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Lost alum Naveen Andrews played the Royal Vizier of Agrabah on the short-lived Once Upon a Time in Wonderland spinoff, but was unavailable to reprise the role, due to his Sense8 commitments.
[adrotate group="5"]"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
WickedRegal wrote: This is a perfect casting for the character of Jasmine, I only pray Adam and Eddy do her character justice and not screw it up like they did with Megara!
Exactly! I don’t know if I trust them with my beloved Isabella Maria Lucia Elisabetta. She’s all about the deconstruction of the princess myth. (I will stop quoting Galavant shortly, I swear)I feel your pain. The actress who played Isabella was great in Galavant, but I don’t want her character to be mistreated the way many princesses have been on this show (*cough Mulan cough*).
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
The Savior is a “he?” It’s Aladdin?
Yes, it seems that way to me. Now we now who “The Savior” is from episode one of season six (though I think the title refers to both Aladdin and Emma).
*sigh* that’s not Naveen Andrews. This saddens me deeply.
Me too.
“It took you becoming a hero to completely fall apart” Interesting
I’m guessing that whatever happened to Aladdin will happen to Emma. She’ll fall apart (if she hasn’t already). Emma seemed really pale, listless, and ill all throughout season five.
Jafar: “It’s the fate of saviors. You give, and give, and give, and for what? They pick the fruits. They pick the branches, and all that’s left is this shaky stump. Always. That’s why you never ever hear these words about a savior: they lived happily ever after.”
That line is some pretty heavy-handed foreshadowing about Emma having to pay the price of being the savior and her struggling to get her version of happily ever after. It reminds me of 3×10 The New Neverland, in which Emma expressed that she could never just have a day off from being the savior.
Emma: You’re great parents, but you’re wrong. I’m the… savior. I don’t have the luxury of having moments. It’s just not my life. Every time I think I’m going to sit back and enjoy myself, I can’t because it’s never going to stop.
Snow: I used to think the same way.
Emma: It’s different. My magic has a price. The price of being the savior is… I don’t get a day off.Then in 3×12 New York City Serenade, Emma expressed how much she was enjoying just living a quiet, normal life with Henry in NYC — far away from all the madness and responsibility of having to be “the Savior”:
Hook: Alas, you’re the savior, not me.
Emma: You know what I was yesterday? A mother. Till you showed up and started pocking holes in everything I thought was real. When I drank that potion, it was like waking up from a dream. A really good dream.It seems to me like Emma’s idea of a happy ending is just getting to have a normal life with Henry.
Hook: Swan! What the blazes was that?
Emma: A reminder that I was never save. All that I wanted, that I thought I could have was not in the cards for the savior. We leave in the morning.Perhaps Emma will finally get to live happily ever after by the end of season 6. (Here’s to hoping they don’t drag it out another season). That was pretty heavily foreshadowed by the wedding dress on display in 5×23.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
It would make sense to have her go in search of a way to get Thomas back (Through the use of a magic wish, perhaps?) and end up in Agrabah.
How Thomas disappeared after Cinderella got out of her contract with Rumple has been a mystery since season one. So, it’d be nice if the writers were finally getting back to it (albeit 5 seasons late).
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
Still hoping that Anastasia makes an appearance in this episode.
As someone who loves Anastasia and Will’s relationship from OUAT in WL, I was greatly disappointed with the way the writers totally failed to integrate Will into OUAT and then left what happened to Ana dangling. So, I would also really like to see what happened after OUAT in WL ended (though the ending was pretty near perfect and didn’t need to be tampered with at all, sigh).
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
THIS:
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
The latest spoilers don’t fill me with much confidence either. Although I really enjoy classic European literature, I don’t want to see these writers bastardize these “untold stories.” Are we really supposed to believe no one in A Land Without Magic has heard of The Count of Monte Cristo?
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
But criticism wouldn’t even be a huge issue if they had a vision for the show and the world they are building which they clearly do not. Also, they have a pretty amaterish understanding of what raising the stakes might look like aside from an exercise in shark jumping.
THIS.
We’ve often said this before but Neal’s death could have actually been a worthwhile story if they were to ease up off the throttle of PLOT all the time and really have it be a character study of loss and regret–told from Rumple, Emma, and Henry’s perspectives. It’s the fact that A and E simply couldn’t write anything that was believable and heartfelt and worthy of killing off one of the heart’s of the show that speaks volumes.
Neal’s death really could have been done well. If Neal had actually died at the end of 2×21, it would have been impactful. Neal letting go of Emma’s hand so that Henry wouldn’t have to grow up alone like either of them did had a lot of thematic resonance and would have been very heoric. It was also the news of Neal’s “death” that prompted Rumple to shape up and board that ship to Neverland to save Henry in 2×22. But brining Neal back in season 3a only to kill him a second time in S3b in the most haphazard way was really pointless and reeked of flip-flopping and reset-button hitting.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
Slurpeez wrote: As a Neal fan, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over how many fans this show has managed to alienate — all for the sake of the one-handed pirate with a drinking problem. Neal fans certainly saw his death as the show’s downfall, and I don’t think we were wrong. Each passing season has revealed that the show suffers when it promotes CS at all costs.
I would disagree that the sole cause of the show’s downfall is the writers promoting CS to the exclusion of all else.Neither would I argue that Neal’s death was the only cause of the show’s downfall — more like it was symptomatic of the writers deciding to hit what they called a “reset button” between 3×11 and 3×12. Thus, they inserted a line about happy endings not always being what we expect and having Hook, rather than Neal, showing up on Emma’s doorstep at the end of 3×11. All signs had previously been pointing to Neal, rather than Hook, being the one: Emma subconsciously choosing to settle in Manhattan because of a “fire”, the alarm clock going off at 8:15, and the wake-up call music being “Charlie’s Girl” (Neal’s song that introduced him in 2×1). All the signs led no where because the show got a major overhaul when the writers decided to promote CS. No other character gets treated with as much favoritism as Hook (not even Regina). Neal pretty much had to be killed off to make room for a CS romance. Neal’s death wasn’t so much a cause of the downfall as a direct outcome of choosing to drastically diverge and go a totally different direction from where the story had previously been going.
There’s nothing to suggest that the show would have been of a higher quality had they stuck to their so called original plan (if there was such a thing) or if they had not paired up Emma and Hook. I suspect it would still have been poor and offensive, only in a different way. They may well have assisinated Neal’s character, the way they have with Rumple, Snowing and Emma. We’ll never know, and the unknown seems more appealing than the current mess. Basically, it boils down to A&E being mediocre show runners, nothing more, nothing less.
I agree and disagree. I think there are hints that suggest the show could have been of higher quality had they stuck with their original plan (and I think there clearly was one since the actors like Bobby Carlyle and JMo both knew from the time they filmed the pilot episode that Henry’s dad would be Baelfire). I think that was the end-game: Henry’s family being healed as his parents learned to have a second chance. He was the character who was a very important secondary character, the happy ending for three of the main characters: Rumple, Emma and Henry. I do agree, nevertheless, that A&E are very mediocre, if not terrible, showrunners. Baelfire could easily have suffered similar character assassination had he survived. That is why I’ve long maintained that OUAT would have been much better as a mini-series rather than a 7-season long show. The writers don’t seem to have the seasons sketched out beyond the current season arc and probably the final episodes that will ever air. (The last episode will probably be Emma getting married as a bookend to the pilot when her parents got married. She would have married Baelfire, but now she’ll likely marry Hook). In conclusion, I think the quality of the characters could have been more consistent and in character had Hook and Emma not been paired up and if Neal hadn’t been killed off in careless way he was. For example, Emma wouldn’t have been written as blindly praising Hook after he nearly got her parents and child killed. Rumple probably wouldn’t seem like such a black-hat villain. Henry would have a father he related to and loved. However, the overall quality of the writing probably still would have suffered since Snow and Charming would still be boring, and likely, Neal’s character development wouldn’t have been as good. However, at least characters wouldn’t be as OOC by being written as going to the UW to save someone who had just tired to kill them all.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
And even if show runners shouldn’t be worried about appeasing everyone (which is impossible) there is something to be said about being unable to appease even a tiny percentage.
CS/Hook fans seem to be the group that A&E are most able to appease–but only at the cost of everyone else. So long as the writers insert a CS kiss at least every other episode and whitewash the pirate’s sins while lauding him a hero, then his fans seem satisfied, if not downright gleeful and giddy about this train wreck.
As a Neal fan, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over how many fans this show has managed to alienate — all for the sake of the one-handed pirate with a drinking problem. Neal fans certainly saw his death as the show’s downfall, and I don’t think we were wrong. Each passing season has revealed that the show suffers when it promotes CS at all costs.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
