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If they go with Springsteen, I can also see something like Devils & Dust.
But yeah, I’d place my cookies on Highway to Hell too.
[adrotate group="5"]Ooh, I’m suddenly very much reminded of “A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin! Who else here knows that story?
Actually, yes! I was thinking about Earthsea at the end of last season, when Emma turns dark. And it would fit well with her being both the dark one and the savior.
Of course all magic comes with a price, but what if the Dark One’s magic comes at an even steeper price as a result of originating from the Underworld?
Oh, that’s interesting! It would also fit with Rumple’s cryptic speech about unrepayable debts etc etc last season. I wonder though how the mechanics work. The language they’ve been using for the darkness is as something that “takes root,” which gives the impression that over time it becomes part of its host, changing both the body and the mind. I wonder if they’re going to sort of blend Greek and Christian themes: the more the DO uses dark magic, the more their soul belongs to the Underworld. Something like that.
She’s already been tasked with training him, so it’s safer to work with him rather than trying to run around town recruiting other people to her cause and risking Emma finding out that she’s up to something.
I think what makes it murky is how much control she has over her actions and intentions while Emma’s holding on to her heart. It seems there’s no hard and fast rule about how a heart-less person makes decisions on OUAT. Like, if you order someone to do something while holding their heart, is it sort of like a genie — mindless obedience with potentially devastating consequences? Or are they more result-driven?
Right?! And it’s a disservice to someone who is actually a very complicated and layered character, when they just get out the big red COWARD stamp and slam it on his forehead.
The way Rumple has been flattened out in the last few seasons, and especially last season, has been one gigantic disservice to the character. Honestly, I think they just don’t know what to do with him without Nealfire — you can see some of the same struggles with how Emma’s written now that we’re in the Dark Swan plot line.
In Rumple’s case biggest problem is that while, at the beginning, the COWARD stamp was in tentative scare quotes — Rumple is a “coward” — by writing Bae out of the picture the narrative no longer allows for the coward definition to look relative or problematic. Rather than be the label that Rumple’s brutal world gives him, that we, the audience, know not to take at face value, with the needs of CS and Neal out of the picture, Rumple’s cowardice has been rewritten as if it had been literal, or endgame from the very start, and Rumple’s arc got retconned last season to fit that. It’s another symptom of the Jenga mechanics of OUAT post 3B.
I think they are now trying to find a way out of that mess by re-centering Rumbelle, and acknowledging Neal, but it’s gonna be an uphill battle, and I doubt the show will be able to pull it off in the time it’s got left.
There was an actual event that explains why life sucks, people suck, everything sucks and why everything continues to suck.
Wait, you mean other that OUAT’s writing decisions? ^_^
It’s not an original theory, but it fits with a lot of myth structures (‘world out of balance’ via the original act of pollution). At this point, they’re pretty heavily mired up in big scale cosmology, so it would be a waste if they didn’t try to tie in the Dark One origin/Merlin story with something as “proto” mythical as a journey to the Underworld plot.
And on that note, perhaps “snuffing out all the light” is just faulty programming — the Darkness trying to get back to its conditions of origins, but the realms are closed, things are trapped where they shouldn’t be etc etc.
One could even read Head!Rumple’s diatribe about “family” always getting in the way as a metaphor for what also makes one cling to life and hope.
Ok, this might not be the thread for crackpot theories, but Merlin’s background story is nagging at me, so I’ll toss it out here. @The Watcher I think nailed it — the whole lost love seems overly simplistic.
If Merlin’s lost love = original DO (or first DO tied to the Dagger) = Nimue, and if we are indeed doing the whole Underworld thing for the second half of the season, is it possible that DO magic originates from the Underworld — like a bit that got trapped on the wrong side of a realm, and either mutated into or was harnessed as dark magic? Perhaps because the original DO (Merlin’s lost love, or her immediate predecessor) wanted more and more power, and caused some sort of rift between realms meant to be kept separate?
Also, is the Darkness actually sentient? Not just like a vaguely self-preserving parasite, Alien(s) style, but an intentional being?
While I’m certainly not about to complain about a Rumbelle-centric episode, the Discovery Channel crossover, combined with that ridiculous beyond-the-grave voiceover about Rumple’s greatest fear is kind of comedy gold.
Then again, I guess it’s Halloween week-end, so I maybe OUAT is doing a more horror-esque aesthetic. I mean, bears ARE terrifying. But the preview is making it all look pretty darn silly.
Ok, first off, Merlin’s awesome 🙂 The back story is a little silly, but oh well.
Second, yes, absolutely, I think DO=Merlin’s lost love=Nimue. I also think she wears the mask not only because we’re not meant to know who she is yet, but because she has gone scaly/sparkly.
So, going back to the whole “Merlin bound the darkness to the dagger” I wonder how that factors into this backstory. And if he couldn’t save his love (i.e. banish the darkness from her) and could, in theory, for Emma, what’s changed?
Merida is trying to make Rumple brave by forcing Rumple to fight using Belle. Do you think she can succeed? And do you think this how someone becomes brave, does it fit with the themes of this show?
Can I just say how incredibly irritated I am with this storyline? The whole equation of bravery and martial prowess in popular media actually perpetuates a kind of toxic masculinity of which we collectively could use less of. Maybe we can send A&E a link to Gandhi’s “The Doctrine of the Sword” — looks like they could maybe use a refresher on the whole non-violence bit. And, lets face it, on their post-colonial literature more broadly — won’t hurt. Gah.
[climbs down from soapbox]
I think Merida’s going about it the wrong way, but I think she is fundamentally a good character, therefore I could imagine that her efforts actually might result in something positive. That being said, if that’s the case, I don’t think making Rumple fight is what’s going to do the trick. The task is to make Rumple hate and doubt himself a bit less, realize his love for Belle is bigger than his insecurities, and finally let go of the world’s judgement of him.
“Before you take on Emma” when she was training Rumple?
Yes! That was interesting — I was wondering about the exact same thing. That seemed like an interesting little slip. But if so, why does Merida think that Rumple should be the one to take on Emma? I can imagine that the final battle will be between whoever wields the sword and whoever wields the dagger, and right now Arthur’s out of the race.
Ok, just got a chance to watch it, so without reading other comments.
I’d say an 8/10, and a pretty strong episode overall, minus the inconsistencies in the magic rules from previous seasons.
Liked:
This episode managed to cram a lot in, and that’s a pleasant change, since in recent seasons OUAT has often felt watered down.
Merlin’s out of the tree! Woot! I’m glad we won’t have to wait until the end of the season for that to happen.
Dark!Emma and the Violet plot line. That was pretty delightfully manipulative.
Regina’s one liners.
The show actually acknowledged Baelfire’s centrality to multiple characters’ arcs. Two seasons too late, in my opinion, but it’s nice to have Neal come up as a lingering presence, and to see Henry, Emma, and Rumple written in such a way that acknowledges their loss.
Meh:
What is this crazy stuff with Merida and Rumple??? First off, why is bravery = swinging heavy metal sword in the middle of the woods? How did Merida know about the book? Also, why did she use an arrow to get into Gold’s shop? If it was locked — which it didn’t appear to be — I don’t think that an arrow through the door works the same way as a bullet through the lock. Seriously. That whole think is ridiculous.
Disliked:
The dreamcatcher inconsistencies — why is it suddenly a dark-magic-only artifact???
What was that with the Carnival/BlockParty? It seemed totally gratuitous.
