Rules

i love their love

I’m going through a rewatch. I only watched the once and I’m the beginning of s2.

Regina and David are constantly at each other’s throats, and I feel like they actually had the potential to be a “enemies to lovers” couple. The actors have good chemistry as well.

I’m not in the fandom, so genuine question, is the David/Regina (whatever their ship name is) pairing popular?

I only know about captain swan and I never cared much about Hook.

S1 E12 “Skin deep”, there’s a scene where Rumple releases Belle and she calls him a coward (where she mentions he’ll have an “empty heart and a chipped cup”) — there’s a song that plays in the background of this scene that’s been driving me crazy, any help would be appreciated!!

I mean, I get it that he had to die for Hook to take his place, coz if he lived, Hook would probably never ended up with Emma, but still, I kinda feel that his death was such a waste of good character potential. And, ngl, such a loss of a hellishly hot character 😭

Henry was adopted and grew up as Regina's son and during that time he went to school with other children, if only he ages what about his classmates? and won't they have to pass in the next grade, wouldn't it be obvious they don't age while Henry grows ? This plothote is just glaring. Also if not one kid ages wouldn't be so easy with pictures to prove the curse is real?

sorry... but i can't unsee it every time they have a scene together :)

Had this done recently and thought I should share.

(I didn’t know how else to put it but “dragged out” is not ideal wording) Sorry not sorry & I might get downvoted for this, but is it just me or does it at some point get annoying that Emma says she’s the savior and she’s got to fix EVERYTHING and everyone around her is like “yeah that checks out”. Like give the woman a break.

She was the savior of the first curse. She was meant to break THAT curse, she’s not meant to fix literally everything else, but there are so many times, like for example season 4 with Elsa, that she’s saying “well, I’m the savior” in the most depressed tone ever, like she doesn’t even like it and I understand that. It’s a huge burden, but it’s mostly she (and her parents I guess? & hook and Neal who brought her back from New York) who puts it on her, like nobody else in town is expecting her to fix everything.

There is not one single citizen who’s come up to Emma like “you’re our savior”. Honestly this just pops in my mind, but her pressure would’ve made more sense if the town had started comparing her to Jesus or something.

Curse breaking ≠ being a savior, but she still isn’t forced to fix everyone’s problems if it makes her this depressed. Girl needs to take care of herself she looks so tired in the end & I can’t blame her🥹

When Regina split herself in s6, without the Evil Queen inside of her, she should've been more like who she was in the Stable Boy episode- hopeless romantic/scared of her mother/"weak".

Regina herself doesn't seem to change that much after the split. We get some moments where she questions her strength- sure- but there should've been a more drastic change: who she was before the darkness vs after.

Then her big self love episode should've been her merging her two selves back together and finally accepting herself.

This plotline erases a lot of the nuance behind Regina's character, but I feel "regressing" Regina back to her 18 year old self would provide for a more interesting plot where she realizes she isn't who she is wo the evil queen.

I just learned some babies can retain certain memories even as they grow older.

Meaning, it's highly possible baby Henry could remember Regina taking him to her vault, drinking a forgetting potion, and telling him about the curse like it was a bedtime story.

Can you imagine pre s1/s1 Henry in Archie's office like "when I was a baby she took me to her evil secret lair and told me her grand master scheme!!"

And the fact that Regina wouldn't have remembered any of this, so if Archie brought it up, she would've been genuinely clueless.

Maybe I made this post bc Save Henry always makes me emotional and I needed something more cracked out to think about this episode lol.

I’m surprised Cora never knew about lake nostros and just used it putting it in Regina’s drink when she wasn’t looking.

I may be misremembering but I don't think we've ever seen fairies teleport in the show with the cloud of smoke and everything. They seem to be flying everywhere they go which is odd since they're magical creatures. Tell me if it did happen and I just don't remember but in case it's not shown, do you guys think they can? If not, what could be the reason for it?

Like which group of fans of the show were in the most pain while it aired?

Mine is cora. I adore her and love her backstory, wish we could explore how she became queen of hearts though.

Cred to Luvbriah for the idea. It was fun to read everyones answer and reasons in the other thread so thougt it be fun to do another.

Sometimes the writing was so bad that I just ignore it when I think about the characters. As far as I'm concerned:

The Charmings taking Maleficent's baby

Belle taking back Rumplestiltskin for the last time

The Evil Queen's physical relationship with Rumplestiltskin

Cora getting a happy ending

None of the above happened. I do like some of the things that happened in the later seasons, but I mostly focus on the first three seasons.

The simple answer are the consequences of those actions and the effect that it had on its victims. Regina was using Graham heart to have sex with him against his will and deep down he knew he did not want that before, while and after the act, bringing him much more pain.

Snow and Prince I do not even need to talk about, Maleficent simply lost 30 years of her daughter life because of others, and the baby was even cursed to be inherently a trouble-maker and unhappy.

Zelena otherwise did a bad thing, but she did not inflect pain on Robin for pretending be Marion except being far from Regina, first because he "chose" (be careful how you read that) and was not forced to do it, and after he realize what he did he did not seen to carry any trauma or pain and all his unhappiness came from being apart from Regina, not from being rped. Especially compared to what Mayor Regina did, just because both are rpe and bad things people treat like is the same thing with the same consequences but it's not just because they actions have the same name. And please do not take it as justifying.

I first thought about how Henry technically never met Cora and Peter Pan never met the black fairy after their transformations. It could have been awesome is Peter Pan met the black fairy and they see what they did to their son together. What other characters should have met but didn’t?

So I'm doing my first rewatch in its entirety since it's first airing (just finished season 1). Like I rewatched some episodes here and there but never rewatched the entire series, so I'm interested in how my views may have changed over the years. But also though I do remember a lot too so that's definitely going to influence my current opinion.

For instance, Mother Superior came on screen or maybe she showed up as the blue fairy first, I can't remember. Either way I recoiled lol.

I remember disliking Mary Margret (always loved Snow though) but this time so far I really like her.

Something that didn't change is how much I enjoyed the season finale! Just so well done!! I loved it this watch as much as I loved it the first time.

I do remember in latter seasons (after 4? I think?) some confusing storyline, plotlines that went nowhere, wasted potential, etc. I'm hoping this second watch will be more enjoyable simply because I already know those things are coming at some point.

Ok onward to season 2! Yippie!

why the fuck does her hair have to look like that please tell me this doesn’t last long omg

My personal grievances

1: Snows Pixie/bob cut….. this had to be a part of Regina’s curse because it’s literally horrible!!

2: I feel like as Henry aged they kinda forgot he was like an important character- they tried to come full circle with the whole author thing but still just didn’t hit the mark

3: Belle.

4: I feel like Emma in the early seasons was giving fashion idk what happened in them later seasons but it just didn’t hit the mark. Ik this could be an actors choice or a tool to show character growth but that ponytail ….. the up to the neck shirts…… just y

5: Gold

6: Emma’s brother- we don’t EVER see that baby fr. The baby is a prop not a character how is he still a baby 3 seasons later but the baby Cinderella had was an actual child 3 seasons later 🤨🤨🤨🤨 make it make SENSE

Am I alone with these thoughts is it just me?

Do you know any double standards in Once Upon a Time? Be it its lore and/or fandom?

Im finishing my S7 rewatch and it really bothers me how Regina is cheered on and gifted the role of elected Queen...but she never wanted to be queen. Power was never what she wanted and I fear because Regina spent so long being manipulated into finding other peoples happiness she never truly learned what she wanted out of life.

She is a fantastic parent. IMO, the best on the show, but what does she have beyond that. The writers really did a great job at making her a tragic character. She pours so heavily into her relationships with men and her son, and I believe its because she never felt loved nor protected by her family. Henry is an adult with a family. What is there for Regina? I honestly dont know...but now im inspired to write it.

What do you think is Regina's happy ending?

They were the ones who revealed to Fiona that her son would be the Savior. They were the ones who allowed her access to their immense collection of magical tomes and leading to Fiona becoming a fairy, which eventually led to her corruption and by extension almost every problem that occurred afterward. Fiona severing her son's destiny, Malcolm growing to hate him and eventually becoming Peter Pan, his abandonment and abuse taking Rumplestiltskin down his path to become the Dark One, who would then go on to turn Regina, Zelena, Cora and Killian into what they are and all of the havoc they unleash, not to mention the creation of the Dark Curse that the series' premise is based on. When you really look at it, the entire series is their fault.

Not to mention that if Tiger Lily wasn't so easily manipulated by Fiona and also never mentioned the Shears Of Destiny to her then Rumple would still be the savior.

Sure they can be annoying at times, a bit hypocritical and self-righteous etc but that does not make them bad people... They're good people who have sometimes done bad things/made mistakes, just like the "villains" are sometimes good people who have done bad things/made the wrong choices. The world isn't as black and white as just "heroes and villains", it's more complicated than that and that is what they slowly learn throughout the show. Were they always "heroes", no, but they themselves did not pretend to be completely without flaws and at least they actually tried to live by what they preached even if they sometimes failed. At least they have a standard, "villains" simply do not care, that is why it's harder to be a "hero" than a "villain" and ironically why people treat the "heroes" more harshly.