Once upon a time 3.03
Oct. 14th, 2013 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIt's a Jane E. episode! And she is in fine form.
Seriously, I loved this one, which juggled three to four different plots and did it well. Where to begin: the Blue Fairy definitely takes on shady tones if you ask me. I'm not sure whether the show wants to make a point about all order types being sometimes as questionable as chaotic or scheming ones - still not over the exploited proletariat, I mean, the Dwarves - but the Blue Fairy's aversion here to helping Regina at a point in Regina's life when she had done some evil (at least one murder that we know of), but was far from the ruthless woman condemming whole swades of people to death or misery, with "her mother ripped out hearts and her teacher is the Dark One" as her only argument certainly makes it look that way to me.
Speaking of Regina, this episode was a terrific showcase for her and for Lara Parilla, playing her at two very different points in her life. Even better, Regina in the present gets to show some actual growth, not to mention smarts, in the way she draws out Tinkerbell. It seems that admitting for the first time that she, not everyone else, was at fault in the s2 finale really was a turning point in Regina's self awareness; the "I chose revenge over hope" could not have come from the "if in doubt, blame Snow" woman she used to be before that. Mind you, not that I think finding a new love back then would have solved all of Regina's problems magically, pun inevitable. But while Robin Hood/Evil Queen sounds like a crack pairing, if you think about it, Regina when younger, runnnig away (since presumably she would not have stuck around in the castle) as she once planned to with Daniel? Might have come to long for power and wealth at some point (her mother imprinted deeply on her), but then again, maybe not. It's by no means certain. And feeling trapped certainly did its share to create the Evil Queen.
Incidentally, both here and in the FTL subplot with Mulan the show introduces/reveals some interesting variations re: its True Love set up, much critisized, since at first it looks like everyone gets only one, except for Rumpelstilskin, that is, who was in life three times that we know of. But now, we've got Tinkerbell declaring it's possible to find true love again after losing the first one to death in one plot thread while in another, Mulan certainly looked like she was about to declare her love to Aurora (meaning we got our first same sex attraction canonized on screen as well) when Aurora unknowingly stopped her by mentioning she's pregnant. Considering that Mulan before meeting Aurora was in love with Philipp, this means we also now have an example of one heroic character loving more than one person (or falling first for one, then for the other). Mind you, the obvious solution here would be Mulan/Aurora/Philipp, but I'm not sure Disney would license that. Meanwile, I'm okay with Mulan joining the Merry Men for a while.
Still on that subplot: Neal/Baelfire continues to show signs of whose son he is. That plan to use Robin's kid was pretty ruthless, and putting on emotional thumbscrews on Robin was something Rumple would approve of as well. This makes me retrospectively finding it easier to reconcile teenage Baelfire with Neal the con man. Though I'm guessing we're due for some more teenage Baelfire flashbacks anyway, exploring how his relationship with Peter Pan went down the first time and what causes him to estimate Pan as "the nastiest person I ever met" (again, considering whose son he is).
Speaking of Peter Pan: that "only you can save and bring back magic" was a pitch skillfully designed for Henry, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily untrue. I mean, it's clear he does need Henry for SOMETHING, and he did have that picture even when Bae arrived in Neverland. At a guess, his true endgame does have to do with magic, though I bet there are some vicious side effects he hasn't told Henry about (maybe bringing back magic to ALL the worlds will destroy some of them who simply aren't designed to hold it?). I continue to get a kick out of the Barrie canon woven in with its darkside twist: in this episode, Peter crowing. (And Tinkerbell losing her magic when people lose faith in her as a counterpoint to Barrie's Tink getting saved by everyone's belief - and clapping of hands.)
In other news:
- further encouraging signs of Regina character growth are her "Operation Henry" conversation with Emma, and the fact she apologizes for the "boyfriend" remark.
- in all other shows of this type I would say they are only bluffing with David's poisoning, but this is the show where handsome young males actually have a greater chance of getting fridged in order to provide angst to female characters; this being said, I'm still 70% sure the show won't kill off David, but it might use him to further Regina's rocky road to redemption. Meaning: if Regina should, say, give her magic to save Snow's beloved, it would certainly be as dramatic a gesture as, say... Rumplestilskin now being ready to be undone by the grandkid after almost being driven to murder by the fear of it and being not a little jealous and resentful of the attention Henry got from Neal.
Seriously, I loved this one, which juggled three to four different plots and did it well. Where to begin: the Blue Fairy definitely takes on shady tones if you ask me. I'm not sure whether the show wants to make a point about all order types being sometimes as questionable as chaotic or scheming ones - still not over the exploited proletariat, I mean, the Dwarves - but the Blue Fairy's aversion here to helping Regina at a point in Regina's life when she had done some evil (at least one murder that we know of), but was far from the ruthless woman condemming whole swades of people to death or misery, with "her mother ripped out hearts and her teacher is the Dark One" as her only argument certainly makes it look that way to me.
Speaking of Regina, this episode was a terrific showcase for her and for Lara Parilla, playing her at two very different points in her life. Even better, Regina in the present gets to show some actual growth, not to mention smarts, in the way she draws out Tinkerbell. It seems that admitting for the first time that she, not everyone else, was at fault in the s2 finale really was a turning point in Regina's self awareness; the "I chose revenge over hope" could not have come from the "if in doubt, blame Snow" woman she used to be before that. Mind you, not that I think finding a new love back then would have solved all of Regina's problems magically, pun inevitable. But while Robin Hood/Evil Queen sounds like a crack pairing, if you think about it, Regina when younger, runnnig away (since presumably she would not have stuck around in the castle) as she once planned to with Daniel? Might have come to long for power and wealth at some point (her mother imprinted deeply on her), but then again, maybe not. It's by no means certain. And feeling trapped certainly did its share to create the Evil Queen.
Incidentally, both here and in the FTL subplot with Mulan the show introduces/reveals some interesting variations re: its True Love set up, much critisized, since at first it looks like everyone gets only one, except for Rumpelstilskin, that is, who was in life three times that we know of. But now, we've got Tinkerbell declaring it's possible to find true love again after losing the first one to death in one plot thread while in another, Mulan certainly looked like she was about to declare her love to Aurora (meaning we got our first same sex attraction canonized on screen as well) when Aurora unknowingly stopped her by mentioning she's pregnant. Considering that Mulan before meeting Aurora was in love with Philipp, this means we also now have an example of one heroic character loving more than one person (or falling first for one, then for the other). Mind you, the obvious solution here would be Mulan/Aurora/Philipp, but I'm not sure Disney would license that. Meanwile, I'm okay with Mulan joining the Merry Men for a while.
Still on that subplot: Neal/Baelfire continues to show signs of whose son he is. That plan to use Robin's kid was pretty ruthless, and putting on emotional thumbscrews on Robin was something Rumple would approve of as well. This makes me retrospectively finding it easier to reconcile teenage Baelfire with Neal the con man. Though I'm guessing we're due for some more teenage Baelfire flashbacks anyway, exploring how his relationship with Peter Pan went down the first time and what causes him to estimate Pan as "the nastiest person I ever met" (again, considering whose son he is).
Speaking of Peter Pan: that "only you can save and bring back magic" was a pitch skillfully designed for Henry, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily untrue. I mean, it's clear he does need Henry for SOMETHING, and he did have that picture even when Bae arrived in Neverland. At a guess, his true endgame does have to do with magic, though I bet there are some vicious side effects he hasn't told Henry about (maybe bringing back magic to ALL the worlds will destroy some of them who simply aren't designed to hold it?). I continue to get a kick out of the Barrie canon woven in with its darkside twist: in this episode, Peter crowing. (And Tinkerbell losing her magic when people lose faith in her as a counterpoint to Barrie's Tink getting saved by everyone's belief - and clapping of hands.)
In other news:
- further encouraging signs of Regina character growth are her "Operation Henry" conversation with Emma, and the fact she apologizes for the "boyfriend" remark.
- in all other shows of this type I would say they are only bluffing with David's poisoning, but this is the show where handsome young males actually have a greater chance of getting fridged in order to provide angst to female characters; this being said, I'm still 70% sure the show won't kill off David, but it might use him to further Regina's rocky road to redemption. Meaning: if Regina should, say, give her magic to save Snow's beloved, it would certainly be as dramatic a gesture as, say... Rumplestilskin now being ready to be undone by the grandkid after almost being driven to murder by the fear of it and being not a little jealous and resentful of the attention Henry got from Neal.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-14 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-14 08:08 pm (UTC)right, right.
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Date: 2013-10-14 08:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-15 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-10-16 02:31 am (UTC)