Home › Forums › Once Upon a Time › General discussion and theories › Lily is the Black Swan, and other Swan Lake connections
Tagged: August, Emma Swan, Swan Lake, The author
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April 25, 2015 at 10:25 pm #302595Media CriticParticipant
In the hit film Black Swan, Mila Kunis’ character is named Lily.
If you haven’t seen the film, the movie parallels Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Natalie Portman is the main protagonist and her character mostly parallels the Odette (swan queen) character, while Mila Kunis/Lily is positioned as the Black Swan, who in Swan Lake is Odette’s evil twin-like antagonist Odile who disguises herself as Odette.
This could mean two things: Either it’s just a wink and a nod to Swan Lake and Black Swan, or maybe Lily is the real Emma and maybe the two were switched as babies. This would tie in the Odile disguise story line of Swan Lake and would explain why Emma looks more like Maleficent with her blond hair than the Charmings.
Another Swan Lake connection is August. Apparently Swan Lake was inspired by the German fairytale author Johann Karl AUGUST Musäus. This ties in with August’s connection with Emma Swan and the book. The show has also been glossing over August’s connection with the book and whether or not he is/was an author or if he’s ever written anything.
But I am so cloudy on August’s story line so I may be missing explanations about why we’ve ruled him out as a member of the legion of Authors.
Any other Swan Lake connections?
[adrotate group="5"]April 25, 2015 at 10:28 pm #302596RumplesGirlKeymasterIf you haven’t seen the film, the movie parallels Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Natalie Portman is the main protagonist and her character mostly parallels the Odette (swan queen) character, while Mila Kunis/Lily is positioned as the Black Swan, who in Swan Lake is Odette’s evil twin-like antagonist Odile who disguises herself as Odette.
Well. Sorta of. But it’s more complicated. Natalie’s character sees Lily as the Black Swan coming to steal her glory, but in reality Natalie’s character is both Odette AND Black Swan. She becomes the Black Swan and acts accordingly, even murdering Lily and taking her place during the Black Swan’s famous dance. The Lily Character was mostly a red herring to push “Odette” toward her own inner jealousy and villainy.
That seems much more in line with where A and E are going actually since they’ve said that if Emma were to go dark she’s be the Black Swan.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"April 25, 2015 at 10:33 pm #302597Media CriticParticipant@RumplesGirl — Thanks, but I’m thinking the Black Swan connection is only by the name Lily and the connection to Swan Lake. Even though in the film Nina internalizes both the swans, I’m guessing that if the Emma/Lilly/ Swan Lake theory is true, the Black Swan connection stops there. It wouldn’t be a direct parallel.
ALSO:
Snow White and Charming have dark hair. So does Henry. Emma is the only blond, and also Maleficent. Lilly has dark hair.
How did Regina obtain Henry, again?
April 25, 2015 at 10:37 pm #302598RumplesGirlKeymasterSnow White and Charming have dark hair. So does Henry. Emma is the only blond, and also Maleficent. Lilly has dark hair. How did Regina obtain Henry, again?
…And? I don’t get where you’re going with the hair thing. What does that have to do with anything? Baby August was a ginger and Adult August is most decidedly not. Punnet squares are 10000x more complicated than “parents have dark hair, baby will have dark hair.”
Henry: Rumple set it up somehow when Regina asked him to use his contacts as a “lawyer”. Regina drove to Boston and got him.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"April 25, 2015 at 10:40 pm #302599RumplesGirlKeymasterThanks, but I’m thinking the Black Swan connection is only by the name Lily and the connection to Swan Lake
That’s a rather tenuous connection. Lily is really Lilith, the name of a powerful demon (and Adam’s first wife) in some Jewish traditions. There is also the idea of a lily among the thornes (from the Bible). The writers used the name less because of the movie and more because of the mythological connection it has.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"April 25, 2015 at 10:41 pm #302600Media CriticParticipantLOL Rumple set it up. Well now, I’m more convinced of the switched as babies’ theories.
The hair color could be a subtle clue that Emma is really Maleficent’s child and Lily is really the Charmings’.
I’m not saying that because she has light hair and everyone else in the family has dark hair, she MUST be Maleficent’s daughter, but it could be a clue. Also Emma looks more like Maleficent to me( Though, Lily looks nothing like Snow or Charming)
April 25, 2015 at 10:42 pm #302601Media CriticParticipantI’m going with fairy tale connections over biblical ones, given the nature of the show.
April 25, 2015 at 10:47 pm #302602RumplesGirlKeymasterLOL Rumple set it up. Well now, I’m more convinced of the switched as babies’ theories.
No, GOLD set it up. I just use Rumple more often when speaking of him. Rumple had no idea of Henry’s existence as Emma’s child. Gold nor Rumple knew that Henry was Emma’s son and wold be the key to breaking the curse. Rumple also had nothing to do with Lily and Emma–but he had everything to do with making Emma the Savior.
I’m not saying that because she has light hair and everyone else in the family has dark hair, she MUST be Maleficent’s daughter, but it could be a clue. Also Emma looks more like Maleficent to me( Though, Lily looks nothing like Snow or Charming)
Nope. Again, the true love savior of Snow and Charming had to be the one to break the curse. It’s literally written into the curse via TL potion coming from the hair of Snow and Charming. Who broke the curse? Emma Swan, the true love daughter of Snow and Charming. Who’s heart cannot be taken because it is the embodiment of true love? Emma.
She is the daughter of Snow and Charming, not Mal.
I’m going with fairy tale connections over biblical ones, given the nature of the show.
You mean the show where the hero is called a Savior and is clearly walking down monomyth road to her big metaphorical and/or literal death, followed by her rebirth?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"April 25, 2015 at 11:26 pm #302609Media CriticParticipantWe’ll come back to this when my theory is proven true in the finale.
April 26, 2015 at 7:35 am #302617PriceofMagicParticipantEmma is clearly Snowing’s child and the show has established that over the past 4 seasons. For the writers to suddenly change that now, especially if the 5th season is the last, would just be one major jump the shark moment.
As for Emma’s blonde hair compared to the rest of the family, Charming had reasonably light hair in flashbacks which suggests that there is a blonde gene within his family genetics. Such genes can skip generations so you might have a blonde grandparent, a dark haired child and a blonde grandchild. Blonde genes are also recessive so if Snow has the blonde gene in her family tree as well there is a 1 in 4 chance that Snowing would produce a blonde child. If both Snowing’s hair colour genes were made up as Bb (B=The dominant brunette hair colour, b=the recessive blonde hair colour, Emma would have ended up with the bb which is blonde whilst baby Neal would have either the BB or the Bb which would present as a darker hair colour). Henry has dark hair because Nealfire was dark haired and both Milah and Rumple were dark haired. Malcolm was also dark haired. That means the dominant brunette gene runs in Nealfire’s family which he passed on to Henry. Even if Henry does have the blonde gene from Emma, the dominant brunette gene from his father’s side would make Henry dark-haired.
Genetics aside, Emma’s hair colour could also be an aesthetics choice. Good is light and evil is dark therefore Emma having a light hair colour shows her goodness. As Emma’s darkness grows, she might start going darker haired like Dark Willow. Of course, this explanation doesn’t work for Snowing, Belle, Maleficent or the other evil blondes on the show or the other good brunettes/dark haired characters on the show.
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