I've send my mate a text telling him what you've said and I know him well enough to know almost word for word, maybe even word for word, what his reply will be, so I'll ask before he sends me a reply
Does the fact that Prince John power was once legitimate and that his power only became illegitimate once he became a traitor make a difference?
I knew it he send me a text asking me to ask the question I knew he'd eventually ask whilst I was pre-emptively writing it
Hs question is word for word identical to how I guessed it would be. So does the fact that Prince John power was once legitimate and that his power only became illegitimate once he became a traitor make a difference?
Whether or not Prince John’s power is legitimate really has nothing to do with whether or not Robin Hood is evil. Those are questions of Lawful vs. Chaotic. You could argue that Robin Hood is Lawful, because he respects legitimate authority, and his rebellion is not out of a desire to dismantle power structures, but to restore what he believes to be the rightful order. You could also argue that he’s Neutral with regards to Law and Chaos because he obeys laws he believes to be just and violates laws he believes to be unjust. He is probably not Chaotic because though he is an outlaw, he doesn’t demonstrate that he is opposed to law
in principle. He believes that a just order is possible, and desirable, and acts to try to restore that just order, so Chaotic is probably not a good fit.
With regards to Good vs. Evil, he is almost unquestionably Good. He acts altruistically, doing what he believes is right, for his nation and for its people. You could
potentially argue that the fact that he sometimes does morally questionable things like stealing, and in that one episode of whatever show you were talking about earlier, killing, and therefore he should be considered Neutral, rather than Good. But, that argument could probably be applied to any D&D PC.
And, of course, none of this really matters that much.
You your friend clearly have a specific idea in mind of how you want to play this character, so why does it matter what alignment you write on their character sheet? If this is a 5e character, chances are their alignment will never matter anyway. Just play the character as you envision them and don’t worry about what arbitrary label is on it.