Once Upon a Time

[aibohphobia]

Apr 9, 2014 21:54:23 GMT -4 Ninja Bunny said:

I'm indifferent to the whole Captain Swan thing. I don't care about Emma much.

I just watch the show for a few characters: Hook, Regina, and Robin Hood (love the idea of Outlaw Queen), maybe a couple of the others, plus Robert Carlyle has been fantastic in everything I've seen him in. I only care about Rumpel as far as watching Carlyle in action.

I wish they had spent more time connecting the adult Baelfire with Hook in a way that went beyond their tension over Emma. It seems like everything else - their connection to Milah and that Hook had looked after him for a time - was sacrified on the altar of the Emma love triangle. We shouldn't have had to wait until Hook hugged Neal goodbye at the hosptial to finally get some meat out of their shared backstory. Lost opportunity.

Yes, I really wanted to love adult Baelfire because they wrote such a heart tugging story for the younger Baelfire, and Dylan Schmid was such a great child actor fine on this show. While I think Michael Raymond-James did his best, I just don't think that the writers put enough thought into Nealfire's backstory even with all the damage control that they tried to do on Twitter. I just think it would have been extremely difficult for an actor even without having to share the screen with Jennifer Morrison and Colin O'Donoghue to overcome the backstory that they gave Nealfire as an adult. If there was one character that the Blue Fairy should have de-aged, it should have been Nealfire if they were going to use that ridiculous storyline so at least Dylan Schmid could return to the show.

I stopped watching after last season though because I got tired of the show becoming the Regina show, and I felt they kept adding too many new characters because they really didn't have any clue what they were doing once the curse over Storybrooke was broken. From what I've seen while flipping through the channels on Sunday and going through Tumblr, it doesn't look like much has changed.

[Witchie]

That's funny, aibohphobia. I stopped because it was the Rumple show and everybody & their mother was related to him. I hate the way the show has forgiven Rumple's sins. Belle makes me apoplectic. She hates Hook, but her honey bunny Rumple killed without remorse for centuries. He's never apologized for killing Bae's mother. Nope. No way. Not this kid.

[Ninja Bunny]

I can't stand Belle. She's Eva Braun.

[Deleted]

I basically hate everyone but Granny and the dwarves. I watch it now mostly just to see how ridiculous they can make it.

[iClaudia]

I stopped watching after last season though because I got tired of the show becoming the Regina show, and I felt they kept adding too many new characters because they really didn't have any clue what they were doing once the curse over Storybrooke was broken.

I'm not sure exactly why I stopped watching. I usually blame it on time but I do find the time to watch other things so the show clearly lost me somewhere along the line. I guess I wasn't very invested in the characters fortunes by the end of last season. I agree that it all goes back to breaking the curse too soon. That was one of the things I was really unsure about in season one - why the rush? I think the curse created a lot tension that they weren't able to replicate post-curse.

[aibohphobia]

Apr 10, 2014 10:51:50 GMT -4 Witchie said:

That's funny, aibohphobia. I stopped because it was the Rumple show and everybody & their mother was related to him. I hate the way the show has forgiven Rumple's sins. Belle makes me apoplectic. She hates Hook, but her honey bunny Rumple killed without remorse for centuries. He's never apologized for killing Bae's mother. Nope. No way. Not this kid.

Well I love Robert Carlyle so I hung in there for him; although, I thought that was another bone-headed idea for him to kill off Bae's mother. He was already evil, so I don't think they had to go there because I don't think Bae would ever forgive Rumple for that and rightfully so, imo, well if the show wasn't so sympathetic to the "villains".

I can't stand Belle. She's Eva Braun.

I have to admit that I enjoyed "Skin Deep" a lot, but I think that was mostly because of Robert Carlyle. I don't think their relationship worked after that though especially in Storybrooke no matter how much the writers try to make them true love. They should have just let Belle actually be dead like Regina said in that episode, or had her be held somewhere until the final season/episode because they just seem to make Belle seem more and more idiotic.

I actually preferred Cora and Rumple more though once they showed the flashback of Cora because they seemed to have a lot more in common, and they should have made better use of those two together instead of that whole nonsense last year with Snow and Emma being separated from everyone for half of the season.

[proper stranger]

I guess I'm the lone Rumple/Belle fan around here.   I enjoy their story and "Skin Deep" is still my favorite episode. (Sometimes I wish that Jane Espenson could write the show, because she tends to pay more attention to character nuance and development.) A big part of the appeal of Rumple/Belle for me is Robert Carlyle, and I also think that he has a nice chemistry with Emilie de Ravin. I've also always loved "Beauty and the Beast" stories, so that's a big factor.  

I do wish the show spent more time dealing with Belle's character (especially in the aftermath of having been imprisoned by Regina for 30 years) and showing her perspective/development as a character. Like most other stories on this show, the writing kind of leaves the viewer to fill in the blanks, so things either end up working for you or they don't, depending on your point of view. I do like how Belle was finally integrated with the other characters when she took on the "research" role, which, given Belle's love of books, the show should've done before.

It's a shame that the show doesn't spend more time with some characters. I think that Charming has been similarly neglected as an individual character and he's the male lead. And, like I said, we've only delved into Emma's backstory once and she's the main character. Unfortunately, these writers don't seem as interested in writing for "good guys" like Charming, Emma, and Belle.

[save lilo!]

I am enjoying this half of the season. I like Regina right now, it's smart to have her something to fight against so it's not the same ol' Regina vs. The Town storyline. I also think the Robin Hood thing is sweet so I'm just going to have to kind of forget about her evilness in the past seasons (and honestly, my memory is short so I can definitely do this).

I just LOL'ed at Regina: "We're not making tapas. We're making magic." The syllables she stresses to make her quips are so on point.

Did Ariel turn from a mermaid into a regular human body with legs? How does that work? She can leave town but no one else can? Was she just patrolling the ocean floor around the town like those vacuum fish?

I could care less about Neal (this may have something to do with True Blood) and I didn't enjoy Henry yip-yapping all the time about magic this and magic that, so this might be why I like this half of the season better. I just need less Belle.

[Deleted]

Less Henry is definitely a plus. And Rebecca Mader is just so gleefully hammy, I can't hate Zelena too much.

[Spinderella]

Apr 14, 2014 22:14:42 GMT -4 save lilo! said:

Did Ariel turn from a mermaid into a regular human body with legs? How does that work? She can leave town but no one else can? Was she just patrolling the ocean floor around the town like those vacuum fish?

I think she has that bracelet that she had in the different lands (outside of FTL - Maritime land?) given to her by Regina and it's worn by her in each land. That's just my take on it, but I could be wrong.