Secondary thoughts

The disadvantage of having marathoned and having caught up with an open canon is undoubtedly that one has to wait for the next episode in a mysterious three weeks break with the rest of the other watchers. :) (On the other hand, Being Human season 5 will start next week, which I'm looking forward to, and Spartacus started its last season last Friday (still trashy, still weirdly compelling, and also, the introduction of Crassus was really well done.) Fanfiction in the case of Once Upon A Time doesn't help with the waiting, because browsing through what's available tells me it is, in a staggering surprise I'd never have seen coming, shipping-dominated. No, but seriously now, so far OuaT isn't one of the few fandoms where I actually 'ship in the romantic sense. One of the great charms of the show, no pun intended, is that it really values non-romantic relationships, that they get screen time and development and big emotional moments and what not - one of the best things about s2, first half, is the way we see ( something vaguely spoilery )

Conversely, it gave ( spoilerly chances )

. Fandom being what is, it's not surprising that this isn't reflected in fanfiction, which tends to go for what the source canon doesn't offer anyway. But it's the reason why a lot of the summaries tell me I'm not interested in reading the stories in question. (Especially not Rumplestilskin/Belle stories, who appear to be dominated by AUs or fluff, going by said summaries. It really seems to be a case of Snape Redux.)

Something else: it has occured to me that at the end of 2.01, both of the s1 villains are basically given a challenge ( of a spoilery nature )