Souris

So there's a rumor that Jen is leaving after this season based on something Eddy said in this podcast. I'm not going to subject myself to listening to them for 30 minutes to find it, but if anybody does, please report back on the veracity. Adam replied on Twitter that nobody is leaving "by February" but didn't outright deny it like he did with fears about Lana leaving previously. I would not be in the least surprised if she is. As I said in her thread yesterday, it seems like Jen is completely over the show and never posts about it. Given what they've done to Emma & how they've sidelined CS, I wouldn't blame her in the slightest if true.

Interesting thought and also points to the writers' inability to focus on more than one thing at a time.

Ah yes, the Positivity Police who deem anything approaching criticism as "hate" that makes you a "bad fan." I can't convey the level to which they annoy the ever-living bejesus out of me.

Old Hook: :cough wheeze: "I have not realized my life's purpose of destroying the Dark One. It was a futile pursuit. My life has been a waste. :cough wheeze: Beautiful princess, I give you this magic bean with my dying breath." :cough wheeze death: Emma: "Score! Thanks, gramps! Now my baity bestie Regina and I can get home to our son! Our real-real one, not this maybe-real soon-to-be-orphaned one who we'll just leave to rule this realm at age 13 with the Dark One on the loose! But first we have to take this maybe-real dude with us for a few eps since that's the only reason we came here. Toodles!"

We should use that from now on. "This quote box won't delete! The wish did it!" "I didn't speed, officer! The wish did it! This isn't even a real car!"

I don't think Adam is backpedaling so much as telling people something that will maybe make them feel better and get them off his back. I don't for a minute think he understands people's objections. He thinks it was all crystal clear. And he would never admit to throwing other characters or messages under the bus, even to himself. And even if he did, he'd feel it justified in service of Regina. Emma's character is simply acceptable collateral damage.

Do it do it do it! My popcorn is ready!

That's absolutely in keeping with everything about this show and Emma's life!

Adam's been trying to explain things on Twitter. You may want to catch his tweets before he deletes them. Amusing/infuriating depending on how one views them.

They made him old because it would be "fun." They didn't make Robin old although he was a contemporary of Snow & Charming. They didn't age Granny. There was no logic or plot in it, just what they wanted it to be.

I don't think CS WAS the focus of almost the entire fifth season. The first half, sure. The second half, nope. I fully reject that premise. They actually got very little focus apart from one ep with the TL test. Heck, half their sorely-awaited reunion scene in the UW was cut! And their big payoff was Emma saying ILY for the 137th time.

Ah, but there would be the surprise factor of seeing which lines actually are in the ep and which aren't!

Some SQ sub/dom fanfic they all read.

IMO Jen seems really over Once. She's playing out the string because she's a professional but it's no longer fulfilling or exciting for her. She hasn't shown any excitement for the show at all this season -- which, given what Emma has had to play and the sidelining of CaptainSwan (which Jen has always seemed to really love), is perfectly understandable. TBH, nobody seems excited about the show anymore except Karen David.

The one Old Hook/Emma scene is one of Eddy's favorites, so of course it's going to make fun of Hook. I'm sure he'll be a pathetic figure. CS can't even get a scene alone, August has to be along for the ride. They'll probably just get a bean from him since he's a font of those, and that'll be it. As for this baity and hyped "epic" adventure CS is supposed to go on, there's no way it's just going to be CS together with Jaladdin, unless it lasts for only one episode (which is possible). They aren't going to separate the cast and have some off on an adventure for several eps while the rest are back in SB. They did that in S2 and it wasn't popular to the tune that they cut it shorter than they'd intended. So either everybody goes to Agrabah or it's a one-episode thing. It is NOT going to be a CS-only adventure regardless of what Adam wants CS fans to believe. Since most if not all of Agrabah will be done in-studio with green screen, we probably won't even get much spoilage about it once the show returns in January, so the fantasy can continue for CSers.

Basically CaptainSwan has become Snowing. It's now a background relationship. Emma's relationship with Regina and as part of the Swan Mills Family dynamic, romantic or not, is the only one that gets the focus now and will continue to get the focus. The scripts that A&E write are the ones that highlight the themes that are most important to them and by extension the show. All they write anymore are SQ episodes. That is the reality that the show is in now. If one can't see the major shift that occurred this season in terms of relationship focus, I don't know what to say. The sidelining of CS is crystal clear IMO. The setup BEGGED for a CS domestic scene or two and for Hook and Emma to talk about her vision of death. Neither happened. If the show at all wanted to focus on CS development or deliver on its promise to CS fans, those scenes would have happened. That they did not happen is proof of how egregiously CS has been sidelined. Most CS fans are hung up on what happened in the past with CS focus and that's what they still see, but that's not what's actually happening on the show these days. Fans often have a tendency to see what they want to see, in whatever direction. The way A&E and the show used to bait SQ, they now bait CS. They blatantly promise things they don't deliver. They hint but never actually show. Adam posts Hook script teases that aren't actually in the show. They know they can put in a shot of an engagement ring and CSers will squee and flail and assume it's for CS with zero basis for it, just like CSers assumed there would be some awesome CaptainDuckling scene in the AU. CSers assume a LOT. There are SQers who used to talk about having "dumb positivity." I think that has extended to some CSers as well. That is of course the right of anybody to see things how they want to see them but it seems to be the core of the CS fandom zeitgeist. A&E have ruined every romantic relationship on the show in one way or another. CS is just a more subtle form of ruination. It's ruination by neglect rather than ruination by plot, like OQ or RB. And if we're talking spoilers, I'm going to take the rest to the spoiler thread.

When is that Disney theme-park show supposed to be for? It seems like the obvious replacement for Once. So I figure when that's ready, Once is done. Will they fast-track it for fall? Or midseason next year?

The show writes to give SQers things they can hang onto. They know how they think and what they'll squee over, just like they know what CSers will squee over. It is a very deliberate thing on their part to give something to both sides. Adam always gives SQ something after CS has gotten something. It's also why they've avoided giving CS a TLK. That would be too concrete for SQ. Instead CS got a test SQ could explain away. That wasn't an accident. I don't think the show will cross that "event horizon" wth CS until the very end of the show, if then, in order to let SQ keep their plausible deniability. At some point last year, the show seemed to make a conscious decision to treat SQ as equal to CS in terms of who they write for, and this season they're writing more for SQ. They now bait CS the same in interviews and online exactly the same as SQ. The show will not slam the door on an SQ possibility that fans can believe in until the last possible moment -- if then. Adam bends over backward not to offend or upset SQ. CSers he doesn't seem to care about offending or upsetting. I think he's deathly afraid of SQers calling him homophobic or misogynistic. I'm also not sure why one would think 6x11 would be magically different or better for CS. It's still written by A&E. That's a pretty giant limiter.

That may still happen for part of the season. In fact, that's what I think WILL happen.

I liked 5A waaaaaaay better than 5B, even with the egregious Merida-ness of it. Even if it was hella angsty stuff for CS, at least they had some actual focus on their relationship. And Camelot was interesting for a hot minute. 5B had far too much Regina/Zelena focus. That gives me the hives. Plus things like Regina getting closure with her horse but confronting no murder victims apart from her father. Haaaaaaate! I must go backward to figure out my fave. 6A < 5B < 4B < 2B < 3B* < 4A < 5A < 2A < 3A < S1** Congrats, Show Nadir 6A! You beat the trend of all A arcs being better than all B arcs! But you've still got 6B to bump you out of Final Show Nadir. (Actually, what am I saying, I'm not planning to watch 6B, so that's likely my final ranking.) *Although the finale were my fave eps ever, there was Regina TLKing Henry without a heart & pulling light magic out of her ass. And I hated Zelena and never wanted to see her again. **The glory days before Woegina. 2A/3A are about the same rank for me. Difficult to decide between those. And I actually really loved the Frozen Trio actors, so that lifts 4A.

There's a lot of squeeing & "that must be when Emma meets Hook in the AU!!1!" So ... yeah.

ITA. SQers aren't idiots. They're well-coordinated and they've played Adam like a fiddle. They have forced their fanon ship into getting attention and loads of episodes written entirely to cater toward them. They get more attention than actual canon ships.

Actually they can be -- vehicular homicide.

What scenes were they?

The baiting of CS fans begins continues! (It really began with the "epic adventure" bait.)