Reply To: Rumple and Milah

[Gaultheria]

Indeed, a recurring theme throughout OUAT is that evil is made and not born. So why should this not apply to Milah too?

I think that doesn’t work for minor characters like Milah; they function more as scenery and setting than as people. Real people are all more complicated than that, of course, but I’m not going to fill in the blanks on a character sheet if the showrunners haven’t.

Milah’s role on the show seems to be to cause strife through narcissism; she hasn’t been developed with the nuances that have made other narcissistic characters — Regina, for example — sympathetic and compelling to me.

Besides, we do have evidence that she probably did hard labour (hauling wood in ‘Devil’s Due), she was depressed (she drank, she left her family!), and we know she thought things would be better if they moved, but Rumple didn’t want to.

I don’t find that persuasive. Lots of people do hard work and don’t always get what they want, and they don’t act harmfully as a result. Many people drink to excess and behave irresponsibly, and depression isn’t always the cause.

We haven’t seen much of Milah’s environment and backstory, and what we have seen just seems ordinary and relatively comfortable though bland, not the stuff of tragic tales.