S07.E22: Leaving Storybrooke

[KingOfHearts]

28 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Yes, I think that was the main thing that gave me some feelings.  Mark Isham is so awesome to put so many tracks for streaming on his Soundcloud, especially since there hasn't been a soundtrack released since Season 2.  I'm listening to "Wedding In the Woods" right now and I'm enjoying the music even though I hated that scene.  A&E lucked out in so many ways with this show it's not even funny.

 

I still love "Magic", the theme that plays when magic comes to Storybrooke. It's just so whimsical and filled with anticipation. All the villain themes fit the characters so well.

Edited May 20, 2018 by KingOfHearts

[InsertWordHere]

4 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

I still love "Magic", the theme that plays when magic comes to Storybrooke. It's just so whimsical and filled with anticipation. All the villain themes fit the characters so well.

I have to say the Evil Queen theme is probably my favorite Regina-related thing. 

[Rumsy4]

46 minutes ago, InsertWordHere said:

A truly gracious person would have pulled an Aragorn after the first bow. “My friends, you bow to no one.” But she’s no Aragorn. 

That she's not. Her hands are the farthest from being the hands of a healer. :-p

32 minutes ago, PixiePaws1 said:

You forgot Regina..she  TRUE LOVES herself...!

There was nothing about Regina gifting a piece of her own heart to cast his reverse Dark Curse. It was all about what she could get from other people. And I doubt Clone Queen would have given a piece of her heart for this venture.

18 minutes ago, CCTC said:

She seemed to be enjoying the adoration just a little too much.

Didn't she say something like--I can't wait to see what's next for me....and everyone else.

[KingOfHearts]

Just now, InsertWordHere said:

I have to say the Evil Queen theme is probably my favorite Regina-related thing. 

I love the theme that plays when the original Curse is coming. It's so ominous and really shows how victorious Regina felt in that moment. 

[Camera One]

16 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

I love the theme that plays when the original Curse is coming. It's so ominous and really shows how victorious Regina felt in that moment. 

And now we know - all she really wanted was to become The Good Queen™, coming to CBS this fall.  A sequel to The Good Wife™ and The Good Fight™, The Good Queen™ follows Regina, the Queen of Everything, as she takes on the lawyers of Chicago.  Bow down, Alicia Florrick and Diane Lockhart, the REAL Queen of the bar is here.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Camera One

[InsertWordHere]

3 minutes ago, Camera One said:

And now we know - all she really wanted was to become The Good Queen™, coming to CBS this fall.  A sequel to The Good Wife™ and The Good Fight™, The Good Queen™ follows Regina, the Queen of Everything, as she takes on the lawyers of Chicago.  Bow down, Alicia Florrick and Diane Lockhart, the REAL Queen of the bar is here.

If we’re lucky, she’ll go to The Good Place ? Offscreen, of course. 

[Camera One]

I forgot that The Good Queen™ needs to put in an appearance on The Good Doctor™ as well.

[KingOfHearts]

Just now, InsertWordHere said:

If we’re lucky, she’ll go to The Good Place ? Offscreen, of course. 

But before she does, she'll be getting treatment from The Good Doctor.

Just now, Camera One said:

I forgot that The Good Queen™ needs to put in an appearance on The Good Doctor™ as well.

Dang it, @Camera One!

[Camera One]

LOL, I guess we're all on The Good Wavelength™.

[tennisgurl]

Regina manages to be The Good, The Bad, AND The Ugly! Guess which one she considers herself, and which one I consider her! 

*Sigh* I wonder if the woman who’s husband Regina killed on her wedding day voted for her as the Newly Elected Queen of Everything?

Edited May 20, 2018 by tennisgurl

[andromeda331]

4 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

That coda from Regina deciding to merge the worlds for no sane reason to her being crowned queen of the universe was so ridiculous that I can't even be mad about it. The "all in Regina's head" thing works for me. 

This may end up being my new headcannon for the entire show. Regina was arrested, tried and convicted after the end of 2A for all her crimes and locked away but in her head she keeps thinking it turns out this way. It explains the sudden switch. In her mind of course everything would always become about her. Eventually everyone loves her, she has everyone being her cheerleaders, Henry loves her and always sides with her against Emma who begged to be her best friend, everything happened right up to being voted Queen of the Everything. Meanwhile outside Storybrooke still exists and has its own elected government and tourist town for fairytale characters who wanted to stay but not cut off the other Realms. Passage on the Jolly Roger or other ships or Purchase of your own magic bean (reasonably priced). Snow's Queen and has a great relationship with her daughter and grandson as does Charming who gets a long great with Hook raising their children together, as all the Realms are very happy. Granny's franchising her diner.  Some ideas from Land without Magic are being incorporated but not all.  Rumple is also locked away for his crimes in his mind everything else went very differently too.     

[Jinxie]

One more thought - if this new merged lands thing is a "curse," does that mean it can be broken with true love's kiss?  And then everything will be separate again?  

[Rumsy4]

All the Realms being together is such a boring idea to end the show with. So, nobody can get away from anybody? None of them wish to? Everyone is united and at peace all the time? 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Rumsy4

[Camera One]

It could have been an interesting premise to explore, but then again, this is the show where a whole realm of people arrive (eg. Camelot, Land of Untold Stories) and there is zero impact on anything.  The Enchanted Forest people alone would not vote for Regina, much less people from these multitudes of different realms.  Wasn't Zelena always seeking The Love of The People™?  So her Happy Ending would also be Queen of all the realms, right?  What happened to the Normal Boyfriend, anyway?  But that was the 2017 Zelena we were looking at for much of this episode?  What happened to the 2035 one?  Still in San Francisco?  Was the Tiana at the Coronation some other Tiana, and there's another one in Seattle 25 years in the future?  You can't think about this episode too much or you would go crazy with confusion.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Camera One

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, Jinxie said:

One more thought - if this new merged lands thing is a "curse," does that mean it can be broken with true love's kiss?  And then everything will be separate again?  

I will say at very least everyone who "voted' in these lands are trying that right now. Hopefully it'll work.

[Ravon Okiro]

I wonder why they couldn't get Georgina Haig and Elizabeth Lail back, even for a cameo?  If Arendelle was truly merged with the other realms, as I thought I saw it with the other kingdoms, why couldn't Elsa and Anna make another appearance?

That said, I will be alone at this table when I say that in spite of all its faults, I shall really, truly miss the show.   Sure, it definitely fell from what it used to be.  But nonetheless, I always found something to enjoy about it.  It's amazing how I won't be looking forward to my Sunday (or Friday) nights anymore since it's over now.

I will miss you, Once Upon a Time.  None of the haters will ever take my memories of you away from me.

[Rumsy4]

It was hilarious when Regina got anxious that Emma and Hook hadn't arrived for her coronation. Did she even mention Emma once in the past twelve years? But suddenly she wants her to witness her being crowned Queen of Everywhere. Typical. Lol.

8 hours ago, Camera One said:

It could have been an interesting premise to explore, but then again, this is the show where a whole realm of people arrive (eg. Camelot, Land of Untold Stories) and there is zero impact on anything.  The Enchanted Forest people alone would not vote for Regina, much less people from these multitudes of different realms.  

Can you image the people of enchanted Scotland (especially Merida) voting for Regina? Or someone with the personality of king Arthur? Or king George? The children of all the people Regina massacred? The black knights whose hearts were in her control, unless she still hasn't returned them? Why would people of Cruella's perpetually flapper realm want to be "ruled" by a queen? Realistically, within a few years there will be forty different warring factions squabbling to establish their own kingdom borders. It will devolve into an EF-like situation with a kingdom every two blocks. 

Are there multiple Wonderlands? Do the multiple versions of the fairy tale charatcers (who may or may not look alike, depending on whether or not they are wish versions), hang out to compare life stories? It somehow takes the magic and adventure out of things to have all the Realms in one place. Does Agrabah still have a desert climate or is it fated to have Maine weather now? Most of the native plant and animal life will find it hard to adapt to the new climate.  

1 hour ago, Ravon Okiro said:

I will miss you, Once Upon a Time.  None of the haters will ever take my memories of you away from me.

Don't worry. There are plenty of people like you, especially on tumblr. I hope by "hater" you don't mean someone who blindly criticizes the show, because I don't think I am. I certainly don't wish to ruin anyone else's memories. :-) 

[Camera One]

I think the first thing Snowing would have done would be to try to get though to Wish Henry.   But then that would have taken away from Regina's declaration of love and sacrifice.

[Rumsy4]

1 minute ago, Camera One said:

I think the first thing Snowing would have done would be to try to get though to Wish Henry.   But then that would have taken away from Regina's declaration of love and sacrifice.

And would have cut down the time needed for Snow to give one last pointless hope speech.

[chrisvee]

Farewell, OUAT! You were one of my great TV loves for three seasons, then I just hung on for dear life until Emma got her happy ending. 

[Camera One]

17 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

And would have cut down the time needed for Snow to give one last pointless hope speech.

They put very little thought into that beyond "hope speech".  So Snowing was running around the kingdom trying to give people hope?  What was the point?  Instead of watching them find the books, they basically had Snowing exposition that.  Can you imagine what Wish Henry's reaction would be to see his grandparents alive and younger?  Would that trigger memories of his happy childhood with Wish Snowing and Emma?  In an alternate version of this episode, Wish Henry drops the sword because he looks beyond Regina and sees Snowing standing there and he runs over.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Camera One

[Rumsy4]

Ideally, Emma should have been the main pivot for Wish Henry's change of heart. She would apologize to him for abandoning him and talk him out of killing Regina. Then, Snowing would come over and give him a hug and he would feel that maybe he could regain a lost family in Storybrooke.

Him accepting Regina has his mother was pure drivel.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Rumsy4

[Camera One]

9 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

Ideally, Emma should have been the main pivot for Wish Henry's change of heart. She would apologize to him for abandoning him and talk him out of killing Regina. Then, Snowing would come over and give him a hug and he would feel that maybe he could regain a lost family in Storybrooke.

 

Yes, if Jennifer Morrison was available for more of the episode, that would have been nice.  But it needed to happen in Season 6, with Emma worrying about the Henry she left behind.  I'm afraid talking him out of killing Regina would become another "Regina is my friend" speech.  Ultimately, this episode was about Regina and her happy ending, so A&E would want it all about Regina sacrificing herself, with Snowing and Emma completely out of the picture.

Quote

Him accepting Regina has his mother was pure drivel.

This is the SECOND time A&E have written Henry accepting Regina as a loving mother even though it was completely unearned and a 180 from Henry's prior feelings.  It shows they never learned their lesson and basically, Henry was just a prop - again.  It was a little microcosm of the biggest problem with this show.  

Edited May 20, 2018 by Camera One

[Inquirer]

It'd make much more sense for Emma to be the one to talk Wish Henry down since it was Wish Henry about to kill Regina that made her come to her senses in 6x10, saying "When you couldn't hurt Henry, he was about to actually kill and become everything I never wanted him to be."

Granted, that's total BS, since killing a villain who just murdered two people should be considered heroic behavior and something Emma WOULD want him to be, but TS, TW.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Inquirer

[Rumsy4]

13 minutes ago, Camera One said:

I'm afraid talking him out of killing Regina would become another "Regina is my friend" speech.

I know. But I would have taken that over what we got, tbh. Regina saying "I love a version of you" as an excuse that WHenry accepted was laughable.

14 minutes ago, Camera One said:

This is the SECOND time A&E have written Henry accepting Regina as a loving mother even though it was completely unearned and a 180 from Henry's prior feelings.  It shows they never learned their lesson and basically, Henry was just a prop - again.  It was a little microcosm of the biggest problem with this show.  

Oh, absolutely. A&E think they can make the audience buy into anything just because they say so. While they can get their charatcers to act like puppets, that's not always going to work with the audience (or ever with some portion of it). In the case of Wish Henry, Regina was never a part of his life. She never did anything good for him, and worse, deprived him of all family in one stroke. So, it's even worse when compared to Henry Prime.

The leaked spoilers had some wrong information about this scene. The idea was that the merging of all Realms happened before WRumple was defeated. This causes a connection between the Prime and Wish versions of characters, and Wish Henry is able to feel Regina's love for Henry through his connection to Henry Prime. It sounded like absolute garbage at the time, but this actually may have worked as a half-assed explanation for Wish Henry's volte face. This connection would have also explained why Rumple transferring his heart to WHook killed WRumple.

[Camera One]

24 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

Oh, absolutely. A&E think they can make the audience buy into anything just because they say so. While they can get their charatcers to act like puppets, that's not always going to work with the audience (or ever with some portion of it). In the case of Wish Henry, Regina was never a part of his life. She never did anything good for him, and worse, deprived him of all family in one stroke. So, it's even worse when compared to Henry Prime.

Well said.  This was supposed to be a huge scene in the episode but it just didn't make any sense so it left me cold.  I liked Wish Henry and I could totally understand his anger, but as usual, they went all cartoon with it.  He should have started to have doubts when Wish Rumple used him to imprison Wish Blue.  But nope.  Maybe Regina could have said something Snow/Emma used to say a lot, and Wish Henry could have backed up but still angry, like "You know what?  You're right.  I'm not going to let my anger towards you darken me."  The hug was ridiculous and over-the-top.  After talking to Adult Henry, Wish Henry maybe could say he was beginning to understand why Regina did what she did, but he can't get over it.

24 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

The leaked spoilers had some wrong information about this scene. The idea was that the merging of all Realms happened before WRumple was defeated. This causes a connection between the Prime and Wish versions of characters, and Wish Henry is able to feel Regina's love for Henry through his connection to Henry Prime. It sounded like absolute garbage at the time, but this actually may have worked as a half-assed explanation for Wish Henry's volte face. This connection would have also explained why Rumple transferring his heart to WHook killed WRumple.

Even in Part 1 of the finale, WRumple was going on about if Rumple lost his powers, so would he.  I'm afraid it was never going to make sense any way we cut it.  The Operation "We Are Both" thing makes no sense anyway, since we still had a distinct Wish Henry and Adult Henry at the end.  

In that scene with the sacrifice, if I were Wish Hook, I'd probably say "I don't want your dirty heart."

Edited May 20, 2018 by Camera One

[txhorns79]

I didn't really understand the point of bringing all the kingdoms together, but I liked seeing all the old characters again.  Overall, I felt like the season really lost its way in the second half of Season 7.  It was kind of like they knew where they wanted the characters to end up, but had no idea how to get them there. 

[Camera One]

Just now, txhorns79 said:

It was kind of like they knew where they wanted the characters to end up, but had no idea how to get them there. 

That sums it up well.  In A&E's interview, they stressed that they knew where they wanted to end up - Regina being crowned The Good Queen, Rumple and Belle reunited, etc.  But they spend so little time thinking about how to get there in an organic fashion.  They would prefer to spend another episode or two spinning their wheels with Gothel and the serial killer.

[companionenvy]

This was probably the most fitting conclusion this show could have had, in that it had good elements to the end (Rumple's redemption, everything with Whook, Alice and Robin) but was destroyed by the writer's blind adoration for Regina, to the point of warping everyone else's personality, story, and natural human responses to serve hers. 

Look, absurd as I think it is that someone who started a years-long campaign of terror in order to avenge herself on a ten year old would be capable of real change, I'll grant the writers' premise that Regina of the later seasons is on the side of the angels and has shown at least a modicum of regret for her past. But you don't just get a mulligan on countless deaths and ruined lives. Under the circumstances, I don't need Regina executed for her past crimes, any more than I need or want that for Hook, a character I like far more and whose redemption was much more believable. But it is frankly offensive that this series ends with Regina being declared Queen of all Realms by a group that has to include, not only the Charmings, but many, many people whose loved ones have been slaughtered by her. Wish Henry is a perfect example of this. Could I buy him getting to the point where he decides not to kill her? Sure, although ideally it would have included a better explanation than "I didn't mean to." But that is a far, far cry from accepting her as his mother and beaming at her as she takes a throne that he, among others, should have some claim on - a throne that was once his grandparents, until she killed them. 

It is also an ending that is downright insulting to the other characters. I get that when JMo, GG, and JD decided not to come back, the showrunners had a right to go on without them, which meant a more prominent role for Regina. But if you're not a total hack, you have enough concern for the integrity of your story that you go on in a way that doesn't diminish the narrative that you were selling for six seasons - one in which Emma, for all of the increased Regina-focus, remained the hero. The initial idea of centering S7 around Henry and bringing back Rumple, Regina, and a version of Hook other than the one who wound up with Emma as important but still-supporting characters was a good one; it more or less preserved Emma's story, and created the opportunity for a "next gen" narrative with returning characters there to provide some continuity without totally invalidating the arc of the past six season.

But that only works if the most prominent figure at the end of that arc is Henry. While he was a returning character as well, as he had been a child/teen in the previous incarnation of the show, it doesn't take anything away from Emma, Snowing, or anyone else for him to get his own heroic story some years after the events of S6 -- and even there, I'd probably have preferred that the show stop somewhere short of making him king of all realms. But if Regina gets that ending in an episode that also includes the final end of OG Rumple's story, a version of Henry played by Jared Gilmore, and appearances by Snow, Charming, Emma, and OG Hook, well, then that is no longer the ending of a reboot. it is the ending of Once Upon a Time, S1-7, all finally revealed as one story in which Regina is the heroine of all heroines. And that really does destroy the ending we were left with in S6. Yeah, Emma still gets her happy ending with Hook, but she's been radically and irrevocably reduced in importance, her accomplishments apparently paling before Regina's ultimate triumph. I honestly wish JMo had refused to come back for this entirely.

I'm not even getting into the many timeline and logical problems, which I'll leave to Shanna Marie and others. But suffice to say that even if I didn't give much thought to the details of when everyone was in the timeline, the idea that Regina more or less unilaterally decides to merge the realms -- meaning that there will be duplicate and presumably triplicate and so on versions of tons of people --doesn't bear thinking about. As it was, it didn't do to think too much about Storybrooke's relationship to the rest of America, but once the various curses on the town line were lifted, it was at least possible to imagine its people having some kind of functional interaction with the wider world, even if it took a little bit of magical fudging to set people up with identities that would hold up outside of the town. But now, we're supposed to imagine a multi-verse worth of people, all of whom now see themselves as part of one, decidedly non-democratic kingdom, and most of whom, unlike the SBers, have no experience with the modern world, inhabiting a pocket of reality centered around a small town in Maine. In which many people are clones of other people. And at least a couple of worlds worth of people do have memories of, and even experience with, living in some version of the twenty-first century USA, and presumably might not want to entirely give up on elements of their cursed lives. So much for "We are Both."

[Rumsy4]

I saw in a gif that Gepetto and young Pinocchio are part of crowd in the coronation scene. Wish!Gepetto is dead. So, this has to be Storybrooke Gepetto.  Did August get de-aged again??! Poor guy. He'd better never get into any romantic relationship. 

Edited May 20, 2018 by Rumsy4

[Camera One]

LOL, this finale has plot holes up the wazoo.

5 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

Did August get de-aged again??! 

He probably had problems staying selfless, brave and true once again. 

Or maybe there was a second Wish Realm where time moved differently.

Or Blue got really bored and started animating more puppets.

Edited May 20, 2018 by Camera One

[InsertWordHere]

12 minutes ago, Camera One said:

He probably had problems staying selfless, brave and true once again. 

Blame Emma. She got herself a kid and a husband so he could no longer be her selfless best friend (bleach) anymore.

[CCTC]

18 minutes ago, Camera One said:

Or Blue got really bored and started animating more puppets.

I agree with posts that used to be made about Blue - that she had to actually be evil and was covering up by appearing to be inept.  It should have revealed that she was the Black Fairy manipulating everyone the whole time (but with no Rumple-Gideon baggage).

[Camera One]

I decided to rewatch the montage of all the realms together since I have nothing better to do and LOL.

They rebuilt Mother Gothel's Tower!  Seriously?  

They brought over Victorian England Land and put Skull Island right beside it.  Can you imagine the outrage?

I do find it funny that Snow says at the coronation, "They wanted it to be you, Regina".  At least she didn't say "we".  We have to hold on to the scraps.

[KingOfHearts]

2 hours ago, CCTC said:

I agree with posts that used to be made about Blue - that she had to actually be evil and was covering up by appearing to be inept.  It should have revealed that she was the Black Fairy manipulating everyone the whole time (but with no Rumple-Gideon baggage).

Here, here. The Black Fairy is actually her alter ego that she "banished" years ago.

[coops]

Reading all the interviews with A&E I thought it interesting that they wanted to give Regina her happy ending as the final point in the story. There's nothing wrong with this if that was always their end game from but what strikes me as odd is what Regina (and the writer's themselves) class as a 'happy ending.' Being loved and adored by everyone? Well that, for most ordinary people, is a impossibility. As J.K Rowling once had Dumbledore point out, "really Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time". But where a lovable, kind and gentle giant like Hagrid fails, a mass murdering evil Queen succeeds, it seems. To me if would have be far more human if Regina's happy ending had been receiving the love and acceptance of the one person who really mattered to her, the one person she really loved- Henry. But the writers had Regina effortlessly achieve that seasons ago. Regina's entire arc throughout the the whole show should have been her figuring out to be a mother Henry could love. Or maybe how to truly earn forgiveness? Oh, wait, Snow and Charming forgave Regina seasons ago too. The writers just gave and gave and gave when it came to Regina. The only thing left to do was have the entire universe applaud her. Cringe.

The writers of Once should have watched even just a five minute clip of any episode of Xena. That was a show that knew how to write for a character searching for redemption or a "happy ending."

[Rumsy4]

1 minute ago, coops said:

The writers just gave and gave and gave when it came to Regina. The only thing left to do was have the entire universe applaud her. Cringe.

The writers of Once should have watched even just a five minute clip of any episode of Xena. That was a show that knew how to write for a character searching for redemption or a "happy ending."

Yes. And yes.

[legaleagle53]

3 hours ago, coops said:

Reading all the interviews with A&E I thought it interesting that they wanted to give Regina her happy ending as the final point in the story. There's nothing wrong with this if that was always their end game from but what strikes me as odd is what Regina (and the writer's themselves) class as a 'happy ending.' Being loved and adored by everyone? Well that, for most ordinary people, is a impossibility. As J.K Rowling once had Dumbledore point out, "really Hagrid, if you are holding out for universal popularity, I'm afraid you will be in this cabin for a very long time". But where a lovable, kind and gentle giant like Hagrid fails, a mass murdering evil Queen succeeds, it seems. To me if would have be far more human if Regina's happy ending had been receiving the love and acceptance of the one person who really mattered to her, the one person she really loved- Henry. But the writers had Regina effortlessly achieve that seasons ago. Regina's entire arc throughout the the whole show should have been her figuring out to be a mother Henry could love. Or maybe how to truly earn forgiveness? Oh, wait, Snow and Charming forgave Regina seasons ago too. The writers just gave and gave and gave when it came to Regina. The only thing left to do was have the entire universe applaud her. Cringe.

The writers of Once should have watched even just a five minute clip of any episode of Xena. That was a show that knew how to write for a character searching for redemption or a "happy ending."

Or just paid attention to their own spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.  Anastasia's redemption showed how to redeem a villain the right way, in a way that felt natural, organic, and logical.  For that matter, Hook's redemption is another example of how to do a redemption arc right.  Hook's redemption came about slowly and was earned as he finally learned that no, living for revenge alone is no way to live.

Speaking of redemption, did I just imagine it, or did Rumple's heart go from black to pure red about halfway between the spot where he removed it from his own chest and the spot where he put it into WHook's chest just before dying?  I'm guessing that rather than WHook now walking around with two hearts, his poisoned heart simply merged with Rumple's "purified" heart, and that neutralized the poison.

[tennisgurl]

12 hours ago, Rumsy4 said:

Can you image the people of enchanted Scotland (especially Merida) voting for Regina? Or someone with the personality of king Arthur? Or king George? The children of all the people Regina massacred? The black knights whose hearts were in her control, unless she still hasn't returned them? Why would people of Cruella's perpetually flapper realm want to be "ruled" by a queen?

Really, the more you think about it, the less the whole "all the realms put together to vote for Regina as their Queen" thing makes zero sense. I mean, lets just assume that she just squashed together the reals that we have actually seen, and not every single piece of fiction to ever exist. And lets assume that somehow she managed to combine all the many variations of characters, like WHookm and Hook Prime, or they all live together now. Lets assume those things. So, did Elsa lose her role as Queen of Arendale, so they can announce their fealty to Queen Regina? Does Agrabah not have a Sultan anymore? Did magical Victorian England just give up on their god appointed monarch to vote for some woman they dont know, after half the populace just got the right to vote? Did they disband the entire British army? And all the other militarizes? Is the Black and White horror world still in black and white? Being shoved into a neighborhood with a bunch of other places of vastly different cultures and climates, will their economies instantly collapse? Did they get a giant pool for the mermaids from Neverland, or are they just swimming around the Eastern Seaboard? And, again, why would any of these people vote for Regina, a person who, for most people, is either a ruthless dictator, a woman who stood in a line with a bunch of other people, or some random person who apparently dragged them all the way over here to the Land Without Magic because she thought it would be cool? Are they having classes to help people adjust to modern living, or does everyone stay in their bubble with their own tech? In which case, why even bother with any of this? Because they have to have some contact, as they apparently all voted and were witnesses to a massive, and yet top secret, political campaign, which I guess they had to explain to quite a few people what voting for a leader would even entail, and that itself would be a huge culture shock. Maybe they all voted for Regina because all they know her as the lady with massive amounts of magic power who brought them into this world on a whim, and can squash them like a bug? Or because Snow and Charming and company just handed them a ballot with only one name on it, and not knowing how voting works, just checked yes, and they smiled and said that was right? And thats not even getting into the many people of the EF who know her as the person who killed their loved ones, and have never heard anything close to an apology. The more you think about it, the more this seems less like a happy ending and more like a totally new show where a brave resistance of heroes and villains from all across fiction are forced to team up to take down the twisted regime of The Mad/Good Queen Regina. 

[KingOfHearts]

31 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

Or just paid attention to their own spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland.  Anastasia's redemption showed how to redeem a villain the right way, in a way that felt natural, organic, and logical. 

Amen. Anastasia wasn't even that bad to begin with. She even found Jafar's senseless killing off-putting. She sucked as a ruler, but she was determined to learn how to be a better one. Regina gave no flips about her people. Anastasia was also operating under the pretense that she could go back in time and erase everything, that way her evil deeds could be "justified" since they'd be erased anyway. She wasn't some psycho who loved killing for no reason.

5 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

The more you think about it, the more this seems less like a happy ending and more like a totally new show where a brave resistance of heroes and villains from all across fiction are forced to team up to take down the twisted regime of The Mad/Good Queen Regina. 

Let's be real - we would all watch the hell out of that.

[legaleagle53]

3 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

Amen. Anastasia wasn't even that bad to begin with. She even found Jafar's senseless killing off-putting. She sucked as a ruler, but she was determined to learn how to be a better one. Regina gave no flips about her people. Anastasia was also operating under the pretense that she could go back in time and erase everything, that way her evil deeds could be "justified" since they'd be erased anyway. She wasn't some psycho who loved killing for no reason.

Indeed.  She only wanted power because she wanted to escape the miserable life that her own mother (Lady Tremaine 1.0) would have imposed on her, and even after Cora trained her in the use of magic, it was obvious that Ana's heart (no pun intended) was never really into the villainy, which is something that Cora sensed immediately and was completely disgusted by.

[tennisgurl]

29 minutes ago, KingOfHearts said:

Let's be real - we would all watch the hell out of that.

I mean, I've never written fanfic before, but if someone else wanted to take a crack at that premise, I could get behind that...

[KingOfHearts]

Just now, tennisgurl said:

I mean, I've never written fanfic before, but if someone else wanted to take a crack at that premise, I could get behind that...

There are so many fanfic ideas, if I started writing I'd have no idea where to start.

[Souris]

I have a very concrete fanfic idea, but I doubt I'll have time to do it. I figure somebody else will get to the same idea first.

[Rumsy4]

1 hour ago, tennisgurl said:

The more you think about it, the more this seems less like a happy ending and more like a totally new show where a brave resistance of heroes and villains from all across fiction are forced to team up to take down the twisted regime of The Mad/Good Queen Regina. 

Sounds like the makings of an interesting sequel (in the hands of competent show runners who haven’t sold their souls to the Dark One Dagger).

The New Nevengers will discover along the way that Peter Pan had secretly a placed a spell on the original Nevengers, which turned them into doormats for Regina and Rumple. Breaking that spell would be a part of their quest. 

19 minutes ago, Souris said:

I have a very concrete fanfic idea, but I doubt I'll have time to do it. I figure somebody else will get to the same idea first.

There’s always room for any number of takes on the same theme. :-)

Edited May 21, 2018 by Rumsy4

[Camera One]

What about all the evil villains that Regina brought here from all those realms?  We saw that out-of-control Troll beside Gothel's Tower.  What if it came to Main Street and went on a rampage?  What about all the Ogres?  Blackbeard raiding ships?  

[KingOfHearts]

Man, if you told anyone several seasons ago that this was the ending, they'd tear their hair out and call you crazy.

[Camera One]

Extended scene.

Soundstage Heaven.  Beside the Well.

BELLE: I knew your pure heart would get you here.

RUMPLE: Have you been watching over me?  Did you wonder if I would waver without you?

BELLE: No, I trust the pureness of your heart.

CORA: Well, I've been watching.  I saw how you stole the magic that my daughter was trying to use to save Henry.  He could have died.

BELLE: Is that true, Rumple?

RUMPLE: Don't listen to her, Belle.  

CRUELLA: And that poor girl Anastasia.  You were going to pass all your darkness to her, even though you knew it was wrong when you tried to do it to the other young girl, Alice!

BELLE: *gasp*

RUMPLE: You!  How are you here?!

CRUELLA: Well, when you got to heaven, everything was re-calibrated and since I've only killed four people and you've killed... who knows how many, I moved up a level or two.

BELLE clutches her heart in pain.  

RUMPLE: Belle!  No!  I can't lose you again!   How can people die in heaven?  How is that even possible?

CORA: From here, there's an even better place, or a slightly worse place.  It's a little better than Underbrooke, but not as bad as Purgatory.  See there's actually a map over here.

RUMPLE: (cries) No, Belle, no!!!!!!!!!!!!

BELLE: When you redeem yourself once again, you shall find me.  I believe in you. (dies.  again.)

Edited May 21, 2018 by Camera One

[jhlipton]

13 hours ago, Camera One said:

I think the first thing Snowing would have done would be to try to get though to Wish Henry.   But then that would have taken away from Regina's declaration of love and sacrifice.

Seriously.  Or have Adult Henry talk to Young Henry.  Thius version was blergh!

[KingOfHearts]

1 hour ago, Camera One said:

BELLE: When you redeem yourself once again, you shall find me.  I believe in you. (dies.  again.)

Your princess is in another castle.