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Snow wasn’t trying to say goodbye and wasn’t under the illusion that there was no hope to save Charming. She kissed him because she knew it would work; she knew that TLK would achieve her goal of waking up Charming. Otherwise, your theory works perfectly well.
Damn it! Well, more fodder for my conviction that E&A don’t really care about careful worldbuilding, but are typically content with the writing equivalent of throwing spaghetti at the wall, and telling their audience it’s a rorschach test.
[adrotate group="5"]Right now, part of me thinks that Emma is actually trying to destroy the darkness but in order to do so, she had to become Darkness. Sort of…infiltrate the enemy and destroy it from the inside.
I like that idea. The super cliche ending sentence with Emma declaring that she’s the Dark One could be read in two ways, I think. A) She really thinks she is now Big Bad now, and must act accordingly (Yawnz). Or B) she is trying to convince someone that she is on Team Evil. I wonder if the anthropomorphized DO curse becomes more and more autonomous with time, essentially with whoever is afflicted with slowing losing their mind. Perhaps she’s trying to convince the Darkness-induced hallucinations that she is no longer putting up a fight.
Yeah that sounds about right. I’m starting to get the feeling that Merlin only tethered the Darkness to someone after he did an OOPS sort of thing. My thought as of now sorta goes like this: Merlin made a deal with the Lady of the Lake (Nimue) that if she gave up the Special Sword, he’d use it and his magical abilities for Good (capital G, cause we’re in cosmic storytelling mode). And for awhile he did, but the power of the sword was overwhelming and soon the sword became tainted by Merlin’s own greed; the sword and Merlin fed off each other (cough Elric and Stormbringer cough). When the situation became BAD (again, capital B…and A and D) Nimue stepped in and lopped off the corrupted part of the sword (cause totes in love with Merlin) but the Darkness and Corruption was now out in the world and it brought forth Evil Things. So Merlin and Nimue decided to tether it to a being to make it easier to control (with the end of the dagger). But ….*mumble* things went wrong.
Sounds about right. And the you have the original DO going something like this:
I wonder, however, who that would be. I’m just crossing my fingers that if we do find out, they won’t turn out to be someone’s long lost relative. *twitch*
I loved the twist too, though I think someone on the forums (@Phee?) speculated that the dagger and promo pictures of Excalibur looked similar. So once I saw it, it almost felt familiar. But it’s a great way to return back to the roots of the show.
Perhaps originally the blade was forged to be a kind of ultimate magical weapon to end all magical weapons and banish all darkness / to have good triumph once and for all. But somewhere along the way, it got tainted — as it should in a “world in balance” kind of cosmology. Then someone separated off the tainted bit, and it became the dagger. I suspect that whoever did it would have to be the original Dark One — perhaps this is at the origin of the DO curse, a kind of Faustian bargain by someone who tried to illegitimately harness Excalibur’s power.
A quick bit of speculation. Looks like the sword incinerates the unworthy — is this a feature of the sword itself, or of the enchantment placed on it by, presumably, Merlin, when he stuck it in the stone? Seems a little harsh, but hey, right of succession and all.
So thanks to @Nevermore for seeding this theory: Basically, Zelena’s child is the future Dark One.. The gang is going to use Apprentice’s wand to transfer the darkness out of Emma and into the unborn pure vessel that is Zelena’s little green bean. We saw this happen last season with Emma and Lily, who is to say it was not just foreshadowing. And plus I figured that wand is going to be more important that it seems. I say either the crew will transfer of the darkness or Zelena (who is apparently the only one who can use it) will get her hands on it and do it herself. She probably isn’t powerful enough to kill Emma and take the powers for herself, but with the wand she can have a powerful child…. Which is very Cora-ish. Thoughts?
For what it’s worth, I don’t think they’ll go the Rosemary’s Baby route with it. But I get the feeling that Zelena is planning something in relation to Emma and the DO curse, and that’s what came to mind for me. One way to get around the evil baby problem is to frame it in such a way that dark magic isn’t, in fact, dark in and of itself, but rather that something or someone tainted it. Then it went totally out of control and haywire, and Merlin, or whoever, had to bind it to Excalibur and stick the sword in the rock. Then someone lobed off a piece of the sword to make the dagger, and there you have it, dagger-bound DO. Anyway, point is, all this hinges on whether the DO darkness is some kind of primordial darkness (Evil, capital E), or if it’s a tainted version of a preexisting neutral force, like, say, polluted water. If the latter, by transferring it into a baby (or an unborn fetus), its taint might be annulled or transformed. It would simply be pure power. Or this could be the logic with which Zelena approaches this, only to then be warned by the heroes that it’s a bad idea.
then why are we wasting out time with the transfer at all? Why not just cut out the middle man and get rid of the Darkness from Dark Swan?
I think if any of these transfers are happening, it would be on Zelena’s behest. I.e, I don’t think it’d be the heroes doing it. I think it’d be Zelena, with the hope of giving her child infinite powers. I’m not even sure that this is what will happen, but mark my words, they are planning something with that baby and the darkness.
What do y’all think the Scooby Gang did?
Took away her freedon and made her crush someone’s heart.
I agree with the first part. But why would they make her crush someone’s heart? Here’s an alternative theory: the way the dialogue has been going, they made her take Excalibur, which somehow resulted in a massive loss of lives. And Emma’s DORumple Tutorial kicked in and convinced her that listening to the “good guys” in the hopes of saving herself/her loved ones from the darkness was a profoundly selfish act, and only outsourced suffering onto others.
Even so, Henry could’ve willingly kissed his mom just because he was glad to see her. Bata bing.
Yes, but we can’t have a logical solution to an illogical problem, now can we? Ok, in all seriousness — would a hug/relieved kiss from the kiddo work as a TLK? Would a routine peck shared by an established, long-married couple have curse breaking potential? I get a feeling that the answer is no — they wouldn’t have enough gravitas. Now, if ever OUAT did go there, I’d be seriously impressed. In fact, have a toddler run up to their parent and kiss them and break their curse — totally by accident. Just because it’s a toddler, and, you know, they love mama or dada because they’re mama or dada. Or have the boring couple share that tired peck on the cheek at the end of a long day, and boom, no more curse! Now, that sort of reinterpretation of TLK will blow my mind. But sadly I don’t think we’ll ever see anything like that on OUAT — doesn’t make for a good story 😉 Call me a pessimist.
Why the heck didn’t Emma just kiss someone? Henry is Emma’s cannonical true love going back to season 1! Emma had the perfect opportiunity to kiss Henry as soon as her family arrived. TLK is supposed to break any curse, and unlike Rumplestiltskin, Emma wants to be rid of the dark one curse! It should’ve worked on her. The reason of course is obvious: Emma Swan must go dark and TLK is a series-end sort of thing. But still, from the perspective of the characters, plot hole. I’m surprised Snow and Charming didn’t at least suggest it.
I wonder… Can TLK be initiated by the person who is cursed? It seems to me that the whole TLK canon hinges on the cursed person being saved by an outside intervention from someone who loves them no matter what, but also with no hope of the kiss saving them or having any sort of efficacy. At least, that’s how it’s been framed in Season 1 as well. It’s sort of like the Narnia wardrobe paradox — the wardrobe won’t act as a portal unless you don’t expect it to (I might be embellishing this, I haven’t read CS Lewis since I was a kid). Point is, I don’t think TLK would work if it’s goal driven. Arguably, this is why Belle/Rumple’s TLK didn’t work: not just because Rumple wasn’t willing to give up his powers, but because Belle was doing it for the wrong reasons. I think the same rules apply in this case — you can neither force a TLK on someone, nor extract one from someone you love to solve your predicament.
Oy, amnesia. So, there are a couple of ways to do plot twists. One is to have that moment/ending that totally yanks the rug from under your feet, and recasts the whole story in a new light. Examples of that might be Sixth Sense, Ender’s Game, or Planet of the Apes (the original novel). Another way, arguably harder to pull off, is to reveal your plot twist upfront, and then build up the emotional drama that leads up to it. If I recall correctly, Frank Herbert does it in the first Dune (other, more recent examples anyone?)
I think what we have here is that A&E really like that second narrative structure, but in order to pull it off keep going back to the same explanatory mechanism they’ve used before, without realizing that the efficacy of the plot twist itself is diminished if your audience knows how you are going to get them from A to B.
Which is the long and fancy way of saying, c’mon guys, that was just lazy. And for what it’s worth, I also think that Emma took away their memories. There’s this moment when she says “and for what you did to me, you shall me punished.” (groan; eye roll). What do y’all think the Scooby Gang did?
Overall, I’d give this episode a solid 8/10.
Liked:
Mini-Emma was adorable!
“Your turn”. Brilliant.
RumpleDO as an evil version of Clippit to the Dark One magic. Loved every minute of it, and the explanation wasn’t ridiculous. RC seems to be having fun with the role, which is nice. Of course, it makes me wonder whether all DOs externalize the dark power, or anthropomorphize it. (RumpleDO seems to suggest that it isn’t the case, but if so, wouldn’t it have been more effective for the DO power/Emma’s subconscious to choose as an embodiment of the DOpower a person Emma would like/trust/love?)
Hook and Regina. I didn’t think I would, but I enjoyed the squabble.
Leroy. “Twister!!!” | Regina: “Out, dwarves, adults only.” Silly, but amusing.
The Rose. Ok, the jar would be mildly impractical, but that was a lovely touch.
We have a new ship! Sword/Dagger must be reunited!
Emma was thinking through her condition. I kind of liked that she chose Regina to keep the dagger. It made sense.
” You with the broom! A little help here”
Neutral/Unimpressed:
Zelena. The opera villain aspect is a bit much. And enough with the hand chopping already! We now have two characters that have had their hand lobed off on this show — granted, Zelena reattaches hers right away, but still, can we stop chopping off appendages please? Isn’t it enough that hearts can be removed at will? I realize this kind of detachable body part thing is a big part of fairy tales and folklore more generally, but if A&E want to go there, why go to the most tired trope in the movie industry since “Luke, I am your father”?
The Blue Fairy is, as usual, a throw away character. Can’t A&E find a more substantial use for her?
The Apprentice, behold the deus ex machina intervention, and then gets promptly killed off. Really?
Actively disliked:
The ending. Seriously, amnesia? Someone needs to check if there’s been a massive benzodiazepine spill in the Enchanted Forest. Contaminated water sources, maybe? Cause it sure happens a lot.
The narrative structure, whereby Camelot/Arthur bracket the rest of the action without really interweaving with it in any effective way. Right now, they feel like plot devices, and it would be nice to have an opportunity to invest in these characters right off the bat. Otherwise, they feel like props — which, arguably, they are, but how about at least trying to create the illusion that they matter beyond the Dark Swan story? This is exacerbated by the fact that their armor and capes look like they’re fresh out of the dry cleaner. How about a little mud, maybe? I’m not asking for Game of Thrones level of crud, just a bit less pristine polyester. Sprinkle some dust on it, guys!
Crackpot theory
So, there was the one bit of dialogue by Zelena I thought sounded weird: the moment when she says “The pregnancy really changed me. I’ll do anything to free Emma of the darkness.”
Did anyone else find the way she formulates this a little odd? Not “I’ll do anything to get rid this world of the darkness to protect my child” (which is what Robin suggests a few lines before). Not “I’ll do anything to save Emma.” So here’s the crazy theory. If anyone here has played the video game Dragon Age Origins, there is a plot twist, that, without spoiling too much (though it’s from 2010, so fair game at this point), essentially has one of the main characters take upon their unborn child the darkness destined for the protagonist. Because this is an unborn child, what would otherwise kill or corrupt the protagonist (an adult) would react differently with the embryo, and effectively transform it into something completely other — a deity of sorts, we are led to understand. So, here’s the crackpot theory — what if Zelena wants to turn her unborn child into the Dark One? I’m sure I’m reading into this, and I doubt A&E will go there, but knowing how they write and that wording matters, it seems to me that Zelena is planning something.
