Home › Forums › Once Upon a Time › Season Four › 4×06 “Family Business” › 406: Critical Analysis › Reply To: 406: Critical Analysis
Specifically, let’s talk about the idea that ONCE writes strong women.
Well, Once used to consistently write strong female characters. The show sometimes still manages to hit a home run like Regina defeating Zelena or Emma saving herself and Marian from the dungeon in the Enchanted Forest. However, there is still something to be desired about current hits and misses. There seems to be less female empowerment now in favor of romance. And while romance in all well and good and has its place, it’s not the be all and end all of a story. At least, I hoped it wouldn’t be.
Now, I love Belle but I can’t help but see that she was “saved” in many ways by men this episode. While she may have gone off on an adventure on her own, it came to naught and, in the end, her father solved her problems by just telling the truth. The real act of heroism was Belle’s mother and we did not get to see this in action but were told about it through a man. This ended, then, with them seeking out Rumple’s help to save the kingdom (not something I have a huge problem with, since it did keep with canon but it’s worth noting).
Both men in Belle’s life, her husband and her father, had the upper hand over Belle in this episode. Belle wants to believe that Rumple gave her control of the dagger, but in her innermost being, she knows he is lying to her. But she doesn’t want to admit that to herself, because Belle choosing to be with Rumple was supposed to be about her choosing her own fate, despite her father’s wishes. Speaking of Moe, locking up your adult daughter to control her isn’t the way. Belle needs to deal with her daddy issues before she’s going to be to deal with her hubby issues.
Snow, Belle and Anna are in a difficult position, because they’re without magic, compared to Elsa, Emma, Regina and the Snow Queen. But still, in the past Belle was written as being strong and independent when she paired up with Mulan to free Prince Philip from Maleficent’s curse. Speaking of Mulan, where is she hiding? Mulan taught Belle many important lessons about heroism and the like, which I guess she’d yet to learn in this flashback to Arendelle. More Mulan, less Anna, please.
There is also Anna. Again, I know this was supposed to be comedic, but Anna’s “Kristoff makes this look so easy! *giggle giggle*” after she “fell” off a mountain–from about 5 inches. Foreshadowing Anna’s fall later and getting us to see the hat box? Yes, but again, there are other ways to do it without making Anna look slightly idiotic, like she can’t do anything without Kristoff around.
Speaking of Arendelle, Anna is starting to get on my nerves. She’s got some spunk to her, like when she when faced off with Rumple, but then she needs a big strong guy to climb up a mountain. I guess she finally managed to make it up there, but her falling off the mountain wasn’t the greatest scene. Wouldn’t the impact have broken her spine? Also, Frozen was supposed to be about sisters helping each other. I’d like to see more Anna/Elsa together, since their story was supposed to be about a unique family kind of TL, as opposed to the romantic kind.
And outside of this episode there is Snow White last week and her somewhat goofball conversation with Will in which she neither sweet Mary Margaret or Tough As Nails Bandit Snow, but some sort of caricature of Disney’s Snow White.
Okay, let’s talk about Snow White. She’s the town mayor now, whether she wants the job or not. There was that time that Bandit Snow managed to one up Prince Charming, that time she was able to allude even the Evil Queen and her forces, or that time Snow got the blade of Excalibur (okay that was a fake, but still). Now what? She’s sort of left without much to do except to fix broken generators through Mama Logic and pardon book thieves.
Did Regina and Emma pass the Bechdel test?
I’d say yes, they managed to do that in 4×5 but fell back into “girl talk” which was actually about romance. Why don’t Emma and Regina talk about you know, their son anymore? Henry–remember him? Why haven’t Emma and Regina talked about Henry moving out of Snow’s apartment back into Regina’s mansion? You’d think them talking about their joint custody of their kid would be a thing.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy