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I want to like this… but right now Sneak Peek 2 makes zero sense. Even if Gold does say “4 to 5” there are six of them, not counting Gold himself. Nor would it make any sense to say “all 4 to 5 of you.” It’s like saying “Exactly approximately four of you.” It’s been a long day, so… am I missing something?
Unless this is Gold being sarcastic about the dearth of numbers they’re bringing to storm Hades’s living room, and 45 reflects some sort of additional knowledge we’re not privy to here? Say, there are 45 guards or something, and that’s why they’re collecting arrows at the beginning? I’m so confused.
And yeah, this sounds like *hand wave, hand wave… Suddenly, Milah!*
[adrotate group="5"]Even though Adam tweeted that it wasn’t all happening in Emma’s head, I could imagine a scenario in which she is falsely accused of having invented the stories. Then Henry comes to her rescue, because he is the author and has to power to write her out. Or something like that.
I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if this was about Henry, not Emma. After all, the show started with the question of whether maybe Henry was crazy. Especially now that the author storyline has been resurrected, and if Henry pursues a (misguided) effort to “whitewash” Emma through resurrecting Cruella, he might be the one who gets institutionalized.
This is mind-boggling. First MRJ and the ridiculous trailer rumor, now this much more serious, and potentially career-devastating rumor about Sean — what’s next, Bobby decides to leave and gets accused of cannibalism?
Sections of this fandom seem unable to differentiate between reality and fiction. Either that, or they have the emotional and intellectual development Wonder-bread. What’s so depressing is that these are seemingly adults — this Larry fellow seems like a grown up dude throwing a tantrum.
Good on Adam and Elisabeth Joliffe for calling them out, but I honestly think Adam’s response could have maybe been more forceful.
Also, that tent and that dude’s attire have me worried that the show is once again going to show its unintentionally-racist side, again. As in, I see Native American imagery, but a white guy.
Yup. If it makes you feel any better, it looks like a mash-up, so equal opportunity cultural appropriation.
The tent isn’t Native American. If I were to make a bet, I’d say it’s a Mongolian or Turkic ger (or yurt, respectively, depending on the language). As in, this:
http://ottour.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/yurt_trad101.jpg
So I’m going to assume they are going for shaman, rather than medicine man. Still, white dude.
So….anyone recognize anything from any specific culture?? The markings almost looks like woad–think Britain when Caesar invaded. The teeth (are they teeth??) on the necklace almost look Nordic, like the Seer on Vikings would wear (though, this is also something man medicine men would probably wear. )
I can tell you what it isn’t — it’s not anything Polynesian (too angular). So not Maori, Tongan, Samoan, Marquesas Islands or anything along those lines. The chin tats look like a Native American style, the rest seems, as you said, more of an interpretation of woad.
The necklace seems like a random pot pourri of medicine man (think feathers and bones or teeth), shaman (think metal bits, if that’s what those little flat bits are), and New Ager (think crystal pendants). The blue/red prayer beads could be fairly standard Himalayan aesthetic (lapis/coral or turquoise/coral) except the red beads are translucent. Anyway, that’s all I got. Honestly, I think this is a cultural hodge-podge. 😉
I’m just really excited for more Rumple-Baelfire interaction. We haven’t had an episode about them since 3×4 Nasty Habits.
Me too, me too!
Also, does this mean we’re going to FINALLY get the Emma/Milah/Hook reveal? Because if not, there won’t be enough tables to flip.
Ok, finally got to watch this. All in all, this was a perfectly adequate episode, but also utterly forgettable.
Liked:
Regina’s lines were on point and hilarious. She consistently has some of the best dialogue in the show, but at some point this “Regina’s there to deliver the snark” role is going to exhaust itself. So far, though, it works fine.
Snow finally renouncing her identity as MM, with an added quip about the uselessness of Hallmark motivational speeches. Finally! Maybe she can also ditch the heinous MM fashion, while we’re at it.
Cruella’s back!
Hades. I think so far I’m enjoying how the actor plays him.
Mixed:
I didn’t really mind the Herc storyline, but I’m not crazy about what they did to Megara. Did the writers decide they’d reached their strong women quota, and that any new female character they introduced from here on has to be a helpless damsel in distress?
The medals for Hercules’s labors is what would happen if a quarters collection and a video game achievements system had a love child.
Let me get this perfectly straight then: the pen is alive, and a magical entity, and is the epitome of unfinished business, because… why? Because it has to be used? Because it has a specific story to write and it hasn’t written it? Because it didn’t want to die? And why does Cruella suddenly have great insight into the nature of the pen? I’m putting this in mixed because at least we now have a story for Henry, and something for him to do, which marginally justifies why he got dragged along to the UW. But still, this is just a little silly.
Disliked:
Ham-fisted rehashing of the “try try again” message. There are better, more subtle ways to do this.
Total lack of explanation, even foreshadowed, about why Hades is torturing Hook (or Megara for that matter). Actually, Megara and her connection to Hercules at least makes sense, since it seems that Hades has a bone to pick with his bro (and hence his offspring). So far my understanding is that Hades is a kind of mid-level bureaucrat at an institution like an other-worldly DMV, presiding over what is essentially a waiting line before whatever comes next. His goal, as it appears, is to maximize the amount of people stuck in said waiting line because… well, I suppose because it augments his sense of power and self-importance. This seems odd, though — unless a lot of people don’t have unresolved business when they die, Limbo-Brooke should be majorly overcrowded. Seriously, where is everybody? Anyway, Hades for some reason doesn’t actually want anyone to move on, so they run about depressed, doing whatever repetitive things they’re doing, and unable to move out of the UW. Or something like that. But then why focus on Hook and torture him? For the lulz? Myeh. Anyway, so far my biggest gripe with this half-season is that the world building is limping along in a way that’s confusing rather than intriguing.
Plus the bridge Henry sr walked up to heaven was very similar to the bridge in IJATLC
Yup. I also think it’s interesting that they went with “agape.” I think at its broadest, it’s something like compassion/benevolence or loving-kindness. And as such, I would be pretty darn irritated if they make this “thee shall not pass” device about romantic love.
The writers don’t get how to write that depth so they just kill characters that they don’t know what to do with.
Arguably, they’re not doing a very good job with the villains either. I think they used to. But over time, interestingly flawed morphed into irredeemably appalling verging on grotesque.
The fault lies with Adam and Eddy, that much we can agree on, but instead of just rushing to off the man, how about they try to first improve him.
I also don’t understand why the knee-jerk reaction is to kill a character. I mean the “Off with his head” strategy seems like lazy writing / cheap thrill. If they’re that intellectually bankrupt that they can’t come up with anything for the character to do, send them off on a mission to Forgotten Character Island until you have a way to bring them back in.
If done right, I think any story could be well adapted and loved by everyone. Now I don’t think OUAT is the place to really initiate this. But someone should.
I completely agree. OAUT’s problem is not so much the cultural homogeneity of the fairytales, but the fact that their starting point is the Disney version. Which is, frankly, not just sanitized but often downright saccharine in comparison to how most of these fairytales are in any of their folkloric versions. So OUAT’s not just working with Western stories, they’re working with uniquely 20th century US cultural products.
RG, I take your point about broadening the audience’s horizons, but considering OUAT’s relationship to ABC and Disney, I think the best they can hope to do is to say “look, there’s a lot more to these stories that the Disney version you might have seen.” Which is sort of where they started, but then introducing new characters just became a cynical cash grab, with no real depth or narrative force. I mean, I absolutely get what you’re saying, and it can be done in a wildly successful and original way (I might have mentioned American Gods once or twice on here ;)), but I don’t think OUAT’s team could ever hope to pull off something quite so radical, and not just because they don’t have the writing chops — but because it’s a family show and a Disney subsidiary.
