Dani-Ellie

Those two are the like, prince and princess of Cutie Kingdom.

I have no experience with NerdHQ aside from this, so forgive me if this comes across as, "Well, duh, Danielle," but what I liked about that panel was that it was basically a no-holds-barred free-for-all. No one was there specifically to do PR for their respective shows, so it was just this big conversation. I felt like everyone could let their hair down a little bit and just go for it, you know? And it was nice to see them get into some of the deeper aspects of the entertainment industry, like how they don't always realize that what they do touches people's lives or what made them think about taking this career track in the first place.

Oh, absolutely. That's why I don't like to read AUs as a general rule. I prefer the stuff I read to be based in canon because I want to read the further adventures of the characters I see on my TV screen every Sunday. If I wanted to read about the adventures of two kids in high school, for example, I'd go get a YA novel. But that's just a personal quirk of mine, so the stories I clicked into that had the characters wildly OOC just rubbed me the wrong way. This is ultimately my issue, too. People are absolutely free to write their fic and make their art and squee all they want. But when their squee is so zealous that it becomes abusive to real people, that's where I have the issue. When neither Emma nor Regina were canonically attached, it was a little different because there was that little glimmer of hope. But now both of them are in canon relationships with other characters, and I'm sorry, but Captain Swan and Outlaw Queen are not going to go away. It may be disappointing to some but that's life. The overzealous fans need to find a way to deal with that that doesn't involve being harassing asshats.

This. I admit I was disappointed when Emma didn't say it in the loft but I ultimately liked the way it played out as aired, especially in light of Jen's comments. Because look, here's Emma, chickening out again. Afraid to say it because saying it might make it go away, like breaking a spell. So she hesitates, ultimately holds back, and really, they're both disappointed in that moment. And then later in the street, she knows. She knows saying it this time is going to make it disappear because of what she has to do but she gets over that fear and says it anyway. And in the end, it gives both of them hope. She gives Hook a reason fight for her (not that he wouldn't have anyway, but still), which in turn gives her hope because she knows that he will.

I don't know how prevalent it is now but there also used to be a LOT of breaking up the Charming Family so Emma is "free" to go to Regina. Snow and Charming don't approve of the relationship between them (for a variety of reasons) and Emma pretty much walks out the door and goes to her little family of Regina and Henry. And really, if that floats your boat, fine, but it's something I could never stomach because no. Just no. After everything Emma has been through trying to find her family, I do not buy her just walking away from them. I do not buy Snow and Charming being so insensitive to Emma that they force her out the door like that. Hell, I don't even buy Regina allowing it! Especially Fanon Regina, who's so super understanding. Why would Fanon Regina want her girlfriend to leave her family, the family she's spent her entire life searching for? At that point, you might as well just write original fiction, because the characters bare so little resemblance to the characters on the show that I honestly just do not get it. And look, I get subtext ships. But I just don't understand this insistence that subtext somehow takes precendence over text, to the point of berating the actors, the writers, and their fellow fans, and I don't think I ever will.

Dude, if you're worried that people are going to try to get you barred from the press room because you've posted nasty shit about one of the actors in the press room to the point that you tell no one you're going, the problem is not with the other people or the press room.

When I first saw the episode, I read the scene like Jen did (to the point that I had no idea people would read it differently until I came here and Tumblr) so I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that the intention was for Emma to be saving everyone. If it wasn't, they wouldn't have had that explanation of how Merlin stopped the darkness from consuming the realms by tying it to one person and they wouldn't have had Emma calling back to it during the scene in the street. I do think it was a way of putting the cap on the Regina and Emma bit set out in the first episode but I have no idea why everyone's so focused on Regina. Just because she was the one in immediate danger? They all were in immediate danger because the second the darkness destroyed Regina, it was just going to go on to the next person. And yes, Emma did tell Regina she'd come too far to have her happy ending destroyed now, bringing that storyline through to completion, but you know what? That scene brought two other storylines to completion, too. Emma turns to her parents and tells them to get the darkness out of her as heroes this time, thereby fully accepting what they did for her as a baby. She turns to Hook and tells him she loves him, bringing their little "be patient" bit from the season premiere full circle.

The Comic Con promos have never been canon. They're hat-tips more along the lines of "Hey, look what's coming!" and only the broadest strokes have ever made it onscreen. It's a promo, not a sneak peek. It's also very clearly meant to echo this deleted scene from the pilot.

When my supervisor asked me why I wasn't at Comic-Con, I told her it was too big. Pics like that illustrate why. My heart is fluttering just *looking* at that. I would be having a panic attack on that floor in about five seconds flat. ( ... I don't like small spaces. Or crowds. Basically anywhere I could possibly feel trapped. Holy yikes that it is *way* too many people in one space for me.)

Him and Emma on mine!

I cannot tell you how giddy it makes me that Hook has a quirked eyebrow. <3

"Savior" doesn't have to mean "the one who does." Emma sets things in motion. The fact that the citizens of Storybrooke can find some other way than Emma doing it for them is empowering in and of itself. And they can do that because Emma first weakened the Dark Curse and then broke it. Without Emma, they'd all still be stuck in their Groundhog Day existence. As the Savior, she provides them the means to better their lives. It doesn't necessarily mean that she has to constantly be the one in the line of fire. It doesn't mean that she personally has to go to every house in Storybrooke and hand a happy ending to the occupant. I actually like the fact that show has taken the tack that happy endings can't just be handed to people and they have to be fought for. Emma constantly running around and being a one-woman happy-ending machine undermines that notion. Emma's role in the story for me is basically a catalyst. Sometimes she needs to act, sometime she needs to inspire the action. Sometimes she needs to take charge and lead, sometimes she needs to let someone else take charge. Sometimes she needs to finish the fight, sometimes she just needs to start it. She doesn't have to be the one "winning" every time. It's a fluid thing that to me is so much bigger than that.

This. And in re: this discussion, I've always interpreted "Savior" as something bigger than "Breaker of the Dark Curse." Because even before the Curse was broken, we saw her returning happy endings. She got Ashley/Cinderella out of her deal with Gold, allowing her to keep her baby. She reunited Ava/Gretel and Nicholas/Hansel with their father. She fought against Regina's attempts to set Mary Margaret up for murder. Emma is the catalyst for change, which is not always an active role. Sometimes she's the one exacting the change (as with the above examples), sometimes she's the inspiration for the change (as with Hook's redemption arc and Elsa figuring out what made her control her powers). It's been said before in the behind-the-scenes specials that the color of Emma's Bug is not an accident. It's bright yellow, meant to signify the fact that she's bringing color to the dull world of Storybrooke. She is the color, the light, in these people's lives. And with this latest sacrifice of hers, she ensured that the light she's already brought wasn't snuffed out by the darkness.

This. Plus, after four full seasons of Emma being expected to be the savior for everyone, I'm more than ready for everyone to return the favor. Operation Save the Savior is a go, as far as I'm concerned.

Also, Elsa and Anna were both openly crying.

I sensed fondness and pride in Henry's smile when he said that, which indicated to me that he liked, got along well with, and was proud to learn from the Hook he knew. YMMV.

4x22: Henry: "I had a great teacher ... you."

But it was Isaac who said that, who would be speaking of her world by the rules he knows, which are the rules of our world because he's from here. This is why I don't think things the characters say can always be taken 100% literally, especially when you have someone like Isaac, who was just some random guy the Apprentice plucked out of obscurity to be the next Author. Like, did he have on-the-job training or was he just handed the pen with a "Now, off you are to record, see you later!" Was anything explained to him or did he just pick it up as he went along?

I guess I just don't see why Cruella's world being permanently Art Deco is a problem but time moving so differently in Neverland so that it keeps everyone in stasis isn't? The notion that all these lands with different rules and levels of magic exist in the same plane was introduced way back in 1x17 by Jefferson: Emma: This is it. This is the real world. Jefferson: A real world. How arrogant are you to think yours is the only one? There are infinite more. You have to open your mind. They touch one another, pressing up in a long line of lands, each just as real as the last. All have their own rules. Some have magic, some don't. And some need magic. Like this one. And that's where you come in. Yeah, the world-building could be better but I don't think Cruella's land is a retcon. It's just another one of these lands that have its own rules. People don't pay attention to time there. Maybe they have no need to. Maybe magic sustains the day-to-day stuff so people don't have to focus on being somewhere at a specific time. I don't think we can judge their world based on our rules because our rules don't necessarily apply there.

I didn't take "timeless" to mean that Cruella's world had no time at all. Clearly time passed within her world because she grew up. I took it to mean that the inhabitants didn't have a sense of time, in that no one really paid attention to how much time was passing. Without marking minutes and hours with clocks and days and weeks and months and years with calendars, it's very easy to lose track of time. If you're in a world that's never kept track of its time beyond sun up = wake up and sun down = go to bed, no one would have the slightest clue what day it was or what month it was or what year it was. (Hell, even years in our world are based on the religions of this world. I know BC and AD are now BCE and CE, but that doesn't change the fact that 2015 is based on the Christian notion of years since Christ's birth. If there's no Christianity in Cruella's world, their years might not even match up to ours anyway.)

So my mom's boyfriend's granddaughter is visiting this weekend. She turned two in March. When my mom turned on the TV this evening, whatever channel she'd left on was showing Jurassic Park. It was right at the part where Ellie's turning the lights on and the velociraptor jumps through the fence behind her. When I got to that part the first time I saw the movie, my twelve-year-old self actually screamed out loud in the theater. Little Samantha, on the other hand, doesn't so much as jump and then says, "Look! A dinosaur!" (Needless to say, my mom changed the channel pretty quickly after that. But still! Didn't even bat an eye! Twenty-first century kids, man.)

Foul language warning! Honestly, I'm getting so very tired of this whole thing. The SQ fans doing this are big giant fucking babies who have no concept that the world doesn't revolve around them. This is a TV show about mashed-up fractured fairy tales, for fuck's sake. It's not the Great American TV show, it's not going to be studied in history books a hundred years from now. It doesn't (and shouldn't) have to walk on eggshells to include some imagined character pairing that no one outside a small subset of online fans even knows exists. It's enterainment; it's supposed to be fun. If it's no longer fun for them, they're well within their rights to move on with their lives. They are not within their rights to bully, harass, and insult their fellow fans, the actors, the writers, the network, and anyone who dares posts a Captain Swan tweet or fanfic by telling them they're homophobic/supporting rape culture/"creepy as fuck." All that does is dehumanize everyone else, turn everyone else into an Other. If the show really makes them that angry, they should turn off their TV sets and computers and go outside or something, because again, this is a silly television show about mashed-up fractured fairy tales. If it doesn't really make them that angry, they should go read their fics and make their art and leave everyone else the hell alone. Basically, I just wish they would grow the fuck up, for Christ's sake. (Whew. I guess I needed that.)

I am now fully convinced these people don't have the slightest fucking clue how the world actually works. The actors promote their canon material on their Twitter accounts. Because this is their job. This is their livelihood. This is what pays their bills. Even if any of the actors found their storyline to be problematic, they could not and would not say so on Twitter. You don't bite the hand that feeds you in a public forum like that. If you do, you risk not only your job but your entire career. Everyone has to toe the company line, actors included. If any of the actors had a serious issue with a storyline, I bet you dollars to doughnuts we would never hear about it because those are the kinds of things that get discussed in private and behind closed doors. As for Sean being submitted for an Emmy, pretty much everyone who has a speaking role on a show gets submitted for an Emmy, usually by the actor's team. It's basically a marketing move for the actor. That's how the industry works. Also, some of them really need lessons on separating fantasy and reality. Hate Robin Hood and Outlaw Queen all you want, but Sean Maguire is just a guy doing his job.

My issue isn't so much the interpretation of canon as it is the lack of respect. People are obviously free to interpret what transpired onscreen however they want, but here you have the actress playing the character explaining what was going on in the character's head at the time and how big this sacrifice actually is, and she's getting mocked for it. And I bet you any sum of money that if Lana had been the one to say that Emma made the sacrifice for everyone, not just Regina, we wouldn't have this Savior Town nonsense at all. They don't respect the character or the actress, and really, that's fine. But keep that shit to yourself. You (a group, general you, here) are not allowed to harass someone for months and years and then cry "I don't know what her problem is" when she tries to clarify a huge, important, and impactful moment in her character's story arc.

What I love about this situation is how the official account is taken as the gospel truth when it's something they like but the second there's something they don't, the official account is "disgusting" and "gross." The official account is run by an intern or group of interns who probably also run a few of the other official accounts for other shows. It's an advertizing tool, plain and simple. Emma did not sacrifice herself solely for Regina. Regina was part of it, but Emma's sacrifice is so much bigger than any one person. (Hell, it's even bigger than the town, since the Apprentice said that the darkness was previously going to "consume the realms," which suggests its destruction wasn't going to be localized to any one spot.) Suggesting otherwise cheapens it and I'm glad Jen addressed it.