Once upon a time: s3 finale
May. 15th, 2014 09:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakI finally had time to watch the finale!
First of all, seems Zelena is really dead-dead, and her death by Rumpelstilskin simply released her power from the amulet while the power flowing into the last spell she cast was enough to trigger it. This means both of the s3 antagonists were killed by our Mr. Gold, and yet the circumstances couldn't have been more different: killing Pan by suicide wasn't about a life time of issues, it was done to protect his loved ones (if you go by Neal's interpretation) or the town (if you go by Belle's), and at any event it was as close to redemption as Rumpelstilskin ever got (so far); killing Zelena, while understandable emotionally (not only had he just been kept prisoner by her for more than a year but she had caused the death of the son he loved more than anyone else), was not only an act of vengeance but also one with damming circumstances, as it was accomplished through deception and came with the betrayal of Belle. As Astro said elsewhere, if Rumpelstilskin had simply told Belle that in this case, he couldn't bring himself not to go for vengeance, that would have been different. But he wanted to have his cake and eat it, and flat out lied to her (so far with no sign of regret), making a mockery of the gesture of mutual trust he presented the dagger as.
(BTW, doesn't mean Belle shouldn't have twigged in the finale that something was up, because trust or not, Rumpelstilskin wouldn't have been unconcerned as to where she kept the dagger, not after the Zelena experierence recently demonstrating what it means for him if someone else has it. But I suppose one can fanwank that she writes it off on him being not quite himself yet after his experience.)
This also means their wedding is actually a dark twist in their relationship, because he keeps lying to her, and in case we're missing it there's the flashback to him hiding the real dagger while they speak their vows. That anvil is about to drop next season, and massively.
Before I get to the main plot of the finale, one more remark on Zelena: basically she was a challenge to both Regina and Rumplestilskin, putting them in the shoes of their former victims. Nothing Zelena did isn't something that Regina and Rumple haven't done to other people (as Regina points out to him in Kansas). (Starting with casually transforming people into animals - hello, Mr. Smee the rat -, going over keeping people prisoner - hello Belle, and well, all of Storybrooke was in a way Regina's prisoner during the 28 years of the curse - and moving on to gratitious killing - ask Rumple's mute servant or Cinderella's godmother.) Regina passed that test (though a new one is coming up for her, more about that in a moment); Rumplestilskin did not. It may or may not have to do with Regina going from wanting Henry back to wanting to change whereas Rumplestilskin wanted Baelfire to forgive him and the two of them back together, which isn't the same thing, and saw Belle loving him as a somewhat incomprehensible gift from fate but not really a comment on his ability to change.
The finale took an obvious leaf from Back to the Future, minus Freudian moments of teenage parent falling for time traveller instead of other parent, and instead focused on giving Emma a "you never know what you have until you've lost it" epiphany triggered by the River Song moment of encountering a young Snow White who doesn't know her and thus feels nothing to her. Be it as amnesiac Mary Margaret or as Snow White, Snow has always been a source of affection for Emma from shortly after they met. The loss of that works when the about thousandth variation of her "want to go back to New York"/"NY not real" conversation with Hook did not. Meanwhile, for the audience the FTL sequences were something of a nostalgia trip, containing guest stars not seen since s1 - Abigail/Kathryn and her father Midas - or rarely seen since - Red/Ruby -, Regina in complete Evil Queen mode (again, more in a moment), and Rumplestilskin, of course, doublecrossing Our Heroes who pull off their goal anyway. And Emma gets to experience a fairy tale ball. The Princess Leia alias amused me as much as it did Henry later. Ditto about Charming and Hook bonding three decades ahead of schedule. I must admit the slight variation of the Snow/Charming first encounters were still, well, charming as hell. (I was a bit afraid that Snow would lose agency if Emma had to come to the rescue on the troll bridge, but I should have had more faith in the inventiveness of Snow!). In contrast to present day Mr. Gold, FTL land Rumplestilskin even has a moment of - not sure what to call it - when he lets Emma go and drinks the potion after what she told him.
Now: since Zelena is genuinely dead and thus no longer a threat, this show wouldn't have been this show if Emma and Hook had been travelling to the past solely for a nostalgia trip on the audience's part and to give Emma some perspective on what she wants re: her family. So I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and since they made a point of not telling us the name of the woman Regina was about to execute and whom Emma later rescued, it had to be her survival. For some reason, though, I was expecting her to be revealed as the next big bad (I was wandering about Narnia, though not sure about the legal situation there - does the House of Mouse have the rights or did the Lewis estate sell them elsewhere?); it didn't dawn on me who she could be until she said "but my family will think I'm dead" when Emma said they were taking her with them to the future, and then it was just a fleeting suspicion that only became a certainty a minute or so before the actual reveal. Which caused a variety of emotions.
On the one hand: the David-Kathryn-Mary Margaret triangle was easily the most tedious part of season 1, do not wish a repeat. Also, there's the danger of it being used as a simple explanation for undoing all the character development for Regina.
On the other hand: you know, this could actually be good. What made the David-Kathryn-Mary Margaret triangle so tedious in s1 was the endless dithering and "I love you"/"We can't!" exchanges; also, it was forced due to fake memories. (I.e. the audience wasn't encouraged to regard David's and Kathryn's marriage as genuine, since we knew neither of them had actually chosen it - both had their minds altered.) And the one good point about the triangle was that at no point was Kathryn vilified; she was presented as a sympathetic character throughout (and the FTL flashbacks showed that as Abigail, she and David once they'd been honest to each other worked very well as friends). Meanwhile, the Regina-Robin-Marian situation isn't based on lies and fake memories. Everyone's emotions are real. Moreover, Marian is someone very representative of Regina's victims - not someone Regina had the slightest interest in as a person or a feud with, just someone in the way of her vengeance crusade against Snow White, and whom she could make an example of to intimidate others.
(BTW, the one thing I find difficult to swallow is that if Marian was executed by Regina in the original timeline, wouldn't Robin have known about this? Otoh there could be a future revelation that Marian always disappeared/was rescued by time travelling Emma, and that hence there never was an execution, only a baffling disappearance, and Robin thought he lost her the way Rumple "lost" Milah originally.)
For Regina to not kill Zelena but to want to help her was huge, no question, but I think part of it was because Zelena was her sister, and there was that particular bit of identification; I'm torn to say whether she would have acted the same way towards someone not related to her, though right now I'm hoping she would have. For her to apologize to Belle and later to give the dagger to her instead of keeping it was another major deed. However, Belle was a somewhat atypical victim of Regina's, tied directly to Rumpelstilskin. Marian had no connection to Snow White and simply was a random villager (as far as Regina was concerned.) "Every action has consequences", indeed. So for Regina finding that new state of happiness - Henry is back with her, her relationship with Snow is the best it's ever been since they were girls, she started a new relationship with a man who loves her - challenged by someone who presents all her casual tyranny back in the day and does so because of Regina's own decisions could really work as further character development. We'll find out this autumn!
First of all, seems Zelena is really dead-dead, and her death by Rumpelstilskin simply released her power from the amulet while the power flowing into the last spell she cast was enough to trigger it. This means both of the s3 antagonists were killed by our Mr. Gold, and yet the circumstances couldn't have been more different: killing Pan by suicide wasn't about a life time of issues, it was done to protect his loved ones (if you go by Neal's interpretation) or the town (if you go by Belle's), and at any event it was as close to redemption as Rumpelstilskin ever got (so far); killing Zelena, while understandable emotionally (not only had he just been kept prisoner by her for more than a year but she had caused the death of the son he loved more than anyone else), was not only an act of vengeance but also one with damming circumstances, as it was accomplished through deception and came with the betrayal of Belle. As Astro said elsewhere, if Rumpelstilskin had simply told Belle that in this case, he couldn't bring himself not to go for vengeance, that would have been different. But he wanted to have his cake and eat it, and flat out lied to her (so far with no sign of regret), making a mockery of the gesture of mutual trust he presented the dagger as.
(BTW, doesn't mean Belle shouldn't have twigged in the finale that something was up, because trust or not, Rumpelstilskin wouldn't have been unconcerned as to where she kept the dagger, not after the Zelena experierence recently demonstrating what it means for him if someone else has it. But I suppose one can fanwank that she writes it off on him being not quite himself yet after his experience.)
This also means their wedding is actually a dark twist in their relationship, because he keeps lying to her, and in case we're missing it there's the flashback to him hiding the real dagger while they speak their vows. That anvil is about to drop next season, and massively.
Before I get to the main plot of the finale, one more remark on Zelena: basically she was a challenge to both Regina and Rumplestilskin, putting them in the shoes of their former victims. Nothing Zelena did isn't something that Regina and Rumple haven't done to other people (as Regina points out to him in Kansas). (Starting with casually transforming people into animals - hello, Mr. Smee the rat -, going over keeping people prisoner - hello Belle, and well, all of Storybrooke was in a way Regina's prisoner during the 28 years of the curse - and moving on to gratitious killing - ask Rumple's mute servant or Cinderella's godmother.) Regina passed that test (though a new one is coming up for her, more about that in a moment); Rumplestilskin did not. It may or may not have to do with Regina going from wanting Henry back to wanting to change whereas Rumplestilskin wanted Baelfire to forgive him and the two of them back together, which isn't the same thing, and saw Belle loving him as a somewhat incomprehensible gift from fate but not really a comment on his ability to change.
The finale took an obvious leaf from Back to the Future, minus Freudian moments of teenage parent falling for time traveller instead of other parent, and instead focused on giving Emma a "you never know what you have until you've lost it" epiphany triggered by the River Song moment of encountering a young Snow White who doesn't know her and thus feels nothing to her. Be it as amnesiac Mary Margaret or as Snow White, Snow has always been a source of affection for Emma from shortly after they met. The loss of that works when the about thousandth variation of her "want to go back to New York"/"NY not real" conversation with Hook did not. Meanwhile, for the audience the FTL sequences were something of a nostalgia trip, containing guest stars not seen since s1 - Abigail/Kathryn and her father Midas - or rarely seen since - Red/Ruby -, Regina in complete Evil Queen mode (again, more in a moment), and Rumplestilskin, of course, doublecrossing Our Heroes who pull off their goal anyway. And Emma gets to experience a fairy tale ball. The Princess Leia alias amused me as much as it did Henry later. Ditto about Charming and Hook bonding three decades ahead of schedule. I must admit the slight variation of the Snow/Charming first encounters were still, well, charming as hell. (I was a bit afraid that Snow would lose agency if Emma had to come to the rescue on the troll bridge, but I should have had more faith in the inventiveness of Snow!). In contrast to present day Mr. Gold, FTL land Rumplestilskin even has a moment of - not sure what to call it - when he lets Emma go and drinks the potion after what she told him.
Now: since Zelena is genuinely dead and thus no longer a threat, this show wouldn't have been this show if Emma and Hook had been travelling to the past solely for a nostalgia trip on the audience's part and to give Emma some perspective on what she wants re: her family. So I was waiting for the other shoe to drop, and since they made a point of not telling us the name of the woman Regina was about to execute and whom Emma later rescued, it had to be her survival. For some reason, though, I was expecting her to be revealed as the next big bad (I was wandering about Narnia, though not sure about the legal situation there - does the House of Mouse have the rights or did the Lewis estate sell them elsewhere?); it didn't dawn on me who she could be until she said "but my family will think I'm dead" when Emma said they were taking her with them to the future, and then it was just a fleeting suspicion that only became a certainty a minute or so before the actual reveal. Which caused a variety of emotions.
On the one hand: the David-Kathryn-Mary Margaret triangle was easily the most tedious part of season 1, do not wish a repeat. Also, there's the danger of it being used as a simple explanation for undoing all the character development for Regina.
On the other hand: you know, this could actually be good. What made the David-Kathryn-Mary Margaret triangle so tedious in s1 was the endless dithering and "I love you"/"We can't!" exchanges; also, it was forced due to fake memories. (I.e. the audience wasn't encouraged to regard David's and Kathryn's marriage as genuine, since we knew neither of them had actually chosen it - both had their minds altered.) And the one good point about the triangle was that at no point was Kathryn vilified; she was presented as a sympathetic character throughout (and the FTL flashbacks showed that as Abigail, she and David once they'd been honest to each other worked very well as friends). Meanwhile, the Regina-Robin-Marian situation isn't based on lies and fake memories. Everyone's emotions are real. Moreover, Marian is someone very representative of Regina's victims - not someone Regina had the slightest interest in as a person or a feud with, just someone in the way of her vengeance crusade against Snow White, and whom she could make an example of to intimidate others.
(BTW, the one thing I find difficult to swallow is that if Marian was executed by Regina in the original timeline, wouldn't Robin have known about this? Otoh there could be a future revelation that Marian always disappeared/was rescued by time travelling Emma, and that hence there never was an execution, only a baffling disappearance, and Robin thought he lost her the way Rumple "lost" Milah originally.)
For Regina to not kill Zelena but to want to help her was huge, no question, but I think part of it was because Zelena was her sister, and there was that particular bit of identification; I'm torn to say whether she would have acted the same way towards someone not related to her, though right now I'm hoping she would have. For her to apologize to Belle and later to give the dagger to her instead of keeping it was another major deed. However, Belle was a somewhat atypical victim of Regina's, tied directly to Rumpelstilskin. Marian had no connection to Snow White and simply was a random villager (as far as Regina was concerned.) "Every action has consequences", indeed. So for Regina finding that new state of happiness - Henry is back with her, her relationship with Snow is the best it's ever been since they were girls, she started a new relationship with a man who loves her - challenged by someone who presents all her casual tyranny back in the day and does so because of Regina's own decisions could really work as further character development. We'll find out this autumn!
no subject
Date: 2014-05-17 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-18 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 12:30 am (UTC)They're touting her as Elsa in the press here, but I'm guessing we'll see some kind of mix with heavy Anderson influence because I don't see Frozen's Elsa being a villain in the slightest. (Though I have no doubt she'd be an absolutely terrifying monarch to go up against in battle.) At the same time, I think it's a narrow line to walk since advertising you have the characters of Frozen is a very different thing than what OUAT does with them.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 03:13 am (UTC)They did a fascinating twist on Peter Pan as a villain this last season, so having been the hero in a Disney movie is no guarantee...
no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 01:09 pm (UTC)It just seems like, to me, trying to attract the audience of Frozen (it is a massive, massive unexpected hit here) to this show, which is basically Disney Princess AU fic, may not work if Elsa is out-and-out evil. Or maybe it will, because Disney clearly wasn't expecting her to be the breakout star of the film and the reason she's so popular - all depression and LBGQT metaphors aside - may just be because she slides on that line between hero and villain.
But I think there's more danger there than the producers expect, because it's one thing to twist properties that no one has any particular attraction to anymore, and another to do that to the character which currently has all preschoolers in the nation enthralled.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 02:48 pm (UTC)Anyway: introducing a character who clearly looks like she's based on Elsa in Frozen is an obvious cash into the current popularity move, I agree, but these are a clever bunch of writers. Not perfect - there've been definitely misteps during the last three seasons - but they've managed to endear most of their ensemble consistently to me and make me interested in most of them as well. Especially the female characters. So: whatever their version of the Snow Queen will be like, I'm cautiously optimistic they'll pull it off.