Re: Three things that have been bugging me.

[Slurpeez]

@frumpybutsupersmart wrote:

2) As far as overthrowing King George, most of the population of George’s country probably supported Charming. They didn’t know he wasn’t the “rightful” heir to the throne – they’d just seen the prince not marry Midas’ daughter (who subsequently married someone else) and King George go nuts and start hunting his own son. It wouldn’t have been hard to convince the mass population to follow Charming, seeing as they all thought he was the rightful heir anyway; and he’s pleasant, good in battle, good-looking, and had a wife who was the most kind and beautiful woman in all the lands. Then, once they’d overthrown Regina, they could form a bigger, wealthier nation by the marriage of Snow and Charming.

That all makes sense. In 1×21, it looked like Regina and King George knew each other quite well when Regina offered a far worse punishment for Prince Charming was to put Snow White under the sleeping curse. As neighboring monarchs with the mutual interest of destroying Charming and Snow for good, George and Regina probably allied together in war against Snow and Charming. Being beloved by the people in both kingdoms, however, Snow and Charming could’ve rallied a massive enough army to destroy George’s and Regina’s forces, thereby winning the rights to both kingdoms on the battlefield and joining their kingdoms by their marriage. Perhaps Snow and Charming decided to move into George’s castle after their victory for its excellent view.

Also, Regina never had a rightful claim to Leopold’s throne anyway, since Snow was the legitimate queen of her father’s kingdom and Regina commissioned her husband’s murder. When a king dies, his wife does not inherit his throne, but rather, his eldest son does when he comes of age. In this case, Leopold had only one child, a daughter, so Snow became the rightful heir to the throne, not her step-mother. Also, though Prince Charming wasn’t born a royal, his marriage made him so, thereby making it a moot point whether his people knew of his true humble origins. Charming became a legitimate royal known as a prince concort by his marriage to Snow White, the rightful queen by birth. As a side note, that also means that Emma would inherit her mother’s throne, and not Charming, if Snow were to die first, since the crown passes to the eldest heir of the next generation, not the spouse.

@Phee wrote:

Because it saves him excess trauma if he doesn’t have to go there with the mission to pass on information. And yes, as you say, if Henry now fell asleep, and ran into Charming in the netherworld, he’d try to talk to him and probably get injured again. Charming didn’t consider that possibility when he went under though, because he didn’t expect to be staying under, he expected to kiss Snow and wake up. The way his plan was supposed to work, he’d only be knocked out for maybe an hour or so, just long enough to run into Snow and have a chat. I’d love it if Henry puts it together and realises he can go check on Charming by falling asleep himself, but who knows if they’ll fit that into the storyline.

I suppose that makes sense that Charming wanted to spare Henry from the excess flames when communicating with Aurora. Yet, Charming was putting all of his eggs in one basket, not thinking through all possible outcomes. He was counting on that “soul kiss” between him and Snow to wake him right back up. As I wrote in that other thread on the same issue, Charming really needs to work on his long-tem strategy. His going to the netherworld to protect Henry wasn’t an effective long-term strategy, because as soon as Henry goes to sleep, Henry is going to come looking for his grandpa. Charming’s faith sort of blinded him from considering that plan my fail, in which case, it would’ve been for naught if protecting Henry was his only aim. Charming risked leaving Henry a de-facto orphan again without any of his blood relatives, whom Henry worked so hard to free from the dark curse. Now, Henry is left with Regina, who though a loving mother, is unstable and not yet fully recovered from using magic, especially with the prospect of Cora’s return looming. While Charming was concerned for Henry’s safety, his deeper goal was to talk to his beloved wife again, because he felt the need to know for himself that she was alive and well. Charming needs to learn some stronger parenting skills and to think strategically about Henry’s welfare in the long run.