6 X 09 CHANGELINGS – – What were your favorite and least favorite moments

Gaultheria wrote:

I guess Rumpel will end up in genie cuffs by the end of this season.

Interesting. Don’t think anyone has hypothesized that one.

I’m thinking about the speculation that RC will leave the show. This’d be a way to reduce his screen time while still keeping him available for the finale.

Even if Rumpel stays as a main character, the nature of his threat needs to change. His role is pretty unpleasant this year, and not in an entertaining way. He’s not enjoying his life in an evil way, he’s just a magical bomb that can go off at any time, in any location and in any way. That’s just depressing and boring. Rumpel/Gold is most effective as villain when he manipulates people by talking. The dagger can overrule Rumpel’s free will if someone else has the dagger and says the right things, but the cuffs would go one step further by preventing Rumpel from using magic independently.

This was the first episode I’d been able to catch on the night of in a while (I hadn’t even caught up with the show until this past weekend – the benefits of applying to college!) and, needless to say, I was left dismayed. “Changelings” is OUAT at its worst – a show definitively about fairy tales yet isn’t sure what it wants to be.

Favorites:
<ul>
<li>Well, we now know who the Black Fairy is. A payoff!</li>
<li>Snow and Jasmine at Granny’s. Little character moments like these are what make the show watchable.</li>
<li>Belle was headstrong in this episode, which is nice in that it’s different from her being sidelined/babysitting all the time.</li>
<li>The Evil Queen is and always will be an absolute joy to watch.</li>
</ul>
Least Favorites:
<ul>
<li>Just when we thought this show was done extending Henry’s family tree, they still manage to surprise us.</li>
<li>I am no longer fazed by Rumple as a character. He doesn’t surprise me with his actions because, as of 4×01, this is who he is as a character. Sure, he did something nice in not poisoning his wife, but if that’s what “nice” is now to a man who killed himself to save a town, then we’ve literally gone to “a whole new world.”</li>
<li>Speaking of which, I’m frustrated with the lack of progress in the Aladdin arc. We went from the first scene in the premiere being centered on him to him and Jasmine popping up occasionally to remind us that they’re alive and do randomly powerful things. (Like Aladdin suddenly becoming a genie. He should know better!) Why?</li>
<li>This speaks to the larger issue of Season 6: the lack of progress. Regina is still as unsure about herself as she was in 5×23. The Evil Queen has done nothing to advance whatever plan she has except for messing around with everyone else. S1Evil!Regina had motives for her insane actions, so why this doesn’t apply to her is beyond me. (Yes, I know, my questions are pointless.)</li>
<li>To get a bit more episode-specific, I really found Regina’s speech to Zelena cringeworthy. You can’t save someone and claim that you did that because “that’s what heroes do” when you’re depriving someone who is in a very similar situation of that right. It’s hypocritical, inappropriate, and counteracts the newfound morality that Regina has.</li>
<li>Where does this Rumbelle flashback fall on the timeline? Because, whenever they introduce another flashback, I’m left in shock over how “Skin Deep” happened.</li>
<li>Emma Swan bothers me. I know she’s no longer the person she was in S1-3, but she’s become something else: dependent. She can’t rely on herself anymore, and what the Shaky Hands of Doom do is give the writers an ability to show that. Even when she went searching for the shears in Gold’s – she ended up needing Hook to get her out! I don’t know if that’s intentional, but if it is, it’s misguided.</li>
</ul>
I say these things as a person who, compared to the past few seasons, actually likes this one! I smiled at the Snowing montage of last episode and I’ve liked the going-back-to-basics mantra, but this episode confirmed one thing: the writers don’t want this season to be the last one, but that has more to do with their source of income than their creative goals.

EDIT : Re-watched and found the episode slightly better.

Rating 7/10.

Overall I wasn’t too impressed with the episode. Acting was well done, but I just wasn’t happy with the direction of the story.

Liked:

– Blu is back and still shady.
– Black fairy. I wasn’t too impresed with the Rumple’s mom revelation, but the scene was well acted and kudos to the casting team as usual. I hoped the squid ink/baby parallels were not randomly thrown there and will actually serve a purpose.
– Bae references. About time someone mentioned him.
– Belle and Rumple’s library scene. Gave me the chills, but loved the tension and acting.
Disliked:
– EQ. So a few episodes ago she was able to snap the TL leaf thing from Regina in a second but she couldn’t snap her own heart off Regina? …. Hmmmm OK … I guess she was too “weakened” for it.
– Zelena getting her butt whopped. You would think someone of her caliber should have been able to throw a few slaps back.
– Emma and Hook helping Belle. Let’s distract Gold, throw him old squid ink, steal the shears and bonus if we get the dagger! I wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been the Charmings, but Emma and Hook? I expected a bit more from them. Emma used to walk all ballsy to Gold’s shop to get what she wanted. She got elected as the town’s sheriff because she stood up to Gold…. and now? I miss the old Emma.
– Timing. So Emma and Hook managed to do all the following before Rumple got the news that his kid was born…..
1 – Rush pregnant Belle to the convent from Grannies, I hope they used magic because I doubt it was easy to get pregnant Belle inside/outside the yellow bug.
2 – Get the fairies to set the delivery room and get Belle inside the convent. Once again I hope they used magic because I doubt it was easy for Hook to carry pregnant Belle around.
3 – Get Blue to cast a super duper extra strength protection spell outside of the convent to keep Rumple out. Didn’t it take Rumple like a minute to break Pan’s spell from Regina’s vault? Seemed to me like this one took forever to break and hasn’t Blue mentioned a few times that the dark one magic is too powerful for them or something like that?

Who told Rumple anyways? I guess we can thank Leroy for it.

– Belle. The inconsistency of how her character is being written. Belle was supposed to be caring and understanding but now she just seems manipulative and immature to me. The you will loose me forever thing, just stop giving/taking away hope to Rumple already, he clearly believes and acts on whatever you say. Also, literally listen to your dreams and don’t doubt for a second what a book called “How to defeat the dark one” tells you. What happened last time you found a book about the dark one? Didn’t you learn anything from Lumier? Belle was supposed to be smart! *shrugs*

So….

I waited two weeks for THIS?

4/10

LIKED

-We got to see the Black Fairy, and we got to find out who Rumple’s mother was.

-We got to see why taking children was his habit.

-Interesting that Aladdin decided to become a genie.

HATED

-Why didn’t Morfetus just tell his mother what was needed from the beginning? I know that this was done to create drama but still it made no sense. In fact, it would have been better if she had never gone back into the dreamworld state in the first place, and that she just decided to give up the baby in the end. Squid ink could have been thought up by Regina or Emma.

-Where exactly can Blue take baby Gideon? Can she cross realms now? Did she cross the town line? And how does it protect him from his fate anyway? Rumple could still in theory use the shears on him, and they might meet later on in life.

-Who in this episode was the changeling? Which baby changed? Or, which baby was already a fairy that replaced a human child?

-Why is there STILL no acknowledgement of Zelena raping Robin? Why no conversation about it?  I mean, if Regina is never going to be able to forgive Zelena, it would be for that, surely? (Yes, I want a conversation about Regina’s rape of Graham, too).

-LOL it is probably Jafar’s sword.

-If Rumple is half-fairy, then he should have been a bit magical anyway before becoming the DO????

-I have said this before, but why, now that the EQ is separate from her, have we not seen Regina’s white magic again?

-I agree with others: Belle had already said that it was over and there was no going back. So what on earth was the conversation in the elevator?

OBSERVATION

-So Henry IS the meeting of dark and light magic after all, seeing as he is related to the Black Fairy (yet he himself isn’t magical???).

-So Rumple, Henry and Neal are not 100% human?

-So THAT’S why we find out this season that the fairies can make themselves human-sized…to make R’s conception and birth possible.

-Actually, how is it possible to produce viable offspring from two different species? (This is one of my pet peeves in fantasy and Sci-Fi)

onceaholic wrote:

-So THAT’S why we find out this season that the fairies can make themselves human-sized…to make R’s conception and birth possible.

No, this was established as far back as Season 1. We saw Nova in big form, when she met Dreamy/Grumpy. We also saw Tink in big form in Season 3, and Blue even chastised her for “going big for no reason”.

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ah okay.