[ahkna]

Favourite Moments:
1. Rumple’s backstory. I loved it 100%, there’s just not a moment that didn’t draw me in the acting was amazing. Robert Carlyle did an amazing job.

2. Emma. Jennifer Morrison was phenomenal as well. I loved how well she captured emotions, very realistic.

3. Milah. I never understood Milah as her motives weren’t explained until this episode. I like how she told Rumple not to go to war, and he did, and she supported him so long as he didn’t back out. And I like how it hints that for her being his wife, was a curse after that, I imagine that in a small town that must have been terrible for her. But I did feel like her anger and alienation was overexaggerate though at the same time she was entitled to that. I do think she understood Rumple loved her son, like she was aware that he sacrificed it all for him, she just didn’t agree that that sacrifice, and what it meant for them as a family was worth it. She says it clearly, that if he was going to go to war, then he should come back with his shield or on it (not at all), as honor seemed more important than her son not having a father. (So they had differing value systems that conflicted)

4. The reference to the family tree. I loved that. I know a lot of people who insist Regina is not Snow’s Step-Mother, so it’s great that the show emphasizes that this is the case.

5. THAT SEER was amazing, the acting both as a child and adult was amazing, and so much of me wanted to hear a backstory on how she came to be imprisoned and what was done to her. How did she become the seer, what life must have been like being imprisoned and possibly even tortured for her gifts. It was amazing. She def. reminds me of Agatha precog in her emotional torment. Was just amazing.

6. Snow’s hope that Henry being connected to everyone will be what brings the entire family together (Rumple, Regina, Emma, etc.) that it will mellow each other. I like that hope, and that’s back to the compassionate woman I once knew. At the same time, she doesn’t seem to realize that so long as they all want 100% full claim over Henry and so long as this claim is biased towards or against people, there can be no peace, happiness, or mellowing out. It will take all of them working together, and healing, and it will take Regina caring more than ‘just’ for Henry. Will require an open heart, and I would be 100% open to a show that focuses on the drama that comes with healing and working towards working together than constantly antagonizing each other for what feels like the cycle of eternity.

7. Henry’s forgiveness/letting go of Neal (the more I watch that part the more I like what it represents). I just wish that that forgiveness/acceptance/compassoin would spread to more than just Neal. It seems Henry has very Black & White forgiveness patterns, but I like that scene because it does represent what I want to see so much for the show as a whole.

Least Favourite Moments:
1. Henry’s lack of Empathy/Compassion. I know he is only 10 (well 11 now) but what makes it worse is that he is never called out on his high level of judgmental attitude. He is the center of the universe and again and again this show reiterates that what Henry feels is law and everyone must bend down to him. This is compounded by his refusal to acknowledge Regina as his Mother or want to be with her, because she lied about the curse. Perhaps she wanted to protect and keep him pure, and didn’t want to corrupt him like she was. So it’s frustrating, that he doesn’t seem to consider other people, and what’s even more frustrating is he represents the majority of the world I have to deal with on a day to day basis. (While the other characters are adults and do this too, and he merely manifests on a whole new level that behaviour, he doesn’t have the best examples around him, and is never taught how to appropriately express emotions, nor were the adults around him, but still…I can definitely see Henry becoming a self-justified, jaded villain as an adult at this point, and can see why (Family) Therapy with the Cricket is much needed)

This is coupled with the Self-Righteous “you lied to me” behaviour. First of all Emma put the boy up for closed adoption, she wasn’t ready to face having a son, that was gradually. She wasn’t ready to even think about Neal, who abandoned and left her. Further, why would someone reveal that your Father was a thief who framed you, put you in prison, and disappeared so that they couldn’t be found. The fact that Henry expects her to be 100% honest about her past and internalizes everyone’s behaviour is flawed thinking (both in reality and in this fiction based show).

2. Henry calling Neal Dad, he just met the man for 2 seconds. Didn’t it take him one year to call Emma his Mom? Further the fact that he refers to the woman who raised him for 10 years as “Regina” rather than Mom, is quick to judge her, based on what he has read in a book (which apparently never shows what she suffered and went through). He believes she is guilty then says ‘I always knew it’ when she is not. He abandons Regina again and again and this is promoted by the “Heroes” that she has no claim over him, and can ‘stand’ her up and do awful things because she is the Evil Queen. They don’t represent good examples. It bothers me that this show constantly spits on adoption, and that the vast majority seem to support this spitting. Why? Because she’s the “Evil Queen” (which to me basically means “someone who is suffering”, she wanted happiness and blamed Snow White for that, she thought it would bring her peace, and it didn’t. What brought her peace was Henry. He is the key between bringing peace (a heavy burden I know, but the writers wrote him as the key), yet he antagonizes and blames people preventing that peace as he continues to polarize people rather than insist that they work together, rather blaming them when one falls short of his expectations (I KNOW he’s only 11, but I do expect more esp. in a fictional setting)). The fact is I’m frustrated by the overall lack of Empathy and Compassion, Healing and Love, and respect for each other that the show writes into the script overall. It most definitely feels like a massive soap opera the constant bickering between each other.

3. Neal abandoned Emma, set her up, framed her. His reasons… “I know you’re Baelfire” and “Pinocchio told me too”, weren’t good enough. Deep down he was running from his father because he felt he abandoned him. That’s not a good excuse. So the fact that he feels Emma ‘owes’ him something frustrated me. The fact that people seem to be OK with it, because he’s cute and Henry’s father further frustrates me for the same reason people seem to be drawn to ‘bad boy Edward’.

4. Regina with Cora, and the fact that Snow White has become hardened and bitter towards her and says quite self-righteously (as a way to stab and hurt her most) in the promo “You know she doesn’t love you”. The dig bothers me because Regina’s pain and suffering and her negative behaviour is a result of her Mother and Rumple and others manipulating her in her life. And that her Mother’s (twisted love) and Regina’s desire for it is part of that and being vindictive won’t ease the situation, it will only make things worse.

While I Have to admit I always saw Snow White as the beacon of compassion even though it was somewhat naive at times. My hope was that she wouldn’t close her heart completely, though her closure and hostility is understandable.

My Hope

1. I do hope that Emma and Neal are able to get past their issues. I don’t know if Emma loves Neal, but if she loves him and forgives him, and if Neal grows for the better I can see them as a nice pair. But only if their relationship is ‘healthy’, if it is Neal denying and showing no empathy or care or even remorse for what he did to Emma, then I’m not for it.

2. That Regina gains joint Custody of her son at the very least, and that Henry respects and refers to her as Mom.

3. That there is healing and forgiveness, not just fighting with each other all the time for drama’s sake. But Rumple working hard to be Neal’s father for abandoning him, Regina and Emma working together to raise Henry. Neal working on his issues and Emma working on her trust issues. Henry working thanks to the examples above him, on forgiveness, compassion, yet not confusing compassion with lack of responsibility.

I’d like to see Regina and Snow White have some healing. I really want to see Regina forgive Snow White and finally stop blaming and letting go and I’d like to see Snow White as hard as it is forgive too. I’d like to see Prince Charming and the rest of the gang who got caught in the mess between Regina and Snow White stop picking sides and promote an environment that is less hostile and makes this welcome for them.

I’d like to see everyone get a happy ending, and that “Thanksgiving” dinner that was discussed. I can see everyone getting a happy ending, a family: Rumple has his son, marries Belle, Regina becomes the kind Step Mother to Snow White, they rebuild their relationship, she shares custody with Emma. Perhaps Emma and Baelfire are together, but if they are not together, then at least it is not ‘hostile’ and there is healing that has been done there between each other.

I’d like to see Neal/Baelfire get to be in Henry’s life. and Henry grow some compassion. I’d like to see Henry (who parallels Regina on so many fronts) and Regina both realize that they aren’t the center of the universe, and that there are other people to live for and love, and to realize that.

I don’t want:
This story to perpetuate something that has turned me off from most Disney faery tales. The Black & White, Good vs. Evil. In this world we need to learn to talk to each other and heal, and this story can represent us breaking those barriers or it can represent us getting trapped in the same judgmental, controlling, self-centered, egoic boxes we find ourselves in.

Then of course I imagine the writers can’t do that, because they themselves are trapped in that cycle, and that this story will continue to represent the tragedy that often represents many prominent aspects of life. Where the Heroes are allowed to do terrible, uncompassionate things to others and justify it, and the Villain is allowed to suffer, but never allowed to grow or get a happy ending. And where forgiveness/compassion once again is equated with letting off the hook rather than ‘taking responsibility for self and actions, and learning from mistakes to be better people’. In which case happy endings only happen when “The Witch is Dead”, rather than the Witch taking responsibility, learning, healing, and as a whole moving on in life….maybe that’s a faery tale ending, but that’s what I watch faery tales for!

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