HeimrArnadalr

E is for Elsa, the Snow Queen.

Well, now that's going to be stuck in my head for the next few days. And in my twisted face there's not the slightest trace of anything that even hints at Gaaalavant! And from my tortured shape no comfort, no escape I see, but deep within is Gaaalavant!

That would mean that travel between the Land Without Magic and the Enchanted Forest would be time travel, which is explicitly against the Rules of Magic (unless you have the power of the three genies or the unholy combination of brains, courage, a heart, and a newborn). If every magic bean, mermaid, enchanted brig, magic door, and dark curse could time travel then it would make that more of a Guideline of Magic. There is another connection between the Norse of our world and theirs, though: they both use(d) the Futhark alphabet. Queen Elsa even explicitly mentions it by name in one episode and is able to read it in another.

I think it's also because they wanted a sister relationship to copy parallel Elsa and Anna, and King Agðar wouldn't have allowed for that. What's possibly even more surprising is that they were allowed to change the Queen's name, from Iðunn to Gerda, despite the former being literally set in stone in the movie.

Regarding religion, in the pilot Snow and Charming were married by a man dressed similar to a Catholic bishop. Arendelle in the movie also has a bishop and a chapel based on a modern replica of the traditional Scandinavian stave church. Although Arendelle's bishop didn't appear on Once, the chapel is seen in shots of the castle. When Ingrid was telling Anna about the shattered sight story, she (or maybe Anna, can't remember) said that the king who originally cast the spell was a Norse king. This makes sense in relation to the movie, which is somewhat based on a rather specific time and place in Norway, but less so with regard to Once's fantasy world. Then again, maybe this is another example of people traveling to the Land Without Magic while Rumple waits centuries for someone to cast the Dark Curse for him.

There's one problem with Option 1: If the Author does control everyone's fates, he's certainly not going to let Regina & co. force him to do anything. All he has to do is write that their search failed and that's that. So for this plot to happen at all Option 2 is the only credible ending, which is terrible for the reasons you've already pointed out. I have this feeling that the writers of the show are going with Option 1, though, with how they're having the villains and the heroes and Regina going after the Author.

C is for Castles.

The problem is, he can only be killed with the dagger, and anyone who kills him with the dagger becomes the next Dark One. Yes, he could kill himself with the dagger, but they'd have to give him the dagger for that to happen. The only way to effectively deal with him (without transferring the Dark One curse to someone else) is to banish him and hope that he doesn't come back, and have the dagger ready if he does. They could also try the Act of True Love route (which almost worked back in season 1), but now that Belle's seen the light I don't think there's anyone in Storybrooke who loves him enough. Now I don't have high hopes for the 'Find the author' plot but a 'Matchmake for the Dark One' plot would probably be worse.

Why do I get the feeling that all of the 'Maybe', 'Can't say', and 'Don't know' answers are really code for 'The script fairies haven't written that far yet'? At least they're not answering with the classic 'I hope so'. Anna saves the day at the last minute again, perhaps? Although it probably really means that Disney only let them have Frozen for 11/12 episodes and they haven't asked for more.

R is for Robert Carlyle's Rumpelstiltskin.

So if this guy has been cast as King Stefan then does that mean that Once's Aurora is not the daughter of the Aurora and Phillip from the animated movie?

But Ingrid's story is that she is an innately magical person (as opposed to Rumple who was cursed and Regina who was taught) and she's trying to find two other innately magical people (Elsa and Emma) to replace her sisters, and she was unable to use her magic in New York. Rules are made for breaking, indeed.

My worry is that they'll take Rumple's basic point (you're responsible for your own happy ending) and then show that this is wrong and that if you want a happy ending you have to petition the Author for one. Back when Henry got his idea to work for Rumple to see how he got his happy ending, I thought that this storyline might not end up so bad, because Rumple certainly didn't ask the Author to set him up with Belle or give him a position of power in town. Now that Rumple is recruiting flunkies to help him find the Author, though, it looks like he'll have essentially Regina's goals, just trying to achieve them in a more villainous way. I'm sure the 'Queens of Darkness' will be entertaining (and I'm particularly looking forward to Cruella) but I don't have high hopes for the story in 4B.

U is for the Unheard phone call Killian made to Emma.

Yeah, but they can't have her say that because that's what Rumpelstiltskin the villain told Regina. I'm not sure what's worse: that the Dark One is the voice of reason, or that he's being portrayed as incorrect.