A Few Notes on “Ruby Slippers” (Once Upon a Time)

This past week’s episode of Once Upon a Time, in terms of a plotline long promised by the showrunners, was a mixed bag for me.  Some aspects of it felt really annoying and cop-out-ish, while I felt others were executed well.  Spoilers ahead.

So, in the first half of the season, when Mulan and Red suddenly appeared back on the show in the fairyback for a random, non-arc-related episode, I know I’m not the only one who thought I knew where they were going with it.  At this point, The Powers That Be had already gone on record promising an upcoming LGBTQ relationship, and the return of Mulan – who disappeared from the show immediately after outing herself to the audience over two seasons ago – obviously seemed relevant.  It’s true that I still wonder about what might-have-been with her and Aurora, and that Red (who’d also been absent for a long time) had never given any indication that she might be queer, but 1) with Phillip as her True Love, the ship has definitely sailed re:  Aurora, and 2) the first meeting between Mulan and Red felt pretty charged to me, so I was open to it.

Fast-forward to this week, with Mulan and Red surfacing again after an additional half-season absence.  We find out they’ve been traveling together all this time and have landed in Oz (How?  Goodness knows anymore with this show,) and the promised LGBTQ romance does indeed happen… but Mulan isn’t a part of it.  Instead, it’s Red and Dorothy, who Red meets, falls in love with, and has a curse-breaking True Love’s Kiss with in the course of one episode.  The storyline has its good points, but overall, I feel like I got a bait-and-switch.

To be fair, the show may have felt it disingenuous to pair up the only two queer women, and so kept Mulan and Red as friends and brought in Dorothy for the latter.  I can also buy that they may have a classic “fairytale romance” for the couple, complete with insta-love.  For me, though, neither reason is worth going this route instead of Mulan/Red.  True, we only see Mulan and Red interacting in one previous episode, but we do see them working/fighting alongside each other and seeming to make a connection.  Beyond that, we know both Red and Mulan individually from seasons past, so we can go much further in connecting dots between them because we’re already invested in them.  Dorothy, however, joins the story in her second appearance on the show.  We don’t know her or why Red would be drawn to her (and frankly, she’s so abrasive in their early scenes together that I reallydon’t know why Red is into her.)  Not to mention, Dorothy’s guest-star status makes the already-slim chance of repeat appearances from the couple even slimmer.  And finally, while I’m ultimately happy that Red found her True Love, when will it be frickin’ Mulan’s turn?  She’s so great, and I’d really like to see someone love her.

What I did like is how the characters react overall in the storyline.  Upon realizing how deeply she cares for Dorothy, Red is surprised but not bewildered/ashamed/etc.  She’s afraid to tell Dorothy how she feels, but mainly because she thinks Dorothy is freaked about Red being a werewolf.  The fact that they’re both women is never brought up as a concern or hindrance.  Similarly, Snow easily recognizes Red’s love for Dorothy and is nothing but happy for her friend, speaking poignantly about taking a chance on love.  I also like that it’s clear Mulan and Red are just friends; though I still would have preferred Mulan, at least her poor heart isn’t getting broken again.  And of course, props from the show for not holding back, either from the initial True Love’s Kiss or the ladies’ making out post-love-declaration.

Once Upon a Time: Season 1, Episode 17 – “Hat Trick” (2012)

I’ll be honest – about half of my motivation for initially checking out Once Upon a Time was the knowledge that Sebastian Stan had had a small but beloved role in it (the other half, by the way, was stuff I’d heard about Mulan,) so it’s not really surprising that I was more than ready for Jefferson’s first appearance on the show.  But even apart from that obvious check in the plus column, “Hat Trick” is one of my favorite episodes from season 1 and, really, I think it’s still one of the best the show has ever done (episode spoilers.)

At this point, Storybrooke is still under the curse, Emma is a disbeliever in Henry’s stories and her role as the Savior, and the show is dividing its screentime between the main characters/seasonal arc and more minor Enchanted Forest denizens, giving us side plots of Emma meeting and helping these characters in present-day Storybrooke.  We get some of both in this episode.  Snow/Mary Margaret has escaped jail, mistakenly thinking that Emma helped her get out, but in fact, Emma is desperate to find her before her arraignment, lest she get in even worse trouble.  Along the way, she meets and is captured by Jefferson, an unstable young man who corroborates Henry’s stories and insists that Emma, the Savior, is his only hope for being reunited with his daughter Grace.  In flashback, we see how Jefferson is separated from Grace when Regina talks him into making a return to his old ways:  opening portals between worlds with the aid of an enchanted hat.

There’s a lot to enjoy here.  I really like the story of Jefferson and Grace, which is emotional and well-acted by all involved.  I like seeing Emma pull out all the stops to help Mary Margaret, and I loveMary Margaret discovering her inner badass princess/bandit Snow White, if only for a moment.  I like the inventive direction the show takes with the introduction of the Mad Hatter, opening up the series to other worlds beyond ours and the Enchanted Forest (some might argue that it’s not been a development for the best, since the show hasn’t always used its expanded universe well.)  Similarly, I like how elements of the Mad Hatter story manifest in Storybrooke.

But all that (even Sebastian Stan playing one of my favorite characters of his) doesn’t live up to what this episode reallydelivers in terms of the show’s mythology.  Before seeing “Hat Trick,” I was moderately entertained by Once Upon a Time and found some of the characters/actors quite engaging, but after seeing “Hat Trick,” I was invested in this narrative.  Jefferson’s conversations with Emma are so vital, both for Emma’s journey as a character – she still doesn’t want to believe, but against her will, she’s starting to – and for the trajectory of the series. 

Jefferson isn’t the only character in Storybrooke who retains his Enchanted Forest memories under the curse, but he’s probably the most interesting to me.  I love his observation about this world, that “everyone wants some magical solution to their problem, and everyone refuses to believe in magic.”  And his response to Emma’s insistence that “this is the real world” is exactly what she needs:  “A real world.  How arrogant are you to think yours is the only one?  There are infinite more.  […]  They touch one another, pressing up in a long line of lands, each just as real as the last.  […]  Some have magic, some don’t.  And some need magic… Like this one.”  Though Once Upon a Time has a number of thematic cores, I think this one might be the most profound and well-articulated.  Moving forward, it’s what allows the day-to-day and the fantastical to exist side by side.  Bringing magic to a world that needs it.  How cool is that?

Relationship Spotlight: Emma Swan & Prince Charming (Once Upon a Time)

 

(Be advised, I can’t talk about this without spoiling a major plot development from season 1.) 

 

This isn’t one of the most prominent relationships on Once Upon a Time, but I adore it.  Since the initial premise of the show placed most of the characters under a curse that, among other things, made time stand still, Emma grew up while her parents stayed the same age in Storybrooke.  So, when the curse breaks and the Enchanted Forest folk regain their true memories, the mother and father Emma has looked for her entire life stand in front of her, and they’re her age.  Thus begins two of the most unconventional parent-child relationships on TV.

 

Emma’s relationship with Snow is interesting, too, but today’s post is about Emma and her dad.  Magic weirdness aside, it’s a tough situation – Charming and Emma have spent 28 years apart.  He hasn’t felt those years, being frozen in time (and in a coma) for most of it, and he doesn’t know who either of them are when they meet.  Emma, on the other hand, has been wondering about the unknown parents who seemingly dropped her into the world and then erased every hint of their existence as she was shunted around the foster system, made some bad choices, and put her life back together.  She doesn’t know that his sword protected her the moment she was born, that he fought tooth and nail and nearly died getting her out of the curse’s reach.

 

So when Charming gets his memory back, he’s every inch the proud papa who knew his little girl could save the day, and Emma is very not ready to deal with him or Snow.  The father who, in her mind, abandoned her, is both Prince friggin’ Charming and a 20-something (in fact, Josh Dallas is a couple years youngerthan Jennifer Morrison.)  She doesn’t know how to wrap her head around a relationship like that, and an awkward stretch of episodes is spent with him wanting to make up for lost time and her wanting to avoid the issue.  She’s had a difficult life, and she can’t simply forgive and forget because her dad was a fairytale character under a curse, and her cold shoulder serves to remind him of all the years he couldn’t be there for her.

 

As time goes on and Emma starts to open up, though, she and Charming develop a really great dynamic.  He works alongside her at the sheriff’s department where they make a good team.  Both are trackers who are handy in a fight, and she gradually gets used to him having her back.  While he’s protective, he still lets her stand on her own, and when it comes to sharing, Charming is good about waiting for Emma to come to him.  He always lets her know he’s there for whatever she needs, to help or to listen, but he doesn’t push.  As a result, he’s been a sounding board when she’s confused, a comfort when she’s upset, and a support when she’s overwhelmed.

 

I really have to hand it to Jennifer Morrison and Josh Dallas.  Any time you have two good-looking actors of the same age portraying a familial relationship, you can run the risk of inappropriate chemistry; too many onscreen siblings have trouble giving off consistent “sibling” vibes, and it gets weird.  These two have an even harder task, making the audience buy him as her dad, but they’re more than up to the challenge.  In all their interactions, you never lose sight of the fact that she’s his daughter.  There’s even a scene where he’s teaching her to dance, a dream sequence in which he’s regretting all the years he missed with her.  Both are dressed to the nines and dancing to lovely music, and it’s father-daughter all the way.  He’s warm and paternal, and she’s slowly, beautifully becoming an incurable daddy’s girl.  I love it.

Relationship Spotlight: Alice & the Knave of Hearts (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland)

 

Though this short-lived spin-off of Once Upon a Time was quite a bit shakier than its parent show (and in later seasons, that’s saying something,) I grew to enjoy it.  The heavier reliance on CGI and talking animals gives it an inherently hokey quality, and the melding of fictional realms – chiefly Wonderland and Aladdin’s Agrabah – doesn’t feel as organic as it does in the original series.  Still, it has some interesting characters, intriguing ideas, and, best of all, the great relationship between heroine Alice and the contrary but loyal Knave of Hearts.

 

Quick background:  as in the Lewis Carroll stories, Alice travels from Victorian England to the fantastical Wonderland as a child.  When she returns home, however, her father thinks she’s pulling a Lucy Pevensie and is lying, crazy, or both, and she starts spending more and more time in Wonderland searching for proof she can bring back to her father.  The series’ main story begins with Alice as a young woman languishing in a sanatorium, when her old Wonderland buddy the Knave breaks her out.  Cyrus, her True Love back in Wonderland, presumed long dead, is alive and in trouble, and the Knave reluctantly agrees to help Alice rescue him.

 

We’re fairly dropped into the story, as well as into Alice and the Knave’s history together.  We know their paths crossed in the old days, and at some point, Alice recovered his heart for him (in the Once Upon a Time universe, hearts can be removed from their owners and used to control or kill them.)  Usually, she’s not one to hold anything over someone’s head, but the Knave’s cynicism about her True Love mission leads her to remind him how much he owes her.  Even then, she needs to sweeten the pot with some promised palm-greasing.  This gives them an amusing dynamic from the get-go, since Alice is fierce, determined, and earnest, and the Knave is a jaded rogue who just wants to go home.  Their light bickering is a lot of fun.

 

Yet, despite his complaints, the Knave is in it for the long haul.  He remains at Alice’s side as a friend and compatriot, helping whenever he can and offering his input where strategy is concerned.  Like I said, he’s not the believer in True Love that Alice is (once bitten, twice shy,) and he sometimes tries to hint that she should prepare herself for something less than a happily ever after.  It’s not to be a killjoy – he’s worried and wants her to steel herself against getting hurt.  Ultimately, though, he follows her lead regarding Cyrus and doesn’t begrudge her faith.

 

He gets the brunt of the friendship stuff, since it’s Alice’s story and she’s mainly focused on rescuing Cyrus, but she proves herself a true friend to the Knave as well.  To the extent that people other than Cyrus are on her radar, the Knave is on hers; they get to know each other much better over the course of their quest, and she learns more about the circumstances that caused him to lose his heart before they met.  She helps him out of scrapes, generally values his contributions, and encourages him not to give up on the idea of love.

 

It’s a close, significant, utterly platonic connection, and I love it.  They save one another’s lives, aren’t afraid to get in each other’s business, and also know when to give each other some space.  What’s more, the show itself doesn’t play up any sort of jealousy angle, there’s not even a hint of will-they-won’t-they, and it really recognizes the importance of the relationship – during the concluding scenes of the series, a gorgeous Alice-Knave moment takes pride of place.  I need duos like this every now and then, and these two gladly oblige.

Favorite Characters: Rumpelstiltskin (Once Upon a Time)

 

Yes, I know the show spells it “ple,” not “pel,” but what can I say – I like the traditional spelling.  At any rate, Rumpelstiltskin is a stellar character.  Unlike Emma or Snow, while he occasionally aligns with the good guys and flirts with redemption, he’s more villain than anything else. 

 

One thing I like about Rumpel is his utter devotion to the long game.  In flashbacks, his fingers are in countless pots, showing the myriad ways in which he orchestrates Regina’s casting of the curse.  At the heart of it is his desire to correct a mistake and recover what’s been lost to him – a sympathetic motivation perhaps, but it becomes an obsession that spans centuries and ruins lives.  All across the Enchanted Forest, he carefully nudges others into place, sometimes subtly, sometimes overtly.  Random, seemingly out-of-character actions in one episode become mammoth dozens of episodes later.  Seeing how he uses the entire realm as his personal house of cards is endlessly entertaining and shows he has brains and patience to go with his magic.

 

Along with that is his generally cavalier attitude toward his villain status.  He doesn’t spend a lot of time agonizing over how people see him.  He’s embraced his identity as the Dark One, the monster, the demented dealmaker – in fact, he’s thrown more when someone views him like a person – and this avoids much of the woobifying that drags down many villains.  Rather, he regards his evil actions as utilitarian means to far-off ends or treats them like a twisted game.  It’s an intriguing, unflinching approach that works well.

 

It’s not all “mwa ha ha,” though, and like I said, the show sometimes offers more sympathetic glimpses of Rumpel, chiefly in his love for the few important people in his life.  Yet, it usually avoids suggesting that love trumps any terrible things he does.  Additionally, his consuming need for power (his magic, yes, but also just a need for control) constantly damages these relationships he cares about, but he continues to choose power.  I like seeing how his choices have cost him, and I hope the show keeps that up.  (His romantic relationship – I won’t say with whom, for spoilers’ sake – is hugely problematic and unsettling, though, and one major area where he consistently remains unpunished.  Hopefully, he’s heading toward a reckoning in season four.)

 

Since his nefariousness tends to be goal-oriented and he doesn’t have any big projects in the pipeline, a large-scale redemption arc may be coming.  Though the outwardly-evil Rumpel is definitely the most fun to watch, I’m not oppose to the idea.  Yet, given the show’s track record with Regina, I’m apprehensive.  Redemption for villains has to be handled so carefully, or you get Regina complaining that people don’t trust her and don’t applaud her efforts to change, and me saying, “Shut up – you murdered people.”  If the writers are looking to redeem Rumpel, it’ll require a steady hand and probably an ultimate choice of good/love/somethingover power.

 

Also, the acting is impeccable.  Rumpel in his flashback imp form is scenery-chewing perfection.  An odd compliment perhaps, but with over-the-top acting, there’s a thin sliver of audaciousness that plays, not as hammy, but as fantastically eye-catching, and Robert Carlyle’s performance hits it every time.  I love his weird, affected voice and the playful way he delivers horrific lines.  I love his flourishy, theatrical gestures, simultaneously funny and creepy.  I love his psychotic little giggle when his pieces fall into place and he’s the only one to see it.  Gleeful, bedeviled, or enraged, he’s held my attention from his first moment onscreen.

Favorite Characters: Snow White (Once Upon a Time)

 

Of the three characters I’m writing about this week (why only three?  Because nothing interrupts the Sunday Who review,) Snow White has received the shortest end of the stick.  Despite a fabulous start, the writing for Snow has floundered since the middle of season 2; a lot of her character’s coolness has been sacrificed, first for the sake of Regina’s ongoing redemption arc and later for an across-the-board IQ reduction for many of the heroes in order to prolong the central villain story at the tail end of season 3.  So in terms of characterization, the latter episodes have squandered a lot of what made me love her, but since those original qualities are excellent enough that I’ve mentioned Snow every time I’ve written about this show, today’s post celebrates all that I like about her.

 

I’ve already said that this Snow White does notresemble the baby-voiced wilting flower of the Disney movie.  She has a steep learning curve when she’s on the run after the unfortunate stepmother-tries-to-have-her-heart-cut-out incident, but she quickly builds the skills she needs to survive.  Soon, she’s climbing trees and shooting arrows like a pro, breaking into castles for daring rescue missions, and holding her own against unsavory trolls.  She’s a woman with an incredibly powerful adversary (both magically and politically,) and she’s still standing:  not bad.

 

And, like my favorite Strong Women, she does more than kick butt and take names.  She’s needed to have tremendous emotional strength to deal with all the crap she’s been through, she believes in True Love and the ultimate victory of good over evil, and she fights fiercest for the people she loves.  With Charming at her side, she’s been the benevolent ruler of a kingdom, and even when pursued by a vindictive sorceress, she takes time to make friends and help others.  (I realize that sounds super-Disney, and it is, but I actually like that about her.  Though I’m all for darker characters like Walter White or Frank Underwood, it’s nice sometimes to see good people just trying to do the right thing.)

 

The love story between Snow and Charming is emblematic of why I love her.  In the movie, Snow White idles in a walled garden, singing “One Day My Prince Will Come,” and sure enough, her prince catches sight of her and falls head over heels.  To the best of my memory, they never actually speak, and the next time he sees her, she’s in a coffin and he saves his dead girl whose name he quite possibly doesn’t know with a well-planted True Love’s Kiss.  By contrast, while Snow and Charming are immediately taken with each other in the show, it’s a fascination born out of the spark of their personalities, and over the course of an adventure, they gradually fall for each other.  True Love develops as they get to know one another – what they’re about, what struggles they’ve had, what they can do.  Their connection leaps off the screen, and it’s the best kind of fairytale, because they love each other rather than simply each other’s faces.

 

And yes, she eats the apple, she needs True Love’s Kiss to wake her, and Charming comes riding to the rescue.  But even when she’s a victim, she retains her strength of character, and she’s more than just a prop in her own story.  Plus, Charming needs to be rescued sometimes, too, and she’s happy to oblige.  More than that, she fights, vanquishes, and rules alongside him, taking more of the lead if anything.  After my years-long hatred of the simpering Disney princess, I was flabbergasted by this superb, vibrant character, and it’s disappointed see how she’s paled over the years.  Here’s hoping the new season returns her to the fantastic character she can be.

Favorite Characters: Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time)

 

Since the new season of Once Upon a Timestarts this weekend, I thought I’d spend the next few posts on a few of my favorite characters from the show.  I get that the show isn’t perfect, a fact often made stunningly clear by improbable twists, fumbled redemption arcs for the baddies, and a preference for Big!  Shocking!  Moments! over thoughtful storytelling.  Still, I appreciate its creative ambition, and when it’s on, it’s really on.  The series is home to some wonderfully interesting characters who keep me coming back when the writing is questionable.

 

Although today’s character is technically from the Enchanted Forest, she’s not a beloved fairytale figure with built-in story beats.  Rather, she’s our rather splendid, cynical eyes into the show’s world of stories and magic.  Utterly badass bail bondsperson Emma Swan has spent 28 years relying only on herself, jumping between group homes before going off the grid, getting in trouble, and then pulling herself up.  She comes honestly by her job, finding people, because she’s been searching for her parents since she was young.  Unfortunately, when your parents are Snow White and Prince Charming, and they sent you to this world as a baby through a magic wardrobe (to protect you from an evil curse, duh,) there’s not so much of a paper trail.

 

So there’s Emma when we meet her.  Awesome, hardened, clever, BAMF, lonely and pretending not to be, and then, all of the sudden, she’s accosted by an adorable moppet from a magically-guarded small town, claiming she’s the only one who can save these trapped fairytale characters from the curse her loving parents helped her escape.  She doesn’t believe him; how could she?  But she’s softer-hearted than she lets on, and she can’t really let a kid ride the bus from Boston to Maine by himself, so she drives him back to his impossible village of Storybrooke.  And once she has her foot in the door, her spidey senses tingle enough to make her stick around.

 

I know I’ve only been talking about the pilot so far, but it really gives you ample reason to love Emma.  From her savvy, cool-as-a-cucumber collection of a bail jumper to the compassion and concern for young Henry that keeps her in Storybrooke, she’s every inch the amazing but flawed hero.  She’s tough and gutsy, she’s perceptive, and almost immediately, in her own guarded way, she starts to care deeply about Henry and his welfare.  Plus, she’s stubborn, jaded, and sometimes foolhardy in her boldness, and she has trouble believing that anyone would believe in her.  Her emotional damage resonates from her childhood to her present, and it’s both stymied her and made her stronger.  Is it any wonder I was a goner?

 

Because I can’t write up a TV protagonist based entirely on one episode and should touch on the rest of the series, the show benefits greatly from having her as a viewpoint character.  The tug and pull of her “real world” pragmatism against her fantastical destiny makes for great drama (and boy, does Jennifer Morrison bring it – I’ve always been lukewarm on her, but she’s nothing but stellar here,) and you can always count on her for incredulous commentary to let the air of the tires when the fairytale stuff gets too sparkly for its own good.  As the show goes on, I love watching her find her footing in this incredible new world, bring her practical skills and insights to magical crises, and slowly begin to let her walls down with the family she’s never had.  Apart from just being fantastic, I think Emma is instrumental to grounding the show and keeping it from being mere fairytale fanfic.  Despite all the swords and dragons and poisoned apples, it’s really herstory.  And it’s a fine one.

Gender in Once Upon a Time

 

Early in Once Upon a Time’s second season, there’s a multi-episode Enchanted Forest subplot that involves four people on a quest.  As I was watching this arc play out, I had to stop for a moment at marvel that all four of these characters are women.  How often on non-Sex and the City shows do you even see four female characters together at once, let alone making them all heroes?

 

Now, I’m not saying that Once Upon a Time is without gender problems.  The female villains have a greater tendency than their male counterparts to be spurred on by petty motivations, and some of the Storybrooke versions of the season 1 women are pretty painful.  (I realize it’s intentional – since the curse was designed as Regina’s revenge against Snow, it makes sense that, under the curse, the tough and capable Snow becomes the rather wan and milquetoast Mary Margaret – but it still bugs.)  Nevertheless, from a gender perspective, this show does a tremendous amount right.

 

For starters, there are scads of strong women, and the strength of each is characterized differently.  The basically-just-men-with-boobs Strong Women archetypes are avoided, and we instead get a fantastic mix of women who bring different skills to the table and present their gender in different ways.  Not all of them have to kick butt, those who like to wear flowy dresses aren’t in any way diminished by their femininity, and being girlfriends, wives, or mothers don’t take away their qualities as individuals or make them any less strong.

 

I already mentioned Snow, who, in addition to being an excellent fighter, exudes indefatigable warmth and strength of character (I get that the writers have let her drift from what she was in season 1, but I’m talking about all of these characters at their best.)  Red has had to face up to incredible darkness within herself and has learned to use it to help her friends.  Mulan is an undaunted warrior who uses brusqueness to mask her vulnerability.  Belle attacks problems by doing research and searching for hidden answers.  Ariel crosses worlds to find the human she loves.  Aurora stands up to a sorceress against whom she’s clearly unmatched, because she refuses to be made a pawn.  And from our world, Emma is guarded and damaged but perceptive, smart, and brave. 

 

It really reminds me how excellent most of the Disney princesses are.  There’s a tendency to think of Tangled, Frozen, or Brave as a new era of strong princesses that young girls can look up to, but the girls in those movies don’t spring from nowhere.  Disney has a long list of female characters who use their minds, their determination, and their bravery to accomplish their goals.  Once Upon a Time does well to draw from these characters, and it does a fabulous job building up those like Snow, whose source material do them no favors.

 

And generally, the show does a fine job gender-wise with their male characters as well.  Heroes like Charming and gradually-reforming black hats like Hook are allowed to be emotional and strong, and they recognize that their emotions don’t make them weak.  Charming is also one of several devoted, involved fathers on the show, and the men who love these heroic women don’t feel their masculinity threatened by their wives’, friends’, daughters’, or girlfriends’ awesomeness.  Sad as it is to say so, that’s incredibly refreshing.

Top Five Retellings: Once Upon a Time

Yep, more Once Upon a Time.  Although it’s far from the greatest show out there, I enjoyed my summer watch, and I’m looking forward to new episodes this fall.  Expect a handful of posts on it in before then.  Today deals with the episodic flashbacks to the characters’ Enchanted Forest lives.  The show plays nicely with the original stories, at times subverting them unexpectedly and at others branching off in original directions.  My favorites – with definite spoilers – are below.

 

Little Red Riding Hood

 

Okay, the awkward parallels with menstruation are, well, awkward, but overall, I love Red being the wolf.  Werewolf stories are so often male-centric, and I like getting Red’s perspective instead.  After her brave and clever mission to find the wolf, it’s gutting to realize it’s her.  The show deals well with Red’s lycanthropy, gradually bringing her to acknowledge and own both sides of herself instead of trying to deny one or the other.

 

Grumpy

 

Just as one of the show’s (many) mantras is that evil is made, not born, Grumpy doesn’t enter the world with his trademark crankiness.  Rather, Snow White’s dwarf buddy starts out as optimistic, wonderstruck Dreamy, and his new name is given him by fateful circumstances and lost love.  However, his old potential remains and can still surface, given the right conditions.

 

Rumpelstiltskin

 

While Rumpel’s tragic villain origins are pretty standard practice, I love how this version really make the details of his story resonate.  First, Rumpel’s dark magic comes from an enchanted dagger bearing his name, and since he can be controlled by anyone wielding it, it’s logical that he’d respect the power in names.  Similarly, Rumpel’s penchant for dealing in firstborn children is more significant when you realize he’s spent centuries trying to find the son lost to him.

 

Snow White

 

Snow’s story itself isn’t too noteworthy, but my adoration makes me mention her.  Snow White in the Disney movie does nothing for me, so it’s shocking how great she is here.  Though she begins with hints of her helpless, saccharine predecessor, the queen’s vendetta against Snow forces her to grow and learn quickly.  In most of her flashbacks, she’s a tough, lively heroine who takes care of herself and, despite her struggles, has inner goodness and unquenchable hope.

 

The Mad Hatter

 

This is a great instance of the show really creating its own story.  Here, the Hatter is a man with a magical hat that opens portals between worlds, someone who’s hung up his immense power to raise his young daughter.  When the queen talks him out of retirement for one final trip, he heartbreakingly embodies another of the show’s mantras:  all magic comes with a price.  Not to mention, his debut also has a fantastic Storybrooke plot that digs into the show’s thematic heart.

See You in Another Life: Similarities Between Once Upon a Time and Lost

I recently got into fairy tale drama Once Upon a Time (came for the Sebastian Stan, stayed for the Snow White – who knew?)  I’d known going in that several actors from Lostappear on the show, but I was deep into season 1 before I saw it’s run by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, two Lost writers.  I was hardly surprised, though; even aside from the “supernatural-real world hybrid with huge international ensemble” structure, many Lost-ian touches and motifs litter the show.  Here are some good and not-so-good bits that feel eerily familiar (some spoilers.)

 

I’ve Seen That Face Before – Cast first.  Once Upon a Time’s ensemble includes Lana Parrilla (who briefly appeared on Lost as an Other) as Snow White’s evil queen and Emilie de Ravin (Claire) as Belle.  Jorge Garcia (Hurley) and Alan Dale (Widmore) respectively recur as a giant and a king, and Rebecca Mader (Charlotte) has a guest arc as the Wicked Witch of the West.

 

Have You Met My Troubled Past? – Well, what do you know – seasons-long arcs divided into character-centric episodes that weave present-day storylines with flashbacks, or “fairybacks” here.  (Most of the characters on Once Upon a Time are fairy tale characters living in the real world without their memories, thanks to a curse, and the flashbacks tell of their true lives back in their world.)  Like Lost, the flashbacks are doled out unequally, with a few characters getting far more episodes than others.  It’s a bit different, though, since these people lived in the same kingdom and their stories often intersect, so they frequently pop up in each other’s flashbacks.

 

Even the Best Sorceresses Have Mommy Issues – Seriously, you can’t go two feet without tripping over someone’s mommy or daddy issues (or step-mommy issues in Snow’s case.)  Throw in some convoluted family trees, and you get a whole lot of parental-trauma drama.

 

Out of the Closet and Out the Door – Both, maddeningly, reveal a single character to be queer and then have the character disappear from the show.  At least there’s hope Mulan could come back and get her happy ending, whereas Tom’s last appearance is a posthumous flashback.

 

Let’s Go on a Trek – Here, we find the same annoying tendency to spend whole episodes, not moving the plot forward, but having the character journey to a place where they’ll be able to move it forward.  It’s a stalling technique that fans have gotten wise to.  To be fair, though, Once Upon a Time is less likely to negate the reason for going by the time the characters arrive.

 

I Don’t Even Care That This Makes No Sense – Both shows can be hit-or-miss with their plot logic (I can’t tell if Once Upon a Time is better than Loston this score, or if I don’t notice it as much because I haven’t spent six years on it,) but what they lack in sense, they make up in emotional resonance.  The connections between the characters are ridiculously compelling, when the writing is on it’s really on, and the acting sells the emotional moments in tremendous ways.

 

Rumpelstiltskin = Desmond? – Okay, this last one’s just for fun.  On the surface, a dark sorcerer imp who’s fond of making deals is nothing like an Everyman who spent three years living down a hatch on an island of mystery.  But just look at the evidence.  Shaggy-haired brunette Scotsman.  Can see the future.  Achilles heel is being called a coward.  Desperately trying to reunite with a loved one lost through his mistakes.  Rumpelstiltskin is totallyDesmond!