Once upon a Time 3.06
Nov. 4th, 2013 03:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which Disney goes Andersen, or rather, the other way around, with some unexpected turns at the corner.
Okay, firstly, I should say that I'm not a fan of the Disney version of the Little Mermaid. It has its charms, and in theory I should be for the mermaid surviving instead of dissolving into sea foam, but as a child who sobbed over the Little Mermaid yet loved sobbing about it, I grew into an adult side eying the Disneyfication rather crossly. Where was the part that freaked me out yet viscerally impressed me, i.e. the Mermaid feeling the pain of a thousand knives with every step she makes on her human legs? Most of all: the Sea Witch of the original, who is a mysterious sorceress but not evil (and also doesn't have a name), suddenly was made into a villainess who was the caricature of a middle aged woman (overweight) conspiring against our heroine and her father. So colour me delighted when OuaT, while going for the Disney version of the Mermaid, put its own unique - double - twist on the Ursula the Sea Witch part. The villain function is taken over by Regina masquerading as Ursula, while the mythic part is re-Andesrsenized and then some, as it turns out there is a real Ursula, not a Witch but a Sea Goddess venerated by all the sea folk, who isn't impressed by Regina masquerading as her at all. Also, a bit from Andersen's story that never made it into Disney because it's far too dark and messed up, i.e. the Mermaid being offered salvation if she kills the Prince (who never falls in love with her at all), is reappropriated in milder but still appropriate form: in OuaT, Ariel has the chance to keep her legs and physical existence in trade for Snow's, and as Andersen's Little Mermaid, she's seriously tempted but in the end chooses not to trade Snow for her own happiness. That this doesn't mean romantic love versus your own life (or dying for your unrequitedly beloved), but friendship (to another woman) and integrity versus your own life is a very OuaT twist to make.
(Incidentally, the Ariel-Snow friendship and Regina's role here puts an additional spin on Snow protesting at Regina's suggestion to kill the mermaid in the opening episode.)
Snow in both past and present is a firm representative of the "honesty is the best policy, secrets are stupid" motto, which is a good thing since her beloved, after doing so well in season 2, in season 3 has a serious case of regression into David Nolandom. Seriously, David, why? You were far better about this stuff last season. Snow, otoh, continues to be my favourite princess on this show (Emma not being a princess, technically), even when the menfolk get it into their heads to keep secrets from Emma For Her Own Good, and cuts that plan short right then and there. Go Snow! Mind you: Hook, for Hook, is definitely showing progress, since instead of keeping the Neal news all to himself he does tell Emma's parents. (Which is a neat moral compromise from his pov: if they'd kept it secret, Emma could have hardly blamed him.)
Regina also is progressing nicely. (Well, not in the flashbacks, obviously, but in the present day storyline.) When Rumpestilskin was having a chat with imaginary Belle AGAIN I groaned and once again thought how I regretted that the writers split him from the group at the very start of the season, thus trading in an interesting character combination for a dull one: isolated Rumple chatting with an Belle avatar just doesn't do it, though the episode where he interacts with his son and Pan in past and present was an exception. And then, lo and behold, the episode did me the favour of rectifiying that situation by letting Regina show up, thus giving me one of the character combinations I'd been looking forward to seeing through the entire hiatus. Imaginary Belle not being imaginary but the Shadow (Pan's, one assumes, not Rumple's) in disguise also did away with future non-wanted-by-me chats. Regina in snarking mode manages to kick Rumple out of monologuing self pitying mode, which improves the situation to no end. Also: loved the "nobody gets to kill you but me" part. I'm not sure letting mermaids be able to cross between worlds was a good idea, but then again, they might not be able to cross into Our World, thus saving a bit of Rumplestilskin's need to go through his elaborate con to get there. Anyway, we also get a bit more clarification on why Rumple was so sure he would die, since apparantly you can't kill Peter Pan without dying yourself. The alternate method he finally thinks of, otoh, the "fate worse than death": I would say it could be some magical equivalent of freezing Peter Pan, except that wouldn't fit the narrative since Neverland is already a non changing state, as Peter himself points out in the episode. Here's what I think would be the "fate worse than death" for Peter Pan, which Rumple hopes to accomplish via some magical macguffin he has in Storybrooke: growing up, of course. He must have something to manipulate age in his shop, since his original plan upon reuniting with his son was to regress Baelfire to 14 years old boyhood, and it would even fit with Disney having already done a grown up Peter Pan. Presumably an aged Peter would no longer be able to hold onto Neverland, and thus couldn't prevent anyone from leaving anymore. It would also solve the problem for the show that actors do age (the very gifted one playing young Baelfire already looks visibly older in the flashbacks than he did in s1), if they intend to bring Peter Pan back. Though I have to say: the young actor playing him right now is fabulous.
After the Tinker Bell episode established you can feel True Love more than once in this 'verse, this episode adds to that by letting Hook declare his for Emma when pressed for a secret. So far, this particular triangle goes far less soapy than I'd feared, since Neal (who hears that declaration) doesn't have a jealous fit, and Emma has her problems re: Neal which are utterly unrelated to having snogged Hook and completely related to the part where he traumatized her by framing her and leaving her to arrest and prison in the past. Emma having trust issues, not Hook issues, and Neal accepting those (and knowing he can't resolve them other than by demonstrating his reliability now, and even then there's no guarantee) makes me cautiously optimistic.
In other news: while this show has managed to sell one on couples who only have a few scenes together within the space of a single episode (Rumple/Cora and Rumple/Belle as well as Teenage Emma/Neal come to mind), Ariel and Erik, alas, don't qualify, because a single conversation does not do the trick.
I know I've been picking on Rumple/Belle for a while, but in all fairness: one intereresting character fact did come out of this whole Shadow-as-Belle interlude, and that's Rumplestilskin's reaction to the repeated suggestion he could start a new family with Belle, have another child. He seems to be very averse, which could be centuries of fixation - "You are my happy ending, Bae", he says to Neal when Neal asks about Belle - or a general fear of trying and losing again, or... I don't know, but it's intriguing. Back in Alias fandom, there was the occasional discussion as to how Jack Bristow would react and/or change if Sydney were no longer his only child.
Speaking of only children: as luck or ill luck would have it, a few months back during my periodical attempts to find stories starring Regina, Emma and Snow which don't infuriate me, I came across one where Snow gets pregnant again and is promptly described as self absorbed and selfish by Regina (!). (This was the end of my reading that story, because the narrative seemed to agree with her and go straight for the Emma/Regina hurt/comfort.) Trust the show to bring up the idea as well, but in a more interesting way. It makes sense both that Snow would want another child (which she gets to raise) and that ordinarily, she wouldn't have spoken of that (presumably out of fear Emma could take it wrongly). In a way, it's the equivalent of Emma feeling herself to be an orphan despite having her parents around now and positive relationships with them (just not normal parent-child ones). Snow loves Emma, but she can't go back in time and raise Emma. Do I think there will be another child? Mayyyybe, but not yet (not least because David just deservedly got cold shouldered after the revelation of his keeping-a-lethal-wound-plus-cure-a-secret stunt). Perhaps once the show gets to the wrapping up stage.
Okay, firstly, I should say that I'm not a fan of the Disney version of the Little Mermaid. It has its charms, and in theory I should be for the mermaid surviving instead of dissolving into sea foam, but as a child who sobbed over the Little Mermaid yet loved sobbing about it, I grew into an adult side eying the Disneyfication rather crossly. Where was the part that freaked me out yet viscerally impressed me, i.e. the Mermaid feeling the pain of a thousand knives with every step she makes on her human legs? Most of all: the Sea Witch of the original, who is a mysterious sorceress but not evil (and also doesn't have a name), suddenly was made into a villainess who was the caricature of a middle aged woman (overweight) conspiring against our heroine and her father. So colour me delighted when OuaT, while going for the Disney version of the Mermaid, put its own unique - double - twist on the Ursula the Sea Witch part. The villain function is taken over by Regina masquerading as Ursula, while the mythic part is re-Andesrsenized and then some, as it turns out there is a real Ursula, not a Witch but a Sea Goddess venerated by all the sea folk, who isn't impressed by Regina masquerading as her at all. Also, a bit from Andersen's story that never made it into Disney because it's far too dark and messed up, i.e. the Mermaid being offered salvation if she kills the Prince (who never falls in love with her at all), is reappropriated in milder but still appropriate form: in OuaT, Ariel has the chance to keep her legs and physical existence in trade for Snow's, and as Andersen's Little Mermaid, she's seriously tempted but in the end chooses not to trade Snow for her own happiness. That this doesn't mean romantic love versus your own life (or dying for your unrequitedly beloved), but friendship (to another woman) and integrity versus your own life is a very OuaT twist to make.
(Incidentally, the Ariel-Snow friendship and Regina's role here puts an additional spin on Snow protesting at Regina's suggestion to kill the mermaid in the opening episode.)
Snow in both past and present is a firm representative of the "honesty is the best policy, secrets are stupid" motto, which is a good thing since her beloved, after doing so well in season 2, in season 3 has a serious case of regression into David Nolandom. Seriously, David, why? You were far better about this stuff last season. Snow, otoh, continues to be my favourite princess on this show (Emma not being a princess, technically), even when the menfolk get it into their heads to keep secrets from Emma For Her Own Good, and cuts that plan short right then and there. Go Snow! Mind you: Hook, for Hook, is definitely showing progress, since instead of keeping the Neal news all to himself he does tell Emma's parents. (Which is a neat moral compromise from his pov: if they'd kept it secret, Emma could have hardly blamed him.)
Regina also is progressing nicely. (Well, not in the flashbacks, obviously, but in the present day storyline.) When Rumpestilskin was having a chat with imaginary Belle AGAIN I groaned and once again thought how I regretted that the writers split him from the group at the very start of the season, thus trading in an interesting character combination for a dull one: isolated Rumple chatting with an Belle avatar just doesn't do it, though the episode where he interacts with his son and Pan in past and present was an exception. And then, lo and behold, the episode did me the favour of rectifiying that situation by letting Regina show up, thus giving me one of the character combinations I'd been looking forward to seeing through the entire hiatus. Imaginary Belle not being imaginary but the Shadow (Pan's, one assumes, not Rumple's) in disguise also did away with future non-wanted-by-me chats. Regina in snarking mode manages to kick Rumple out of monologuing self pitying mode, which improves the situation to no end. Also: loved the "nobody gets to kill you but me" part. I'm not sure letting mermaids be able to cross between worlds was a good idea, but then again, they might not be able to cross into Our World, thus saving a bit of Rumplestilskin's need to go through his elaborate con to get there. Anyway, we also get a bit more clarification on why Rumple was so sure he would die, since apparantly you can't kill Peter Pan without dying yourself. The alternate method he finally thinks of, otoh, the "fate worse than death": I would say it could be some magical equivalent of freezing Peter Pan, except that wouldn't fit the narrative since Neverland is already a non changing state, as Peter himself points out in the episode. Here's what I think would be the "fate worse than death" for Peter Pan, which Rumple hopes to accomplish via some magical macguffin he has in Storybrooke: growing up, of course. He must have something to manipulate age in his shop, since his original plan upon reuniting with his son was to regress Baelfire to 14 years old boyhood, and it would even fit with Disney having already done a grown up Peter Pan. Presumably an aged Peter would no longer be able to hold onto Neverland, and thus couldn't prevent anyone from leaving anymore. It would also solve the problem for the show that actors do age (the very gifted one playing young Baelfire already looks visibly older in the flashbacks than he did in s1), if they intend to bring Peter Pan back. Though I have to say: the young actor playing him right now is fabulous.
After the Tinker Bell episode established you can feel True Love more than once in this 'verse, this episode adds to that by letting Hook declare his for Emma when pressed for a secret. So far, this particular triangle goes far less soapy than I'd feared, since Neal (who hears that declaration) doesn't have a jealous fit, and Emma has her problems re: Neal which are utterly unrelated to having snogged Hook and completely related to the part where he traumatized her by framing her and leaving her to arrest and prison in the past. Emma having trust issues, not Hook issues, and Neal accepting those (and knowing he can't resolve them other than by demonstrating his reliability now, and even then there's no guarantee) makes me cautiously optimistic.
In other news: while this show has managed to sell one on couples who only have a few scenes together within the space of a single episode (Rumple/Cora and Rumple/Belle as well as Teenage Emma/Neal come to mind), Ariel and Erik, alas, don't qualify, because a single conversation does not do the trick.
I know I've been picking on Rumple/Belle for a while, but in all fairness: one intereresting character fact did come out of this whole Shadow-as-Belle interlude, and that's Rumplestilskin's reaction to the repeated suggestion he could start a new family with Belle, have another child. He seems to be very averse, which could be centuries of fixation - "You are my happy ending, Bae", he says to Neal when Neal asks about Belle - or a general fear of trying and losing again, or... I don't know, but it's intriguing. Back in Alias fandom, there was the occasional discussion as to how Jack Bristow would react and/or change if Sydney were no longer his only child.
Speaking of only children: as luck or ill luck would have it, a few months back during my periodical attempts to find stories starring Regina, Emma and Snow which don't infuriate me, I came across one where Snow gets pregnant again and is promptly described as self absorbed and selfish by Regina (!). (This was the end of my reading that story, because the narrative seemed to agree with her and go straight for the Emma/Regina hurt/comfort.) Trust the show to bring up the idea as well, but in a more interesting way. It makes sense both that Snow would want another child (which she gets to raise) and that ordinarily, she wouldn't have spoken of that (presumably out of fear Emma could take it wrongly). In a way, it's the equivalent of Emma feeling herself to be an orphan despite having her parents around now and positive relationships with them (just not normal parent-child ones). Snow loves Emma, but she can't go back in time and raise Emma. Do I think there will be another child? Mayyyybe, but not yet (not least because David just deservedly got cold shouldered after the revelation of his keeping-a-lethal-wound-plus-cure-a-secret stunt). Perhaps once the show gets to the wrapping up stage.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 02:50 pm (UTC)Loved Snow just blurting out the truth to Emma, and was pleasantly surprised that Hook didn't just keep the whole thing to himself until a dramatic moment several episodes later. And having Regina and Rumple back together is truly delightful. I may have gone 'awwwwwww' when she said that nobody else gets to kill him. Those two are so best enemies.
Snow and David are two of those rare TV characters I would love to see have another baby - but not yet. Like you say, it would make a good story for when the show gets to wrapping up. (Because otherwise you know it will just end up getting kidnapped and they'll have to go through this whole thing again ...)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 06:22 pm (UTC)Yes indeed! And despite my critique re: Eric, I wouldn't have wanted to trade romance scenes for the Ariel and Snow, as well as the Ariel-Snow-Regina scenes we did get.
Re: Regina and Rumple - and I think this is the first time she had the emotional upper hand. (Well, excempting the time she told him Belle was dead.) Truly, Regina has finally grown up!
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 02:51 pm (UTC)I am so, so happy that Snow continues to hold on to the 'Secrets are stupid' mindset. And I'm very glad they showed that Snow was irked at Charming's secret keeping. In both her lives as Mary Margaret and Snow White, keeping secrets, or being ask to keep it has only brought her grief.
Also, shows that hold to secret keeping to create drama? It's a trope that bores me the most.
I also wanted to add: I wish they had Regina in the cave, or somehow Regina and Snow in the cave. That would've been an interesting thing to have. I don't know how or why the writers keep avoiding leaving Snow and Regina alone, when its the fodder for the best kind of drama.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 06:18 pm (UTC)Also, shows that hold to secret keeping to create drama? It's a trope that bores me the most.
Same here, and am I ever glad we were spared that!
re: Regina and Snow, I know. But Rumple and Regina were second on my "scenes I'd like to see" list, so I'm deciding to be optimistic and hope that the fact I finally got that combination means I will eventually also get the other one!
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 06:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 03:45 pm (UTC)In not-related news, I'm not sure if you'll be able to access this from where you are but I noticed some preview pages for the upcoming graphic novel about Brian Epstein. Quite possibly you've already got your hands on this but I figured I should share :)
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 06:16 pm (UTC)Other cage: no, we still don't know, but my money is on Rumple's often mentioned, never seen father (alive because in Neverland no one dies or ages).
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 06:18 pm (UTC)And I thought of your prediction about Rumple's father during last night's ep, because he was mentioned in the ep in that 'let's remind the audience that he exists' kind of way. Suitably intrigued.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 06:24 pm (UTC)Yes, and that has to lead up to something, which I doubt will be only flashbacks. Though undoubtedly we'll get those, too. Let's hope they have a good kid actor who can do a Robert Carlyle impression...
no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 06:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-04 07:11 pm (UTC)