[Myril]

COULD the GOLDEN BIRD be one of the “LOST” stories discovered several years ago in Germany?

No, The Golden Bird was already in the first edition of the the first volume of Grimms’ fairy tales from 1812, titled “Vom Goldenen Vogel” (Of the Golden Bird), later simple “Der Goldene Vogel” (The Golden Bird), it’s listed as KHM 57. In an English edition from 1912, translated by Edgar Taylor and Marian Edwardes, it was titled The Fox’s Brush, but usually in English it is titled The Golden Bird.

It’s not the first time, the story pops up in connection with the Storybook of OUaT, as was noted in this forum. 😉 August and the Golden Bird As well here: The Story Book. And some more about the book, pictures and text on this blog

Seems they like this story as filler. Maybe someone gave it some deep going thoughts (IMO unlikely), or maybe it’s just the prop department’s favorite filler text.

[Myril]

Didn’t like:

SKYE SHOT WARD!!!! WHY?? Yes, he’s a violent psychopath with serious abuse issues, but he loves her!!!

Oh right, Ward believes he loves Skye. I was close to applaud Skye for shooting him, trying without hesitation to stop this killer and psychopath to do any more harm. Ward kidnapped Skye twice, tried to kill people Sky works with and considers as friends, doesn’t mind to kill anyone standing in the way of his crazy plans. No, sorry IMO that Ward believes he loves Skye doesn’t matter at all. I am thankful that this show, different than OUaT time, seems to have a sense for what is simply a screwed up crazy obsession and no love, and treats it so far accordingly. Ward is a stalker, that is not at all romantic, that is no love, that is dangerous obsession and often enough for the one degraded to object of desire a deadly matter.

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

So I go back to what we’ve been talking about since season one. True Love. Soul mates. Whatever you call it. Yes, it’s the most powerful magic of all, but is everyone born with another half, like some cultures believe? We do know that “true love” is rare so evidently most of the plebeians will never experience it. The odds of finding your soul mate are astronomical. Does that mean their life has less value? They shouldn’t seek out love in other forms?

Why should true love, soul mates be anything rare in the first place? That is something I don’t understand. I get, that we humans have the tendency to value only what is rare, which in plenty of cases is unreasonable, because things like oxygen and clear water are valuable for our lives, necessary regardless, even if there would be an endless amount of it, and I see love the same way. All this discrimination of different forms of love IMO keeps us way to often from giving and finding love, it is the biggest obstacle humans have fallen for on the way to experience happiness. Love is no daimond, no gold, no fetish, no currency to trade with, it should be a free and amazing gift we can give any time. It’s up to us to give love, and not something to find like some ripe apple to be taken (an apple grown in hard labor by a tree, and at worst a tree we never cared to take care of). It is the biggest issue I have with all these ideas of true love, one true love, soul mates and whatever: it’s a view of exclusiveness and limitations instead of an idea of human liberation and enlightenment. I find it ironic, that this limiting view on love seems to be particular pronounced in cultures, which were influenced and build by religions claiming to revolve around love. And if taking a closer look on fairy tales, true love is not a pixie dust thing but something the hero, protagonist has to earn, (though the object of true love is sometimes pretty much that, more of an object and not a subject acting in their own person).

Not even inside the OUaT worlds true love seems to be really a rarity unless it serves a plot or pushes a character into drama.

OutlawQueen shows IMO everything that is wrong with this modern, romantic concept of true love and soul mates. It mistakes desires, lust and attraction for love.

And they say, the show is about hope. What hope is that, if it’s about being one of the few lucky people to find this rare item called true love? It should be about hope, that everyone can give and receive love, or find if you prefer that term, that no matter what life throws at you, there always still is a chance, a way out of misery, out of darkness, to experience love and create happiness. You have to work on it, it doesn’t come by some pixie dust or whatever kind of magic, but it can be accomblished.

“Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon.” G.K. Chesterton

Now we might be sometimes wrong in who we perceive as the dragon and who as St. George, and things might be a bit more complex, so slaying the dragon might be not always the only and not always the best solution. OUaT probably wanted to show something of that, but think they failed doing so. The problem I have with Regina for example is not what or the extend of what she did (although it makes it quite hard to see any redemption in the future), but they don’t really let her work on it. It comes like some magic blow, spell, and that is not showing hope but creating mere illusions. Aside that Regina’s fits, that people don’t love her whatever she does, and her ongoing focus on getting a happy ending for herself shows me, she hasn’t learned that much yet. But that is another discussion.

Well, maybe they let Regina give up Robin, send him away, or whatever, and let her own the growth she has begun to show for a change – I would consider that a happy ending of this moment of Regina’s life. But the happy family time for Marian and Robin is destroyed, there is no (easy) way back to happy ever after for Marian and Robin together, at least not without some very, very hard work on Robin’s side. They turned Robin into a jerk of the worst kind, and no memory erasure spell could change that.

I think Regina gets her father back. For reasons. Through everything he was the one who stuck by her and encouraged her to…. Let it go

Regina should have to live with the consequences of her actions. She killed her father, she has to live with that. Bringing back her father would be an easy way out IMO, only an illusion of a happy ending created by magic and not earned. It would be as wrong as this whole pixie dust soul mate mess is.

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

I log onto tumblr and that quote is on my dash:

“The Snow Queen does push her buttons about baby Neal, but it’s not in a way where she’s jealous or that she feels slighted by her parents in any way,” Morrison explains. “I felt it more came from a place of sadness and pain that she missed out on that with Henry, and that her parents missed out on that with her, and that was something they were never going to be able to reclaim. It feels tragic.” (x)

And of course the memories from last season were fake memories. But they were believable enough that’s what Emma remembered, that she and Henry were always together.

Exactly what I got from the scene at the play group. Thought it was as much about what she had no chance to experience with her mother as it was about what Emma didn’t have with her son. Has nothing to do with jealousy but everything with loss. Glad to see Jennifer Morrison agrees with my headcanon 😛 lol

Jealousy would look and sound different, and I mean look and sound. Microexpressions, facial expressions, body language, tone of voice. There was not a iota of jealousy in Jennifer Morrison’s acting, no disgust and anger, there was sadness and anger. And she was hurting, because of her own powers, powers she is not sure about herself, she has no full control of, that were useful so far if she could muster them up, but she can’t tell, if they couldn’t do harm as well. Emma fears her own powers herself, and she can understand others do, that even her family might, no matter that it feels painful, to realize they actually do.

It hurts now even more, because Emma has embraced Storybrooke and the people there as her family. She let her guard down, so she is more vulnerable than ever before. The Snow Queen, Ingrid, makes good use of that. Adding maybe a tiny bit of accelerant icy sparks and off she goes, the magical explosion, Emma losing control. Ingrid is playing with fears Emma has had anyway.

Guess I am one of the few though sure disliking how Snow reacted, Emma would need support, but I don’t see that as being OoC. It might make not all sense to me, and is sure not how I like her, but that is how they have developed Snow over the past season. She is struggling with building a mother-daughter relation with Emma, she has kept some distance (probably to avoid confronting her own feelings of guilt) before, she was judgemental, dismissive, not listening. If Snow would all of a sudden be now all caring and understanding and supportive to Emma, that I would call OoC. Since 3B they are rather consistent with Snow’s reactions to Emma. 3A was a bit of mix, sometimes they seemed to come closer, then again there was the Echo-Cave moment.

Sometimes a character makes not much sense to us, we might very much dislike how he or she is developing, but that doesn’t mean it is not how this character could be developed, that there is not a certain logic behind it, the one the writers favor. I might disagree, if that development drives the story in a good way, not see, how that should turn into a happy ending one day, nor see anything of hope in the story as it is, but OoC means doing something unexpected, out of the ordinary, not because of some hidden other character side though. Snow’s behavior was pretty much how I expected her to react at the moment.

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

Killing goes against pretty much every grain of my nature (says the one, who’d prefer to kill off a character before dragging them around too long for their own good in a story), so I turn the “Beheaded” into “Locked up”. Yes, I know, it’s just a game, and still.

Gents first:
Bed: Archie. I am pretty sure he is a connoisseur.
Wed: Graham. He is more than eye candy, and I would like to give him all the alone time and freedom I think he will need to be fully himself again.
Lock Up: Rumple. He will never stop.

Ladies:
Bed: The Snow Queen. I love to break some ice, so to speak.
Wed: Red. So she has someone to take care of things at home while she can roam the woods, and I have a huge heart for wolves
Lock Up: Regina. Then she finally as a good reason to be mad at someone.

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

Looking for a Christmas present? This might be interesting for some: The first edition of the Grimm fairy tales collection from 1812/1815 is finally available in English, and seems tom come with some beautiful illustrations.
Grimm brothers’ fairytales have blood and horror restored in new translation

As well Neil Gaiman has published his own take for children on some fairy tales “The Sleeper and the Spindle.”
And then the queen kissed the princess: fairytales get a modern makeover

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

However, before we jump immediately to the conclusion that things have been retconned, there is another possibility to consider, which is that Will came crawling back to the Merry Men at some point after Alice got his heart back for him, at which point Marian would’ve been with Robin and may have convinced Robin to give Will a second chance, but that Will again did something to sour – or at least sever – the relationship prior to the casting of the Curse.

I have watched only a few episodes of Wonderland, but from what I caught, Cora ripped Will’s heart because she convinced him, that way he could survive the heartbreak he felt over what Anastasia did, that she had left him. I don’t know, where he kept his heart all the time, but I know he did keep it for a while in Storybrooke, that’s where Alice retrieved it from. Distinctly remember the latter, because when they arrive, Alice and her boyfriend (what’s his name?) nearly got hit by a car on the street and then we see the red car of Red drive by. From the few episodes I gathered, that the timeline of the present events in Wonderland were pretty much in sync with Storybrooke. So Will couldn’t have crawled back after he got his heart back to the Merry Men in the Enchanted Forest and met then Marian, because at that time Marian was either dead (old timeline, before Emma’s trip into the past) or had vanished because taken into the future.

I haven’t fact checked though what exactly was said, hinted at, showed in Wonderland about Will’s time with the Merry Men, but in my experience the impression of retcon comes often from a different interpretation of what has been said and shown on screen, and some uncertainty (things left ambiguous and thus open for head canon interpretations) or things remembered in a different way than shown. No offense, but we have highly emotional charged discussion here at times, and that shows.

I couldn’t care less if Robin is committing adultery in the sense of being in love with Regina while he is still married to Marian. I am sure there are some people on this board particular who see that differently and believe in marriage being a sacrament, but I am an atheist. All I see is a contract between people, those married and the community surrounding them eventually, because marriage often includes in some matter a different legal standing than unmarried and single person have. Now it’s pretty hard to include in a contract something as factual elusive as feelings of love, so no surprise that in laws mostly it’s something more verifiable like physical contact requested to break the contract. Can Robin betray Marian in matters of love if he simply doesn’t love her anymore? I know, some sure will answer yes, but I say no. He has betrayed Marian, because he was dishonest to her maybe, having not sorted out his feelings while feeling bound to some ominous code. If it was just this stupid code making him stay with Marian, go, kick it, that is a crap code.

The problem I have with Robin is a rather different one. And it mostly comes down for me to predestined (one) true love or soul mate concept, pixie dust induced or whatever. What Robin is showing IMO is not healthy care and love for Regina, it’s obsession. But I am quite sure, the show runners think, they show something different, an unwavering love, a love not giving up, trying hard to overcome all obstacles, believing in being meant for each other no matter what. Sometimes there are only nuances between a healthy, mature, unwavering love, and a rapid all consuming obsession and illusion. I guess they think they showed a conflicted man, torn between his feelings and his sense of duty and obligation, but that is not what I perceive. It might be a combination of writing and acting, but I don’t get much of a conflicted vibe from Robin, more a rather obsessive expression. One thing is lust, desire, attraction, what a lot of people confuse with love, another is trust and building rapport. The latter is something that takes time in my experience even if you feel a very strong, deep going connection with someone on first sight – and it doesn’t explode in dramatic love confessions. But maybe that’s just my experience.

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

Looking back at the baby scene, they didn’t say if Alex was a boy or girl. Alex being short for Alexandra, not Alexander. Girl babies also don’t necessarily have to wear pink, which could have been something regarding the costuming/casting department if they accidentally thought Alex was a boy. As far as I can tell from the actual scripting, they didn’t change the baby’s gender. It’s the age thing that might be a continuity goof, if it even is.

Thanks, quite like I saw the scene, so might have missed nothing. The gender color coding of toddlers (any gender color coding) amuses me at best, because no even a century ago it was the other way around, pink for the boys, no kidding.

Liked:

The little Emma – Elsa moments

Sara Bolger – top line delivery. And I liked Aurora early on, so nice to see her again even for a short moment. The whole playgroup scenes had a nice beat even without the Emma moments.

The three sister of Arendelle – Despite some weak and clunky writting enjoyed the three as kids, great casting again, and as adults.

Snow Queen – She is the best villain on this show so far, in every aspect, creepy, crazy, manipulative, and thankfully her background doesn’t feel like forced sob story while relatable. I wouldn’t mind to see a happy ending for her.

soso:

Emma present Storybrooke – astoundingly I don’t care much about what they make of this character anymore either. Once upon a time there was a show creating great characters… (not a tale with a happy ending)

most disliked (least favorite would be to mild for this):

Robin – Though tempted to fast forward every time, I cringed myself through all of the Robin scenes – and no. Just no. Never like white-knight-true-love-soulmate-love-on-first-sight romance (or in this case maybe should say black knight), I find the idea itself is a harmful illusion, it leads to a rather fatalistic view in my opinion, and is destructive for honest and serious relationships ( recent psychology study suggests that this is maybe not just an opinion, but there might be something to it). Maybe I should thank the show to show that so blatantly with OutlawQueen. It’s pretty much all that is wrong about believing in pixie dust and predestined (one) true love. Can wonder, if they do this on purpose or are just illusionary. Whatever. Next time I will simply hit the fast-forward button. Done with it.

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

Gender swapped baby? I didn’t see or hear anything that ultimately changed baby Alex’ gender.  But might have missed a detail. Can someone please elaborate?

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Myril]

Cruella already had a live action movies, and will be hard to top Glenn Close, or maybe they cast her again. So looks now even more like OUaT is now Disney advertising TV show, losing whatever originality they had in the past. (As much as I enjoy the cast they got for Frozen, and the Snow Queen, Ingrid, particular, it’s rather convenient and boring story telling they make of it.)

¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯

[Author]

Posts