[Keb]

He isn’t far off in appearance from the former version–not nearly as jarring a different actor than the Robin Hood switch. But I guess smoothing it over with some new footage might make it easier on people who don’t go back and watch Skin Deep on a regular basis.

[Keb]

I like them together because the actors are powerful.

I am worried about how they’re taking lines right out of Rumbelle to make it work. Rumbelle initially worked because there WAS time for them to fall for each other.

And True Love means being willing to sacrifice for the other. We’ve seen it everywhere that TLK worked. Zelena never was for Hades, so it’s not True Love (yet). Hades…possibly. I don’t trust him any more than Zelena does.

But giving her a Storybrooke of her own was cute as…well, Hell.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

From my sister:

NO ONE returns like gaston, fills out hot guy roles like gaston
I’m especially good at cameoing

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

*dies happy* We’re gonna have a Rumbelle Ep *singsong* And I’m gonna miss it…but I’ll be in Disneyland with my fiance so I don’t care…much. (Watching it the first SECOND I have the opportunity though.)

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

For Rumbelle & Oz & Author Henry stuff this gets a 9/10 from me. Some mixed feelings and I feel like they’re recycling plot elements more than weaving the threads right now, but we’ll see what they do with them.

Likes:
–Belle being adorbs with babies.
–Yay Mother Superior exists!
–Zelena being just like her mommy.
–Belle being brave and trying to save the baby from Zelena
–Munchkins! Oz!
–Henry facing critics of his writing. Henry writing!
–Hades has a story! Yes!
–Rumple being honest with Belle. Maybe more honest than she can deal with.
–Belle deciding to hold off on choices this time until things aren’t going insane around her.
–Zelena showing true love for her daughter by letting her go. Actually well done and moving. And a good riff off recurring themes in the show…makes the candle on the cupcake parallel more palatable.
–Henry’s writing being powerful!
–Aw, Hades made Zelena her own Storybrooke!
–Zelena’s birthday! April 15th!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TIMELINE STUFF.
—BELLE CENTRIC COMING TEASER (but I won’t be able to watch live next week…)

Not sure:
–Dorothy turns into Katniss?
–Belle loving both the man and the beast…I think there’s truth to that as she’s been portrayed, but I’m wondering how she can have a happy ending if Rumple’s not willing to bend at all.
–Zelena calling robin out on his leaving the baby for the pirate!
–Zelena nixing Marian as a name (oh please don’t do that to the kid).
–Hades on a bike! (would be a brilliant epithet!)
–Locator spells are getting entirely too easy. I like that they’re consistent, more or less, but it really does make things too easy sometimes.
–Zelena’s story paralleling Rumbelle…I’m not buying true love though. Love is sacrifice. Mutual. But if they use it to improve Rumbelle’s story instead of taking it over…then it could be good.
–Is Zelena going to save the day this time?

Dislikes:
–Talking to the baby really makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it???
–Our baby came with me. (Never mind Belle. She’s nonexistent. Yanno, maybe Belle’s relatives would care that she’s in danger along with the baby?)
–Hades’ story is basically Zelena’s?
–Why didn’t Rumple stay with Belle? He just drops her and the baby off in the woods?

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

Need more context. But. I’m liking that Hades has rules. I’m loving Rumple needing to spin to create the portal.

And YAY Rumple is in the ep. Sunday just got way better.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

I’m just going YES YES YES cuz Belle’s gonna be there and Blue too. But mostly Belle!

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

They were. They gave the lines to the wrong mom somehow. Emma and Henry didn’t want the evil queen to know who Emma was.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

Yeah, I was going to have to check on the Book ripping because Regina’s statement sounded weird to me, too. Strange that nobody in production or cast caught that…

They did alter the faulty time captions in Nimue. (iTunes released a second version of it already.) So I will give them credit for that.

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

[Keb]

Hm. This one is tricky, especially on a show with antiheroes who have really dark pasts.

Hook, Regina, and Rumple have all done particularly evil, unforgivable things that include a lot of murder between them, and even most of our purest heroes are not innocent of such things anymore. Things that in the real world would make them unsuitable for (healthy) relationships, community roles like being mayor or sheriff, parenting…things that western society would definitely lock you up for life for, if not execute you.

And even for the most hardcore fans, there have been moments when the characters crossed our admittedly looser moral lines because it IS fiction, when they went TOO far and we wondered whether there was a way they could come back from it. Half our arguments tend to stem from whether what X did was too evil for them to get the happy endings we wish for them as we fall in love with the characters’ human, vulnerable sides. Interestingly, the tipping point when people DO give up on a character is often not murder…but rather something seen as a betrayal of their own moral code or another character we love just as much (see Rumbelle’s shattered fandom after S4).

So. Given that we’re expected to root for characters in this show who do things we’d NEVER support in real life (even if we’re not meant to root for them to keep doing those things), redemption is a very interesting question. One thing that sticks out for me is how many characters were denied their happy endings by our antihero villains. True, most of them were just guest characters, peasants, or not even shown on screen (most of Hook’s victims, which is part of why he comes off as so much nicer than Regina or Rumple, both of whom we’ve watched murder scores of people on screen–I have some numbers, but I still don’t know how you count an entire village), but they were portrayed as human people who lost their chance because someone needed vengeance or because they were in the way.

I’m liking the fact that this is coming back to haunt them in S5 in a very direct way. Redemption and forgiveness for the things they’ve done can really only be offered by the ones they’ve harmed (which does include themselves, an important emotional insight that was hammered a little hard in 515). I want to believe that even the worst of them CAN be redeemed if they’re willing to work at it, and even willing to accept that in this fictional show, that can lead having a happy ending they denied to others.

But it SHOULD take work and sacrifice to achieve. You can’t just kill someone, say sorry, and move on–even in this fictional universe where there’s a very high chance that your victim will return in some form. Rumple and Milah actually going through their issues was a very powerful moment (a potential forgiveness that of course Hades persuaded Rumple to destroy not long after). Likewise, Regina and Henry Sr. making amends was very necessary and powerful…and of course it was Henry Sr., whose faults were small by comparison, who was “saved” by it, not Regina. I think it feels more powerful when there IS a clear sacrifice by the one being saved, as when Liam was willing to fall into the flames…but the more directly it’s chosen, the more significance it has. Milah’s willingness to help her murderer and her true love’s new girlfriend was, I think, a really good example (and she didn’t even get saved, but I do think a little redeemed and I’m still holding out for her to be rescued at some point).

Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing

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