Love and Romance on OUAT: What's the Message?

[RumplesGirl]

After all they work with fairy tales, and while I doubt that true love is a concept they put much merit into, I am quite sure they are aware a lot of people and particular many in the audience do, not just has some idea but as an ideal of how good romance should be. Putting so many true love ideal couples into one place makes it easily look as something casual, nothing special. Funny enough I would be the first to agree, true love is not special in the sense of something only a few could find, but I maybe OUaT has an inflation problem. True love is something that looks kinda cheap to come by by now.

One of my biggest issues with regards to true love on ONCE (or even just romance in general, if TL has not yet been proven) is ignoring the past and this works for every single couple to varying degrees. Now, again, I’m working with canon text…nothing the shippers have interpreted for themselves (please bear this in mind)

Snowing: when did Snow learn that David was hiding his identity; that he was not James, the Prince, but David, the farmer? Was she not alarmed by this? Ladies and gents, wouldn’t YOU be alarmed by this?

Rumbelle: Everything Rumple’s ever done from the murder of the maid to Milah to the Curse itself, that Belle either doesn’t know about OR knows about but is “ok” with and instead of it tainting her own perception or even her personality, leaves her as the sweetheart (to quote @Myril).

SwanFire: Neal’s past as Bealfire and where he came from and his whole life story.

OutlawQueen: Much like Rumbelle, everything Regina has ever done including persuading another man to kill her husband. Robin has “head of” these things Regina has done but would you honestly want your 3 yr old around this kind of person? Would you not hesitate for a very long time before trying a relationship?

CaptainSwan: Hook’s own pirate laced past, that includes the most recent lost year, that either Emma doesn’t know about or knows about and doesn’t care about, both being equally problematic.

The big question: do your partner’s past not matter at all? Especially one that is built on deception and blood? It’s all washed away because “it’s true love/soul mate/a second chance/ fate.” Is THAT the kind of message that we want to uphold?

[RumplesGirl]

Put it this way, folks. Why do we like the characters we like? If I were to ask each of you to explain why your favorite character is you favorite, I would be some good money I’d get this sort of answer: “because I understand them.” We not only sympathize with the character, we empathize with them. They become some sort of televised avatar and our struggles and pains and longing and needs play out in their stories. It’s what @Myril was saying in her first monster essay: it might be escapism, but there must still be something that connects to you, your very self and the world in which you inhabit. Even if ONCE took place 5000000 years from now and everyone lived in a giant submarine, there would still be something that connects back to you, the audience, in your present day.

Doctor Who or Star Trek fans: you travel the stars to great distant times and places, and always–ALWAYS–there is something fundamentally human about the places and people. And most often, it’s the morality. There are certain taboos or cultural moires that harken back to that which is understandable and familiar.

My fear is that ONCE is loosing that in an effort to push storytelling. That a basic moral message is getting lost in the SHINY! of the couple/ship.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[PriceofMagic]

Does having a heart have any reflection on the ability to love and feel? Or is it just a weakness?

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[RumplesGirl]

Does having a heart have any reflection on the ability to love and feel? Or is it just a weakness?

Depends on which season, IMO.

Will Scarlet of WL lost his heart and his feelings went with it. He was unable to form romantic attachments, though he was able to bond with others, like Alice.

Graham on ONCE proper in S1 said he couldn’t feel anything and felt as though he was unable to love or have any sort of emotion beyond the basics.

Regina took out her heart in S3B (312) and her pain was instantly less. However, when she was in SB later that same season and did not have her heart she was able to express complicated love/romantic feelings toward Robin Hood.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[PriceofMagic]

Is having a heart necessary to love? Because Regina was infinitely better off without hers.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[PriceofMagic]

Here’s a question: If you know you and another person are “destined” to be together, should you go out of your way to make that happen including removing obstacles from your way, even if that obstacle happens to be the beloved wife of that other person?

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[RumplesGirl]

Here’s a question: If you know you and another person are “destined” to be together, should you go out of your way to make that happen including removing obstacles from your way, even if that obstacle happens to be the beloved wife of that other person?

In this hypothetical scenario is “removing obstacles’ code for murder?

I’m against murder in all forms so Imma go with no you should not do this thing.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[PriceofMagic]

It could mean murder or it could mean other ways too.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[enchantedfan]

I believe the message in OUAT is a positive one because at the core of love in OUAT is overcoming fears that is specific for each of the characters.

There are lines in a song from an American Chrisitian hardcore band ‘As Cities Burn‘ (I looked up the origin of these inspirational quotes)

“….I loved you at your darkest…”

How relatable are these insightful words for: ” Belle to Rumple, Neal to Emma (that hug) Regina to Cora, Henry to Regina …..

and from the same song…….

“Love, what is love without trust?”

Each of the characters in OUAT are dealing with their innermost fears and trust issues. The writers set up the dramas that explores those fears. Seeing the flaws and not fearing those flaws opens their heart to love that person despite those flaws….to love them even at their darkest.

As their fears faded, their love strengthened, opening their heart to forgiveness, to redemption for their beloved and for themselves.

THAT IS TRUE LOVE.

I would like to share another quote that exemplifies the positive themes of love in OUAT:

“Not until we are lost …….do we begin to find ourselves.” Henry David Thoreau

Emma, Nealfire, Rumple, Regina, Robin, lost souls, yet, the writers have us share their journey of finding themselves……..through unconditional love.

So yes, ‘good always wins’ for love is good, love is forgiving, love is NOT BLIND because love is courage, love overcomes fears.

Be who you are, and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind. Dr. Seuss

[RumplesGirl]

I believe the message in OUAT is a positive one because at the core of love in OUAT is overcoming fears that is specific for each of the characters.

And Regina and Rumple have conquered their fears? Or were they magicked by lightening fast character development away? Cause one committed murder and the other is letting a man out of prison to take down an innocent woman

The writers set up the dramas that explores those fears. Seeing the flaws and not fearing those flaws opens their heart to love that person despite those flaws….to love them even at their darkest.

It’s one thing to not fear a flaw like self-consciousness or a tortured past; it’s another to not fear a flaw like mass murder, manipulation, lying, deception, and sociopathy. Not pointing to any one character in general but on the whole…every character in a ship being discussed here is tied to those traits somehow.

As their fears faded, their love strengthened, opening their heart to forgiveness, to redemption for their beloved and for themselves.

Again, has their fear faded? Any of it? Really?

Emma, Nealfire, Rumple, Regina, Robin, lost souls, yet, the writers have us share their journey of finding themselves……..through unconditional love.

So those characters have shown unconditional love? Rumple letting go of Neal? Neal leaving Emma? Regina magicking away Henry’s memories? Regina going after Marian because she came back to SB through no fault of her own?

So yes, ‘good always wins’ for love is good, love is forgiving, love is NOT BLIND because love is courage, love overcomes fears.

Sure, the abstract concept of love is supposedly good. Except…what about possessive love? What about love that causes you to hurt people in the name of that love? Self-righteous love? Egotistical love? Love that causes you to do unspeakable acts? That’s good? Cause I’m working with canon text not abstract concepts that sound poetic on paper but perhaps don’t really match to the reality of this show.

 

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

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