KAOS Agent

After watching the S3 finale, I went back and watched "Snow Falls" to see just how the Charmings' love story had been changed. I think the original story shown in this episode was so much better. Charming saving Snow from the Black Knights was much more dramatic and "swoon-worthy" than the newer result. It is definitely a much more meaningful action and it clearly has a profound effect on Snow. His risked his life to save hers even though they were essentially strangers. It's a great beginning to what used to be this show's epic love story. I love how in Storybrooke, Mary Margaret starts to get on the fairy tale bandwagon with Henry. The scene in the diner where she says David woke up and immediately runs off with Henry to read some more of the book to David was adorable. Man, I miss the old days of awesome Bandit!Snow and equally cute, friends with Emma and looking for true love and a happy ending Mary Margaret.

I love how Regina is the one to screw herself over and is too stupid to understand that. Emma was more than ready to head out of town back to Boston. All she did was share a little tidbit about how Henry had made her birthday wish come true and smile over it and Regina completely freaks out on Emma enough to piss her off and make her stay. So typical of Regina to overreact to a little thing, but never figure out that her actions are what's causing all of her problems.

My mom called me just before the site went down for the last time and was massively confused at how upset I was. She didn't understand how a website closing could be so sad. I still have the tab open for Ella123's epic Regina rant. That's a good page to keep open for a bit.

One thing I noticed was the sparks from the powerlines when Emma slammed the door of her car when she first arrived in Storybrooke. I always thought it was because it was storming at the time or something, but given Emma was angry/highly emotional at that moment, I think this may actually have been the writers showing Emma's magic right from the start without it being at all obvious. It's just a nice continuity detail to have been included in the Pilot.

Robin says it when Neal is trying to convince him to use Roland as shadow bait in "Quite a Common Fairy". The direct quote is, "Are you out of your mind? He's four years old."

Roland was four when Neal was in his father's castle pre-Neverland. Robin specifically says his age. So add the lost year and he's five and a bit. Whether the actor looks five or not, his age has been established.

Maybe most of the fans have blocked out the last episodes of Season 2 just like I did, so it's not a surprise that most didn't recognize her. However, Outlaw Queen was just way too happy and rushed, so I figured something would have to happen by the end of the show. One thing I was curious about is whether Emma has forgotten that she was in the book originally. They just tore those pages out and burned them so that Regina wouldn't see. I know she was meant to feel disconnected from the stories, but her story, the story of the Saviour's birth and destiny, was in there to begin with. It's why Henry went to find her.

The whole point of them casting the curse was to get back to where Emma was because Glinda told them that only the most powerful of light magic users could defeat Zelena. Snow immediately jumped to Emma is the Saviour. We have to get back to her. They absolutely did want to drag her back into the madness. Just because they had zero planning about how they would do that, doesn't negate the fact that they were perfectly willing to use their daughter again to fix their problems.

The first half of Season 2 isn't as bad when you can watch it all at once. Part of the problem I had with watching it real time is that they had too many differing storylines going and they could really only focus on two in each episode which meant if the one I was most interested in wasn't featured, I got annoyed - especially because a lot of the featured flashback stories just weren't that great. The back half of Season 2 is such a mess that I quit watching for a time. I've watched relevant scenes, but there are several episodes I've never seen in full and others I only wish that I could block out of my memory. TV has made it so that I've gotten pretty good at that though. I still refuse to acknowledge that Season 3 of Veronica Mars ever happened.

Sadly, this show's plot, plot, plot mentality has made it really inappropriate for Hook to be flirty at all right now (although given how they're constantly in crisis mode, there's never an appropriate time). Still how ridiculous would it be for him to be flirting with Emma the day after her first love died in her arms? A guy whom he is also mourning. Not cool. That said, I'm done with being sad, Neal wanted Emma to be happy so bring back flirty Hook. He makes Emma smile.

I get the impression they'd be happier if they could just give Belle her happily ever after because they can't integrate her into the main group and they can't kill her off. The Belle/Rumpel relationship is the only thing she's got going on in the show. She has no connection to Regina, Henry, the Charmings or Emma other than that she's there and can apparently read. But there's no emotional resonance with her in relation to any of the main characters and no real way to give her any. Just as Regina classified Emma's relationship with Neal, Belle is Rumpel's "this person" to everyone else. I just want her to go away because her whole delusional relationship with Rumpel ruins the wonderful character that is Disney's Belle. Maybe they could Dr Who it up and make a Rumpel clone for Belle to run off with.

I'm not sure that Belle understands Rumpel's dark parts. Or maybe it's more that she willfully misunderstands his dark side. He flayed Robin alive multiple times, but all she chooses to remember is that he let him go in the end - mostly because he was trying to please Belle and not for any altruistic purpose - but Belle's on the he's a good man train, so she chooses not to see that as his motive. Then as she was wandering the woods with Neal, she was waxing poetic about how heroic and selfless he was to save all of Storybrooke by sacrificing himself. Neal was rather incredulous that she thinks he did it to save the town and straight up tells her that she know that's not right. He did it to save his family. Belle's need to come up with creative motives that make Rumpel's actions better than they really are leads me to believe that she's covering when she says she loves his dark side. If she truly was capable of loving it, she would accept the actions that come out of it and not need to romanticize them or rationalize them away. Honestly though, I don't think Belle would have ever fallen in love with the humble spinner he was. She may have felt compassion for him, but Belle is all about the adventure. Rumpel was, and I think still is, a homebody. As the Dark One, he has power and can still give her the thrill she craves (maybe that's what she's talking about when she says she loves his dark parts?) even if they aren't traveling the world or having adventures. Stripped of his power, he's just a random guy who runs a pawn shop in a very odd small town. It would put her right back where Disney Belle hated - a provincial life in a small town. She may still love the man, but I'm not sure how happy she'd be with their life together. It would create a bit of an interesting parallel in that both Belle and Milah were looking for adventure or more out of life than non-Dark One Rumpel could give them.

This is an absolutely horrifying thought, but then I think Twitter is evil. While I think it's cool that fans can engage with actors and showrunners, the hate and trolling that goes on is appalling. Twitter recap of "The Tower" - David's drugged, Snow's stupid, CS gets weird, Rapunzel!, WW is creepy & Rumpel runs.

I've always liked that JMo has put so much thought into Emma. If you go back to her Season 1 interviews she talks about having read several books about kids in the foster system and her headcanon about what little Emma's life must have been like and how it would affect adult Emma's reactions today. It's nice when you know an actor actually cares about the character they play rather than just showing up and reading the lines they're handed. JMo can really bring it during emotional scenes, but I agree her reactions as Straight Man Emma are the best. Emma's inner monologue must be a continuous loop of WTF?! and Really? FML. And she does take advantage when she's got an opportunity to be a little lighter. It's very sweet that in David's dream in "The Tower," Emma the adult acts like a little girl - all twirly and cute with her little "Teach me!" That's not an Emma you'll ever see, which was the point, but I really enjoyed seeing a different Emma even if it was only for a few seconds.