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Okay, so I've caught back up with Once Upon A Time, as of 'It's Not Easy Being Green'. I have some opinions?
Anyway. Summary. Um. I'm finding developments interesting? There's only a couple of threads that are honestly still catching me under the breastbone, and a surprising number of them actually have to do with Cora. And Emma. Other than that, I think I'm very much in 'wait and see' mode for this half of the season?
First things first: Show? I need you to stop hurting Emma. Now. Really, really now. Okay? Emma gets a break, for the love of gods and little fishes. That is a thing I need to happen.
Secondly, I'm having several odd reactions to Zelena, especially this episode. Envy has never been my favourite motivation in a villain, so that stands against her, but this last ep I was honestly onboard with her punching and/or cursing Rumple's ass from here to kingdom come. "I have that effect on women", seriously? I get this was post-Cora and he can't have someone who'll choose him as the price of the curse, I do get that, but there are times when his combination of crippling self-doubt and utter arrogance really does him zero favours. And I say this when he's my favourite character.
(Also? He needs to stop interacting with people. Like, all of them. Literally everything that happens on this show comes back to him in the end. He needs to become a hermit or something. Or stay dead. I realise that's a horrible thing to say, but it's getting ridiculous at this point).
I did madly adore Regina this last episode. In particular, I loved that when faced with her sister and Rumple's other, probably better student, it was Cora Regina fell back to. The one thing her sister never had: the tutelage of a heartless, ruthless mother. It was twisted and heartbreaking and horrible, but it does repeatedly bring forward how powerful Cora actually was, how long-lasting her influence. Even in death, Cora is shaping her children, giving the daughter she chose to keep an advantage over the one she abandoned. I liked that, in a horrified sort of way. I did so like that. The kind of tragic irony of pretty much everything Cora ever touched, the brutal power of her. Swear to gods, she is/was the single best villain this show ever conceived, and she's well up there among the best characters full stop.
And Regina herself, I kind of like where she's going. Not sure about her and Robin, though they're kind of adorable, but that's mostly because I'm worried she'd be using Roland as a replacement for Henry. But I love the brutal strength she inherited from her mother, the way she uses the worst parts of herself to gain the strength to do what needs doing. It's not healthy, but it's awesome to watch. And she is learning. Somewhat. A little.
In other news, Charming and Snow are still one of the best things ever. Snow and Regina, Charming and Emma, Charming spreading his hand protectively over their unborn child when Zelena revealed herself ... They're a lovely thing to cling to while everything else around them is, as per usual, going to hell in a handcart.
Neal ... I'm having complicated feelings. Lots of them. On the one hand, his death does kind of interesting things to Rumple's story, in that it has finally presented a permanent and all-encompassing consequence for all the truly terrible things Rumple has done for the sake of reconnecting with his son. It makes everything, the curse and everything, now little more than a pointless evil enacted by a broken man that completely and irrevocably altered every life around it. It brings that whole arc around to a horrible, tragic full-circle that I kind of appreciate, in a heartbroken sort of way. Rumple took on the Dark One curse for Bae, broke free of it for Bae and Belle, and then Bae brought Rumple and the curse back all unwitting, at the cost of his own life. Rumple sacrificed his very nature for Bae, and then Bae rendered it moot by sacrificing his own life to make sure his father's power could be used by the people Bae loved most. And, not incidentally, the person who intends to destroy them. It's ... a very complicated and resonant event in terms of that arc, and it's fascinating.
But on the other hand, it does several things I'm not at all fond of to the Emma side of Neal's story. After Graham, I can't. I really can't. The love triangle solved by his death, I DO NOT LIKE THAT. Not at all. No. Stop breaking Emma's heart for the love of gods, and if this results in a falling-into-the-pirate's-arms-in-grief type thing I will SCREAM.
And then Neal himself, his loves. Neal didn't even get to see Henry. Henry doesn't even remember him, and Neal knew that. And then Hook, trying to tell Henry about his father, and it really just drives home that Bae/Neal has only ever been a pawn in other people's stories. Rumple's, Hook's, Emma's, Henry's, Pan's. He's never been his own person, not in terms of the shape of the show. Everything major that's happened in his life has, in the end, been about other people, not him. It's ... I don't much like it.
(Same with Belle, in a lot of ways. Rumple really does tend to subsume the people around him into his own story - it's definitely a facet of the character that I don't like. People like Regina and Emma and the Charmings can stand up under it, force their own shapes on the story regardless, and Cora managed to do the opposite and warp Rumple's story around her, but several other characters aren't given the weight to do the same).
Also, Zelena's plan. I'm worried about Zelena's plan. Not for it's own sake, I somewhat doubt she's going to be allowed to succeed in erasing everything that's happened for the past three bloody seasons, I'm not sure she's capable of that, but I'm worried that she told Rumple. Crazy, enslaved Rumple who just watched his son die. Zelena's just told him that there's a reset button available, if you're willing to pay the price of enacting it. A literal reset button that will turn back the clock. That ... given Rumple's track record with lessons learned (and the show's record with letting lessons stay learned), I am actually worried about that. This show is bad enough about permanency of consequences without bringing in a literal reset button this late in the game, with several characters who are exactly the types to use it.
I'm also worried about Snow's baby and the fact that Zelena has been taking care of her. I'm surprised that Snow is taking that little revelation as well as she is, because if I found out that the Wicked Witch has been in charge of looking after mine and my baby's health during my pregnancy, I would be ... I would not be happy. Especially with magic involved. I would be considerably more alarmed than Snow seems to be so far.
Mind you, the show hasn't exactly been letting us see too much there, in between everything else that's been going on. *grumbles* Pacing, why does this show have such a problem with that?
Finally, random little side note: if powerful magic shapes you physically to match your internal nature, seen as turning Zelena green to match the overriding nature of her envy, what does that say about Regina and/or Rumple? Regina maybe wasn't strong enough magically, having come into her power much later than her sister and relying on it much less as well (she favours brute physical force as much as magic), but it's interesting that the Dark Curse slowly remade Rumple with grey-gold skin. A monster of love and fear, maybe? Gold seems to be magically associated with love, and grey for fear would fit with the way it washes everything out. *muses* The Dark Curse didn't shape Zoso the same way. I do wonder a little. Heh.
Secondly, I'm having several odd reactions to Zelena, especially this episode. Envy has never been my favourite motivation in a villain, so that stands against her, but this last ep I was honestly onboard with her punching and/or cursing Rumple's ass from here to kingdom come. "I have that effect on women", seriously? I get this was post-Cora and he can't have someone who'll choose him as the price of the curse, I do get that, but there are times when his combination of crippling self-doubt and utter arrogance really does him zero favours. And I say this when he's my favourite character.
(Also? He needs to stop interacting with people. Like, all of them. Literally everything that happens on this show comes back to him in the end. He needs to become a hermit or something. Or stay dead. I realise that's a horrible thing to say, but it's getting ridiculous at this point).
I did madly adore Regina this last episode. In particular, I loved that when faced with her sister and Rumple's other, probably better student, it was Cora Regina fell back to. The one thing her sister never had: the tutelage of a heartless, ruthless mother. It was twisted and heartbreaking and horrible, but it does repeatedly bring forward how powerful Cora actually was, how long-lasting her influence. Even in death, Cora is shaping her children, giving the daughter she chose to keep an advantage over the one she abandoned. I liked that, in a horrified sort of way. I did so like that. The kind of tragic irony of pretty much everything Cora ever touched, the brutal power of her. Swear to gods, she is/was the single best villain this show ever conceived, and she's well up there among the best characters full stop.
And Regina herself, I kind of like where she's going. Not sure about her and Robin, though they're kind of adorable, but that's mostly because I'm worried she'd be using Roland as a replacement for Henry. But I love the brutal strength she inherited from her mother, the way she uses the worst parts of herself to gain the strength to do what needs doing. It's not healthy, but it's awesome to watch. And she is learning. Somewhat. A little.
In other news, Charming and Snow are still one of the best things ever. Snow and Regina, Charming and Emma, Charming spreading his hand protectively over their unborn child when Zelena revealed herself ... They're a lovely thing to cling to while everything else around them is, as per usual, going to hell in a handcart.
Neal ... I'm having complicated feelings. Lots of them. On the one hand, his death does kind of interesting things to Rumple's story, in that it has finally presented a permanent and all-encompassing consequence for all the truly terrible things Rumple has done for the sake of reconnecting with his son. It makes everything, the curse and everything, now little more than a pointless evil enacted by a broken man that completely and irrevocably altered every life around it. It brings that whole arc around to a horrible, tragic full-circle that I kind of appreciate, in a heartbroken sort of way. Rumple took on the Dark One curse for Bae, broke free of it for Bae and Belle, and then Bae brought Rumple and the curse back all unwitting, at the cost of his own life. Rumple sacrificed his very nature for Bae, and then Bae rendered it moot by sacrificing his own life to make sure his father's power could be used by the people Bae loved most. And, not incidentally, the person who intends to destroy them. It's ... a very complicated and resonant event in terms of that arc, and it's fascinating.
But on the other hand, it does several things I'm not at all fond of to the Emma side of Neal's story. After Graham, I can't. I really can't. The love triangle solved by his death, I DO NOT LIKE THAT. Not at all. No. Stop breaking Emma's heart for the love of gods, and if this results in a falling-into-the-pirate's-arms-in-grief type thing I will SCREAM.
And then Neal himself, his loves. Neal didn't even get to see Henry. Henry doesn't even remember him, and Neal knew that. And then Hook, trying to tell Henry about his father, and it really just drives home that Bae/Neal has only ever been a pawn in other people's stories. Rumple's, Hook's, Emma's, Henry's, Pan's. He's never been his own person, not in terms of the shape of the show. Everything major that's happened in his life has, in the end, been about other people, not him. It's ... I don't much like it.
(Same with Belle, in a lot of ways. Rumple really does tend to subsume the people around him into his own story - it's definitely a facet of the character that I don't like. People like Regina and Emma and the Charmings can stand up under it, force their own shapes on the story regardless, and Cora managed to do the opposite and warp Rumple's story around her, but several other characters aren't given the weight to do the same).
Also, Zelena's plan. I'm worried about Zelena's plan. Not for it's own sake, I somewhat doubt she's going to be allowed to succeed in erasing everything that's happened for the past three bloody seasons, I'm not sure she's capable of that, but I'm worried that she told Rumple. Crazy, enslaved Rumple who just watched his son die. Zelena's just told him that there's a reset button available, if you're willing to pay the price of enacting it. A literal reset button that will turn back the clock. That ... given Rumple's track record with lessons learned (and the show's record with letting lessons stay learned), I am actually worried about that. This show is bad enough about permanency of consequences without bringing in a literal reset button this late in the game, with several characters who are exactly the types to use it.
I'm also worried about Snow's baby and the fact that Zelena has been taking care of her. I'm surprised that Snow is taking that little revelation as well as she is, because if I found out that the Wicked Witch has been in charge of looking after mine and my baby's health during my pregnancy, I would be ... I would not be happy. Especially with magic involved. I would be considerably more alarmed than Snow seems to be so far.
Mind you, the show hasn't exactly been letting us see too much there, in between everything else that's been going on. *grumbles* Pacing, why does this show have such a problem with that?
Finally, random little side note: if powerful magic shapes you physically to match your internal nature, seen as turning Zelena green to match the overriding nature of her envy, what does that say about Regina and/or Rumple? Regina maybe wasn't strong enough magically, having come into her power much later than her sister and relying on it much less as well (she favours brute physical force as much as magic), but it's interesting that the Dark Curse slowly remade Rumple with grey-gold skin. A monster of love and fear, maybe? Gold seems to be magically associated with love, and grey for fear would fit with the way it washes everything out. *muses* The Dark Curse didn't shape Zoso the same way. I do wonder a little. Heh.
Anyway. Summary. Um. I'm finding developments interesting? There's only a couple of threads that are honestly still catching me under the breastbone, and a surprising number of them actually have to do with Cora. And Emma. Other than that, I think I'm very much in 'wait and see' mode for this half of the season?
