keep_counting (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
keep_counting) wrote2012-10-10 08:19 pm
keep_counting) wrote2012-10-10 08:19 pm
Entry tags:
Once Upon A Time - S1 & 2x01/2x02 general thoughts
I feel like this show is repeatingly punching me in the face. But in a good way. Lots of rambling and spoilers under the cut. New show, new sensations. I am floored and incoherent, but very much keen on discussing everything with you.
- I am so happy that this show, while taking a premise that can easily be considered silly and childish, takes itself seriously. Don't get me wrong, it mocks itself a lot, like all shows should - self-irony is practically mandatory in order for me to enjoy something. But my point is that many of these stories are only known to us through Disney, and while I love Disney, it is over-the-top, singing birds and damsels in distress 24/7. This show takes the original legends and mixes it with the new material, in a way that makes it very real. A lot of these fairy-tales were dark and twisted, meant to scare children into being good. They weren't as much 'do good, and good will be done to you' as they were 'do good, or a wolf will come and rip you to shreds'. I am glad the show is not skipping the darker nature at all.
- Speaking of darker nature, thank-youthank-youthank-you so much for these villains, OUAT. I usually find the villains more interesting than the heroes and desperately shout for them to be redeemed - it rarely happens, and when it does it is usually followed by a tragic and heroic sacrifice. Which means my babies are dead and I am left to sit and sob my eyes out (no, really. i'm having trouble thinking of a franchise were this hasn't happened). However, this is one of the first series I've followed were our villains are given so many motives and layers and chances for redemption so early on. The beautiful thing is that, our two main villains in season one - Queen Regina and Rumple - ended up like this because of love. They were both desperate back then and they're desperate now as well, just much better at hiding it. And I am so scared, because then there is 2x02 and Regina's 'I want to redeem myself' and I so want to believe it and I think she wants to believe it as well but... she's not ready. She's not strong enough yet, as evidenced by her not burning that book. I'm really scared of what's going to happen. That episode gave me SO MANY FEELINGS, for both of them, because Mr. Gold is yet again prevented from finding his son and, as far as I know, that's why he made the friggin' curse in the first place. It just further goes to enhance how they might have become so powerful, but they're still victims, slaves to the magic, bound by its rules. Ugh, I need to stop watching shows were people continue to ruin their own happiness by being SO STUPID.
- I am so happy I'm not watching a show of cardboard cut-outs. David/Charming actually has flaws, gets desperate, needs to find his courage as well. Mixed with the background story we got for him, it makes me reallyreally like him. He wasn't born a priviliged, annoying whelp, he's had to fight so hard and now he still has to keep fighting. Thank-you Charming, for being interesting instead of just another boring Prince. And its the same with Emma. I love her to bits, but sometimes she can be horribly deluded, irrational and emotionally stunted. And that fits perfectly for someone whose led the life she has. It makes her real.
- Going further back I WAS NOT AT ALL EXPECTING THE CURSE TO BE BROKEN SO SOON (or half-way broken. partially broken? 80% broken). I was expecting S1 to be about Emma starting to believe (and jeez, did that take long enough), and then having to work around it for most of S2, keeping the fact that she knows away from Regina, trying to get her parents back together, being generally weirded out BY EVERYTHING and then maybe, MAYBE at the end of S2 we would get everyone's memories returned or a few of them, or something else. I didn't think the curse would be broken until.... well, the end of the show. It was an incredibly bold move for the writers to make, and I think they can play it to their advantage.
- Especially because Snow and Emma ended up in FTL! Really, I've almost lost my voice from all the screaming at my TV-screen I've been doing. Dementors! Belle and Rumple! Mulan! Mulan! MULAN!
- So who is that mystery guy that shows up in 2x01? I'm guessing most people is assuming it's Bae, so I'm going to go for... the little mermaid. Sure. He's Ariel (that is a non-gender specific name btw IT COULD WORK). I have absolutely nothing to back this theory up...
- I can't wait until Captain Hook shows up, because I've been wanting to jump Colin O'Donoghue's bones since I saw The Rite. Him playing a pirate? Is this real life? Is this all just a dream?? *insert appropriate drooling gif*
- I'm guessing Cora is the Miller's Daughter from the original tale about Rumplestiltskin, the one who had to guess his name - and her firstborn, the one she promised away, would then be Regina. It fits with the magic being what she gets in exchange instead, and Rumple telling Regina he held her as a baby. How she got out of the deal I don't know, since everyone seems to know his name. He does seem keen on Regina getting rid of her though, so he's probably not that happy about her. Want to know more!
- Just to make something clear: if you hate - as in absolutely can't stand, find nothing good about them - Regina, Henry or Rumple, because they're evil or because he's a 'whiny, ungrateful kid' then we can't be friends. Fair enough if you're annoyed with them, but please apply situations, logic, age and psychological behaviour to everything they do. You don't have to like them - I don't always like them - but they seem to be getting a lot of hate from the part of fandom I've been snooping around in, and to me it never seems justified. It's character bashing, and there's nothing I hate more. You can dislike a character if you have good reasons, but sitting and saying you want Regina to die because she's an evil bitch is ignoring the fact that she was abused by her mother her entire life, and calling Henry ungrateful and whiny is ignoring the fact that he's ten years old and was adopted and grew up in a town where everything was frozen and HE IS TEN YEARS OLD, STOP EXPECTING HIM TO ACT LIKE A GROWN-UP I WILL BET YOU MONEY HE IS TWENTY TIMES SMARTER THAN YOU WERE AT THAT AGE, C'MON. Okay, I needed to get that off my chest, because... leave my babies alone.
- and finally and most importantly. WHO IS DOCTOR WHALE?? I need to know!!
- I am so happy that this show, while taking a premise that can easily be considered silly and childish, takes itself seriously. Don't get me wrong, it mocks itself a lot, like all shows should - self-irony is practically mandatory in order for me to enjoy something. But my point is that many of these stories are only known to us through Disney, and while I love Disney, it is over-the-top, singing birds and damsels in distress 24/7. This show takes the original legends and mixes it with the new material, in a way that makes it very real. A lot of these fairy-tales were dark and twisted, meant to scare children into being good. They weren't as much 'do good, and good will be done to you' as they were 'do good, or a wolf will come and rip you to shreds'. I am glad the show is not skipping the darker nature at all.
- Speaking of darker nature, thank-youthank-youthank-you so much for these villains, OUAT. I usually find the villains more interesting than the heroes and desperately shout for them to be redeemed - it rarely happens, and when it does it is usually followed by a tragic and heroic sacrifice. Which means my babies are dead and I am left to sit and sob my eyes out (no, really. i'm having trouble thinking of a franchise were this hasn't happened). However, this is one of the first series I've followed were our villains are given so many motives and layers and chances for redemption so early on. The beautiful thing is that, our two main villains in season one - Queen Regina and Rumple - ended up like this because of love. They were both desperate back then and they're desperate now as well, just much better at hiding it. And I am so scared, because then there is 2x02 and Regina's 'I want to redeem myself' and I so want to believe it and I think she wants to believe it as well but... she's not ready. She's not strong enough yet, as evidenced by her not burning that book. I'm really scared of what's going to happen. That episode gave me SO MANY FEELINGS, for both of them, because Mr. Gold is yet again prevented from finding his son and, as far as I know, that's why he made the friggin' curse in the first place. It just further goes to enhance how they might have become so powerful, but they're still victims, slaves to the magic, bound by its rules. Ugh, I need to stop watching shows were people continue to ruin their own happiness by being SO STUPID.
- I am so happy I'm not watching a show of cardboard cut-outs. David/Charming actually has flaws, gets desperate, needs to find his courage as well. Mixed with the background story we got for him, it makes me reallyreally like him. He wasn't born a priviliged, annoying whelp, he's had to fight so hard and now he still has to keep fighting. Thank-you Charming, for being interesting instead of just another boring Prince. And its the same with Emma. I love her to bits, but sometimes she can be horribly deluded, irrational and emotionally stunted. And that fits perfectly for someone whose led the life she has. It makes her real.
- Going further back I WAS NOT AT ALL EXPECTING THE CURSE TO BE BROKEN SO SOON (or half-way broken. partially broken? 80% broken). I was expecting S1 to be about Emma starting to believe (and jeez, did that take long enough), and then having to work around it for most of S2, keeping the fact that she knows away from Regina, trying to get her parents back together, being generally weirded out BY EVERYTHING and then maybe, MAYBE at the end of S2 we would get everyone's memories returned or a few of them, or something else. I didn't think the curse would be broken until.... well, the end of the show. It was an incredibly bold move for the writers to make, and I think they can play it to their advantage.
- Especially because Snow and Emma ended up in FTL! Really, I've almost lost my voice from all the screaming at my TV-screen I've been doing. Dementors! Belle and Rumple! Mulan! Mulan! MULAN!
- So who is that mystery guy that shows up in 2x01? I'm guessing most people is assuming it's Bae, so I'm going to go for... the little mermaid. Sure. He's Ariel (that is a non-gender specific name btw IT COULD WORK). I have absolutely nothing to back this theory up...
- I can't wait until Captain Hook shows up, because I've been wanting to jump Colin O'Donoghue's bones since I saw The Rite. Him playing a pirate? Is this real life? Is this all just a dream?? *insert appropriate drooling gif*
- I'm guessing Cora is the Miller's Daughter from the original tale about Rumplestiltskin, the one who had to guess his name - and her firstborn, the one she promised away, would then be Regina. It fits with the magic being what she gets in exchange instead, and Rumple telling Regina he held her as a baby. How she got out of the deal I don't know, since everyone seems to know his name. He does seem keen on Regina getting rid of her though, so he's probably not that happy about her. Want to know more!
- Just to make something clear: if you hate - as in absolutely can't stand, find nothing good about them - Regina, Henry or Rumple, because they're evil or because he's a 'whiny, ungrateful kid' then we can't be friends. Fair enough if you're annoyed with them, but please apply situations, logic, age and psychological behaviour to everything they do. You don't have to like them - I don't always like them - but they seem to be getting a lot of hate from the part of fandom I've been snooping around in, and to me it never seems justified. It's character bashing, and there's nothing I hate more. You can dislike a character if you have good reasons, but sitting and saying you want Regina to die because she's an evil bitch is ignoring the fact that she was abused by her mother her entire life, and calling Henry ungrateful and whiny is ignoring the fact that he's ten years old and was adopted and grew up in a town where everything was frozen and HE IS TEN YEARS OLD, STOP EXPECTING HIM TO ACT LIKE A GROWN-UP I WILL BET YOU MONEY HE IS TWENTY TIMES SMARTER THAN YOU WERE AT THAT AGE, C'MON. Okay, I needed to get that off my chest, because... leave my babies alone.
- and finally and most importantly. WHO IS DOCTOR WHALE?? I need to know!!