TV Guide – Bosses Dissect Peter Pan's Motivations

[HappyEndings]

This isn’t the Peter Pan you remember from your childhood.

Emma (Jennifer Morrison) and the rag-tag group of heroes and villains that attempted to rescue Henry (Jared Gilmore) in Neverland learned that the hard way during last week’s Once Upon a Time. Coming face-to-face with Pan (Robbie Kay) and his Lost Boys, Emma was forced to confront the truth about herself: She’s an orphan, having grown up without the love and care of Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Charming (Josh Dallas).

But it’s Pan’s threat that’s the real problem. He swears that by the time Emma actually finds Henry, her son will want to stay on the island. And when she leaves, she won’t just feel like an orphan — she’ll actually be one. Unfortunately, that might be true after Charming was skimmed by an arrow doused with Dreamshade poison.

What can you tell us about Peter Pan’s motivations?
Edward Kitsis: For us, our characters are all looking for a happy ending. They’re all looking for love; it’s just what choices do you use to get them? Some people are OK playing hardball. Some people want to do it the right way. Peter Pan is an interesting story.
Adam Horowitz: Evil isn’t born; it’s made. That applies to all of the villains, including Peter Pan.
Kitsis: But he’s a sick, twisted kid. You saw the fact that Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle), who we can all agree up to this point is probably the nastiest of our villains and the most-clever … said it’s someone he’s frightened of, I’m frightened of. He gets in your head and he says, “Oh, what are you most insecure about? I’m going to really exploit that.”

Why did you decide to explore a Peter Pan who is evil?
Kitsis: There’s a lot of Peter Pan’s out there, and you look to take your own take. For us, it came from a character place, which is somebody who refuses to grow up has to have a lot of problems. It sounds great when you’re 16, but when you hit 25 or older, you start to go, “Oh God, I’d hate to be 16 again and I’m missing all the things in life.” You can’t just hit the pause button. This guy is probably there alone. We started to think about Heart of Darkness and Peter Pan started to become Kurtz for us, and we started to talk about going up the river to have to get him.
Horowitz: Imagine if you’re stuck at 16, great, but for hundreds of years you’re getting carded. What’s that going to do to you?

Will we get to see a backstory for Pan — maybe one that includes what happened to Rufio?
Horowitz: We’re not doing a Rufio backstory.
Kitsis: We’re not doing his backstory, but we are going to be telling you how Peter Pan became Peter Pan and why he made the decision he made.

Is it harder to have a villain and the Lost Boys, who appear to be children, when it comes to how far you can go with violence?
Horowitz: We thought that was a really interesting dilemma to have villains who, just by looking at them, you really can’t engage.
Kitsis: Even though they’re probably 200 years older than you.
Horowitz: But they’re trapped as children, as boys, so how is that going to be a challenge?
Kitsis: It is a challenge because even Regina was like, “You’re lucky you’re a teenager,” but at the same respect, you see they have a profound effect on Emma. At the same time, Felix scares me. That guy is so creepy. The Lost Boys have a bit of the Lord of the Flies situation going on. It is tough and no one wants to kill children. They want to get Henry back and this is their villain. We have a very clever group. We have gotten very dark, including killing someone’s father to enact a curse, and kidnapping children and throwing them in the infinite forest. But at the same respect, we never do violence that is gratuitous. We don’t kill people unless it is earned. [Killing] Greg (Ethan Embry) and Tamara (Sonequa Martin-Green) was probably earned because they believed in something without thinking about it.

Is the goal to see Henry corrupted?
Horowitz: It’s going to be sad when we kill him.
Kitsis: Wait until you see the scene with his lifeless body.
Horowitz: They get hungry and they have to eat him. [Laughs] The premiere is called “The Heart of the Truest Believer.” That’s who Henry is. He is pure. His belief is true and pure. What happens when he is now trapped with a Pan who is—
Kitsis: A teenager who literally is one of the most charismatic figures we’ve ever seen?
Horowitz: There’s the allure of that 15-year-old — or whatever age he appears to be — in that constant youth. There’s that alluring side of Peter Pan and what being a Lost Boy means and what happens when Henry is exposed to that and manipulated by that.
Kitsis: No rules, no curfews, no bedtimes and ice cream for breakfast.

Will Henry try to escape?
Horowitz: Henry [has], as we’ve seen over the years, been a very resourceful, independent boy who is now going to be thrown into a situation where that will not only be tested — he’s going to have to deal with running away and trying to escape — but now dealing with a psychological test. Pan, as we’ve seen, likes to mess with your head. What’s going to happen when Henry is face-to-face with the ultimate manipulator?
Kitsis: The thing about Henry that makes him so great is his belief. He believed enough in a book to get on a bus to go to Boston to convince this woman who gave him up for adoption in a prison in Phoenix to come back because Snow White and Charming needed to remember who they were, and it worked. This is a world where that belief is going to be used against him. I don’t think we’ve ever seen that before. That’s what we’re excited about.
Horowitz: Belief is really the theme of the season so far and we’re seeing how belief impacts on each one of our characters.
Kitsis: For us, belief is so important in everything. You need to believe in magic, you need to believe in yourself, you need to believe in your family. Neverland runs on belief. That, for us, was the uber theme. This is a show for believers and that is a show about hope.

http://www.tvguide.com/News/Once-Upon-Time-Peter-Pan-1071986.aspx & Lisa thanks

[RumplesGirl]

Horowitz: It’s going to be sad when we kill him.

Kitsis: Wait until you see the scene with his lifeless body.

Horowitz: They get hungry and they have to eat him

Adam and Eddy are trolls. I love them. Everyone—they’re joking.

 

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

[Slurpeez]

HappyEndings wrote:

Horowitz: It’s going to be sad when we kill him.

Kitsis: Wait until you see the scene with his lifeless body.

Horowitz: They get hungry and they have to eat him

Adam and Eddy are trolls. I love them. Everyone—they’re joking.

A&E have a sick sense of humor, lol. That is why I think Henry is safe from PP wanting to kill him though, since A&E wouldn’t actually harm a hair on Henry’s head. PP isn’t about to sacrifice Henry on in a barbaric ritual. That is why I think Pan wants Henry’s figurative, rather than his literal, heart.

"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

[RumplesGirl]

PP isn’t about to sacrifice Henry on in a barbaric ritual. That is why I think Pan wants Henry’s figurative, rather than his literal, heart.

I’m open to this but I do think it’s worth noting that taking a heart doesn’t mean death.

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

[Phee]

Rumple cut off his shadow with his dagger.
Pan has a dagger, and could have very well removed his own shadow in the same way.
Rumple can take hearts.
Who’s to say that Pan can’t take hearts too.

I like the idea of Henry having to give up his heart willingly. The scene where Emma’s heart couldn’t be taken may well have been foreshadowing that Henry’s special brand of heart can’t just be taken against his will either.

[PriceofMagic]

That is why I think Henry is safe from PP wanting to kill him though, since A&E wouldn’t actually harm a hair on Henry’s head.

This just makes me think of that scene from Peter Pan return to Neverland:

Jane: You said no one would get hurt. You gave your word!

Hook: And Captain Hook is a man of his word. I promised I wouldn’t harm a single hair on his head. (Plucks a hair from PP’s head) And this is the one I won’t harm!

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[RumplesGirl]

I think this season is going to be full of close calls: Charming, Henry and in my headcanon, Rumple. I think we’re going to really be putting our heroes in mortal danger only to have them pulled back. So I expect that Henry might get really close to having his heart (yeah, I still think literal) removed.

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

[Gaultheria]

I get the impression that Henry is safe, that Emma is the real target. She’s just not the truest believer yet; that’s what the tasks are designed to turn her into.

Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

[Author]

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