RedKeep

While I think there are perfectly good reasons for not wanting them to be bffs and I would agree with many of them, I think it's quite understandable that the age difference and the step-grandmother thing are not part of them for the characters, based on their experiences/perspectives. Technically, pretty much everyone on this show other than Henry and baby Neal is older than Emma. (Including Roland.) But she has only ever experienced the adults as people roughly her age and the only characters who occasionally get to be a bit self-aware about how old they really are by now are those who are literally hundreds of years older than the rest. And the step-grandmother thing is somewhat in line with that because it's also something that's just not part of their actual experiences. It's different from Regina/Snow because Regina and Emma have no memory of being part of the same family prior to meeting in Storybrooke because turns out they're both mothers to Henry. Any actual relationship and emotional connection of whatever kind they may have is rooted firmly in the Storybrooke present. And while I'm sure they're aware of the technicalities of their complicated family tree it would seem completely awkward and non-credible to me if their interactions were suddenly shaped by how, once upon a time, if things had gone differently, Emma may have been raised by a family that included Snow's stepmother as her step-grandmother. I get where you're coming from, I have a similar subjective reaction to parts of the Emma/Hook dynamic and Hook and Henry scenes, thanks to Hook's history with Henry's father and paternal grandparents, but objectively speaking... I get why Emma's not overly influenced by it in both cases.

Parrilla wasn't the only who teased that role switch, though. It was brought up repeatedly in interviews and press coverage around SDCC and the season premiere. That said, it's far from the first time that the writers teased something or had their actors tease something that never really or only very barely played out on screen so I'm not sure why it would be a huge deal to some fans this time. It seems fairly obvious to me they changed course at some point during the first half of 5a and various little seeds that were planted in the first 3-4 episodes ultimately led nowhere at least up until episode 11.

From what I understand the point was that they're up against a pairing from a show that's already over and doesn't have much of an active fandom left on social media, which is why the numbers said other pairing pulled seemed suspicious to some. Before the reset of the poll said pairing was in the lead or at least keeping it 50/50, after the reset they've fallen far behind SQ in total votes. However, all polls can be cheated on and I have no doubt it wasn't a purely one-sided thing.

Maybe I missed something, but I don't see anything about using bots in that tweet. The original poster is trying to rally the troops, so to speak, to block vote and generate a result that's more to their liking. But while I would consider that silly and a waste of time, it hardly qualifies as cheating or as confirmation of anyone even going so far as to use bots on a silly little internet poll like that. And organized block voting is something I've seen every single corner of the OUAT fandom do before. If that's what Mitovich is talking about, he's definitely overreacting and I find it impossible to believe that it's never happened before in TVLine polls with all those passionate shippers that read their articles.

Polldaddy is super easy to cheat on so it wouldn't surprise me. However, SpoilerTV uses a different poll system and the results are equally torn between the best and the worst ends of the voting spectrum and most of the reactions I've seen on Twitter have been very torn between loving everything about it and rejecting it completely for a number of reasons. Technically all polls can be manipulated and technically people could create dozens of usernames on Twitter to create the impression that their opinion is backed up by a certain number of people... But generally speaking it does look like the episode(s) generated very polar responses in fandom, to me anyway.

Good point.

See, I think this is where the approach the show is taking with this half-season arcs is flawed and a constant source of frustration for viewers. Regardless of whether one likes them or likes the story they're stuck with, OQ had a massive bomb of a twist thrown at them last season. So benching them and refusing to explore the aftermath of said twist because they can only ever develop one story at a time is... problematic. And I do think their inability to balance their stories well is something that deserves criticism. I don't read reactions of shipper fans outside of this forum and what I come across on Twitter sometimes, but if I imagine I were invested in the OQ story I'd be frustrated with how it's being handled too. I wouldn't even argue that they need a ton of screentime, but it is ridiculous that the characters had a grand total of 1 conversation about Zelena's Marian trickery and the pregnancy and that, too, was rushed and took place last season. It's the complete absence of meaningful conversations like that, because the writers have half a dozen of new guest stars to deal with and most of the screentime is devoted to pushing the overarching plot forward, that I find disappointing overall, too. Because it affects so many characters and reationships. I don't understand why they refuse to write stories that cover 22 episodes instead of 11. It would make it so much easier to add more balance and structure to their writing and the Dark Swan arc would really lend itself to a full-season story. Most other fans I know watch for their favorite characters/actors/relationships at this point and not for shiny new Disney toys every couple of episodes and when Horowitz and Kitsis keep promising every season that they'll return the focus to the core cast, but then a bunch of core characters are pushed aside again in favor of guest stars and plot, plot, plot... I can relate to the frustration. Fans on this show have a bit of a hard time voicing their crtiticism well, but then again Twitter isn't an ideal medium for it anyway. There's a lot of over the top aggression in Horowitz' Twitter feed every week, but I do think it's a bit of a "reap what you sow" situation as well.

There was a picture going around on Twitter earlier this week of Robert Carlyle, Sean Maguire and Jared Gilmore with three girls who apparently got to visit the set at some point. Maybe Rumple, Robin and Henry all get seperated from the rest of the group for a bit. Pure speculation, though.

I went back and checked the casting announcement again and it only mentioned that Greg Germann's character is set to be a "heavily recurring" one and that he'll first appear in episode 5.12. It does seem likely he'll pop up in 5.13 (which is the one they're currently filming) too, but I don't think we know anything for sure as far as his characters is concerned at this point.

As far as I know, parts of their fandom had been hoping for them to have a little girl to add to their family of boys long before the show officially made Regina barren in that weird episode at the end of last season. And Parrilla and Maguire had both commented on wanting Regina and Robin to add to their family and how nice it would be for them to have a girl on Twitter and in interviews too, I believe. Now, all of that doesn't mean they were promised anything and personally I don't see why anyone would desperately want for their favorite character to have a baby to begin with since babies on adventure type shows are pretty much always a bad idea.

Back when the show began, Carlyle and Ginny Goodwin were the only ones I knew from previous projects. I was mildly aware of "House" and had seen Jennifer Morrison in press related to it, but it was not really my type of show and I don't think I've ever seen a full episode of it. Everyone else of the original main cast I'd never heard of before. Emilie and Rebecca I remembered from being part of the LOST cast, Sean Maguire I had seen in a movie and "Scott & Bailey".

It's still extremely petty and pathetic, though, and I don't blame people for having no patience with this. It's money raised for a charity, devoted to a very real issue. Not everything's about fictional characters and it makes me shudder to think that some are so invested in this show that they can't distance themselves from it at least long enough to acknowledge that real life outside of it still exists and matters. And just because actors aren't tagged directly doesn't mean they won't end up seeing certain things that are said about them on social media. That's another lovely side of this fandom, screencaps of other people's tweets are being send to actors or writers fairly regularly.

Hoping to save someone's life is an "unreasonable" favor? I find it impossible to see it that way. And I also don't think the show is playing this as Dark One Emma in Storybrooke being rightfully angry that she saved someone's life. There was a lot of talk last season about how Emma absolutely had to bring the person she saw as Marian back to the future with them, even though she was warned repeatedly that it would mean she'd intentionally change the timeline and this could have serious consequences for everyone, because saving people is what Emma does and she would not have been able to live with herself if she'd left "Marian" to die. Well, if we stick to that logic... how well would she be able to live with herself if she'd stood back and watched Robin Hood die? Someone she didn't just meet once in a FTL of the past and who'd come to Camelot with the rest of the group to help her. In fact, I would argue that the result would have eventually been the same. Guilt isn't exactly the most pleasant feeling and one doesn't even have to be the Dark One to feel the pull of darkness if it lingers.

I didn't even know there is such a thing as on official hashtag. Or I obviously didn't pay attention to that before, I guess. I'm sure there's a marketing idea behind having everyone use the same hashtag in every single on of their tweets during the episode, but I find this show's social media presence absolutely catastrophic in so many ways that I wouldn't be surprised if not many pay attention to what's coming from the official account anymore to be honest. I just went back and looked at some tweets from the writers who were live tweeting yesterday and they didn't use anything that came from OnceABC either, but stuck to mostly general OUAT hashtags and some of their own.

Reminds me of the latest "Starry Mag" incident. Although I believe that's an online-only mag. But either way, one of their editors apparently tweeted that they have an interview coming up with Sean Maguire and want OUAT fans to send in their questions. The Twitter account for that mag is run by someone who violently hates Robin Hood and his been very vocal about that and they've personally attacked the actor as well. So fans contacted his PR agency and Sean himself on Twitter with screencaps of some of heir out of line, hate-filled tweets and asked them to rethink doing that interview. Last I heard was that it's not happening anymore and that's likely for the best too. No need to support unprofessional media outlets like that. Especially when it's not just fictional characaters that they're being rude about.

This is kind of what I mean. The lack of real, meaningful family scenes and the lack of Snowing are things that are undeniable issues and I would understand and support people who go to the writers to complain about that. If it's done respectfully and if it's done in a manner that's not trashing a character they don't like to prop up someone they do like/want to see more of. And that's part of why I can't take the vocal fractions of the anti-Regina/Hook/etc. complainers very serious because these people are ultimately campaigning that their favorites, who already are comparatively well-off on this show, get more even more than others. No one's honestly fighting for things that are seriously lacking or characters who have honestly way too little relevant screentime like Snowing. Although I presume that in Snow's case some may have simply assumed that it was a matter of Ginnifer Goodwin having asked for a somewhat reduced work load for obvious reasonst too during 4A at least. And all fighting for your favs only gets you so far when the writers are uninspired or don't see the potential in certain characters that their viewers see. I thought Snowing's 4B story said a lot about how the writers view them and what they consider interesting writing for them. Same with Rumbelle.

I think he has a ton of screentime since season 4 especially for someone whose role on this show is to play the supportive love interest 95% of the time, especially compared to other characters who have basically the exact same job description on this show. Whether or not one needs to go to the writers or ABC on social media to complain about that is another question. I would suspect complaints that are only aimed at taking something away from a character you don't like are likely not going to be very successful, regardless of which corner of the fandom they're coming from. It seems petty to me and in some cases also shows a lack of understanding of how this show operates, for better or worse. I couldn't take it serious when it was SQ fans doing it (and it very obviously also didn't work), but I can't take it any more serious when it's Hook/CS fans now either. In my experience a large faction of them has always been violently anti-Regina anyway and it's not like the powers that be aren't aware of such agendas. (Again: See SQers vs. Hook and Robin Hood.)

To be quite honest, this is something I don't understand to begin with. Going by my personal impression of what's been done by ABC, the writers and the cast to promote the show and season 5 so far, Hook/Colin has been featured very regularly in photos, interviews, promos, etc. I find it incredibly entitled how some fans have been acting in Adam's mentions. It's not his job to reassure them over and over again every single day. Especially not while they already continue to receive more attention than fans of other characters do. Not getting the exact spoilers or media tidbits or whatever that you want is not the same as getting next to nothing at all. They're at a point where the spoilers they do release in interviews are just them rephrasing the same things we've heard before because they have no interest in revealing more until the premiere has aired, but that's true for everyone on this show. I stopped counting how many times Josh Dallas and the writers have teased

Apparently during one of the various panels the QoD actresses had at DragonCon a fan asked Kristin directly about whether or not she thinks there had been something going (beyond friendship) between Regina and Maleficent in the past. There has to be a video out there because I have seen gifs of her answer on Tumblr. But people are definitely reading way too much into her answer, which was mostly about how important it was for Maleficent that young Regina believed in her when she was at a point where she wa spretty much done and about how much she loves working with Lana Parrilla and the two of them just went ahead with the relationship as it worked for them.

That's the thing I find highly unlikely, though. Unless they want to dumb down everyone on this show down even more than they've already done. What I can see, though, is that the others are planning instead of acting immediately. If they had no other ideas at all and Zelena literally ist their only option, I doubt Hook would have to go to the psych ward on his own. I suspect it's a case of the plan the others have not working fast enough for Hook so he goes behind their backs to come up with his own plan that he thinks will get him to Camelot faster. And yeah. Sorry, but that is all sorts of dumb if it leads to facing Zelena on his own and possibly even taking off her cuff. I honestly don't understand what exactly he thought would happen there, other than her attacking him as soon as she gets the chance.

I don't avoid a lot of threads, but I admit that I don't always post in every thread I read for the same reason and more often also because of the constant negativity that's always directed at the same characters and stories. I'm not even a huge fan of some the characters that are constantly being put down on this board, but I find the repetitiveness of it and the complete lack of normal discussion about spoilers as soon as they mention certain characters/actors (because it turns into a contest of who can mock/bash them in the most creative way instead) tiring to the point of not even wanting to engage. I get that the atmosphere on a discussion board won't change when you don't try to help to change it yourself, but so far I just haven't really found the energy and I stick to posting in certain threads while discussing spoilers and the like in other places.

I don't even blame her because in all honesty? This wasn't the first time fans of that ship took something she said, twisted it into something hugely dramatic and then went to Adam with that to complain about her because she supposedly upset their feelings. This is a tactic some of the OUAT fans have been employing with cast and writers in general and it's one I cannot stand. LP never said a single word about Now, other fandoms are just as good at playing this game, mind you, including SQ, and I'm sure she and most other actors are just as sick of them too. They'll continue to placate them because for LP nand JM at least it's one of their own ships. But I relate to everyone who at least doesn't pretend they luuurve every single ship and shipper fandom. The OUAT fandom and especially the part that's centered around ships has become way too obsessed and unpleasant for that.

I find it extremely weird to ship real people to begin with because so much of it must be based on projection and wishful thinking and I imagine what you end up with is a situation where you're basically writing fanfic in your head all the time. I know it's not uncommon and in some cases the media/publicity machinery plays into it as well, but I still find it incredibly strange and it's not exactly something I can relate to. In my personal fandom experiences over the years it was always an extension of shipping the characters said actors are playing on the show. Fans ship the characters first and then start to ship the actors too. I guess in a way that's what's made it even weirder for me because it blurrs the line between fiction and reality, characters and actors, so much that I don't know why anyone would actually want that. Especially if the characters are already a couple on the show. But then I wonder if it has something to do with looking for the next 'kick' after the show has given you what you want in fiction and the level of excitement left to be gained from that is limited... so fans try to repeat that experience of falling in love with a ship, rooting for it and waiting/hoping for it to develop in the way they want to by projecting their feelings for the characters onto the actors. By speculating they're having a secret affair and fans are the only ones who are onto them by putting the "clues" together or whatever. Anyway, apart from not being able to understand the appeal, I'm honestly annoyed by it if it involves actors who are happily married and have families. I remember being in the OUAT fandom when some of the Rumbellers who also shipped EdR/RC were called out on it, pointing out that RC has children who are old enough to come across some of this on the internet. I *think* like the EdR/RC shipping the LP/JM shipping has died down somewhat over time (or those fans are just not being very obvious about it anymore) since Parrilla got married and became a step-mom to three teenage boys, but techncially the same is true there as well. Think about being one of those kids and you end up coming across people who write fanfiction about one of your parents having an affair with a co-star. Beyond weird. And something I read in a post about "Colifer" shipping yesterday (because that's what brought some of this debate up again, I think - some being vocal about shipping them on Twitter after the Christina Perri concert on Sunday) is very true: In the days of LiveJournal and the like these things would happen almost exclusively in closed communities, not completely out in public for everyone with internet access to see. But in the days of Twitter and Facebook and what else the liklihood that the actors or those close to them come across real person shipping is even higher than before. Even if you don't count those crazy enough to actually tweet the actors directly about it.

That's one of my biggest issues with the loud parts of their fandom. They claim the issue is the show's general treatment of minority groups, and it's true that OUAT undeniably has issues there, but then no one seems to care enough about the few POC or LGTB characters the show does have to fight for them. When they're called out on that the response is often that they don't want token characters. And I get that, to some degree, too. The Mulan story was poorly written and definitely felt like a half-hearted attempt to placate people who'd hoped a show that once promised to put a new spin on fairytales would manage to include at least one major LGTB character. But then discuss that. Explain to them why that story didn't work and what they need to do better. Explain why it's important that it's not just someone who appears in 1-2 episodes and then disappears, never to be seen again, either. But instead they go with what feels like and is sometimes openly referred to as a "SQ or nothing" approach and that's incredibly frustrating for those who do care about the same issues they're hiding behind. Because their approach does a lot more harm than good. And it's so very transparent. The fake care many of them expressed over Marian/Christie Laing as long as they could use her as a shield to hide behind with their obvious Robin/Sean Maguire/OQ hate was incredibly embarrassing. And the minute the show pulled their Marian = Zelena twisted, they dropped Marian/Christie like a hot potato to "ship" Robin Hood with the woman who must be considered his rapist. Because regardless of what one thinks about Robin Hood, what that stunt Zelena pulled was rape by deception. But that's totally okay because it's a man and one of the two men they hate more than anything else on top of that. That kind of hypocrisy only makes it easier for the writers to ignore the issues that continue to be a problem in their writing and brush them aside because the loudest voices are so obviously biased and can't be taken serious. Lovely.

Michael Raymond-James teamed up with some of his friends, including Sean Maguire and other actors like Donal Logue or Ben Barnes, to record a beautiful music video with a clear anti-bullying message. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taHjB1YLpWU&feature=youtu.be Edit: About that Rumple and Robin deleted scene. Goes to show that Adam once again responded to people who were polite. He was initially confused and thought fans were asking him for a deleted scene with them from episode 4.12, but then listened when they, patiently, explained the scene was featured in a special that aired before 4.12 and they assume it's from 4.17, then went back to look for it in the script to share it. At the same time you have some of the worst SQ bad apples in the responses to those very tweets, accusing him of god-knows-what and bashing the characters or the writing before they demand he post something for them too.