault it in terms of the technical realisation. What have we got here? We have a saucy Guy of Gisborne, hanging about in the orchard. Like a ripe apple he is dangling from the tree, a juicy fruit, waiting to be picked by some delicate lady’s hands. Well… maybe I am getting ahead of myself. My hunch is, that this image was indeed taken outdoors, in an orchard/forest. (The background is suitably blurred, though, and could easily just be a two-dimensional background image in front of which A___ is posing by the trunk of an (artificial) tree. ) Assuming, this *has* been taken outside, you may find it interesting that the image has been lit twice, so to speak. There is the obvious evidence of the natural light, visible among the foliage in the background. However, the light in among the trees would probably have been too dark for a detailed (half-)length of our sitter – or possibly a bit patchy with strong sunlight coming through the gaps in the leaves and illuminating an otherwise shady shaded character.
Sir Guy is very evenly and nicely lit, however, and that is evidence enough for me to suggest that fill-light has been used in this case. Before you tune out: I am deliberately going off on this tangent that may appear unnecessarily technical for you. There is some practical application in this for your own hobby snapping, you see. Just imagine you are on holiday in Egypt and you want to snap a picture of your hubs in front of the pyramids – but unfortunately the sun is behind your subject. Ordinarily that would rule out a photograph: Shooting against the sun will leave your subject’s face in the dark as your compact camera automatically measures exposure for the brightest parts of your frame. The same would’ve happened in this shot of Guy. To counteract the shadows resulting from shooting against the light, the photographer is illuminating the shot with fill-light. In this case it is most probably an off-camera flash with a softbox from the front right of the sitter. You can get a similar effect in your holiday snap in Gizeh by activating the in-built flash on your camera. It will lighten up your hubby’s face against the sunlight and produce a picture in which the background is lit by the sun – and your hubby equally visible in all his glory. (To activate fill-flash, simply pop up your cameras flash. Some compacts have a little sun symbol in the settings menu which you need to press.)
So if it isn’t technicalities that make this a dud, then what is? It’s hard to put a finger onto it, I confess. Part of it is the pose. This is Sir Guy, master scowler and hard-hearted henchman. How likely is the ambitious knight to dangle from a tree in the orchard and pose as a naughty pin-up boy? Or is he on the prowl for women viewers Lady Marian, showing off a little bit of skin, jutting out his hip and submissively angling his head? Nah, just seems out of character.
And then there is the face. Again, I cannot quite identify why I do not like the facial expression here. Guy is sporting something akin to bedroom eyes, methinks, and I have the slight suspicion that that is actually not intentional but more of a coincidence. I think A___ blinked as the flash was set off – and his lids have been caught juuuuuust as they are beginning to close. For me it is just not quite the way his eyes usually look – and that is not due to the angle of the head. After all we have seen plenty of images in which A___ has angled his head in delicious submission… and his eyes have been the usual deep pools of blue. No amount of Guyliner could’ve been responsible for this sleepy predator look.
As far as I can make out, this image was used as a poster for Radio Times, the BBC TV listings magazine. Sir Guy a posterboy? Well, why not. I’d say there were plenty of happy mamas who surreptitiously held on to that poster after having fallen for Sir Guy while watching the family -friendly RH. I wonder where all those posters ended up? In the airing cupboard? Under the ironing board? In the utility room? Inside *her* closet? Maybe Guy’s bedroom eyes were intentional after all…
This was part 5/7 of my posts for FanstRA 4 –
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Guylty Pleasure 
Ah, Guylty, you’re right. I could never get into this picture either, although it has everything “on paper” IT LACKS SOUL. RA’s cheeks (the ones on his face, thankyouverymuch) look somehow “wrong” to my eyes in this shot. I can’t explain why, but there you go. And everything you said about the pinup-pose. Just – no. He doesn’t need that to look sexy.
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The cheeks! That could be it, Abby! The head is angled downwards so much that the perspective is different from usually. Plus, Guy looks kind of soft here, a little bit of baby-fat, almost. Awwww. Which leads me to wish that all those wonderful artists on tumblr who are currently exploring the theme of Kindergarten Thorin would draw a version of Baby Guy. Maybe our very own Guy’s Boy Seba would be able to do it…
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I kinda like our pinup boy, specially that little skin we see. But I think he looks cute more than sexy. I believe they made this picture for the ladys, most people are stupid and sex sell (something like that). I don’t think RA needs to pose or look like this to be sexy. I mean pictures like this makes me think he is stupid and I can’t take him seriously.
Oh now I hate you. Your spoofs have made me to almost dislike RAs earlier pictures. He was goodlooking but there are so many bad and cheep pictures specially from his earlier days (I have realised now). But still I kinda like bad photoes (specially candids) but I hate bad and cheep photoshoots. I think our pinup boy( I just have to call him that after this picture) deserves better, now I think about yesterdays picture on your blog.
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Hehe Thora, if you hate me then I have done my job well!! It means I have gotten my point across and convinced you that some images should be locked in a safety vault forever ;-). But the point really is, as you say, that RA deserves better. He is sexy without pin-up poses – unless done with tongue firmly in cheek (I’d love to see him in something like that – playing with the hunk image, throwing it back at the media that tries to embarrass him about being an attractive male).
In regards to this picture – yeah, the sexiness is just a bit too forced. I can live “cute”, and there is that element to this image. In any case, I am half-proven wrong because this image did probably appeal to some viewers.
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Yes, I agree that this photo is too forced and seems artificial. Gisbourne would not hang from a tree in this manner and with this facial expression. I know that many others love this photo, but I never have. Too contrived. RA does not need embellishment to exude sexuality. He just does, no matter what the get-up.
My favorite pictures are mostly the candids, and there aren’t too many, where he permits himself to be himself, or maybe forgets himself, and does not act any role, even the role of Richard Armitage, Actor. He’s very skilled at hiding himself in plain view. But that guy underneath who occasionslly escapes is a real gem!
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Couldn’t agree with you more, Lynne, I prefer images where he is himself. Although: Is he himself? As I said in a previous post – as soon as someone knows a camera is in the room, they usually put on an act for the camera. Even if subconsciously. We all probably do. – The posed shots are nice, too, on that superficial level. I mean, he is easy on the eye, a joy to look at.
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OT! OT! Just a weird personal and subjective reaction from my side.
They released a new ad video for the DVD-release of The Hobbit on YouTube today. For me the most striking immediate impression was, that RA sat there on this sofa straddled legged, whereas the others sat with there legs crossed. It’s probably more noticable as he’s sitting in the middle. For me, it’s the first time that Mr. A. obviously takes up more space than the others. If I remember rightly there have been a couple of statements only recently, that we never have seen RA sitting with his legs crossed in any of his interviews. Yeah, maybe his jeans are way too tight for doing so….
Ahem! Being a regular user of public transport of various types it usually drives me mad when guys sit like that next or opposite to me, giving the impression that they are the only ones and the rest of us has to take the remaining spot… (I’m sure RA is not like that when riding the tube or the bus, otherwise he would be too salient. 😉 )
(Sorry, I needed to say that!)
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You know what – that open legged sitting position had occurred to me too, G. And when I think about it, you are right, I have never seen him sit cross-legged. In older interviews I have seen him occasionally sitting with one leg tucked under the other. (I really like that – because I do that a lot, myself.) I agree with you, I don’t usually appreciate it when men sit with their crotch on display. I find it a bit too confident *haha*. In this case it was a nice bit of symmetry, though, because Serkis and Nesbitt had their legs crossed and he was sandwiched in between. Maybe they were told to sit like that?
On another note I was so glad that he didn’t have to do the Hobbit-DVD plug but Nesbitt did. I am just guessing that that wouldn’t be his kinda thing… Jesus – talk about overanalysing…
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I have to just put one thing on this ridicolous observations. I think it was good that he sat like that because to me the other two felt more confident than he did in that video. He needs little confidence sometimes. (probably I’m wrong but it’s fun to overnalyze a little).
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Yes, some of the observing is verging on the ridiculous. Or the obsessive. But hey, as long as I realize that myself, I think I am still on the right side of “sane” 🙂 As for the confidence – yep, could be improved… Would he be still as “attractive” then, though???
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To me, it’s that the costume chunks up his torso in absolutely the wrong way. But I love his face.
He’s getting better at the interviews, but he still looked nervous to me in that vid today — the not keeping the hands under control while speaking directly to us, while cute, is … something he shouldn’t do …
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All that sexy leather gone to waste!! *haha* Well, I even like the way the leather top bunches up towards his chest and shoulders, emphasising his wide shoulders > classic secondary sexual marker. And that little bit of exposed skin, although most probably an oversight, is just delicious. But the pose, the pose… nah, just can’t quite get into it…
The hands are such a give-away, agreed! And also the fluttering gaze towards the end of Nesbitt’s spiel. While the big camera eye is usually quite compelling, it just feels really strange to be looking at a soulless “thing”, a piece of equipment, in the way we would look at a person. I totally sympathise. It is one of the hardest things to do.
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“Hello, Robin Hood, I am wating for you in the forest to assassinate you. I am a paid killer, hired by the Sheriff. How do you like my evil eye? You will soon meet this dagger.”
That’s what this picture expresses for the target audience (children). But we adults are free to sexualise it, on top of what it basically says.
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That’s a really good fictionalisation of the intended message, c.b. You are so right – I keep forgetting who the *real* target audience of RH was. By giving the role of Sir Guy to RA they really confused me…
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My theory for this picture with bedroom eyes is: it is a hot day he is in that black leather making him even hotter, and its the last picture of the day. Richard just wants to get in over and its starting to show on his very “hot” face.
For my senior pictures (in the US students in there last year of high school will have there pictures taken at a studio rather than school pictures) I had them taken on a hot August day in 1988 (that was a very hot summer all over the US that year). For who knows what reason the girls all seem to wear sweaters in the 80’s for those pictures and I was no different than anyone else. I choose 2 hot sweaters that was great for a Wisconsin winter but not a Wisconsin summer. I had some in studio and some outside then changed to the third outfit a little better that it was a 3/4 sleeve button down shirt and we started the last few pictures. The last picture of the day was choose to go in my portfolio and I did order some of them which a friend of mine saw and said what great bedroom eyes. I was hot, tried and wanted to be done for the day, plus cool off. So you see I think this is what happen. I will also say that the eyes in my picture are about the same shut or open, which ever you want to call it.
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Hehehe, good explanation – the heat of the day responsible for the heat in the eyes… Could be!
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There are a lot (a lot, A LOT) of Sir Guy pics that make me swoon. I love him in all the black leather and – oh my – the eyeliner.
I’m sad to report that this isn’t one of my faves; but I think some of the early promotional pics for Robin Hood were just a bit… “blah” in general.
His position always reminds me of a monkey hanging from a tree, which makes me feel a teeny bit uncomfortable!
I love his trousers though – random comment – but I do! hehe!
Xx
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Oh, the trousers – yes, special commendations for them. And they aren’t even made from leather… Wouldn’t we all have liked to be the laces in the trousers? *ggg* I *love* the eyeliner on Sir Guy, I really do. Dark lashes and kohl – very very sexy. And then those pointy sideburns. Yum! Not to mention the stubble. Ahhhhh – I am getting carried away, here…
Thanks for your comment Hannah 🙂
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Yes, I think the popularity of those laces comes to the fore in the fanfics, which refer to the delight of unlacing the trousers, or (when written from Guy’s perspective) how good it can feel to unlace them when under certain circumstances the trousers become too tight … 🙂
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*coughs* *blushes* *clears throat* That’s where that particular fetish comes from…
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coughs / blushes / clears throat right along with you …
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The unlacing of *those* trousers…Oh my! *falls to floor* -_-
Xx
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I adore Guy but this picture makes me laugh…I’m not sure if this was in creator’s intensions;)
With regards to the “bedroom”eyes, it always seemed to me that Richard’s eyelids are little”lazy” just like his voice(so thick and “lazy”.. *sigh*.. liquid chocolade:))
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Lazy is good. I like lazy. Especially in liquid form 😉
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