Reply To: True Love's Kiss?

[Slurpeez]

I wanted to touch on something Lily Sparks wrote over on TV.com:

Zelena came back inside to find Regina crouched over Robin Hood. Regina mustered herself up for a tearful speech about how Hades hadn’t changed at all, because he wanted everything for himself, but true love is sacrifice, and Robin had sacrificed himself for her. Which is sort of confusing because Zelena and Hades definitely had a kiss of true love, and Rumple can’t give Belle a TLK, so are these kisses indicators of a healthy relationship or what? As we all know, my questions are pointless.

I also find it really confusing just what the writers are trying to convey about love on this show. In 5×21, they repeated a line that love is sacrifice, as Mulan, David, Neal, Emma, Regina, Robin and even Hook have all demonstrated. It also seems like the writers have debunked the myth that a woman can change a man when he doesn’t really want to change. When Hades turned out not to have changed, it seemed clearly to parallel Rumple’s refusal to change for Belle. Yet, it’s really troubling that Zelena and Hades still shared TLK last episode. As Regina pointed out to her sister, sometimes love blinds us to the truth. But then begs the question of just how “true” the love of Zelena and Hades really is. It seems like the writers have no clear answer to this dilemma. On the one hand, Rumple and Belle didn’t share TLK (with the stated reason being Rumple’s ture love is his power). Rumple isn’t willing to give up his power, or even stop using dark magic, for Belle. Hence, no TLK. Yet, how then were Zelena and Hades able to share TLK if it turned out Hades was just playing her and wasn’t really willing to give up his pursuit of power? Zelena just wanted to share a quite life in SB with Hades and her daughter, when what he really wanted was to rule without any interference from the so-called heroes.