I’m really drawing this out by posting individual questions per day. Some of the other up-takers have already progressed much further down the line. At least it gives me light relief on a day like today when I am – ironically – working while Europe takes a day off for Labour Day… Mind you, the relief isn’t really that light, because today we are looking at the saddest moment. Let me just precede *my* choice of saddest moment by saying that I get pretty upset *every time* that one of RA’s chaRActers dies. The one that pierces my heart every time, is this…
The Saddest Moment(s)
Many many reasons. Apart from the fact that this is just the saddest possible demise for a hero, I also found sad that this is how the writers of the show sent him off. On the plus side, this was the scene where it really sunk in for me that Armitage didn’t just look pretty, but that he really could act. Realising that Maya’s death was ‘for nothing’, Lucas chokes, his hand gripping the gun is shaking. And even though Harry throws him a bone and promises to help him, Lucas does not see any way out. ‘I can’t go back in prison. You know I will die there.’ Damn fine acting. Still a performance that makes me feel that massive stone of sadness in my belly. More than Gisborne’s death did – who had somehow redeemed himself. Or Proctor going off stage to face the gallows – after reaffirming the love between himself and his wife, going to his death more or less voluntarily.
BTW, a close second is John Porter talking to his daughter via computer, hearing of his wife’s death and realising that – yet again – he is not there when his daughter needs him. It’s just 2 seconds, when the video link is cut, and Porter let’s go of his regret and sadness. The gestures and the wide-eyed despair are just spot-on:
Lastly, I will mention Thorin’s death – a total choker, the painful breathing, the voice modulation. He is totally acting this with his eyes, and they say everything that Thorin still needs to say to Bilbo. Masterful.
Sorry for putting a dampener on your bank holiday. Take it as this: Armitage really excels when performing emotional distress. As sad as the scenes are in context of the respective chaRActers, they are simultaneously a testimonial to the performer’s acting abilities.
Which scenes from Mr A’s oeuvre do you find saddest?
Guylty Pleasure 
“I would rather die than be with you, Guy of Gisborne… I love Robin Hood.”
I’m sure you’re right about the way he plays Lucas’ demise, but I still can’t bring myself to watch it.
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My best friend said to me the other day, “Richard is very good at dying.”; she’s right. I still hate the Spooks writers for Series 9. Lucas North was a real hero and they effed it up with that nonsensical story line about John Bateman. When he says “I’m nothing” I die a little because is very tragic. Nobody is nothing, let alone someone who sacrificed so much! *sniff*
John Porter’s fate was another stupid cock up. I don’t know why they came up with that CIA imbroglio and had our hero end up like he did. I remember that I screamed. It was awful to watch.
Thorin’s death is a mirror of Guy’s demise. The only thing that bothered me about it was that Peter Jackson decided to change Tolkien’s classic words in that scene. WHY?! Some things should be left untouched.
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Isn’t that interesting… I didn’t even think of the death scenes when I was answering! For me the saddest scenes are when his character is hurting due to loss and/or regret. (Although I guess you could say that about Lucas in that scene too.)
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You know, good for you if you are not reminded of the death scenes. They are disconcerting and unpleasant to think of. At least in the sense that too many of his characters die. (I think RA has to seriously re-think his choice of roles – and whether he is being pigeonholed as “the character who doesn’t survive” 😆)
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Thorin Oakenshield doesn’t survive… again!
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LOL – is that one of Serv’s “Movie Ads”? Very fitting!
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the Lucas scene is my pic for ‘saddest moment’ as well. I get so wrapped up in it every time I watch it. superb acting from Mr.A!
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Rewatching it for this post, I had goosepimples all over. Sure sign that it was a well-done scene.
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For the saddest moments, these are the ones where he appears as an actor underused, misused, next to the plate, not invested in his role, when the scenario is empty, like a spectator and not an actor . I would like to forget these roles.
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Very very good point. I can think of a good few of that, most recently the whole of season one of BS…
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What about “Black Storm, Brain on fire, On the other side of the mirror”?
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I’ll add those to the list, too 😉
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sorry! “not to be with it, be off with the fairies, off track ; off the mark ” : à côté de la plaque
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I think he did a great job onThorins death . Its hard to express myself , for give me . Though I don’t know why but between Martin Freeman and Richard Armitage , I am always more able to emphatise with Martin , and I have no idea why is that . Martin Freeman , Benedict Cumberbatch , David Tennant and James Mcavoy are pretty much are able to make me cry 😞
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I am not well enough acquainted with the work of all the other actors you have cited, to make a judgment. I’ve seen them in individual pieces here and there, and I think Cumberbatch, Tennant and McAvoy are superb actors.
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although Thorin’s death was hard for me to watch, I knew it was coming, so it was Bilbo’s reaction to Thorin’s death that made me cry my eyes out. I agree that James McAvoy is always able to reach my emotions and wreak havoc with them!
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Even though I knew Thorin was going to die, watching the scene still was incredibly hard… Somehow I had hoped that PJ might take liberties with the source material…
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I agree no cry but amazement, stupor, sadness, emotional whirlwind.
I wish he had the career, the aura, the sureness of David Tennant, they have the same age
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I cant agree more 😊
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Trying not to mention death scenes. All of them make me sad, except for Lucas’s demise. That just made me mad. I think Standring made me saddest. That man was so sweet and caring, with nothing but heartbreak to show for it. He was always so hopeful, only to be shot down repeatedly. Maybe that’s why it’s my least favorite role of RA’s as well. Very hard for me to watch.
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Standring is a good point. A good man, taken advantage of, beginning to the end. That is hard to watch indeed.
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Although I did not like the whole Robin Hood saga I suffered every time when bloody Marian rejected poor Guy. How could she? The pain and loss reflected in his eyes really touched me.
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It’s interesting, isn’t it? Even for shows/characters that we don’t necessarily particularly like, he evoked a lot of empathy. Marian was just such an annoying character – and the writers were really cruel to Guy.
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Not on holiday on 1st May too! I am still working on Dominique Moïsi. I hope you will able to rest this week.
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Hope you got your work done!
No rest for the wicked, as they say – the week continues as always. But I am in good mood because the combined efforts of my husband and I meant that we managed to get a lot of spring re-organising done. We cleared our landing which is now bright and airy; we emptied a big chest and turned it into a drinks cabinet; we emptied another chest and I am going to store our bedlinen in that. I threw away a lot of stuff, which has lifted a weight off my shoulders. I am all enthusiastic about doing more housework this week – make my flat look nice, bright and welcoming. Hooray.
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. I am happy that you feel enthusiastic about doing housework. Still working: English lessons, English traduction, help my daughter to clean her flat or find her first car and usual professional work too..BUT NO ENTHUSIASM. accapt when looking at Irland prospectus…
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Sounds like a lot on your plate! But once you have done it all – you can be proud!
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I hate what the writers did to Lucas (#who’s john bateman?) and have only watched that final scene twice, first time when it was screened on TV, the second on DVD. I cried buckets both times. It took me a good two years or more before I could watch it the second time, I couldn’t get past the third or fourth episodes of series 9 prior to that, too painful. I’ve watched series 7 and 8 since, but haven’t revisited 9.
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I don’t mind the final scene so much – it is mega-sad, but I can watch it because it is so heart-felt and well-acted. But I have never rewatched the rest of the season. I do like episode 1 of season 9, and have rewatched that – but I turn it off before Lucas re-encounters Vaughn. I still think they made a horrible mistake with that plotline. Yeah, it was a shocker. But it was also completely fabricated and didn’t really hold up. Too many holes.
Hmph.
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When Thornton falls asleep at his desk.
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Wow. Such a simple idea. But so true!
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Saddest moments for me:
When Guy is alone at the altar after Marian punched him, he picks up the ring, the guard asks him if he should stop Marian and he says to let her go
When Guy realizes that he had killed Marian
When he asks Robin to kill him and end it, and Robin cuts his face and says that he must stay in Hell
When he talks with Meg and tells her about Marian. When he says “I destroyed her, I destroyed everything” and his voice breaks, I can’t help but crying all my tears.
When Guy, Robin and Archer are about to be executed and the gang saves the other two leaving him on the horse
When the outlaws exchange hugs because they think that they might die and Guy is on the back, alone with no one who hugs him
Every time that the Sheriff manipulates him, playing with his feelings
Poor Guy, he has so many sad scenes 😦
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Totally agree. Guy is an allround sad character. He was given very little to be happy about. Even his little victories were tinged with sadness. Thank goodness there is fan fiction!!!
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It’s more than two years that I only write about him 😀 I should write my novels, but how could I do it when Guy is unhappy and needs some comfort? ❤
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Well, he could be your muse. You could build him into your novels, give him a different name, but *you* will know it is him 🙂
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Well, I am doing that for one of the novels. It’s a time travel fanfiction that could work well as a novel, just removing the details related to the show (I don’t need to change Guy or Robin’s names, if I use the characters from the legend) and adding a lot of background to the characters and the events 🙂
The problem is that I also have lots of fanfictions in progress and I’m also translating in English the ones I wrote in Italian 😀
Guy keeps me busy, but he deserves it, poor dear. 😀
Funny thing is that I became a fan or RA because I was searching an actor who could be the “face” for Ward, the main character of a novel I wrote in 2008. Nobody was good enough for my character, I couldn’t find someone who looked like my Ward. Then I began watching RH and I saw Guy. And then I knew that I had both found Ward and lost my heart. 😀
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That’s a great story, Eugeal – your very own origin story as a fan. And now I am very curious whether your fics are available in English anywhere? If so, you are welcome to post a link here!
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You can find them here 🙂 http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=✓&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=1&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&commit=Sort+and+Filter&user_id=Eugeal
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Bookmarked! Thanks.
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Pretty much every single moment that John Standring is on the screen….(I still think it’s RA’s best work to date though)
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Totally bittersweet, agreed.
I personally don’t think it is RA’s best work of all – but I think he did a fantastic job, playing against type. He was utterly believable as this big teddy bear, awkward, coy. The mannerisms were spot-on.
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So what do you think is his best work to date? I’m really curious!
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Tough question. I think he really excelled every time he had to play madness, i.e. Thorin in BOTFA, and Dolarhyde in Hannibal. I also think that he is particularly good when his roles are very physical, so Dolarhyde again. I also think he distinguished himself as Proctor, although I didn’t count that as his strongest work.
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I like the pace of one question per day.
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Hehe, and I just left yesterday out…
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Oh je! Ich habe die ganze Challenge verpasst und arbeite mich jetzt von hinten nach vorne vor 🙂
Ich finde den Moment wenn John Thornton der Kutsche hinterhersieht in die Margaret einsteigt und wegfährt einfach unschlagbar tragisch. Ich denke jedes Mal “dreh dich um, dreh dich um”…..
Da kommt noch nicht mal Thorins Heldentod dran ❤
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Hehe, na, dann hast du dafür jede Menge Lesestoff. Das hat doch auch was Gutes. Und wenn du Lust hast, kannst die Challenge ja jederzeit nachholen – die ist an keinen Termin gebunden.
Die Look Back, Look Back at Me-Szene ist i.d.T. extremst tragisch!
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Saddest RA moments? 1st, the pain of John Proctor as he tries to save his wife and condemns himself. That final aching kiss with his wife; everything was said in that kiss. 2nd, watching sweet John Standring was also painful. He was so hopeful, had so much longing in his heart. I like to think he got help for Carol who finally realized how lucky she was. And, 3rd, the death of Thorin. I knew from the book he had to die, but still it hurt to watch.
I don’t count Guy’s death because it was a good death and the series was ending. Nor Porter’s because they had to close out his story somehow so he could go off and bring Thorin to life. I hated how Fuller had Dolly savaged at the end of Hannibal. That’s not how it was written but then, IMHO, Fuller screwed up the whole series by putting his on political agenda into the script. (I’m terrified what he’s going to do to American Gods.) As for the death of Lucas, never happened. He ran away changed his name and went to work for the CIA in Berlin. John Bateman was just a bad dream.
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Oh yes – Fuller really had a slaughter fest with Dolly at the end of Hannibal. I found that painful to watch even though I knew the character had to come to an end.
I really like your version of the end of Lucas North. I think it really makes sense. He’s been in hiding for a long time, probably in Germany where he has learnt to speak German like a native speaker. Then infiltrated the CIA and is now back in a job he knows how to do. Ten years older, still deadly. Bateman was a ruse. He had actually planned his exit from MI-5 since his return from Russia, lured by the promise of cream cakes in Germany. Bingo.
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Saddest moments, apart from the ones you’ve already mentioned: Thorin watching Fili’s death, it so emotional and painful to watch! also that moment when Bilbo leaves and all the dwarves are there to say good bye, but Thorin is not, I cry each time I see this!
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Oh yes. Upon a recent rewatch of BOTFA, that scene with Thorin really jerked the tears out of me, too. Again – almost imperceptible, but he does something with his eyes, and there is a wealth of emotion there.
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haven’t watched S9 in Spooks yet.. i like to keep things unwatched to know i still have a bit to discover 🙂
Standring did break my heart, poor soul.. Thorin’s death… unbearable, i can still close my eyes and see him on the ground and see his eyes and hear his whispers.. shudders.
Yes, he is quite masterful at being broken, sad and making us feel all that…
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Wow. I admire your resolve. I don’t think I could resist watching a big body of work such as a whole season of Spooks with OOA in it. However, I have just realised that I also have one piece of work yet unwatched – Frozen. I really need to get going on that.
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Well waiting makes it more enjoyable I really really loved watching John Standring recently 😍
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I think it really is to his credit that his smaller, supporting roles are such high quality that they can be watched again and again. Standring is one such.
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