Spontaneous Musings

1. Halfway through my marathon of S1 Once Upon a Time, and have picked up on the following tidbits:

* The writers have an ironic sense of humor, which I rather enjoy. In the commentary, they admit that they not only fell in love with the character of Rumplestilskin in the pilot and immediately expanded upon his character as result, but that they wrote the character with Robert Caryle in mind - praying he'd say yes. They also wrote the character of Snow White for Ginnifer Goodwin, praying she'd accept.

* According to the pilot's commentary, the writers think they are writing the evil queen sympathetically, but in reality she's coming across as sort of stupid and emotionally overwrought - all the time. Rational thought or for that matter common sense or even logic doesn't appear to be in her makeup. Seriously lady, you are blaming a ten year old for the death of all of your romantic dreams? Considering your mother killed the guy, I think this is a bit harsh. I think Regina likes scapegoats and despises blaming people she loves or herself for anything. Makes her difficult character for me to like/sympathize with on any level, because my pet peeve is folks who scapegoat or refuse to take responsibility. I'm the opposite, I take responsibility for just about everything, so people who don't take any responsibility and blame everyone else - I want to smack. Add to this, a tendency to project all of her problems on everyone around her.

And...my god, can she be more neglectful of her kid?

Okay, here's the scenario: Little Henry has so far gone out of Storybrook to Boston and brought back his biological mother - yet all Regina does is threaten Emma. Does she hire someone to watch over Henry? No. Does she spend more time with him? No. Does she hire someone to take care of him when she's away? No. Instead she treats him like a lock-key child (ie. a kid who is expected to be a little adult and take care of himself while she's off cavorting around town), tells him she's going off to an all day council meeting and will be back at 5. (Actually she's off having sex with the Sheriff). Then gets surprised he's run off to be with Emma. So, she threatens Emma, again, and again takes off leaving Henry all alone without any adult or child supervision in her house, whatsoever. She's leaves him completely alone. They say she doesn't have a heart? Personally, I think she's lacking a brain. I keep yelling at the screen - "how dumb can you be? Seriously, honey, you do NOT leave a ten year all buy himself all day long in your house or all night without any supervision. You hire a baby-sitter. It's not like you can't get one - you have a whole town under your control. What if there was a robbery? What if the kid fell down the steps? Also, if this wasn't Storybrooke - social services would have yanked that kid out of your house like that."

So I have two legitimate reasons to despise the Queen.

* Speaking of no one being around Henry or the Queen...what happened to all the Queen's guards and minions when she arrived in Storybrook? Did they just not make the trip? So far all we have is the Huntsman and he's a bit on the lame side - in regards to minions. She had to remove his heart to get him to comply. I guess you can count the Genie/Mirror - but he's not exactly a minion so much as a henchman.

* I love the tiny details on this series, although I think the writers would be better off if they paid more attention to plot/character details than interspersing LOST easter eggs and obscure fairy tale around the series. Not everyone watching this is a LOST fan or cares. Point in fact - what happened to the Queen's guards??? That said, I do like the fact that Emma blows on the same star that Gepetto wishes on in Pinnochio (blue star - representing the blue fairy). Also there's a tightness and continuity here that is lacking in other series which I greatly appreciate.

* Emma is my favorite character - I adore her to pieces. No flaws. Also Morrison does a good job of playing the layers.

Snow White is badass, but Mary M. Blanchard still comes across a bit holier than thou in a oh-so smug way that is beginning to get on my nerves. I can see why Regina hated her - for well that. Kid Snow - I keep wanting to smack, who is somewhat the same way. I do love the female relationships in this series - they meet the Bechdel test, weirdly tv series meet it more than movies. I don't know why that is.

* I wish Prince Charming was sexier - he's sort of bland. I do like him in Fairy Tale World.
But the villians are definitely sexier than the heroes in this story. Actually this seems to be the case in most tv series. Why is that? It was true on Buffy too. Why for example were Angel, Spike, Faith, Trick, Ripper, VampWillow, VampXander, Faith!Buffy and Drusilla sexier than say Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Joyce, Riley, and Dawn? In OUAT - Evil Queen, Rumple, later Captain Hook, Evil Queen's Mom, are all sexier than Emma, Charming, Snow. What's up with that? Do tv writers think sexy equals evil in viewers minds? Because that is such a stereotype.

* Henry is growing on me. He was grating at first - but I've decided he has an impossible role. He's the voice of reason in a crazy world - ie. he has the thankless chore of constantly nudging people regarding the weirdness of their present situation. "Don't you think it's a bit odd that nothing has changed here in ten years??" OR, the chore of trying to convince his rational and logical biological mother that she's the daughter of fairy tale creatures and needs to break the curse that is trapping them all in this existence.

The actor is actually pretty good in it. He does come across as wily and charming. Although he doesn't have to be that wily to outwit his adoptive mother...it's not like she's around or even paying that much attention to him.

Agree with the writers - Emma and Henry have wonderful chemistry and make a great team.
Actually Emma, Henry and Rumple have wonderful chemistry together.

* Marathoning, you do pick up new things - such as the fact that the fairy Rumple killed worked for King George's clan. Apparently King George's lands bracketed and were united with Cinderella's Prince, also Charming and Snow were at Cinderella's wedding lending additional credit to this assumption. The Cinderella episode has a lot of important little plot-points scattered throughout and is less about Cinderella, and more about Rumplestilskin. He's actually the central character in it. Also it establishes the rules - no one can leave storybrook - without "bad" things happening. In other words, as the writers explain it in the commentary, events will conspire to keep you from going. Either someone close to you will get sick, go to prison, die, or you'll get in a car accident then go into labor. It's a nifty device to keep all the characters in one spot and not wandering about our universe. Otherwise you'd have storybrooke characters all over the place - which as a writer can be difficult to keep track of. Simpler to limit their world.

Rumplestilskin episodes are still the most entertaining. Charming and Snow episodes are a bit on the dull side, I don't know why. They aren't as entertaining on the re-watch for some reason.

2)Okay, off to make dinner and watch something else. Hopefully sick headache been battling all day will go away. Foot doctor prescribed 4 weeks physical therapy, 2 sessions a week. Which would be nifty except my insurance won't cover the guy he referred me to, and I have to go to this guy - he's closest to me and the recommended choice. So, I'll do it out of network and dip into savings to pay for part of it. It is what it is. Seeing him again in another four weeks. Bloody expensive foot.

3)As an aside, decided today that if people stopped advertising their good fortune, we wouldn't have as many wars. Wars are mainly the result of envy and jealousy. ie. People envying or coveting their neighbor's goods, land, spouses, children, pets, and/or people worrying that someone is going to take these goods, land, spouses, children, pets away from them (ie. jealousy). Now, if you stopped advertising your embarrassment of riches - no one would be able to envy those riches, would they? Instead, if everyone just whined their lot in life...people would leave them alone? I don't know, sounds too easy. People are nitwits, they'll always find something to kill one another over.