october

I wouldn't be surprised. As far as I can recall, apart from Snow (who wasn't around much because of Ginny's maternity leave), Regina was the only one of the core cast who had no significant interaction with the Frozen characters. Emma, Charming, Hook, Rumple and Belle all got notable one on one scenes or entire episodes with Elsa, Anna or Hans. It's impossible to imagine Adam and Eddy letting this happen by choice. I hope the person who intervened has a good day today :) No idea on the veracity of this next tid-bit, but I've also seen some people name check Adam and Eddy's former assistant and leader of their production team, Felix Hernandez who did stick with the show up to S6, but in the less directly involved role of Producer in A&E's shows from 3B of OUAT onwards. He also worked as production staff on OUATIW. Some theorise that Hernandez was one of Adam and Eddy's bts babysitters until he moved into a more hands-off role after the Neverland arc.

I think that's exactly what it was.

I've always gotten the impression that it was Jen who started putting down boundaries between them. It was Jen who walked away from Lana while the latter was trying to secretly film her during the Upfronts before S6, for example.

By the time he met Emma, Neal had been in modern America long enough to adjust to new cultures and technologies, to learn to steal and drive cars, to learn that people made fun of women drivers, to get a fake ID, to learn to get around modern locks and security systems, to get contacts he could fence stolen goods to, to get a job and to lose his accent. In all that time, he must have noticed the lack of child brides in his new home. When he met Emma, he would've spent more time in the modern US than he did with the Darlings in Victorian England. He showed no sign of having held on to his Enchanted Forest attitudes and he behaved in a way that was indistinguishable to a modern man (even his chauvinism seemed distinctly 21st century, instead of faux-medieval). As quickly as Hook adjusted to Storybrooke, the show at least paid lip service to him being 'old fashioned' in certain ways. Plus, I don't remember them portraying Hook as being ready to bed a teenager. Then there's Neal's shitty reaction to Emma calling him out for what he did to her. In the decade that followed their relationship, he had plenty of time to ruminate on the gravity of his actions. Instead, he laughed in her face. That's not ignorance or a difference in culture. That's just being an asshole. So I don't see any weight to the argument that it was a culture thing. I really think it was all down to Adam and Eddy needing to desperately preserve their plot twist, no matter the troubling implications and inconsistent characterisation that would result.

That scene broke my heart. I'm not even being melodramatic. It was genuinely distressing for me and I don't usually react that way to episodes of TV. I was shocked at how nasty the whole thing was, especially when I realised we were supposed to find it funny. As writers, Adam and Eddy are the perfect storm of incompetent and depraved. Something as open ended and fuzzy as a Wish Ream was always going to be gross and incoherent when put together by their hands. The one and only thing that would've gotten me to tune into S7 would've been them being replaced by someone with a soul. I hope that with Snowing playing a fairly substantial role in part 2 of the finale that they're the ones kissing Regina's ring this time.

Maybe it's a PR thing. Saying the show could've gone on for longer sounds better than being all 'yeah we kinda knew our days were numbered when they moved us to Fridays.' Though in Lana's case, it's probably a bruised ego too. She made a big deal over her involvement in the development of the season and she's the top billed female lead for the first time. Unlike her cast mates, she put all her eggs in the OUAT basket, so naturally cancellation would've hit her the hardest.

Wow, I'm actually... okay with this. In my opinion and as it stands now at the end of S7, the universe of Once is a world class mess; lazily derivative and yet nearly impossible to relate to, so sparsely populated it's practically barren, lacking in any real sense of community, socially insensitive, culturally ignorant, at times morally abhorrent, and full of potential that should've been realised but hardly ever was. The only consistent thing about it is that it makes no sense by any rational metric. So I honestly cannot think of a single character more appropriate to rule over it than Regina Mills. Long live the Queen.

I just think of the fans I've seen online over the past months who were initially excited about S7 and the new characters, but who drifted away out of boredom, frustration or disgust before the season even hit the halfway mark. These were the people out defending S7 against the naysayers. But even they ultimately had to tap out because the show was alternating between being a boring slog or being actively offensive. So where do they figure in Eddy's elaborate conspiracy wall chart of people to pin the cancellation of the show onto?

I think it's a question of priorities as well. We had four years of Colin playing a LI on this show. Been there, done that. But KnightRook is something fresh and (the circumstances of Alice's conception aside) it seems to be going down really well. By focusing on that, the show would be doubling down on something it's doing reasonably well, instead of spreading limited screen time too thin with more subplots than these writers can handle.

According to GLAAD, gay men make up almost half of all LGBT representation on prime time television and cable (which is a lot considering gay men don't make up half of the LGBT+ population in real life). All corners of the community need more substantial representation but, statistically speaking, gay guys (especially white ones) aren't being crowded out by queer women. I'd be glad to see a queer male character on OUAT for the same reason I'm happy to see a WOC playing Cinderella. But I'm not convinced Adam and Eddy understand what they did wrong with Ruby, Mulan and Dorothy. So much of their writing comes from a place of wanting to pre-empt or neutralise criticism from fans to protect their egos rather than writing sincerely from a place of empathy. And the result is that much of their attempts at diversity end up feeling hollow and forgettable.

CS is all about the slow burn and the (metaphorical) baby steps. So, with that in mind, I think they should get a dog next. The house is big enough and we hardly ever see Pongo any more. Hook has the time to care for a pet and Emma could take it out on patrols. Colin and Jennifer both have dogs, so they'd be comfortable on set with one. And, with her upbringing, Emma probably never had a pet (though who knows, maybe in S6 we'll find out she had a parrot who was actually Iago from Aladdin). Sharing responsibility for a pet could also help them figure out whether they'd want to have children together or if they feel their family is large enough as it is.

That was a real WTF moment for me. When Regina went into her S4 downward spiral and started to believe that fate was against her it was all because of the loss of Robin. Otherwise she had everything she could reasonably want in life: a good relationship with Henry, her former victims burying the hatchet and tripping over themselves to be her best friends, a big house, her magic, material wealth, personal safety, a cushy job. And despite being separated from Robin, the guy was still in love with her and didn't hold her executing his wife against her. Instead she's all 'my life is ruined!1!!'

It's not that I disagree, because this is something I really would like if the show actually developed it. Their conversation on the Jolly Roger in early S3 about villains not getting happy endings could've been a great springboard for this kind of dynamic. But instead the show sidelined that potential in exchange for the (very) occasional barb or snarky comment. I see no foundation for a sibling-like relationship between them, because even something like that requires work. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that Hook has zero respect for Regina and actually has every reason to despise her because of her treatment of Emma. In 3A he noticed and intervened when Regina was giving Emma a hard time ('You got us lost!' 'No she didn't') and he complimented Emma on showing patience in dealing with her. While he didn't make a comment about Regina's terrible attitude towards Emma in 4A, there are times you can see him reacting in the background. For example, in 4x03 during the 'looks like the saviour needs saving' scene he rolls his eyes when Regina says 'I hope you're bringing back up' as if he's thinking 'oh, here we go'. And it wasn't lost on him that the situation with Regina's love life was taking its toll on Emma emotionally. As for 5A.... god, where do I even begin? Between giving him shit just seconds after the woman he loved disappeared in a cloud of evil smoke to calling said woman 'stupid' (even though she saved Regina's life) things didn't exactly get off to a great start. Hook was frustrated and angry when he accused Regina of wanting Emma out of the way, but I don't think he would've said it if he didn't sometimes wonder if that was really the case. In the very next episode she's unnecessarily using the dagger to control Emma (something he was passionately against) and pressuring her to use her dark magic to save Robin. Then there's the matter of Hook walking up to find Regina torturing his girlfriend with the dagger, to the extent that he had to rip said dagger out of Regina's hands. Regina isn't Killian's annoying pseudo-sister who pulls his pigtails sometimes. She's the sadist who exploits his girlfriend and makes her feel like shit. I think her behaviour is too toxic for me to find fun in Killian calling her out, because it's not as if it has much effect on the way she treats him or anyone else. I'd want this dealt with if the two started interacting more. I was totally in the same boat. For a show where the first major romantic couple's signature line is 'I'll always find you', it was unthinkable to me that their daughter would end up with a Mr 'Meh, she'll be okay on her own'. A Neal and Emma endgame could've been used as a contrast to the fairy tale element of the show. Not every romance needs to be true love's kiss or 'you traded your ship for me?'. But Neal's behaviour was beyond the pale even by mundane, real world standards. 2A was partly about Emma getting used to having a family and people who wanted to put her first. Neal just didn't fit in. I never took SwanFire seriously, and that's not down to 'CS goggles'. Neal was already worm food by the time I became invested in CaptainSwan and even in Neverland it was obvious which way the wind was blowing with regards to the love triangle. I think MJR was miscast and Neal as a character was a charmless, downbeat, mumbling, emotional coward. As for S2, my trouble with the relationship was that everything they had was rooted in the past (a past filled with pain and regret). Their romantic feelings were lukewarm leftovers from a ten year's dead affair and they didn't need to be together to raise Henry. The show already had an unconventional family tree, so I didn't see them going the Parent Trap root and putting Neal with Emma because he ejaculated over a decade ago. When he said he'd have never gone near her if he'd known who she was, I saw no indication that he was lying or in denial about his feelings. He is someone who had, explicitly and repeatedly, put his own needs ahead of hers. That's abysmal. Instead of showing how present-day Neal and Emma would make a good team, we were given multiple examples of him making her life harder. He disrespected her in front of Henry, doubted her instincts, brought Tamara to Storybrooke (a bad and selfish idea even if she hadn't turned out to be evil), and he made inappropriate cracks about Emma not being over him. Even his apology for sending her to prison was a complete let down. I remember waiting for him to have the visceral, heartbreaking realisation of what Emma would've gone through having his kid behind bars. I wanted to see him realise that he and Emma could've raised Henry as a family if he had chosen differently. But all we got was a soliloquy about his feelings and regrets that rang hollow seeing as he'd had multiple chances to come find her (August practically invited him to town when the curse was broken). I don't care that he was scared she'd never forgive him. Knowing the truth could've brought her closure. But, again, Neal put Neal first. Also, I found it odd that Snow and Charming appeared to have so little problem with Neal despite having enough information to piece together what he did to Emma. There's so much drama there and the show wasted it. That hinted to me that Neal wasn't going to end up with Emma, otherwise the writers would've planted more seeds for future conflict (this was back before I realised how dodgy these writers are though). I think the circumstances I watched S1-3 of the show under may have shaped my feelings about the character as well. The show was already in its mid-S3 hiatus when I sat down to watch. I binged watched episodes from the pilot onwards with few breaks, so I had little time to ruminate between episodes. I wasn't part of the fandom so I knew nothing about actor contract negotiations or spoilers. I think if I was in shipper-space during this time (seeing the arguments and the meta, and reading the interviews that talked up the SwanFire dynamic, etc.) maybe then I'd have considered Neal a contender. But in my nearly completely unspoiled, binge-watching bubble the idea never even entered my mind and if anyone would've suggested it to me I would've found it laughable. All I saw was the guy Emma needed to come to terms with in order to move on with someone else.

The denial is certainly robust (most polite word I could think of). Saw this gem on Tumblr recently: The two parts I bolded are an especially amazing in how distorted and selective they are. In fact, flip the names on some of these and you might have something resembling a half-accurate summary of 5a. And FYI this was written by someone claiming to be 27 years old. I'll be honest, I do feel a little bit sorry for them (against my better judgement). But sometimes it's like watching someone set themselves up for the biggest fall. I want to laugh but all I can think of is the mess they're going to make when they hit the ground. Or 'if they hit the ground', gotta remember that deep, deep denial. This show could end with CS married and Emma pregnant with Killian's kid and there'd still be swen preaching SwanQueen. I think it'd go a little something like: "Don't you understand? This show went against modern fairytale tropes by having an unhappy, tragic ending! Emma is trapped in a loveless marriage just like when she was pregnant and trapped behind bars! If we'd had one more season then Regina would've saved her and we'd have had SQ!"

Oh God. I got curious and had a look on the twitter post with the IG link and a couple of sq shippers are trying to argue that Jen goes out with Lana but never posts pictures because CS fans would be mean to her about it. There are species of mould with more self awareness than these guys. The hell? Deserve? This is JMO's personal IG page, not a shipper fantasy service. She could post only pictures of her dog if she wanted to. The entitlement: IT BURNS.