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How then does Once Upon a Time incorporate the wraith into its canon? Mulan calls the wraith a “Qui-Shen.” The Qui-Shen is indeed a spirit in Chinese tradition and is somewhat similar to the creature introduced in “Broken,” yet it is a ghost-like creature that is difficult to define. When interviewing a Chinese acquaintance, he had a great deal of difficulty translating the concept since the meanings of words in Chinese are very subtle. He explained that the belief behind the Qui Shen centers on the concept that all souls become ghosts after death, and can go to what many call Heaven or Hell. The Qui Shen are the souls doomed to Hell and attempt to escape this fate. They do so by finding a human with a weak spirit, and then they attack it by taking its energy little by little. Victims cannot have their souls sucked out, but when their energy is depleted by the assaults over a sustained period of time, they die. The Qui-Shen then is a horrible threat as they can murder in this manner. The motivation for the attacks is to enter the body of the victim to escape damnation.
There are a few protections people can make. Because the Qui Shen must flee from daylight, people choose to stay inside at night, since that is when the ghost is able to travel and attack, especially between the hours of midnight and five in the morning. If an attack is imminent, one can use a mirror. Mirrors in Buddhist tradition are “instruments of enlightenment.” In China a mirror “takes fire from the Sun (Chevalier 658).” For Taoists mirrors “[reveal] the nature of evil influences . . . [drive] them away and [afford] special protection against them.” Hence there is still a tradition in Chinese culture to place a mirror at the entrance of a home. In Shinto, mirrors serve “like crucifixes in Catholic Churches (Chevalier 659).” Another object is the use of a red rope. Red is the symbol of life connected as it is to blood. It is also the color connected with fire, something from which a Qui Shen flees (Chevalier 795). A person may also call upon the holy gods for protection.
http://www.onceuponatimefans.co.uk/the-origin-of-the-wraith
A few things that stood out:
–the idea of the energy being sucked out actually sounds a bit like Tamara since we know that taser is something much bigger than a…taser. (Tamara = Wraith?)
–However, the motivation for these attacks does sounds like what Slurpeez is proposing, that the body has been depleted of its energy/soul/ect and the Qui Shen moves in. The Wraith could be looking for a way to escape wherever he is located normally, trying to get to another land, like the Qui Shen.
–Daylight: going back to Tamara. Anyone think it was interesting that when Tamara met August for the first time in Hong Kong it was a very dark room, yet the woman was wearing a face covering AND sunglasses?
–Mirrors: Tamara was using a mirror to spy on August but wasn’t looking directly into it, more off to the side.
–The Color Red: the Dragon was covered in red. Lots of red. And, dragons often breathe fire which repel a Wraith. Before the dragon attacked Tamara he began to blow out red smoke from his nose and she actually looked quite scared. Was Tamara wearing any red??Ok. GO!
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"@RumplesGirl wrote:
–Daylight: going back to Tamara. Anyone think it was interesting that when Tamara met August for the first time in Hong Kong it was a very dark room, yet the woman was wearing a face covering AND sunglasses?
–Mirrors: Tamara was using a mirror to spy on August but wasn’t looking directly into it, more off to the side.
–The Color Red: the Dragon was covered in red. Lots of red. And, dragons often breathe fire which repel a Wraith. Before the dragon attacked Tamara he began to blow out red smoke from his nose and she actually looked quite scared. Was Tamara wearing any red??Daylight didn’t bother her when she forced the “meet cute” with Neal with her coffee.
The use of the Mirror could be a clue, but it was also a low tech way to show her spying on August.
Tamara was shown at first in a dingy looking tan/brownish neutral. She looks far more stylish later on when she confronts the Dragon and in SB.I agree, the Dragon had a lot of red, and did seem to at first scare Tamara, as if she were not sure her taser would work. She has not been shown in red I think.
Ok. GO![/quote]
“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
Daylight didn’t bother her when she forced the “meet cute” with Neal with her coffee.
The use of the Mirror could be a clue, but it was also a low tech way to show her spying on August.
Tamara was shown at first in a dingy looking tan/brownish neutral. She looks far more stylish later on when she confronts the Dragon and in SB.I agree, the Dragon had a lot of red, and did seem to at first scare Tamara, as if she were not sure her taser would work. She has not been shown in red I think.
Excellent points. Here are some of my counters
1) Was the sun out that day? It seemed to be a more overcast day. I could be stretching but it was mid-winter when August shows up.2) Agreed the mirror was being used as a low tech spy thing. I just wanted to point it out.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I don’t think Tamara is an undead creature like a vampire. She probably has a reflection, and I don’t think she’s afraid of sunlight. She was only wearing the dark glasses because she didn’t want to be recognized going into the Dragon’s shop. Also, Tamara was walking around in broad daylight in NYC when she bumped into Neal. Also, she was out and about in daylight when she witnessed the BF turn August into little Pinocchio.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
@slurpeez108 wrote:
I don’t think Tamara is an undead creature like a vampire. She probably has a reflection, and I don’t think she’s afraid of sunlight. She was only wearing the dark glasses because she didn’t want to be recognized going into the Dragon’s shop. Also, Tamara was walking around in broad daylight in NYC when she bumped into Neal. Also, she was out and about in daylight when she witnessed the BF turn August into little Pinocchio.
Alright, so by the same token, the Dragon was standing by the window in sunlight when Tamara came to kill him. Unless his shell is capable of standing in sunlight but his spiritual self is not, which I can see.
I wasn’t really trying to sell Tamara = Wraith, just tossing it out there. I still think she’s a Dark Fairy."He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"@slurpeez108 wrote:
The Dragon: It was this string your father used to animate you as a freshly carved puppet. In a way it first gave you life. It will serve as payment for your soul.
It sounds like Pinocchio made a deal with the devil since the Dragon wanted Pinocchio’s soul. Could the Dragon be a wraith in disguise? Mulan called the wraith the Qui Shen, that is a “soul-sucker, ” and so it has a Chinese tie-in. The wraith cannot be killed because, according to Regina, it is already dead. If the Dragon was the Qui Shen in human form, then he didn’t really die, since the spirit wasn’t really alive to begin with. Adam and Eddy said at Paley Fest that the first part of the season would tie in nicely with the last part. I have a feeling the Qui Shen could make a reappearance as Mulan and Aurora search the netherworld for Philip’s lost soul.
Nice theory, I like it a lot.
I know that it is not the topic of this thread. But the mentioning of Tamara and her looking into the mirror reminds me of Ursula. I know a few think that she could be Ursula. In the Disney movie she looks in the mirror as Vanessa(is it the same name in english?) As her human form but in the mirror you can see her real self. Maybe a hint (like the aquarium)?
@wizard55 wrote:
So…..who is The Dragon? I’m going to call it, that he is from Mulan. I off the top of my head cannot think of any other dragons.
I am thinking that they are using Chinese folk and fairy tales for their inspiration… here are just a few I have found.
Google search results:
http://www.worldoftales.com/Chinese_folktales.html
http://zeluna.net/chinese-fairytales.html
http://books.google.com/books/about/Chinese_fairy_tales_and_folk_tales.html?id=tOwSAQAAIAAJ
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/topicsub_myths.htm
http://www.orientalwomentalk.net/ChineseLegend.html
http://www.languagecourse.net/historic-chinese-legends-and-tales.php
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