Notes: OUaT, GoT, The Americans
Once Upon a Time
So, let me get this straight...Cora was about to be married to Leopold while pregnant with Zelena. The engagement falls apart and Cora goes off and leaves Zelena in the woods. Leopold, meanwhile, marries Snow’s mother and sometimes later they have Snow. Cora marries Prince Henry and has Regina. Years later, Cora poisons Eva and sets things up in a way that Regina saves Snow and wins the heart of Leopold whom she then marries. Notably, if I remember correctly, this is a big deal for Cora, she acts like this would be a step up for Regina socially, etc, insisting that she (Cora) has fought to get this far and now Regina has to rise to the very top to complete her triumph.
Pretty gaping plot holes here.First: Leopold doesn’t recognize Cora? He seems not to at all in that scene and even if he does and pretends not to, how the hell is he ok with marrying the daughter of the woman he had wanted to marry some time before but ended up not because she lied to him etc? Even though it’s been some time and Cora has changed somewhat physically, Leopold spends enough time with her to have recognized her. After all the change from young woman into older woman would not be as great as say from small child to adult. It’s unbelievable that he wouldn’t recognize her.
Secondly, what’s the “this is such a big deal” thing? Aside from the fact that Henry and Cora certainly don’t live like a Prince and Princess - more like landed gentry of considerable but not excessive means - if Regina was really a princess, which she would have to be, being the daughter of a price, she would have lots of royal suitors. It could be, of course, that Henry was not the first son destined to become king and thus Regina’s potential matches are more limited, but she WOULD still be a princess. So why all the crazy scheming to get Regina married to a king/prince? (Not to mention that all the “you must find a bride” pressure put on Henry at the ball was like that would be put on the heir not a younger son…) The only reason I could thing of explaining this is that Cora wanted Regina married specifically to Leopold so she could have more access to that family in order to destroy them out of revenge. But there were other ways to do this rather than try to get her daughter into the bed of the man she had once tried to marry who would likely recognize her and, realistically, would not want anything to do with her or her daughter after that. And again, the whole thing doesn’t even read like that. It looks like Cora is just plotting to move her daughter up the social latter - the way Regina even reacts to Leopold’s proposal is kind of stunned, like “why would a king propose to ME?” She wouldn’t have that reaction as a princess who would undoubtedly have had royal suitors.
Game of Thrones
I realized another reason why I hate what they’ve done with the Jaime/Cersei scene. Not only does it totally rip into the characterization of my favorite character for like no reason at all, it has long-lasting effects on the Jaime/Cersei relationship. And again, characterization. In the book, as I read it, anyway, their relationship falls apart primarily because of Cersei. Jaime is disillusioned in her. She keeps rejecting him and then he finds out (from Tyrion, who is being vengeful, but I think that goes over Jaime’s head) that Cersei has been sleeping around while he was away. He’s hurt by her, deeply hurt, so he lets of go of the relationship. But the way it is in the show,[Spoiler 4x3]the rapewould - by any reasonable means - be a strong reason for the relationship disillusion. Logically, Cersei should be the one to pull away after this. Jaime would then have two options: try to fix things because he feels guilty and still loves her OR be like “whatever” and completely un-understanding that what he did was wrong. The latter is bad for obvious reasons: keeps destroying Jaime’s characterization - he’s nowhere near that much of a jerk. The former just won’t make much sense for later on. Even if Cersei keeps pushing him away, Jaime would feel a need to be closer to her. Instead of pulling away from her gradually, becoming more disillusioned by the minute, he would feel like it’s HIS fault and he would be trying to fix it. This would then set up his later actions to not make any sense. And, of course, this would mean either way that the relationship fell apart primarily because of Jaime. And that’s just all WRONG. Argh.
The Americans
-I really like you, Stan, but I want to slap you sometimes. The cheating I could kinda take...the treachery? ...Arhg just... Albeit, I doubt telling Oleg who's watching him is a huge threat to national security. I'm sure Stan could have taken anything super-important out of those files if he needed to, and they can always change Oleg's surveillance as needed but the IDEA of it is just...THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER VAGINAS, STAN.
-The Elizabeth-Lucia dynamic was nice. Humanizing for Elizabeth at any rate. I don't like her much.
-Nina gets around, doesn't she? Not that Oleg isn't charming. He's charming, the bastard.
-Theoretically, Nina's desire to atone for her betrayal and "fix it" should be admirable. But the way the show sets it up feels like she started doing it mostly to get back at Stan for killing Vlad rather than any sort of patriotic feeling. I still like Nina a lot more than Elizabeth but lately she gets to me.
-Fandom-related: I want Stan/Phillip slash. I kinda also want Stan/Oleg slash now too…
So, let me get this straight...Cora was about to be married to Leopold while pregnant with Zelena. The engagement falls apart and Cora goes off and leaves Zelena in the woods. Leopold, meanwhile, marries Snow’s mother and sometimes later they have Snow. Cora marries Prince Henry and has Regina. Years later, Cora poisons Eva and sets things up in a way that Regina saves Snow and wins the heart of Leopold whom she then marries. Notably, if I remember correctly, this is a big deal for Cora, she acts like this would be a step up for Regina socially, etc, insisting that she (Cora) has fought to get this far and now Regina has to rise to the very top to complete her triumph.
Pretty gaping plot holes here.First: Leopold doesn’t recognize Cora? He seems not to at all in that scene and even if he does and pretends not to, how the hell is he ok with marrying the daughter of the woman he had wanted to marry some time before but ended up not because she lied to him etc? Even though it’s been some time and Cora has changed somewhat physically, Leopold spends enough time with her to have recognized her. After all the change from young woman into older woman would not be as great as say from small child to adult. It’s unbelievable that he wouldn’t recognize her.
Secondly, what’s the “this is such a big deal” thing? Aside from the fact that Henry and Cora certainly don’t live like a Prince and Princess - more like landed gentry of considerable but not excessive means - if Regina was really a princess, which she would have to be, being the daughter of a price, she would have lots of royal suitors. It could be, of course, that Henry was not the first son destined to become king and thus Regina’s potential matches are more limited, but she WOULD still be a princess. So why all the crazy scheming to get Regina married to a king/prince? (Not to mention that all the “you must find a bride” pressure put on Henry at the ball was like that would be put on the heir not a younger son…) The only reason I could thing of explaining this is that Cora wanted Regina married specifically to Leopold so she could have more access to that family in order to destroy them out of revenge. But there were other ways to do this rather than try to get her daughter into the bed of the man she had once tried to marry who would likely recognize her and, realistically, would not want anything to do with her or her daughter after that. And again, the whole thing doesn’t even read like that. It looks like Cora is just plotting to move her daughter up the social latter - the way Regina even reacts to Leopold’s proposal is kind of stunned, like “why would a king propose to ME?” She wouldn’t have that reaction as a princess who would undoubtedly have had royal suitors.
Game of Thrones
I realized another reason why I hate what they’ve done with the Jaime/Cersei scene. Not only does it totally rip into the characterization of my favorite character for like no reason at all, it has long-lasting effects on the Jaime/Cersei relationship. And again, characterization. In the book, as I read it, anyway, their relationship falls apart primarily because of Cersei. Jaime is disillusioned in her. She keeps rejecting him and then he finds out (from Tyrion, who is being vengeful, but I think that goes over Jaime’s head) that Cersei has been sleeping around while he was away. He’s hurt by her, deeply hurt, so he lets of go of the relationship. But the way it is in the show,[Spoiler 4x3]the rapewould - by any reasonable means - be a strong reason for the relationship disillusion. Logically, Cersei should be the one to pull away after this. Jaime would then have two options: try to fix things because he feels guilty and still loves her OR be like “whatever” and completely un-understanding that what he did was wrong. The latter is bad for obvious reasons: keeps destroying Jaime’s characterization - he’s nowhere near that much of a jerk. The former just won’t make much sense for later on. Even if Cersei keeps pushing him away, Jaime would feel a need to be closer to her. Instead of pulling away from her gradually, becoming more disillusioned by the minute, he would feel like it’s HIS fault and he would be trying to fix it. This would then set up his later actions to not make any sense. And, of course, this would mean either way that the relationship fell apart primarily because of Jaime. And that’s just all WRONG. Argh.
The Americans
-I really like you, Stan, but I want to slap you sometimes. The cheating I could kinda take...the treachery? ...Arhg just... Albeit, I doubt telling Oleg who's watching him is a huge threat to national security. I'm sure Stan could have taken anything super-important out of those files if he needed to, and they can always change Oleg's surveillance as needed but the IDEA of it is just...THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER VAGINAS, STAN.
-The Elizabeth-Lucia dynamic was nice. Humanizing for Elizabeth at any rate. I don't like her much.
-Nina gets around, doesn't she? Not that Oleg isn't charming. He's charming, the bastard.
-Theoretically, Nina's desire to atone for her betrayal and "fix it" should be admirable. But the way the show sets it up feels like she started doing it mostly to get back at Stan for killing Vlad rather than any sort of patriotic feeling. I still like Nina a lot more than Elizabeth but lately she gets to me.
-Fandom-related: I want Stan/Phillip slash. I kinda also want Stan/Oleg slash now too…