[Keb]

Well, hang on. It’s POSSIBLE that Operation Mongoose Part 1 is the title and that 422 won’t be Operation Mongoose Part 2.

But it does look like where they’re heading.

[Keb]

I’m flipping a few myself. Yes, I still had hope. And there’s still a desperate part of me that just won’t give up, because it’s the only way things make sense.

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]

Harder to say, and while that’s pre-skin-deep imo (or early in Belle’s stay at best), it can’t be too long before. That would leave Rumple hunting it down for a century and a half still.

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 think Rumple gave it to Regina; Regina decided she could get her revenge better with the sleeping curse and traded it to Mal. So Rumple had to give her a little push to get her to go get the curse back.

Also on the did he create it question–I think it may already have existed when he first asked Blue how to get to Bae. She knew a curse could do it, and maybe this specific one was what she had in mind when he caught her.

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]

Sometimes this show is the best when it’s campy. EMBRACE the campy, Once!

I just wanna know whom they’re going to make Regina kill to prove she’s still one of them.

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]

David came from poverty (as did his twin) but was made a prince (because it was useful to parties like Rumple to do so). He and Princess Snow White are very happy together (when people aren’t trying to kill them/their children).

Cinderella was also impoverished and became a princess.

And Ana…well…dangit, they need to explain this, but anyway, she became a queen in both pursuit of evil and good.

I think we’ve seen plenty of people come from poverty into fortune, some evil, some good. And we’ve seen plenty of royals go both ways.

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 don’t think she abused him terribly between infancy and 10, except by being strict (not a crime, but her mother was likewise strict) and keeping him isolated (partly because of the nature of the curse, partly to keep him from becoming aware).

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]

–The Dark Side (they like Star Wars, so why not?)
–The End of Heroes (which could be a good lead in to a S5)
–Released (if they fight the sorcerer and suddenly are free to choose their own destinies)

I’m a fan of The Final Battle, or The Final Battle Begins, since that ties into their mythos from S1.

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]

All three of them were pretty awful, as was King George (who put the son he loved in danger and tried to kill the replacement himself).

But this is a show where the “good guys” put their newborn in a wardrobe and shipped her, alone, to Maine (they didn’t know about Pinocchio going along even!).

I also think Regina’s a strong contender for the title, though I agree she loves Henry and has the capacity to be a good mother (and, with Henry at least, before the book/after S2 she has done much to demonstrate this capacity).

But for the record:

Her first (step)daughter, Snow White:
–Fantasized about killing her when she was just ten
–Arranged for her father’s murder
–Sent the huntsman to kill her
–Tried multiple times to kill her personally/through other means
–Forced her to eat a poisoned apple
–Virtually forced her husband to cheat on her
–Attempted to seduce her husband herself
…etc. And this is a girl she once expressed affection for and raised through her teen years.

Her son Henry, whom she truly loves:
–Attempted to making him think he was crazy (this IS abusive, and both of them later recognize this; Archie, too, recognizes that what she’s doing is wrong)
–Tried, multiple times, to kill his birth mother
–Kept him prisoner when she couldn’t keep him any other way
–Accidentally poisoned him (in another attempt to destroy his birth mother)
–Used magic to wipe his memory at least once
–Attempted to kill his entire family, including his newly-discovered father (when she was going to use the failsafe)

And then there are the kids she WANTED to adopt:
–Owen, whose father she killed
–Hansel & Gretel, whose father she kidnapped before sending them to deal with a witch who eats children, and then separated their father from them for three decades
–Roland, whose mother’s execution she ordered and plotted to redo later (though she changed her mind), and whose father she carried on an affair with even while Marian was apparently RIGHT THERE.

And kids she directly damaged to get her way:
–Grace, whose father she left in Wonderland knowing full well that Grace had no other family–and then separated the two of them for the duration of the Curse.
–Emma, whom she was happy to kill as an infant and who was likewise separated from her family for the duration of the Curse as a direct result of her efforts
–And now apparently Mal’s baby, who was also affected by the curse, though they’re going to pin the blame on Snow for some reason. Probably Lily.

Anyway, while Regina, unlike Cora etc, is working on redeeming herself and is trying hard to be a good mother now, which I give her full credit for, she has worked hard to earn the title of Worst Parent (mainly because she followed in her own mother’s path for a long time). Even without knowing all these details, I think Emma was right to want to remove Henry from Regina’s custody back in S1 (even if she went about it the wrong way). I don’t think she’s earned the right to be Roland’s mother (but if spoilers are correct, it will mitigate the awfulness of OQ slightly).

Once Upon a Time should NEVER be used as an example of good parenting, though. Even Rumple, who really, really tried, couldn’t be the father Baelfire needed when it came to the portal. Even Emma has let Henry down multiple times. When it comes to parenthood, most of the parents in the show are better used as examples of how NOT to parent.

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]

Here’s a thing I keep thinking back to: Tink’s insistence that you’re ruining other people’s lives if you don’t take your happy ending. She was trying to push Regina and Robin together on the belief that they were fated to be together.

So…what if Rumple ruins Belle’s happy ending? Or Ana somehow ruins Will’s?

I wonder if they’ll touch on that concept with this.

And yes, I got a bit bitter in my last post. I apologize. I’m not happy about this ship for a number of reasons, even though I believe it won’t last.

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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