The Writers of OUAT: Because, Um, Magic, That's Why

[Rumsy4]

Some quotes from the interview:

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And the producers were mad at me because I tried to defend the fans’ point of view.

Of course they got mad. And I believe it becasue we know how touchy A&E are about criticism, and didn't Robert Carlyle say that he and Eddy had a falling-out over Golden Queen? 

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What I wanted for the original Robin, and I loved him, was for him to be more, to be stronger. 

Funny how even Sean knew that Robin was nothing more than a glorified Regina-yesman.

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And when they told me that Robin was going to be back, they said “No, no. It’s not because of the fans, we decided so”.

 A&E trying to safe face. lol

[Camera One]

Everything they decide is so halfway and warped.  Fine, fans were clamoring for Robin to come back, but how many of them were satisfied with Alt Robin?  Original Robin still died, though we're now supposed to think his soul wasn't obliterated... no need to save him from Underbrooke, then?  If they're not going to address it fully, then don't bother.  All it did was take screentime from the other characters, in basically the final season of the show as we knew it.  Heck, they could have done The Evil Queen/Alt Robin in Season 7.  But I guess it was a story they *really* wanted to tell now just in case they got cancelled. 

[Shanna Marie]

I put my Once rewatch temporarily on hold to rewatch the previous season of Game of Thrones (and good thing, too, since I'd forgotten a lot), and the on demand versions have little "inside the show" snippets with interviews with the writers after each episode. I have to say that D&D from GOT are even more punchably DudeBro than A&E. Some of their reasoning for things they do makes no sense, especially if you've read the books. But there was one comment that had me laughing out loud. They were talking about fitting in backstory, and they said they made the decision not to do flashbacks because "it's the hallmark of lazy writing."

I guess in the Once case, it's part of the fabric of the show, an essential part of the premise, but I still found that bit of possibly inadvertent shade amusing.

I think flashbacks used as part of the premise can work. I liked the way they used flashbacks in season one, where in a sense, that was the main story. I've been less keen on them since then, when either they've done "here is a situation in the present, and here's something kind of similar (though not really) that happened in the past" or "here's some random incident in the past that really has nothing to do with what's happening in the present, but we like playing with the past versions of these characters, so what the heck."

[andromeda331]

8 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

I put my Once rewatch temporarily on hold to rewatch the previous season of Game of Thrones (and good thing, too, since I'd forgotten a lot), and the on demand versions have little "inside the show" snippets with interviews with the writers after each episode. I have to say that D&D from GOT are even more punchably DudeBro than A&E. Some of their reasoning for things they do makes no sense, especially if you've read the books. But there was one comment that had me laughing out loud. They were talking about fitting in backstory, and they said they made the decision not to do flashbacks because "it's the hallmark of lazy writing."

I guess in the Once case, it's part of the fabric of the show, an essential part of the premise, but I still found that bit of possibly inadvertent shade amusing.

I think flashbacks used as part of the premise can work. I liked the way they used flashbacks in season one, where in a sense, that was the main story. I've been less keen on them since then, when either they've done "here is a situation in the present, and here's something kind of similar (though not really) that happened in the past" or "here's some random incident in the past that really has nothing to do with what's happening in the present, but we like playing with the past versions of these characters, so what the heck."

I liked the way they used flashbacks in season one too. They were telling a story too. They could have continued to use that in season two there were stories we didn't know and in season three they could have switched to Neverland stories Hook spent a lot of time there so did Bae which could have linked up Bae/Neal and Hook's relationship. 3B could have used it to filling the missing year seeing everyone readjusting to being back in the Enchanted Forest after nearly thirty years living with modern conveniences. Had they come up with a completed story for Camelot those flashbacks could have told that story too.  Its amazing how quickly the flashbacks random incidents. 

[Inquirer]

On 7/14/2017 at 4:44 PM, Shanna Marie said:

 I have to say that D&D from GOT are even more punchably DudeBro than A&E.

Good lord, yes.  They are damn lucky they have great material from a great (albeit inexcusably slow) writer to work with.  Their next show that's all their own sounds terrible.

[oncebluethrone]

1 hour ago, Inquirer said:

Good lord, yes.  They are damn lucky they have great material from a great (albeit inexcusably slow) writer to work with.  Their next show that's all their own sounds terrible.

What's their next show about?

[Shanna Marie]

1 hour ago, oncebluethrone said:

What's their next show about?

Something about what the present would be like if the south had won the Civil War. I'm sure that based on their track record of handling such sensitive subjects as slavery in GOT, they'll handle it with great nuance and sensitivity. (Sorry, I think I just strained something while laughing too hard.)

[KingOfHearts]

48 minutes ago, Shanna Marie said:

Something about what the present would be like if the south had won the Civil War. I'm sure that based on their track record of handling such sensitive subjects as slavery in GOT, they'll handle it with great nuance and sensitivity. (Sorry, I think I just strained something while laughing too hard.)

Wasn't that an episode of Sliders?

[Shanna Marie]

Did David Goodman get a promotion of some kind? He was there with A&E at the ComicCon panel, and I don't recall any of the other writers being included like that before. I didn't even have any idea what he looked like (not at all the way I pictured him based on his voice), so I'm pretty sure he hasn't been put out in front of audiences like that before. If so, maybe we're getting some adult supervision steering the ship. I generally like his episodes, and I've enjoyed when he's done episode commentary with Colin. He has good insights, and I've been impressed by the way he was able to draw Colin out and get him talking when it seems like he was a little shy in the first couple of commentaries they did together. He asked good questions and didn't hog the spotlight, which I consider a good sign. He doesn't come across as egotistical as A&E.

[daxx]

He probably subbed last minute when the other actresses flight was cancelled.

[orza]

David Goodman is an executive producer but not a show runner.  I doubt he was a last minute replacement since he also did the press interviews with Adam and Eddy.

Edited July 24, 2017 by orza

[Camera One]

This quote is from the A&E interview video posted in the Spoiler thread, but I am typing out one non-spoiler quote I'm responding to.

EDDY: When we sat down to write it last year, I would say we felt re-inspired and we felt re-invigorated because we were free from the 6 years of mythology and things we did before, and we could start going back to what we really loved, which was "wouldn't it be cool if we did this..." and "we'd never shown this" and "what's this person's backstory".

They contradict themselves like crazy.  This is supposed to be a continuation of the story with Henry, so why would they be "free from the 6 years of mythology"?  They're going BACK to what they "really loved"?  So the last few seasons was writing stuff they didn't love?  Yet they're keeping Regina, Rumple and Hook.  All they're "free" of are Emma, Snow, Charming, Younger Henry, Belle.... oh I get it now.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Camera One

[Rumsy4]

1 hour ago, Camera One said:

"wouldn't it be cool if we did this..."

I know we've made fun of their use of this phrase before, but this really, is the crux of A&E's writing flaws. Their writing remains shallow becasue they're perpetually distracted by some new idea they think is "cool". There is zero depth to their writing. 

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and "we'd never shown this" and

Season 7 is shaping up to be a retread of Season 1. So, how is he claiming that they've "never shown" something?

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"what's this person's backstory"

What does it matter? Nothing is relevant in the long run.

[Curio]

2 hours ago, Camera One said:

When we sat down to write it last year, I would say we felt re-inspired and we felt re-invigorated because we were free from the 6 years of mythology and things we did before, and we could start going back to what we really loved, which was "wouldn't it be cool if we did this..." and "we'd never shown this" and "what's this person's backstory". 

1

I don't get why they think they're going back to the whole "wouldn't it be cool..." style of writing when that's all they've been doing for the past six years. Also, if A&E were never truly interested in a multi-year, long-form storytelling format, why did they ever want to write for television in the first place? They should have just pitched the show as an anthology series if all they care about is exploring new shiny toys every week. 

Also, they felt "free from 6 years of mythology" while writing Season 7? They've been free of their own mythology from the get go! They never cared much about continuity or plot holes, so why are they pretending that now they're finally free from those pesky world-building and continuity details?

[Guest]

29 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

I know we've made fun of their use of this phrase before, but this really, is the crux of A&E's writing flaws. Their writing remains shallow becasue they're perpetually distracted by some new idea they think is "cool". There is zero depth to their writing. 

Frankly, I find it more frustrating that they still talk like they aren't in control of the writing.  We have six years of mythology, we can't do anything we really love.  Wah wah.

[Curio]

It's amazing to me that so many characters on this show never got the time they deserved, yet A&E still got bored with them and would rather throw them all away and start over. 

[Rumsy4]

4 minutes ago, ParadoxLost said:

We have six years of mythology, we can't do anything we really love.

Yeah. That was a really strange claim to make, even for foot-in-the-mouth Eddy. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Curio said:

It's amazing to me that so many characters on this show never got the time they deserved, yet A&E still got bored with them and would rather throw them all away and start over. 

Its not a good thing, but I can kind of understand this.

I generally find that with shows that decline in quality, that I usually can think of things they could do or focus on to bring a return to quality.

With this show they seemed to have reached a point that they had  scorched the Earth so broadly and badly that I couldn't come up with a single viable idea to get everything back on course that didn't require a full on Dallas shower scene proclaiming it all a dream.

That's why I wish they had just scrapped every character and started over if they had to go for a season 7.

Now of course, this being the show it is they don't get the excuse that they had to keep the mythology and they didn't have options.  I don't think I was alone in being hugely disappointed that they decided to go with Wicked Witch instead of making the curse that sent everyone back to the EF but Emma and Henry and subsequent memory loss have more than a one (not even) episode impact.  I was ready for a full on lets start fresh with the existing cast back then.

[Rumsy4]

4 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

That's why I wish they had just scrapped every character and started over if they had to go for a season 7.

I agree. It's more frustrating that they're redoing versions of fairy tales with just some of the old charatcers. A&E may be able to ignore continuity and mythology (poorly-developed as it was), but it's impossible to forget all that as a viewer. 

[Camera One]

10 hours ago, ParadoxLost said:

That's why I wish they had just scrapped every character and started over if they had to go for a season 7.

As with everything, they want to have their cake and eat it too.  They want to dangle carrots for old viewers to stay.  They still like writing for Regina and Rumple.   They want to spend more time on shiny new toys without having to write for the boring Charmings.  So this is what we have... a reboot not reboot with a new beginning not new beginning a continuation but new viewers don't need to know anything.  As usual, a mash-mash of ingredients thrown together to create a half-baked story.

Edited July 27, 2017 by Camera One

[Camera One]

Funniest thing I've read today:

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S‏ @BlueMonkey19  Jul 25

Why was Emma made to be so passive in her last ep-she didn't even get to remember on her own and she basically lay down and die?

Adam Horowitz‏  @AdamHorowitzLA

Replying to @BlueMonkey19 @ButtercupPB

I saw her as incredibly brave and active. But that's just my opinion.

Edited July 28, 2017 by Camera One

[KingOfHearts]

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I saw her as incredibly brave and active. But that's just my opinion.

She's just as brave as Snow White was when she ran from the Evil Queen, got taken in by dwarves, and got kissed awake by a prince she met once.

Emma was very passive all through S6.

"Oh woe is me, I'm slated to die. Better brood by myself and not tell anyone."
"Oh my boyfriend mysteriously disappeared? Better cry about how much he doesn't love me at some random bar."

The only active thing she really did was ask Hook to move in with her. Everything else was just reacting.

Edited July 29, 2017 by KingOfHearts

[Camera One]

It shows how utterly unaware A&E are.  Emma was the definition of passive last season.  A&E probably think they gave Snowing an awesome exit storyline in Season 6.

Edited July 29, 2017 by Camera One

[Camera One]

Adam has been really active on Twitter lately.  Such words of wisdom:

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Adam Horowitz‏  @AdamHorowitzLA  3h3 hours ago

Replying to @Joe_Alter123

To be fair, you don't know what you know or don't know. Beware "leaks!" #nospoilers