shadowkat: (flowers)
shadowkat ([personal profile] shadowkat) wrote2013-03-03 09:23 pm

Once Upon a Time - tonight's episode "The Queen is Dead"

Frustrating but good episode. The good news, I misread the spoiler I was worried about, the bad news - another twist happened that aggravated me and made me want to kick a certain character.



* Alright, Neal, how big of an ass are you? Seriously, if I was Emma - I'd break the news to his fiance - that Neal not only abandoned Emma when she was 18, so that she took the rap, but also left her pregnant.

And Henry is blaming Emma and not kicking Neal? Ack.

This twist was not appreciated. Also how much you want to bet Neal/Baelfire is Peter Pan?
The show is sort of telegraphing it now - the only one who can fly Hook's ship besides Hook according to the tale is Peter Pan. And his reaction to Hook screams Peter Pan.

Did like the explanation which I already came up with - that he had to have gone to Neverland first or he'd be about 100 years old. As he puts it, if this was my first stop I'd be a hundred years old, I stopped over somewhere else first.

* I actually agree with Snow at this point, kill Cora. Although that won't help. Honestly Regina are you a complete idiot? How did you feel when Cora killed Daniel? Do you really think Henry will forgive you and if you lie to him about it, do you think he'll forgive you for that? And not find out? Seriously, this kid has an uncanny way of sniffing out lies and he does not deal at all with them. Heck, Henry can't handle Emma's fib about Neal - and that's relatively minor in comparison to the whoppers you are going to spin. He's still holding a grudge on that one. If you attempt to kill his entire biological family...you might not like the results.

* Was worried that Snow's mom was related to Cora, rather relieved to discover that no, Cora just plotted on killing her and succeeded.

* Regina, I thought you were over the whole heart ripping out bit. And you are going to have stop ripping people's hearts out to be considered redeemable or the least bit good. Sorry, Snow's right...Good Queen's don't go around ripping out hearts and cursing folks to get a happy. Evil Queen's do that. How deep in denial are you? Stop lying to yourself hon and you might have a chance with Henry.

Right now you're behind both Hook and Rumplestilskin on the whole redemption arc bit.
You'd have thought they had made her just slightly nicer. To be fair she does question her mother's actions a bit - but still only in regards to herself. She has got to be the most self-absorbed and self-centered character on the series, with almost no self-awareness. Hon? Your unhappiness is all your own fault - not Snow's. Yours. And Mamma's. If you want to kick the person responsible, kick Mamma. (I don't need her to be redeemed, just less dumb - right now she's reminding me a bit of Elmer Fudd.)

[identity profile] embers-log.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
Regarding Regina's actions: sometimes people cannot break the family dynamics they grew up with (like adults who act like children when they visit their parents). I felt that maybe Regina just has no moral compass of her own: when she is with Henry she tries to win his approval by trying to be good... and when she is with her Mother she tries to win approval by being the evil daughter/Queen her Mother always wanted her to be. So maybe she is more consistent than she looks, she is always weak and easily led.

Or not. I hope the writers have actual reasons/intentions behind these story lines.

Pretty much the only character I'm all that interested in is Rumplestiltskin,...

[identity profile] flameraven.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 03:30 am (UTC)(link)
My roommate and I watch the show together and have been discussing the characters a lot. Her theory was that Emma, Regina, and Rumplestilstkin all share an obsession with having control. Emma is obsessed with controlling her life because she feels the only person she can trust is herself and she doesn't know how to rely on or trust anyone else. Rumplestiltskin is obsessed with having control because he is terrified of uncertainties --especially evident in this last episode with the war and the prophecy. He's too afraid to face a situation he's not expecting, so he tries to manipulate everything so he will know what's coming.

Regina is obsessed with control because she thinks it's the only way she'll get what she wants. Cora took away all Regina's control when she killed Daniel, who was all Regina wanted. Then, later, all Regina wanted was revenge on Snow, hence the curse. Now, all she wants is Henry. I don't think she entirely trusts or even forgives Cora, but Cora is offering her the illusion of control to get Henry, and getting Henry is all Regina is focused on. And, too, I think she was honest when she talked to Snow. She wanted to be good for Henry, but being 'good' has still gotten her nothing but scorn from the people she hates, so why bother?

She was clearly disturbed by the revelation of just how thoroughly Cora manipulated her life, which shattered her illusions of control. I don't think she's really on board with Cora's plans, but Cora is so devious that at this point, I'm not sure there's any way out for Regina other than some kind of heroic sacrifice.
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[identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Rumplestiltskin's obsession with control makes me suspect the dagger Snow and Charming found (and lost to Cora) is *not* the real dagger, but a duplicate Rumple made to divert his enemies while he was out of town. It just seems highly improbable he would leave his fate in that particular matter up to chance.

[identity profile] flameraven.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 10:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, that would be the sensible thing to do, and Rumplestilskin has enough magic that he can probably manage a perfect duplicate.

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 11:18 pm (UTC)(link)
The dagger may well be on his person. He stated that it hadn't left his person is decades. And remember Pinnochio/August tried to control him with it/use it against him prior to the curse being broken. August pretended to be Baelfire to manipulate Rumple into trusting him with the dagger so he could use it against him. After that - Rumple would have to be an idiot to trust Snow and Charming with it. (Actually why anyone would trust Snow and Charming to do anything is beyond me - they are a bit on the incompetent side of the fence.)
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[identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
If they actually have that be the real dagger (which they might because I've heard "Snow goes to the dark side because evil keeps winning" spoiler spec), I will file that under "Character (Rumple) does something totally out of character and dumb to further the plot."

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah the previews for the next episode lead us to believe Snow goes to the Dark Side and reclaims the dagger...doesn't mean it's the real one, though.
Those previews are misleading. Last week's preview lead me to believe that the gang made it back to Storybrook, but no Hook made it to them. Which admittedly is more realistic.

The spoilers are also misleading. These writers are good at misleading people when they want to...they mislead people into thinking with one spoiler that Cora and Snow's Mom were related. And at another point that Hook and Emma had become an item (in the Giant episode). It's rather amusing actually.

TV writers have gotten better about hiding spoilers than in the past - kudos.
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[identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com 2013-03-05 11:52 pm (UTC)(link)
I watch on Google TV which does not have previews. And I don't feel inclined to Youtube them.

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2013-03-06 12:04 am (UTC)(link)
There's such a thing as Google TV???
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[identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com 2013-03-06 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
You can watch TV on Play.Google.Com, but it's all pay-per-view.

I have a Sony Google TV blu ray player, and order which shows I will watch individually. I prefer that to cable, where I shell out 150.00 a month and only watch 3 channels. I got rid of cable, and watch TV through Google Play, Netflix streaming, and on TV Network websites like CBS.com.

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2013-03-06 11:11 pm (UTC)(link)
So it streams to your tv instead of to your computer, plus no commercials? Cool.

Yeah, I shell out a $167 some for cable, but it does include internet and DVR. And I watch 20 different channels and more tv than I have time for...so there is that. Plus - I'm not sure I'm tech savvy enough to figure out the whole hookup thing on my own.

BTW - can you watch regular DVDs on a Blue-Ray? I'm asking because been debating up-grading to Blue-Ray for some time now. Just not sure about it. Since I own quite a few regular DVD's.
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[identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com 2013-03-06 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, definitely you can watch regular DVDs on Blu Ray players. Plus you can they play video files on a flashdrive, and stream from different services, Netflix, Google Play, Hulu, Vudu, whatever the particular Blu Ray player has.

When I was paying $150.00, that included digital cable with 2000 channels, a DVR, and internet. But I spent 80% of my viewing time watching my DVDs and not the cable channels. Most of the shows I really wanted to watch were on premium channels or wouldn't air in the US until long after my friends had stopped blogging about them. I was watching a few network shows and that's it, I'm not much of a channel surfer or "try out a new show for the heck of it" person.

Now that I no longer have cable, I don't miss it. I miss coming home to random Criminal Minds episodes DVR'd off whatever cable channel they're on, but recording them was kind of silly when I have the whole series on DVD.

Streaming fits the way I happen to watch television, where 99% of cable I paid for was going to waste.

Now I just pay the cable company for internet. $55.00 a month.

[identity profile] flameraven.livejournal.com 2013-03-06 12:35 am (UTC)(link)
Actually why anyone would trust Snow and Charming to do anything is beyond me - they are a bit on the incompetent side of the fence.

That's usually the problem when you're Lawful Stupid. Doing the honorable thing only because it's the honorable/lawful thing, even if it doesn't help you or is clearly morally suspicious.

[identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com 2013-03-06 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
Yes, sometimes it helps to be just a wee bit Machiavellian. ;-)

I had problems with the clock-tower scene as well. For one thing - why didn't Cora just magically take the dagger from Snow and Charming? Also why not kill them both? Oh that's right...Henry wouldn't like it. And Cora apparently wants to corrupt Snow...that seems to be her game-plan and the point. Because she certainly could have gotten the dagger from Snow without threatening Johanna. As far as I know there was nothing preventing her.

Also why on earth would Snow and Charming believe Regina and Cora would let Johanna go? Because they've done so in the past? Not.

It made no sense that they would hand over the dagger. All I could think was when they tell Rumple and Emma...

Rumple: You were the one who told me to trust family...
Emma: Yes, I know...these are the same people who thought it would be a great idea to put me in a tree with Pinnochio and send me to our world, what was I thinking?
Snow: Wait - Pinnochio went with you? I thought that tree could only handle one person?
Emma: You thought wrong.

This was poorly written - too many logic holes.