KingOfHearts

I'm not saying Pan's Curse was as legitimate as the first curse, I'm just saying at least someone died. With Snow's, no one really did. The emotional price of the curse was a gaping hole in one's heart. Well, that wasn't true with Pan or Snow. It's supposed to be a long-term price, not a short-term event. My point is that S3 nerfed the curse through the most contrived ways possible. Here's a somewhat unrelated question: If Regina grew sick of Groundhog Day in Storybrooke only after a few days, what did she do for the next 18 years before adopting Henry? She wanted a child in 1983 after meeting Owen, but didn't adopt one until 2001. She waited all that time to talk to Archie about a hole in her heart, even mentioning Owen like it happened only a few months ago. I wonder how things just stayed uneventful all those years.

And that is why character favoritism is a dark road for writers to go down. All the inconsistencies with Regina's character could have been avoided if they had given her a moment of apologetic self-awareness. If Regina had a real turning point, then she'd have a valid redemption arc. I don't know how many times I've said this, and I don't know how many times I'll say it again in the future, but it's another example of going from A to B with nothing in between, nor any logic. I can forgive Regina for all the bad things she's done if she's truly repentant, but she's not. That is the problem and why her character got assassinated so early in the game. The writers think they can just gloss over without doing the dirty work, but not even a fairytale universe would allow a villain to go from bad to good for no legitimate reason.

Since we have Frankenstein and the Werewolf, Dracula would be a nice character to see. Red, Whale and him can have the best Halloween party ever. They don't even need costumes!

I'm going to have to disagree here. Regina legitimately loved her dad. They were very close. When Regina killed him, she was sobbing the whole time. It was a wrong choice, but her reasons weren't just to get revenge on Snow. She was living in exile and believed that there was no way for her to turn around in the Enchanted Forest. Even after her father's death, she kept him in her thoughts and brought flowers to his grave weekly. Just by their acting I can tell that Regina's dad was the only person she loved. The emphasis on "The Thing You Love Most" really hit home there. It wasn't right for her to kill him, but she loved him. She named her son after him to show how much she missed and respected him. At his grave she said "I love you, daddy." Pan, on the other hand, is another story. He didn't love Felix, so I'd count it as a plot hole. The difference between Pan's Curse and Snow's Curse is that Pan actually lost something. Felix was Pan's main confidant and second in charge - the price was his only companion. But in Snow's Curse, she lost nothing.

When they were casting Kristoff, his description said he was adjusting to life in the castle. I'm going to assume the Frozenbacks take place after the movie. There's less of a risk of tainting the original material if Once steps in after the fact.

Or they want Elsa to sing it, and she's doesn't sing. Haha. Elsa: "Why do all these people keep asking if I want to build a snowman? Who the hell is Olaf?!" or... Emma: "Wait... you're Elsa? You're not going to sing another rendition Let It Go are you?"

If they don't, I'll be mad. :) They sort of did that with the Wizard of Oz. Regina made a Lollipop Guild joke, and the other characters only knew of Oz's existence from the movie/books. I loved when Neal mentioned Disney's Mulan to Mulan. I hope we get stronger jokes about Frozen!

I have always known, since I first saw hearts in the show, that the hearts were totally different from the physical hearts. This was actually confirmed in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, when Emma felt Graham's heart beating even though his "heart" was in Regina's vault. The part about the heart splitting that bothered me the most was that Snow sacrificed absolutely nothing to cast the Dark Curse. It was a move by the writers to kill someone without actually killing them. (Like August regenerating into Pinocchio. Such a cop-out.) The whole concept was pulled out of a hat, and made zero logical sense from what's been in the show beforehand. It makes Regina sacrificing her own father unnecessary. There's no payment, besides ingredients, for casting the most powerful curse ever concocted. If Snow can cast the Dark Curse without paying anything, then anyone can if they have the proper ingredients and they love someone. I really need to start counting all the breakings of the "dead is dead" rule. There's Marian, the Blue Fairy, Pinocchio, Charming, and possibly Greg.

Well, in S2 I found ripping out hearts to be expected because of Cora, who happens to be the Queen of Hearts. Taking hearts out left and right was a major characteristic of hers. I think what made ripping hearts less intimidating was the amount of times they were ripped without actually any death. A couple of examples would be Regina showing Snow her dark heart in Welcome to Storybrooke, and when Regina took the heart of the Lost Boy so they could speak with Henry. Pan and Zelena needing hearts for their devious plans was a bit of a rehash. Is there anything else they could use besides hearts? Let hearts be Cora/Regina's thing, and let Pan/Zelena have their own specialties, please. I'd also like to note that Cora's other specialty was shapeshifting. Pan's might have been some sort of slight omniscience, because he knew things about the others that he couldn't have. (Like Belle and Henry's image) He was only able to do it because Pan helped with his own magic. My headcanon is that Regina used blood magic on Henry's heart, which means Zelena could break it. The reason she said no one could take it was because she thought the rest of her family had died.

Breaking the laws of magic worked better for Once: Wonderland because it was the climax to the entire series, not just a half-season villain errand. That's what made the situation so dire and worth noting. They were making people love people and bringing dead people back to life. It actually held weight. The heart logic has the same problem with rule-breaking. In S2 and Once: Wonderland, it was pretty much established you can't really love someone if you don't have your heart. Jump ahead to 3B, and Robin asks Regina about this. She says she can feel love, but it's "hard to explain". Then we all know how she had True Love's Kiss, then used magic that's powered by love. So, if you can't love without a heart, how can you take magic from that? Oh and don't forget - Regina can just cast a spell to stop Zelena from controlling her with her heart. Being heartless no longer matters, apparently. Fast-forward to A Curious Thing, when we find out you can split your heart and live. If we ever need to cast the Dark Curse again, just have Rumpbelle or Captain Swan split their hearts. No one has to die! Snow's reason for this working? "Because I believe!" The Dark Curse and the heart ripping are two magic staples on the show, and 3B cheapened them both.

So really strong magic can break the laws of magic? If magic laws can be broken with strong magic, why are there laws?

Zelena would have easily gotten all ingredients in the Enchanted Forest if she were more discrete. Unfortunately, seizing Regina's castle for trying on dresses and threatening Snow's baby didn't really have an element of surprise. Was there no one where else she could get courage, a resilient heart, a brain and a baby? Why didn't she use Aurora's baby? She was so dumb. Zelena's goal was stupid in the first place, so getting there had to be just as stupid. There were so many other ways she could get her revenge on Regina. The writers just gave her the time travel thing for a Marty McFly adventure in the end. Once again, the writers plan Point A and Point B, but not how to get there. I'd say Zelena was also a victim of poor character writing.

This is what I've been able to make out of the script. The underscores ( _ ) mean I can't make the word out. CABIN - ___ - ARENDELLE Ah, regal beauty! throws open the door to the _ to gut in for ___. She's thrown like a rag doll, and got ... _ see no __ ration. Babbling ____. As the ship groans and threatens to break up, to open a CABINET, she tears through it -- REGAL WOMAN _______ has to be ___ ... ____ in the middle of this terrible ____________. ___ a gasp of ___... I'm going to guess this might be when Elsa's parents were in the shipwreck?

The Missing Year was just so uneventful. There should have been a marginal difference between EF in the past and EF in the Missing Year, but there was hardly any. It's amazing how fast entire kingdoms can adjust to switching realms so quickly. Love your idea on Zelena, Shanna Marie. Zelena doesn't even look like the wicked witch. If we learned she went to the wizard to get Silver Slippers and came to Oz via cyclone, we'd all believe she was Dorothy. Now that would have been a better whodunnit. They were probably trying to unveil her identity as fast as possible for the "Wicked is Coming" marketing. Zelena was all bark, no bite. I wanted to see her and her monkey army terrorizing the kingdom. But nope - a couple of threats to Snowflake, and its dark curse for everyone! Snowing: "The only happy ending will be ours!" On a side note, the finale would have been more fun if Zelena actually succeeded. Regina, Emma and Hook fall into the portal into Snow Falls, and find Zelena is in power as a royal.

3B felt mostly filler to me. The Tower, The Jolly Roger, Bleeding Through, and It's Not Easy Being Green probably seemed to be the most filler-ish. Small things happened in them, but the plots weren't that interesting to me. Even the filler episodes like True North in S1 had more entertaining stories. 3B was just Zelena monologuing, Emma's ship with NY, Snowing baby brain, Outlaw Queen gettin' it on, and a random character death. The whole thing just felt random and episodic. Even the finale was a standalone from the rest of the season. Contrived!

Emma: "So, what happened during the Missing Year?" Snow: "Besides getting pregnant and Zelena fooling all of us? Nothing to write about."

Makes me wonder who Hook could have possibly traded the Jolly Roger with. Maybe it was a hush-hush deal, and Hook doesn't even know his identity. Not just anyone has a magic bean to trade, and not just anyone would want the Jolly Roger. Who would be out of the curse's range, anyway? I hope sacrificing Hook's most valuable possession isn't just another throwaway. While I'm thinking of Emma/Hook having to realm-hop again to get to the ship, do Storybrookians still desire to return home? If all it takes is tearing up the scroll, you'd think someone desperate to get back would attempt it. Everyone and their dog knows about Regina's vault, anyway. I hope the question of staying in Storybrooke (as far as the FTL characters are concerned) comes up again. I realized that Henry is the only person in the cast to have never been to EF. Ironic, since he believes in it more than anyone else.

Maybe there will be multiple Robin Hood flashbacks, with Will Scarlet in some of them? That might be fun to watch. We need more of those. All the Robin Hood characters in the show are bland, so giving them backstories will flavor them up to par with the rest of the cast. As for the Frozen plot, I wonder if Snow will be the one to first reach out to Elsa. While everyone else may be under the illusion she's evil from freezing the town, Snow would probably be the most likely to trust her. I know Snow's busy with Prince Snowflake, but it would keep her character relevant to the plot. In 3B, her wide-eyeing was a weakness (Call Zelena the Midwife), but it could also be a strength in some cases. Also, I wonder if the other Frozen characters are long dead or in Storybrooke. I'm not sure how long Elsa's been cooped up in that urn. I'd gather she was in stasis age-wise, like monkey Aurora.

Besides Marian, Rumpbelle marriage, and Frozen, there better be more everyday problems going on. Hope to see Emma and Henry going house hunting. Hook is going to have to look for a place as well. I'd really like to see Sheriff Swan come back, with Hook and Charming working possibly as deputies. The show desperately needs more non-magical situations to balance out, and to keep it from cartoon territory. In S1, there was a scene about Emma's stuff coming in from Boston to Snow's apartment. Surely the moving process from New York will get least one scene. I know TV magic makes it easy to move logistically, but it's still a big step. If Emma, Hook and Henry are going to be staying in Storybrooke long-term, they need to start growing some roots and making plans. With the Knave coming, I think Wonderland will come into play again. The spinoff show had a few diamonds in the rough as far as actors go, so some Wonderland secondary characters would be much appreciated on the parent show. Henry better get a storyline, too. He's another character in 3B that got sidelined.

She is extremely popular on the social media sites. TWOP/Previously is the only community I've seen that hasn't been a fanbase for her. Every time the official Once page posts something, there are always comments along the lines of: "Regina deserves a happy ending too! Just leave her alone!" in regards to the Marian issue. They asked if Emma was right to bring Marian back, and there was a resounding "No!" from thousands of comments. Evil Regals really dominate the major fanbases from what I've seen. Lana is also involved in a lot of the marketing. Heck, the Evil Queen had little to do with S3, and yet she's on the box art for the DVDs. So yeah, they're going to keep Regina evil to some degree to keep the money coming in unfortunately.

As much as I would love that, I don't think the writers are capable of giving Regina a legit lesson from this issue. They might try to, but every time they try to give Regina growth, it always executes really badly. Of course I want Regina to realize the error of her ways and that her actions have consequences, but that hasn't been in the writers' playbook since the pilot. They risk losing their popular rock star, the Evil Queen, if they give Regina a conscience.

The Marian situation has absolutely no positive outcome. Regina is going to be Regina no matter what happens. What happens with Marian won't change that. I actually enjoyed Zelena, just not as the main focus. With Frozen on the way, I doubt that would happen again. I would much prefer Regina to have a sister relationship than a messed up romantic love-triangle one with Robin.

It seems like everyone on this show is getting an endgame relationship. Can anyone just stay single...? Yep. I'm still hoping it's Zelena. Kudos to you! He'll be sure to tell Regina about how Marian is in final destination. Why? Because unhappy Regina annoys the crap out of him. He had to work a whole "please" clause to the curse just to get her to stop nagging him about her problems.

Here are some of the reasons I think the Marian twist is bad all around: - It's Woegina all over again. - It puts in a dumb storyline about Emma feeling guilty over Regina. Really? - It breaks the dead is dead rule... again. - It's a catalyst for another shipping war. - It pits Roland in a bad place for an innocent child. - All the Outlaw Queen stuff, which was popular, was built up for this twist alone. - If Regina backtracks over this, her redemption in 3B meant nothing. - It's a second parallel to the Stable Boy. The Mills family gets yet another misdirected reason to hate the Snow family. - It's an angsty season-end twist just for the sake of drama and hiatus talk. - There's no way out that doesn't have issues. - It makes Robin look like an idiot for dating his wife's murderer. - It's doubtful the writers will give Regina a decent, moral or logical outcome from this. - Even if Robin/Marian live happily ever after, they'll always be a chip on Regina's shoulder and fodder for more Regina drama. It would have been preferable for Robin to find out Regina executed his wife and started pulling away without Marian coming back. At least that way Robin would be smarter, and Roland wouldn't get hurt. Regina would have to actually work on her relationship instead of getting it effortlessly via tattoo. I hope in S4 this gets handled quickly.

The Land Without Magic is my favorite episode of the whole series. It has all kinds of pay-off, and it pushed the show into new places. I had indescribable joy when the curse broke. There was a dragon slaying to top it off! This episode truly had the Disney magic. In a lot of ways, it was totally unexpected. I've watched it multiple times. It's the very height of OUAT.