406: Critical Analysis

What do you guys think?

Overall, I liked this episode. One of things I didn’t like was the amount of time spent in Arendelle. While it was nice to see Belle go there instead of Anna go to EF, I just grow a bit tired of the amount of a time spent on Elsa, Anna, and Kristof. The CGI rock trolls were a bridge too far. We get it. Frozen is all the rage. But the writers are spending more time on developing their story than they even did on Peter Pan in the past or present. There’s only so much I can take of the overly cutsy Disney sisters before I feel like I’m watching a show for 8-year-old girls. Anna falling off the cliff sort of changed the feel of it. The mystery with the Snow Queen is the only thing that kept that feeling fresh and a bit edgier.

Was there too much information to unpack? Maybe. But as I’ll get to, I think a lack of plot has what made this season feel slow until now. The writers could’ve done a better job of spreading out some of those meatier scenes throughout the first six episodes rather than cramming them all into one.

How much plot is too much plot?

This episode did have quite a bit of plot development, but I actually appreciated that, as opposed to last week when there was hardly any. The more the plot develops, the more the show manages to capture my interest, and the less I feel like the episode drags. This episode flew by, and I was on my edge of the seat with the Emma-Helga doppelgänger prophesy.

ow many layers are too many layers?

Personally, I like layers. If there are no layers to uncover, I quickly lose interest. The mystery and intrigue are what drew me in S1, and I’d felt the show had been sorely lacking layers of substance for quite awhile now. I’d felt that the opening of the season was really slow and lacking a lot of depth of plot, so it’s nice finally to see the writers start to add in more layers for a change.

Do they need to simplify?

No. As I wrote above, I think the writers need to beef up the plot! Where I think they need to improve is the pacing at which they add mystery. The first several episodes of the season really dragged as people sort of fumbled about in the dark. Here we are in episode 6, and it’s only now that we’re getting to the juicy stuff. More could have been done to spread out the wealth over the last 6 episodes, rather than try to cram every big scene into a tight window of 42 minutes.

I found this episode to be overwhelming with information.  It was nice to FINALLY get an idea of why DQ is in town and what she is up to, but the writers threw everything at us in minutes. I don’t mind them using elements from the Frozen story to help move along the Once story ( such as grand pabie telling Anna about her aunts ) . There would be no one else who would make to tell Anna about her family’s past. It is a themed season and the theme is Frozen. I honestly think they did a smart thing involving the SnowQueen so that it didn’t become the Anna and Elsa show.  We still see both characters a lot, but the show’s focus is on this new character and her mystery.

Going back to the layout of this episode, Belle kind of announcing the point of the mirror was a strange way to deliver the information.  I would have liked to see Rumple explain what she saw and why it happened while trying to calm her down, then have a scene cut in where Rumple has just finished telling the rest of the town and they react.

I was left confused as to why Emma looks identical to Elsa’s aunt.  We know Emma’s family tree so there is no way that Emma could be blood related to Elsa or her family.  I’m sure they will go into why they look so much alike but it felt just thrown at us like a side note.

Also Belle using the dagger against Rumple seemed oOC to me but I appriciated that they covered that and handled it as the episode went on

A few weeks ago, I thought I would like the Snow Queen plot, but now I’ve had enough of the Evil Luna Lovegood act. The intelligent dreamy babbler works as a supporting character, but like a laxative: for occasional use only.

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.