KingOfHearts

I've been watching the Netflix show KAOS, which is effectively a take on Greek mythology set in the modern era. It's not quite as extreme as something like The Boys, but it doesn't shy away from the brazier sides of the myths. It's not always very accurate but it's very creative and fun in how it adapts them. It reminded me a lot of the ideas the writers of OUAT had during the earlier seasons. Minor spoilers below. I wouldn't say the show has an especially good story or great characters, but the adaptations are fun. I wish the writers of OUAT had stayed consistent with cleverly bringing in (or even just juxtaposing) fairy tales to modern day.

I don't really care for it. It seems like they're trying too hard to replicate the look of the cartoon and it doesn't translate well to live action. I prefer OUAT's take on the aesthetic by making it still feel larger than life while also looking great with real people. I like that Snow and Regina had their own variety of costumes that were reminiscent of their animated counterparts, rather than straight up copy/paste attempts. They were iconic in their own right.

I can imagine the OUAT-style dialogue now.

Finally watched The Little Mermaid live-action remake after it came to Disney+. I thought the actors for Ursula, Ariel, and Vanessa all knocked it out of the park. For the most part however, the movie just didn't need to exist. The remake doesn't add much to the original except for runtime. It brings up some interesting concepts (like the humans' fear of the "sea gods" and blaming for them a bunch of recent shipwrecks, implying Triton has been intentionally causing them, or Ursula being Triton's sister), but it doesn't ever really explore those. I know a lot of people liked Eric getting more development but he was a little too whiny for my taste. I found Triton less likeable this time around too. Overall, the movie didn't really do anything to stand on its own (unlike Aladdin). It felt very safe and inoffensive. But of course, they had to go around fixing plot holes unnecessarily like these remakes always do. The fact Ariel couldn't remember she needed to kiss Eric felt needlessly complicated and kind of under-minded Ursula's desperation when she transforms into Vanessa. The sudden plan change didn't feel as warranted because of the memory curse. I actually liked the way OUAT split the Little Mermaid story between Ariel and Ursula - they kept the spirit of the original in different ways. I thought the remake did a decent of job of recapturing it too, but it just wasn't as good and didn't add anything, so it felt pointless. It's always weird to me when I like OUAT's version better than the sequels or remakes (as with Frozen 2). This aged pretty well.

I didn't hate the idea of Zelena filling the Persephone role, as it explained why the Underworld looked like Storybrooke and did have a pretty good tragic ending. I didn't really buy into their romance, though. Realistically, Hades would've kept asking her out and she would've kept turning him down.

Just finished rewatching Hercules with a bunch of friends. I really wish they would've had the Underworld arc last for a whole season. The first half could be in the Underworld where the main characters meet dead people as they did in the show, but the other half could be the gods trapped in Storybrooke. Maybe they lost their immortality and/or memories, and the heroes help them regain it in order to defeat Hades. Imagine dealing with a bunch of Greek mythological threats in Storybrooke. It could be a fun of game of the characters trying to figure who is what god or some other character in Greek mythology. Its a crying shame that Hercules and Megara were as misused as they were on the show. At least one of them couldve been reoccurring for that half-season.

The first movie was good because it didn't take itself too seriously. It knew it was kind of goofy at times, similarly to OUAT in the earlier seasons. It unfortunately gets very bogged down by its own confusing universe in the sequels. I'd say Ursula's story in S4 was closer to The Little Mermaid than Ariel's in S3.

Just saw the trailer for the new Peter Pan and Wendy movie... and I thought OUAT's version was bland-looking. Geez. We're at the point now where I can't help but compare the sequels and remakes to OUAT since OUAT actually did it better in some cases. OUAT's Peter Pan was unpleasant for most people sure, but at least it was different. There is nothing interesting at all about this new Disney live-action remake. It's generic as hell.

I never understood why we never got more holiday or folklore characters, al a Rise of the Guardians. Like you're telling me Tinker Bell was real but Jack Frost wasn't? You know A&E would've loved a Santa Claus Big Bad. I'm not even joking. It could've been some ultra high intelligent commentary on consumerism or something. They would've totally had a scene where Regina says something snarky then punches him in the face and it would be gif'ed as a badass girl boss moment.

You may have just accidentally spoiled that Abraham Lincoln was the Big Bad for S8.

If there was an election, who was running against her? One of her clones/alternate timeline versions?

I actually don't mind the slower pace. It's what I expected from the LoTR universe. But if it's going to take its time, it needs to spend time on the things you mentioned - worldbuilding, character development, etc. Andor has been doing a fantastic job at that though Star Wars fans have complained about it too being too slow. RoP's character conversations are just full of fluff that sounds like someone is trying really hard to write lofty literature. I still think Lost did the best at mystery boxes, but as you said - there was no reason for it in Rings of Power. Who cares... It doesn't even really feel like Game of Thrones either, which is weird. What happened to Emma was a little disheartening. She started out as a strong female heroine but over time got beaten down into a husk by S6.

I saw someone online complain that there was too much singing, which I thought was funny. In the realm of fantasy tv, Rings of Power definitely does not scratch that OUAT itch. It does, however, follow the annoying Lost-style "mystery box" storytelling the OUAT writers were so addicted to. I really hate how obvious they would get holding their cards to their chest, with characters being unnecessarily cryptic, whispering when they don't need to, being interrupted by something as they're just about to reveal something important, etc. Rings of Power follows similar tropes. It's like the writers had one or two good plot twists in mind but needed to write eight episodes of story to go along with it. The dialogue for Rings of Power is also as bad if not worse than OUAT in some cases. It's George Lucas levels of horrible. The show's visuals are stellar, but the writing is very incompetent. Prequels are more about making the "how something happened" more interesting than "what happened". For example, while everyone knew little Anakin was going to turn into Dark Vader, the worldbuilding and how it transpired were both interesting. Rings of Power does not really bring a whole lot to the table in terms of expanding the parts of Tolkien's universe that have made it to the screen.

Disney is really into witches cursing small town America, aren't they? I wish we had more modern references and a mix of cultures (al a Shrek 2) so it wasn't just a generic fairy tale for two-thirds of the movie. Not as realistic aesthetically as Storybrooke, but something that's more just influenced by Andalasia rather than being just a copy/paste of it. Maybe as the film gets closer to the climax, things like electronic appliances start disappearing and it's not just Giselle who starts changing drastically in personality. Now I just imagine Rumple coming back to Andalasia "politely" asking Nancy and Edward about what happened to his wand.

I was thinking about the same thing. I thought they were going to go into this direction with the "Disenchanted" title. Maybe Nancy and Edward come visit, making Giselle feel jealous and jaded at her own life. Or maybe Morgan feels like she can't live up to Giselle's expectations or believe things would be better if they were a fairy tale, so she casts the spell instead. Giselle as an evil stepmother worked so much better than Snow as an evil queen in the S4 finale. The stepmother just had so many good lines that didn't make her just generic evil. I just don't see how Giselle being an evil stepmother really serves the narrative other than upping the stakes.