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Emma (Savior) takes Serum and we see The Dark Swan
I don’t know if this is possible unless Emma has some residual darkness left in her. Didn’t her parents perform the work of the serum by transferring her darkness to Lily?
Maybe Rumple and Belle could both take the serum and they could pair off – spinner Rumple with Belle and DO! Rumple with Dark!Belle. Seems like the simplest solution to their problems. Although – if Belle took the serum, would both her halves be pregnant?! Would they give birth to light and dark babies? Or maybe she reintegrates herself before giving birth and is left with twins – one dark and one light. Then we’d have the good vs evil fight of the next generation already set up!
Yes, reverting to the S1 structure would be interesting, especially as S6 might be similar to S1 with a bunch of new people from The Land of Untold Stories.
Other improvements I think would be beneficial:
– Get rid of the compulsory flashbacks in each episode. Only use them for new characters. The flashbacks are providing less and less value, especially with the main characters. Snow and Charming have one every arc and not since S2 have they been interesting. Getting rid of the flashbacks could potentially double the amount of time they have to tell the present day story.
– Scale back the main cast. S1 felt like it had the perfect balance between main characters, side characters and villains. But since S3 I’ve felt like the side characters got less attention. This is a pity because they contributed to the charm of S1. These days, they get so little time that we can’t get invested in their story and hence feel like they’re a distraction.
There are also several members of the core group that don’t pull their weight in terms of the story, e.g. Snow, Charming, Hook. These guys mostly feel like they’re tagging along, saying a few lines here and there. The problem is that because they’re mains, they’re given an obligatory ‘centric’ episode, complete with flashbacks. Sometimes, they even have a storyline like the ridiculous Snow/Charming baby communication fiasco of 5B. Imagine if they’d cut ‘Labor of Love’ and the overworld phone calls and replaced it with a Hades-centric episode to clearly illustrate his motivations. The arc would have been so much stronger.
In S6, I’d like to see Snow and Charming take a back seat. Henry should be there, but in the background; I don’t want another Henry-centric as he can get very annoying very quickly when he’s in one of his zealous moods. Zelena should be a side character. I want to look forward to her snarky comments and sisterly bonding, not see it overdone by shoving her into every scene with the main group. I think Hook is also better as a side character, but that’s obviously not going to happen.
Arc rankings:
S2A – The most fun arc for me. Loved Snow/Emma in the EF, loved the new characters (Hook, Milah, Cora, Mulan, Aurora), had a nice pace and blend of magic/reality.
S1 – Original, captivating and contained many great episodes. But it did drag a bit, especially with the whole MM/David/Kathryn triangle. The framing of MM for murder was also very obvious.
S2B – Contained some good episodes but fell away after 2A. It felt like they didn’t quite know what direction to go in after Cora died.
S3A – Well planned arc, interesting story and captivating villain in Pan. I missed Storybrooke and the perpetual darkness got to me, but I did enjoy this arc.
S4A – Solid. No character development and plot inconsistencies were starting to get worse, but not bad either.
S3B – Just didn’t interest me that much. I couldn’t get into Zelena and the Oz flashbacks.
S4B – Boring. The queens of darkness didn’t interest me and the author storyline got messy.
S5A/S5B – Boring, annoying at times with hardly any episodes I’d rate as ‘good’. The plot was hopelessly inconsistent, the characters were butchered and the messages coming out of S5 were mixed and at times, outright distasteful.
BUT is that not the way LIFE IS? We are often pawns to forces outside ourselves …. some good, some bad… Employers, family and relatives, friends…significant others, the bank that holds the mortgage on your home…the idiot driver on the road …Mundane but true…. I do not think we decide our own fate as much as react to the results of the decisions we make or are thrust upon us by others.
My comment wasn’t about Belle actually deciding her own fate, because nobody is totally in control of that. It was more about the depiction of Belle. In recent times, it seems like her character is totally defined by her relationship with Rumple. We’re seeing less and less of her doing things independently or interacting with other characters. In this latest arc, none of the ‘heroes’ interacted with Belle, unless you count Zelena. They do however, use her to manipulate Rumple. I know Belle has the narrative function of pulling Rumple back from the darkness, but they could do more with her character.
The very little we did in the last few moments of the episode suggest there’s no change at all, really. She was still Regina in all the ways we recognize her. She stood up to Hyde; she was snarky; she was helpful in restoring magic to SB; she was with her son and her family and had no noticeable differences.
True. Pity. I always thought that her snarkiness and feistiness largely came from the EQ part of her.
IDK…Maybe the writers haven’t thought that far ahead..
My cynicism says that the fans will give this topic far more deep thought than the writers will. Like with all the complex and fascinating themes that they touch on, they will either treat it very simplistically or set it up nicely only to never deliver a pay off.
Mind you, I don’t think they will actually show Regina as being weak. That would be boring. Also, they’ll want to show good Regina as a complete and interesting person in her own right because many viewers will be rooting for her. So I don’t think what they’ll show will necessarily be what you’d expect or even what would make sense.
I see the essence of the Evil Queen as being Regina’s sense of self preservation. The persona arose as a protection mechanism in response to Regina being hurt too often. Regina feels deeply and went through much emotional pain, so the EQ has no empathy. Regina was frequently made to feel powerless, so the EQ is power hungry and will stop at nothing to get her own way (the lack of empathy helps with this). Regina was hurt repeatedly by her mother, so the EQ doesn’t forgive; if someone wrongs her she makes darn sure they don’t do it again.
So…I’d expect Regina minus her EQ to be emotionally vulnerable, self sacrificing and pretty ineffectual in terms of getting things done.
