Home › Forums › Once Upon a Time › Character discussion › Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire › Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire
So I think my earlier post was eaten by the forum’s malfunctions today.
I’ll try to hit the highlights:
1) DSB and Phee: PREACH.
2) Why does everyone get a happy ending but Regina
It’s funny how people in this fandom think, this buddy TV article seems to think Regina’s the “only one” not to get a happy ending. I get that it was a heartbreaking set-back for Regina to find out the man she thought was her soul-mate and second chance at love isn’t a widower after all, and that his wife and the mother of his son is alive. All the same, considering she would have blown up the entire SB at one point just to have Henry, that Henry was all she considered her Happy Ending, and without him would have put herself on ice, it seems “in many ways” (see I can use Adam’s favorite spin phase too) she is happy. Yet let’s not forget that Rumple, for all he’s hitching up with Belle, just lost his son. Despite the various “you have my blessing to forget all about me and be totally happy ” moments they crammed into the death espidoe, the fact is, Neal’s dying should have left a big hole in the life of everyone who loved him. It’s not that the show is really telling that story though, so I get why someone might think Regina was the only one making the sad face in the finale, but honestly, she’s far from the only character with a lot of rain on her sunny days. The only one who’s sitting in the cat bird’s seat is again, Hook. He gets everything he wants, and gives up practically nothing. Oh, his ship? Right, didn’t he JUST steal that back like it was nothing? Oh, that’s right he did. What a great, big sacrifice that was, not like he had to dismantle it to make a magic cabinet. That would have made a lot of sense and been fitting, that the JR was destroyed, but instead we get random magical bean and some new plot rule of magic that the reverse curse sealed up any potential magical portal paths (even though there were paths BEFORE the curse). I do think the writers are trying to say he’s changed, but my point here is they are such bad writers, that they don’t even realize when they’re undermining the story they want to tell (or maybe they do, because its not the story they wanted to tell).
When Adam tweets things like “oh the off screen conversation between Belle and her father means nothing?!” to a disgruntled Belle fan–I have to roll my eyes. Yes Adam, if it is offscreen, doesn’t that imply it didn’t mean enough to film? But I think its stronger than that. We’ve seen enough things happen on screen that get completely transformed by later dialog so goodness knows what’s in those offscreen moments. Maybe Mo didn’t forgive Rumple, but Rumple didn’t want Belle sad so he whammied Mo. It’s all offscreen. Anything is possible! Mo could have been victimized by the elusive black fairy for all we know, because when the standard for this show is “not inconsistent”- rather than consistent with prior scenes–who’s to say what’s in those scenes? Now they’ve opened up time travel, they don’t even have to worry about being “not inconsistent”–they just create “replacement” story now too. Yet the larger problem here, is by not showing us Mo and Belle, they’re also avoiding having to deal with Rumple’s less-than-savory treatment of Mo, and Mo’s less than savory treatment of Belle. All in favor of just jumping to the romantic moment the shippers demanded to see.
3) The sentiments people were expressing reminded me of an old song, by Genesis, (Phil Collins era)–“That’s all”. The lyrics just seem to fit with what I’m feeling a little bit. This show had so much potential, and I wanted it to be different but I just don’t see the world in this upside down, villain’s fairy tale way–at least, I didn’t feel in S1 that was what this show was about. I’ve learned I’m watching a different show though, and its hard to get used to that. This is a villain’s fairy tale, and it is the story of how the Evil Queen gets it all, and Captain Hook does too–both of them aided in this through the unintentional meddling of the Fairy Godfather, Rumple who makes deals you should refuse (because all magic has a price). He’s doing things for his own agenda, unlike the traditional fairy godmothers who are out to help the deserving. That’s the show. The other characters, like the Charmings, Henry, and Emma? They’re just the hapless heroes who get caught in the middle, and survive only because they’re of value to the villains, one way or the other. If it went full on Game of Thrones, that would be one thing, but see, it can’t quite do that, because its Disney adaptions, so even though we’re seeing the villains win sometimes, we’re still seeing some lose, and some traditional “happy endings” happen as they do in Disney Princess land. Its kind of a jarring thing.
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass