this is a 'once upon a time' post
1) Has everyone seen the new promo pics? Some absolutely divine shots there, especially of my queen! *swoons*
Surprising lack of Emma, though. She’s the star of the show, you’d think she’d get some attention. O.o
2) New spoilers. Apparently we'll be seeing more of Regina’s relationship with Henry, potentially why it’s so conflict-ridden and what he has against her, as well as Regina trying to win him over. I love you, Lana, but WHY WOULD YOU BRING THIS UP WITH THE WRITERS?! All the things I don’t want to see- Henry, for one, I’m so happy he’s been less of a presence lately and you had to jinx that? Also, whenever Regina reaches out to Henry, he always rejects her and I get so upset on her behalf, so not looking forward to that. GROUND THE BRAT, FFS. So yeah, not too pleased by this.
3) My timing is horrible. I pick the day before the new ep comes out to talk about ep 7.
I had a month to do it and I procrastinated til now. Tbh, I wasn’t even going to do a post on it, but I was making gifs and that reminded me of a moment that really bothered me as well as a moment I really adored, and I was just gonna address those, but then I made the mistake of looking at the caps and they reminded me of all these ~opinions and ~feelings I have, so here we go.
Graham is a douchebag. Wtf is this? Look at him having a little temper tantrum and then being all smarmy, ‘I never miss.’ YOU ARE ONLY HUMAN, DUDE, YOU ARE FALLIBLE, OKAY. What if someone had walked through the door just then? What if Emma had changed direction or another patron had walked into the line of fire?
WHEN A WOMAN IS UPSET AT YOU THROWING A SHARP, POINTY OBJECT IN HER DIRECTION, THE CORRECT RESPONSE IS TO BE APOLOGETIC, NOT TO SHRUG IT OFF IN THE MISGUIDED BELIEF THAT YOU ARE BEING SUAVE AND CHARMING.
(although when my mother threw a knife at my father, I do believe she made a wise-crack about how ‘you’re lucky I was aiming for you’, since she’s a bad-shot, and he actually apologized to her, lol)
I know that this isn’t in the show’s Top Five Abusive Moments, hell, prob not even Top Ten, but the difference is that those actions are committed by villains in the understanding that they are bad and that it is not acceptable for people to behave like that. Graham is meant to be a Good Guy, I have higher expectations of his behavior and it troubles me that I’ve seen zero reaction to this moment. Granted, I’m not omnipresent on lj, but it was such a What The Hell, Hero moment for me that it going without mention in the comms I frequent makes me wonder if him being Emma’s love interest gets him a pass on what to me appears to be a violent and completely inappropriate reaction.
Our heroine actually calls him out on how dangerous that was and he just smarms it off as though the possibility of missing was never a factor. JFC. Okay, in his alternate life, he was a hotshot huntsman, but he doesn’t even REMEMBER that rn. It is just NOT ON to throw darts at chicks, asshat, and I’m supposed to buy you love her? Pfft. Yeah, I’m totally gonna root for you two to get together. Lemme guess, next time she gets upset and walks away from you, you’ll pull your gun out and fire at the doorknob because you’re SO DRAMATIC AND NEVER MISS AND LOOK AT YOU MAKING A POINT THROUGH VIOLENCE.
(possibly I’m oversensitive on this issue. I was never actually physically abused, but having my father shout at me all the time and occasionally throw things around me always made me worry that one day, it would turn physical. Fear of force can be just as effective as actually applying force, imo. A person doesn’t have to lay a hand on you for it to be abuse. So this scene…it bothers me, even if I’m overreacting; this crap that Graham’s pulling just pings that asshat!radar of mine, it's not a good sign he's lashing out like that already)
Side-note: I do love Ruby’s ‘bitch, plz’ face in the background. Female solidarity, yessss. Even if it is silent. Can we have some actual interaction instead of just making her the resident sexpot, writers?
Further cementing my ‘Graham is an asshat’ belief. Emma clearly wants nothing to do with him, so his response is to chase her down the street and then grab her and plant a kiss on her?
Assault, imo. She may return his feelings later on, but at this point in time, she is clearly rejecting him and wants to be as far away from him as possible and that male attitude of ‘oh, she clearly wants me, she just needs to be persuaded’ is enraging.
(the fact that he’s ranting about how miserable he is with Regina and how he ‘doesn’t feel anything’ is a whole other mess of issues, ugh. I know there’s a widespread belief that she’s forcing him to sleep with her in this reality, but I don’t buy that. He’d be getting Emma’s sympathy over him being forced into an untenable position or playing the noble card to get her to feel for him, not whining about how unfulfilling Regina is.
Ofc, there’s the possibility that Regina’s spell made him her lover, that it wasn’t the choice of amnesiac!Huntsman at all, but I’m just going on what I can observe. I acknowledge that is plausible, but we don’t know for sure what she did and did not design about this world. In any case, Graham doesn’t know there’s a spell, so rn, he’s willingly sleeping with one woman and whinging about how unhappy she makes him to another, which makes me want to slap him so hard. I know tons of people love him, but I’m finding him super unsympathetic here, sorry)
This is where I draw my facts from- rejected by Emma, Graham chooses to go to Regina, chooses to grab hold of her and kiss her, chooses to deepen it into more. If he cares so much about Emma, I’m seriously side-eyeing him for running off to Regina the moment their budding romance hits a road-block. It seems disrespectful to both women, though I know the show wants me to view him as conflicted and confused, but I’m like, ‘Oh, poor you, sleeping with such a beautiful woman, how horrible your life is’.
(this is completely and totally distinct from the Huntsman situation, okay, I am truly sympathetic to him there, that’s such a horrible situation to be in and that is rape and I wish the writers hadn’t gone there, whyyy. Although I’m interested to note that everyone is quick to agree that it is rape- tacky Tumblr graphics aside- whereas Damon has been sexually assaulting girls since day one on TVD and the majority of that fandom *lalalas* at any suggestion of the r-word)
What is this? I’ve seen comments like ‘oh, it’s a visual representation on the Queen being Evil, it shows how twisted and wrong she is’ and I’m thinking, um, this is actually Snow’s father’s castle. She married into the family, afaik, so she didn’t build that- that- rocket launch-pad. (how sci-fi is it?!)
SO GORGEOUS, OMG.
(where are all the ironic icons of her boobs with the caption ‘I watch for the plot’? Seriously, where? I am missing gratuitous icons so much, come on, in LotS fandom, there was iconage of Cara and Kahlan’s boobs at every turn! Especially Cara, after the princess ep, lol)
On a less shallow note *cough* I wonder why she looks troubled. She’s not acting for anyone’s benefit, since she’s in private, so I’m wondering if Lana’s continuing her campaign to make the Queen sympathetic even when not entirely appropriate- she’s looking at the coffin of the man she just murdered, um, satisfaction would come to mind?
Although I do like the nuance, tbh- makes me think maybe the OTT attitude she has around others is just for show. All that I LOATHE AND DESPISE THEM, the constant refrain of I WILL KILL PEOPLE AND GET MY REVENGE, RAWR, that’s her trying to convince herself that she doesn’t give a damn about taking people’s lives and justifying that it is okay for her to do what she’s doing because she’s been ~wronged and they have it coming. She’ll announce that to the world to make sure everyone’s on the same page, when in private, she’s overcome with doubts as to this path.
BUT THEN SHE HAS A WHOLE CHAMBER FULL OF HUMAN HEARTS, APPARENTLY, SO WHY THE HELL WOULD SHE BE CONFLICTED WHEN SHE’S BEEN HARVESTING HEARTS FOR HER ~COLLECTION ALL THIS TIME? I WOULD THINK AFTER THE FIRST COUPLE, ANY DOUBTS WOULD BE ERASED. LANA. STOP IT. I love your interpretation of the Queen, but I don’t think that entirely matches the writer’s vision of her!
Okay, I am perplexed by this scene. On one hand, Snow is genuinely heartbroken and seems to be legit seeking comfort from the Queen, yet later on, she quickly and correctly concludes that the Huntsman is there to kill her on the Queen’s orders. Sooo. That makes this touching moment here seem very fake. We all know the Queen’s faking it, but was Snow White?
All we know is that she knew a secret and spilled it and somehow ruined the Queen’s life as a result. The secret was so damaging that the Queen felt she had to kill Snow and her father to balance the scales. So wouldn’t you be suspicious if the woman you wronged (even if it’s just in her eyes and Snow doesn’t feel she actually did anything wrong) was suddenly opening her arms to you and offering to do whatever she could to help and appointing herself your surrogate mother?
I’m not saying whatever Snow did justified the Queen’s mission of revenge. I’m not saying her grief over her father was faked. But I do think she may have been aware the Queen wasn’t really supportive or affectionate toward her and she was just playing along, taking her at face value, even if she suspected the Queen had darker motives. So she compartmentalized- here, she's feeling grief and she takes the comfort offered by the Queen, but it doesn't mean she loves her or believes the Queen loves her, she's just reacting to the situation at hand and putting aside her suspicions at that time.
(this is NOT AT ALL like Snow’s situation, but I am familiar with the role of ‘daughter disguises her true feelings and accepts affectionate gestures in order to keep the peace’. I’ve had to put on a mask and pretend to find my father’s jokes funny, to banter with him and be light-hearted and engage in conversation like I actually care and want to be around him when it’s the exact opposite, because I was under his roof and I couldn’t be myself or express my actual feelings out of self-preservation. You learn to adopt a permanent façade to keep the peace and pretend everything is all right.
I could be projecting- and dear god, reading over this post, I do seem to have a lot of issues, ack- but I think this is a viable theory. Until the next ep, lol, when it’s revealed Snow loved the Queen and thought of her as a mother figure and this is rendered irrelevant, WHY DID I NOT POST THIS A MONTH AGO)
a) Has Regina taken the hearts of those guards? She seems comfortable revealing all her darkest secrets right in front of them. O.o She must be super confident that they’re not at all sympathetic to Snow, although if she screened them that well to know there’s no chance any of them will squeal on her, I wonder at her missing the GIANT BLINKING RED SIGNS that the Huntsman was not the cold-blooded killer she wanted.
b) Seriously, WHY the elaborate plans? Why not kill Snow herself? I know she says that she needs to be careful ‘coz the people love Snow, but um, she just offed the girl’s father without anyone the wiser, so how hard can it be to arrange an ‘accident’ for Snow? Also, she took the Huntsman’s heart without leaving a mark on him and then crushed it to dust, making him die without any visible trace of her involvement. I don’t see why she couldn’t do the same with Snow.
a) lol, CGI deer. At least it looks more real than the Terra Nova dinosaurs. *eyeroll*
b)IS THIS GUY FOR REAL? Again, as with the Queen, I question his display of emotion when surely he’s killed animals a ton of times. Wtf is up with his Sparkly Tear of Emo ManPain? Not only is it laughable, but as a guy raised by wolves, I question why he would be so sensitive about hunting- wolves are carnivores, FFS! They wouldn’t have brought him up to cry over the death of animals for food.
I love how with Lana, the simplest change of expression is this significant indicator that has deep, far-reaching implications. On the surface, it’s just a woman opening her eyes. But given that Graham is talking about a distinctive wolf with different-colored eyes which is a link to his Huntsman identity, that ominous stillness and her eyes suddenly opening is a cue that OH, CRAP, HE IS SO DOOMED AND HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW IT, STFU, DUDE, YOU’RE DIGGING YOUR OWN GRAVE HERE.
Also, eww, why is your chest so shiny? Take a shower, man.
My heart is melting. I know she kills him later, but kissing him on the shoulder…I wouldn’t leave Regina after that! it’s so sweet and tender…
Again, not seeing the face of a man being coerced into anything. There she is, pleading for him to stay and he’s casually dismissing her and walking out to ponder about a weird dream he had. This is not the Huntsman/Evil Queen dynamic at all, Graham seems to have all the power here. He shows up at her place to have sex, he chooses to leave, regardless of her practically begging him to stay…yeah, no, not getting the ‘Regina’s unwilling slave’ vibe here. Which makes me seethe about him whimpering to Emma all over again, YOU’RE VOLUNTARILY HAVING SEX WITH THIS WOMAN AND THEN BITCHING ABOUT HER TO EMMA, HDU. And right after going on about how she doesn’t make him feel anything, he goes to her, argh.
SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL. WHY WOULD YOU WALK AWAY FROM THIS?!
LOL, THIS SCENE. I love that their relationship isn’t perfect. I love that they have a bit of conflict and I’m pretty sure MM was implying Emma’s easy as opposed to this metaphor about her building a wall to keep people out, blah blah blah. I mean, the convo that led to that point ( ‘One-nighters is as far as I ever go’/ ‘Yeah, but that’s because you’re-’) seems to be more the inadvertent near-statement that she kinda thinks Emma’s a slut rather than the lead-up to a deep&meaningful speech on how she needs to let down her walls and let love in. The former is a private opinion that could very easily slip out without meaning, whereas the in-depth character analysis isn’t something one would just mindlessly blurt out, y’know?
(put it this way: a person is more likely to bite their tongue on the verge of saying ‘you’re a bitch’ as opposed to nearly casually launching into a psych eval about ‘oh, your troubled childhood left you with deep-seated issues that cause you to shield yourself in all interactions with others and to project this defensive air the point where you actually come off hostile and abrasive’)
Also, I lol’d at the deliberate way she grabbed her flowers and stalked off.
It amazes me that Emma thought they were from Graham- and underscores the fact that HIS BEHAVIOR WAS WRONG AND HE SHOULD’VE APOLOGIZED AND NEVER DID, THE ASS. I like that Emma has the self-respect to know that he behaved badly and she deserves an apology; I dislike that Graham didn’t feel the same.
a) GOLD IS HILARIOUS. Look at him all dapper and sophisticated, wearing a suit while gardening.
b) Graham really is the worst Sheriff, isn’t he? I mean, this doesn’t strike him as REMOTELY SUSPICIOUS? Gold could’ve been burying a body there or something!
She is so stylish! Her costumes are the best, ugh, I WANT. And I wish someone would do my hair that way!
I love how she’s posing there, putting on this display of elegance and beauty, hee. I think a lot about her is manufactured to play to an audience, tbh. She can be OTT, but it’s calculated. If she were on her own, she wouldn’t be lounging so attractively, I’m sure.
Let’s take a moment to admire Lana Parilla’s flawless body.
JFC, I bet this woman can’t eat a burger or anything while she’s shooting this show. She must work out for hours to get that body.
See, this is the problem with monologuing while walking away. The person you’re addressing doesn’t know when to turn so you wind up looking silly talking to the wall on one side of the room while he faces the other.
(side-note: I love love LOVE that scene in The Middleman when the Middleman invokes this trope, delivering his monologue while walking away from Wendy and ~dramatically gazing out the window as he does so. Wendy turns around, walks up to the window, looks at him and then looks out, trying to figure out wtf he’s staring at, lol. IKR, WENDY? Why do people do this?)
Look at her face. She appears so innocent and yet she’s scheming on the inside all the while. I love how demure and innocuous she comes off, hee.
The writing for her is excellent, seriously. I really appreciate how realistic they are. It’s not that Snow has sekrit ninja skillz of awesome, she can’t out-wrestle a fully-trained knight or anything, but she’s smart, she thinks quick on her feet and she always fools people into underestimating her right before she blindsides them. AWESOME.
I LOVE THE WAY THESE LADIES ACT OUT THEIR MUTUAL LOATHING AND ANTAGONISM. LOOK AT THEM. SEE HOW MUCH THEY DESPISE EACH OTHER.
J-Mo and Lana, never stop looking so flirty while ostensibly engaging in serious conflict as ~enemies. FOE!YAY FTW. ♥
Okay, you guys, I know a lot of people think Snow was genuine here. But I don’t agree. I mean, sure, she could figure out that the Huntsman has more wilderness and tracking skills and she’s outmatched, but I don’t believe she’d just sit down, give up and write a note of forgiveness directed at the WOMAN PLOTTING TO KILL HER.
I honestly believe this was Snow being super crafty and using her wits to out-maneuver the Queen. She’s using those instincts and appealing to the Huntsman, putting on this noble, gracious air to attract his sympathy; at best, her note convinces him that she is too good and generous to be killed, at worst, it’s a passive-aggressive FU to the Queen. I mean, when she read that note, she was disgusted, it annoyed her, and I believe Snow knew that, planned for that, that note was superbly designed to win the Huntsman over to her AND irritate the hell out of the Queen.
Because sorry, but there’s no way I would buy that anybody would be THAT forgiving, THAT compassionate, FFS, how unrealistic is that? I know she’s a fairytale character, but no. Why do people favor the idea that she’s that much of a doormat (THAT IS HOW I SEE IT) as opposed to the idea that she’s cunning and an expert manipulator? Has Slytherin put people off the art of manipulation altogether, they don’t believe ‘good guys’ can scheme and sneakily apply reverse psychology or something?
ARGH, EMO TEARS REAPPEAR, I CANNOT TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY.
She looks so fierce! (also, I kind of want her and Jareth the Goblin King to hang out, they both have this flair for dramatic costumes, I’d love to see that, haha! DAVID BOWIE CAMEO, COME ON. I want Labyrinth/OUAT crossover fics nao, plz)
Love it, but seriously, what’s with her fringe? Those two strands are annoying me so much rn. I wanna flick a finger and separate them, it looks silly to me…
Good thing her magical heart collector’s box could CSI the contents and confirm it’s not human. So handy! I’m a bit bemused her magic is that…fine-tuned. I mean, what enchantment would you cast that is so analytical that it’d routinely scan to make sure all hearts were human? It’s not the sort of thing you’d think to program, y/n? I wouldn’t expect my fridge to distinguish between a bunch of real grapes and fake grapes- WHY AM I OVERTHINKING THIS, GO WITH IT, SELF.
EPIC CATFIGHT, OMG. I love that the ladies don’t pull their punches, no tame slapping going on here, they’re full on bashing each other, lol. Too bad Graham intervened
Love triangle, tbqh, with Regina vs Graham for Emma, lbr.
THIS is what coercion looks like. THIS is where the Evil Queen earns her title. I am simultaneously glad to see her live up to it- people’ve criticized her as being a weak villain, WELL, NOT ANYMORE- and dismayed because gross, making her a rapist, writers, really?
OMG, J-MO’S ACTING IS AMAZING. You can see her vulnerability, see how she’s wrestling with that wall MM was talking about. I do think that was clumsily written in- when would MM have had the chance to observe such a wall? Emma accepted her invitation to live with her after knowing her for a day, um- but the way Emma is deliberately making the decision to open herself up to Graham is so endearing and omg, my poor bb.
LOOK AT HER FACE. SHE IS SO HAPPY. I hate Graham and think she deserves better, BUT SHE IS SO READY TO LOVE SOMEONE AND TO LET LOVE INTO HER LIFE…
…AND THEN THIS. REGINAAAAAAA.
Her timing was flawless, though, right? Another second and she’d’ve been unmasked as the villain Henry’s convinced she is.
I do dislike how people are tearing Emma down and proclaiming her an idiot for not buying into the idea of a cursed town with a diabolical mayor who’s really an Evil Queen from the fairytale land. No, I LIKE that she’s being sensible, I can’t stand shows where people immediately leap to the most radical conclusion and full-heartedly embrace it without any facts and ignoring all logic in the process. I wouldn’t blame Emma for STILL not believing Henry even after Graham dies because nothing links this to Regina. What sane person would believe Regina had anything to do with Graham keeling over dead?! I hope that when Emma comes to believe Henry’s ideas, that it’s with some justification, because I like that she’s been level-headed so far.
(by justification, I mean that it’s done plausibly- that could be either logically, through evidence, like finding Regina’s cache of hearts or other fantastical phenomena OR emotionally, like being grief-stricken over Graham’s death and thus being more open to far-fetched ideas because of her vulnerable state)
DAMN, THAT WAS LONG. Thanks to anyone who made it through!
---
Vidspam: I have been horribly bored lately, so I d/l the Rifftrax version of Eragon. It was HILARIOUS. Also, I hadn’t realized Robert Carlyle was in it, so that was an unexpected bonus- as were the similarities I noticed between a couple of his scenes here and those of the Evil Queen. I know it’s a stretch, but I like to think maybe the writers had this movie in mind when they shot a couple scenes, a little subtle homage to him, lol.
Surprising lack of Emma, though. She’s the star of the show, you’d think she’d get some attention. O.o
2) New spoilers. Apparently we'll be seeing more of Regina’s relationship with Henry, potentially why it’s so conflict-ridden and what he has against her, as well as Regina trying to win him over. I love you, Lana, but WHY WOULD YOU BRING THIS UP WITH THE WRITERS?! All the things I don’t want to see- Henry, for one, I’m so happy he’s been less of a presence lately and you had to jinx that? Also, whenever Regina reaches out to Henry, he always rejects her and I get so upset on her behalf, so not looking forward to that. GROUND THE BRAT, FFS. So yeah, not too pleased by this.
3) My timing is horrible. I pick the day before the new ep comes out to talk about ep 7.
I had a month to do it and I procrastinated til now. Tbh, I wasn’t even going to do a post on it, but I was making gifs and that reminded me of a moment that really bothered me as well as a moment I really adored, and I was just gonna address those, but then I made the mistake of looking at the caps and they reminded me of all these ~opinions and ~feelings I have, so here we go.
Graham is a douchebag. Wtf is this? Look at him having a little temper tantrum and then being all smarmy, ‘I never miss.’ YOU ARE ONLY HUMAN, DUDE, YOU ARE FALLIBLE, OKAY. What if someone had walked through the door just then? What if Emma had changed direction or another patron had walked into the line of fire?
WHEN A WOMAN IS UPSET AT YOU THROWING A SHARP, POINTY OBJECT IN HER DIRECTION, THE CORRECT RESPONSE IS TO BE APOLOGETIC, NOT TO SHRUG IT OFF IN THE MISGUIDED BELIEF THAT YOU ARE BEING SUAVE AND CHARMING.
(although when my mother threw a knife at my father, I do believe she made a wise-crack about how ‘you’re lucky I was aiming for you’, since she’s a bad-shot, and he actually apologized to her, lol)
I know that this isn’t in the show’s Top Five Abusive Moments, hell, prob not even Top Ten, but the difference is that those actions are committed by villains in the understanding that they are bad and that it is not acceptable for people to behave like that. Graham is meant to be a Good Guy, I have higher expectations of his behavior and it troubles me that I’ve seen zero reaction to this moment. Granted, I’m not omnipresent on lj, but it was such a What The Hell, Hero moment for me that it going without mention in the comms I frequent makes me wonder if him being Emma’s love interest gets him a pass on what to me appears to be a violent and completely inappropriate reaction.
Our heroine actually calls him out on how dangerous that was and he just smarms it off as though the possibility of missing was never a factor. JFC. Okay, in his alternate life, he was a hotshot huntsman, but he doesn’t even REMEMBER that rn. It is just NOT ON to throw darts at chicks, asshat, and I’m supposed to buy you love her? Pfft. Yeah, I’m totally gonna root for you two to get together. Lemme guess, next time she gets upset and walks away from you, you’ll pull your gun out and fire at the doorknob because you’re SO DRAMATIC AND NEVER MISS AND LOOK AT YOU MAKING A POINT THROUGH VIOLENCE.
(possibly I’m oversensitive on this issue. I was never actually physically abused, but having my father shout at me all the time and occasionally throw things around me always made me worry that one day, it would turn physical. Fear of force can be just as effective as actually applying force, imo. A person doesn’t have to lay a hand on you for it to be abuse. So this scene…it bothers me, even if I’m overreacting; this crap that Graham’s pulling just pings that asshat!radar of mine, it's not a good sign he's lashing out like that already)
Side-note: I do love Ruby’s ‘bitch, plz’ face in the background. Female solidarity, yessss. Even if it is silent. Can we have some actual interaction instead of just making her the resident sexpot, writers?
Further cementing my ‘Graham is an asshat’ belief. Emma clearly wants nothing to do with him, so his response is to chase her down the street and then grab her and plant a kiss on her?
Assault, imo. She may return his feelings later on, but at this point in time, she is clearly rejecting him and wants to be as far away from him as possible and that male attitude of ‘oh, she clearly wants me, she just needs to be persuaded’ is enraging.
(the fact that he’s ranting about how miserable he is with Regina and how he ‘doesn’t feel anything’ is a whole other mess of issues, ugh. I know there’s a widespread belief that she’s forcing him to sleep with her in this reality, but I don’t buy that. He’d be getting Emma’s sympathy over him being forced into an untenable position or playing the noble card to get her to feel for him, not whining about how unfulfilling Regina is.
Ofc, there’s the possibility that Regina’s spell made him her lover, that it wasn’t the choice of amnesiac!Huntsman at all, but I’m just going on what I can observe. I acknowledge that is plausible, but we don’t know for sure what she did and did not design about this world. In any case, Graham doesn’t know there’s a spell, so rn, he’s willingly sleeping with one woman and whinging about how unhappy she makes him to another, which makes me want to slap him so hard. I know tons of people love him, but I’m finding him super unsympathetic here, sorry)
This is where I draw my facts from- rejected by Emma, Graham chooses to go to Regina, chooses to grab hold of her and kiss her, chooses to deepen it into more. If he cares so much about Emma, I’m seriously side-eyeing him for running off to Regina the moment their budding romance hits a road-block. It seems disrespectful to both women, though I know the show wants me to view him as conflicted and confused, but I’m like, ‘Oh, poor you, sleeping with such a beautiful woman, how horrible your life is’.
(this is completely and totally distinct from the Huntsman situation, okay, I am truly sympathetic to him there, that’s such a horrible situation to be in and that is rape and I wish the writers hadn’t gone there, whyyy. Although I’m interested to note that everyone is quick to agree that it is rape- tacky Tumblr graphics aside- whereas Damon has been sexually assaulting girls since day one on TVD and the majority of that fandom *lalalas* at any suggestion of the r-word)
What is this? I’ve seen comments like ‘oh, it’s a visual representation on the Queen being Evil, it shows how twisted and wrong she is’ and I’m thinking, um, this is actually Snow’s father’s castle. She married into the family, afaik, so she didn’t build that- that- rocket launch-pad. (how sci-fi is it?!)
SO GORGEOUS, OMG.
(where are all the ironic icons of her boobs with the caption ‘I watch for the plot’? Seriously, where? I am missing gratuitous icons so much, come on, in LotS fandom, there was iconage of Cara and Kahlan’s boobs at every turn! Especially Cara, after the princess ep, lol)
On a less shallow note *cough* I wonder why she looks troubled. She’s not acting for anyone’s benefit, since she’s in private, so I’m wondering if Lana’s continuing her campaign to make the Queen sympathetic even when not entirely appropriate- she’s looking at the coffin of the man she just murdered, um, satisfaction would come to mind?
Although I do like the nuance, tbh- makes me think maybe the OTT attitude she has around others is just for show. All that I LOATHE AND DESPISE THEM, the constant refrain of I WILL KILL PEOPLE AND GET MY REVENGE, RAWR, that’s her trying to convince herself that she doesn’t give a damn about taking people’s lives and justifying that it is okay for her to do what she’s doing because she’s been ~wronged and they have it coming. She’ll announce that to the world to make sure everyone’s on the same page, when in private, she’s overcome with doubts as to this path.
BUT THEN SHE HAS A WHOLE CHAMBER FULL OF HUMAN HEARTS, APPARENTLY, SO WHY THE HELL WOULD SHE BE CONFLICTED WHEN SHE’S BEEN HARVESTING HEARTS FOR HER ~COLLECTION ALL THIS TIME? I WOULD THINK AFTER THE FIRST COUPLE, ANY DOUBTS WOULD BE ERASED. LANA. STOP IT. I love your interpretation of the Queen, but I don’t think that entirely matches the writer’s vision of her!
Okay, I am perplexed by this scene. On one hand, Snow is genuinely heartbroken and seems to be legit seeking comfort from the Queen, yet later on, she quickly and correctly concludes that the Huntsman is there to kill her on the Queen’s orders. Sooo. That makes this touching moment here seem very fake. We all know the Queen’s faking it, but was Snow White?
All we know is that she knew a secret and spilled it and somehow ruined the Queen’s life as a result. The secret was so damaging that the Queen felt she had to kill Snow and her father to balance the scales. So wouldn’t you be suspicious if the woman you wronged (even if it’s just in her eyes and Snow doesn’t feel she actually did anything wrong) was suddenly opening her arms to you and offering to do whatever she could to help and appointing herself your surrogate mother?
I’m not saying whatever Snow did justified the Queen’s mission of revenge. I’m not saying her grief over her father was faked. But I do think she may have been aware the Queen wasn’t really supportive or affectionate toward her and she was just playing along, taking her at face value, even if she suspected the Queen had darker motives. So she compartmentalized- here, she's feeling grief and she takes the comfort offered by the Queen, but it doesn't mean she loves her or believes the Queen loves her, she's just reacting to the situation at hand and putting aside her suspicions at that time.
(this is NOT AT ALL like Snow’s situation, but I am familiar with the role of ‘daughter disguises her true feelings and accepts affectionate gestures in order to keep the peace’. I’ve had to put on a mask and pretend to find my father’s jokes funny, to banter with him and be light-hearted and engage in conversation like I actually care and want to be around him when it’s the exact opposite, because I was under his roof and I couldn’t be myself or express my actual feelings out of self-preservation. You learn to adopt a permanent façade to keep the peace and pretend everything is all right.
I could be projecting- and dear god, reading over this post, I do seem to have a lot of issues, ack- but I think this is a viable theory. Until the next ep, lol, when it’s revealed Snow loved the Queen and thought of her as a mother figure and this is rendered irrelevant, WHY DID I NOT POST THIS A MONTH AGO)
a) Has Regina taken the hearts of those guards? She seems comfortable revealing all her darkest secrets right in front of them. O.o She must be super confident that they’re not at all sympathetic to Snow, although if she screened them that well to know there’s no chance any of them will squeal on her, I wonder at her missing the GIANT BLINKING RED SIGNS that the Huntsman was not the cold-blooded killer she wanted.
b) Seriously, WHY the elaborate plans? Why not kill Snow herself? I know she says that she needs to be careful ‘coz the people love Snow, but um, she just offed the girl’s father without anyone the wiser, so how hard can it be to arrange an ‘accident’ for Snow? Also, she took the Huntsman’s heart without leaving a mark on him and then crushed it to dust, making him die without any visible trace of her involvement. I don’t see why she couldn’t do the same with Snow.
a) lol, CGI deer. At least it looks more real than the Terra Nova dinosaurs. *eyeroll*
b)IS THIS GUY FOR REAL? Again, as with the Queen, I question his display of emotion when surely he’s killed animals a ton of times. Wtf is up with his Sparkly Tear of Emo ManPain? Not only is it laughable, but as a guy raised by wolves, I question why he would be so sensitive about hunting- wolves are carnivores, FFS! They wouldn’t have brought him up to cry over the death of animals for food.
I love how with Lana, the simplest change of expression is this significant indicator that has deep, far-reaching implications. On the surface, it’s just a woman opening her eyes. But given that Graham is talking about a distinctive wolf with different-colored eyes which is a link to his Huntsman identity, that ominous stillness and her eyes suddenly opening is a cue that OH, CRAP, HE IS SO DOOMED AND HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW IT, STFU, DUDE, YOU’RE DIGGING YOUR OWN GRAVE HERE.
Also, eww, why is your chest so shiny? Take a shower, man.
My heart is melting. I know she kills him later, but kissing him on the shoulder…I wouldn’t leave Regina after that! it’s so sweet and tender…
Again, not seeing the face of a man being coerced into anything. There she is, pleading for him to stay and he’s casually dismissing her and walking out to ponder about a weird dream he had. This is not the Huntsman/Evil Queen dynamic at all, Graham seems to have all the power here. He shows up at her place to have sex, he chooses to leave, regardless of her practically begging him to stay…yeah, no, not getting the ‘Regina’s unwilling slave’ vibe here. Which makes me seethe about him whimpering to Emma all over again, YOU’RE VOLUNTARILY HAVING SEX WITH THIS WOMAN AND THEN BITCHING ABOUT HER TO EMMA, HDU. And right after going on about how she doesn’t make him feel anything, he goes to her, argh.
SHE IS SO BEAUTIFUL. WHY WOULD YOU WALK AWAY FROM THIS?!
LOL, THIS SCENE. I love that their relationship isn’t perfect. I love that they have a bit of conflict and I’m pretty sure MM was implying Emma’s easy as opposed to this metaphor about her building a wall to keep people out, blah blah blah. I mean, the convo that led to that point ( ‘One-nighters is as far as I ever go’/ ‘Yeah, but that’s because you’re-’) seems to be more the inadvertent near-statement that she kinda thinks Emma’s a slut rather than the lead-up to a deep&meaningful speech on how she needs to let down her walls and let love in. The former is a private opinion that could very easily slip out without meaning, whereas the in-depth character analysis isn’t something one would just mindlessly blurt out, y’know?
(put it this way: a person is more likely to bite their tongue on the verge of saying ‘you’re a bitch’ as opposed to nearly casually launching into a psych eval about ‘oh, your troubled childhood left you with deep-seated issues that cause you to shield yourself in all interactions with others and to project this defensive air the point where you actually come off hostile and abrasive’)
Also, I lol’d at the deliberate way she grabbed her flowers and stalked off.
It amazes me that Emma thought they were from Graham- and underscores the fact that HIS BEHAVIOR WAS WRONG AND HE SHOULD’VE APOLOGIZED AND NEVER DID, THE ASS. I like that Emma has the self-respect to know that he behaved badly and she deserves an apology; I dislike that Graham didn’t feel the same.
a) GOLD IS HILARIOUS. Look at him all dapper and sophisticated, wearing a suit while gardening.
b) Graham really is the worst Sheriff, isn’t he? I mean, this doesn’t strike him as REMOTELY SUSPICIOUS? Gold could’ve been burying a body there or something!
She is so stylish! Her costumes are the best, ugh, I WANT. And I wish someone would do my hair that way!
I love how she’s posing there, putting on this display of elegance and beauty, hee. I think a lot about her is manufactured to play to an audience, tbh. She can be OTT, but it’s calculated. If she were on her own, she wouldn’t be lounging so attractively, I’m sure.
Let’s take a moment to admire Lana Parilla’s flawless body.
JFC, I bet this woman can’t eat a burger or anything while she’s shooting this show. She must work out for hours to get that body.
See, this is the problem with monologuing while walking away. The person you’re addressing doesn’t know when to turn so you wind up looking silly talking to the wall on one side of the room while he faces the other.
(side-note: I love love LOVE that scene in The Middleman when the Middleman invokes this trope, delivering his monologue while walking away from Wendy and ~dramatically gazing out the window as he does so. Wendy turns around, walks up to the window, looks at him and then looks out, trying to figure out wtf he’s staring at, lol. IKR, WENDY? Why do people do this?)
Look at her face. She appears so innocent and yet she’s scheming on the inside all the while. I love how demure and innocuous she comes off, hee.
The writing for her is excellent, seriously. I really appreciate how realistic they are. It’s not that Snow has sekrit ninja skillz of awesome, she can’t out-wrestle a fully-trained knight or anything, but she’s smart, she thinks quick on her feet and she always fools people into underestimating her right before she blindsides them. AWESOME.
I LOVE THE WAY THESE LADIES ACT OUT THEIR MUTUAL LOATHING AND ANTAGONISM. LOOK AT THEM. SEE HOW MUCH THEY DESPISE EACH OTHER.
J-Mo and Lana, never stop looking so flirty while ostensibly engaging in serious conflict as ~enemies. FOE!YAY FTW. ♥
Okay, you guys, I know a lot of people think Snow was genuine here. But I don’t agree. I mean, sure, she could figure out that the Huntsman has more wilderness and tracking skills and she’s outmatched, but I don’t believe she’d just sit down, give up and write a note of forgiveness directed at the WOMAN PLOTTING TO KILL HER.
I honestly believe this was Snow being super crafty and using her wits to out-maneuver the Queen. She’s using those instincts and appealing to the Huntsman, putting on this noble, gracious air to attract his sympathy; at best, her note convinces him that she is too good and generous to be killed, at worst, it’s a passive-aggressive FU to the Queen. I mean, when she read that note, she was disgusted, it annoyed her, and I believe Snow knew that, planned for that, that note was superbly designed to win the Huntsman over to her AND irritate the hell out of the Queen.
Because sorry, but there’s no way I would buy that anybody would be THAT forgiving, THAT compassionate, FFS, how unrealistic is that? I know she’s a fairytale character, but no. Why do people favor the idea that she’s that much of a doormat (THAT IS HOW I SEE IT) as opposed to the idea that she’s cunning and an expert manipulator? Has Slytherin put people off the art of manipulation altogether, they don’t believe ‘good guys’ can scheme and sneakily apply reverse psychology or something?
ARGH, EMO TEARS REAPPEAR, I CANNOT TAKE YOU SERIOUSLY.
She looks so fierce! (also, I kind of want her and Jareth the Goblin King to hang out, they both have this flair for dramatic costumes, I’d love to see that, haha! DAVID BOWIE CAMEO, COME ON. I want Labyrinth/OUAT crossover fics nao, plz)
Love it, but seriously, what’s with her fringe? Those two strands are annoying me so much rn. I wanna flick a finger and separate them, it looks silly to me…
Good thing her magical heart collector’s box could CSI the contents and confirm it’s not human. So handy! I’m a bit bemused her magic is that…fine-tuned. I mean, what enchantment would you cast that is so analytical that it’d routinely scan to make sure all hearts were human? It’s not the sort of thing you’d think to program, y/n? I wouldn’t expect my fridge to distinguish between a bunch of real grapes and fake grapes- WHY AM I OVERTHINKING THIS, GO WITH IT, SELF.
EPIC CATFIGHT, OMG. I love that the ladies don’t pull their punches, no tame slapping going on here, they’re full on bashing each other, lol. Too bad Graham intervened
Love triangle, tbqh, with Regina vs Graham for Emma, lbr.
THIS is what coercion looks like. THIS is where the Evil Queen earns her title. I am simultaneously glad to see her live up to it- people’ve criticized her as being a weak villain, WELL, NOT ANYMORE- and dismayed because gross, making her a rapist, writers, really?
OMG, J-MO’S ACTING IS AMAZING. You can see her vulnerability, see how she’s wrestling with that wall MM was talking about. I do think that was clumsily written in- when would MM have had the chance to observe such a wall? Emma accepted her invitation to live with her after knowing her for a day, um- but the way Emma is deliberately making the decision to open herself up to Graham is so endearing and omg, my poor bb.
LOOK AT HER FACE. SHE IS SO HAPPY. I hate Graham and think she deserves better, BUT SHE IS SO READY TO LOVE SOMEONE AND TO LET LOVE INTO HER LIFE…
…AND THEN THIS. REGINAAAAAAA.
Her timing was flawless, though, right? Another second and she’d’ve been unmasked as the villain Henry’s convinced she is.
I do dislike how people are tearing Emma down and proclaiming her an idiot for not buying into the idea of a cursed town with a diabolical mayor who’s really an Evil Queen from the fairytale land. No, I LIKE that she’s being sensible, I can’t stand shows where people immediately leap to the most radical conclusion and full-heartedly embrace it without any facts and ignoring all logic in the process. I wouldn’t blame Emma for STILL not believing Henry even after Graham dies because nothing links this to Regina. What sane person would believe Regina had anything to do with Graham keeling over dead?! I hope that when Emma comes to believe Henry’s ideas, that it’s with some justification, because I like that she’s been level-headed so far.
(by justification, I mean that it’s done plausibly- that could be either logically, through evidence, like finding Regina’s cache of hearts or other fantastical phenomena OR emotionally, like being grief-stricken over Graham’s death and thus being more open to far-fetched ideas because of her vulnerable state)
DAMN, THAT WAS LONG. Thanks to anyone who made it through!
---
Vidspam: I have been horribly bored lately, so I d/l the Rifftrax version of Eragon. It was HILARIOUS. Also, I hadn’t realized Robert Carlyle was in it, so that was an unexpected bonus- as were the similarities I noticed between a couple of his scenes here and those of the Evil Queen. I know it’s a stretch, but I like to think maybe the writers had this movie in mind when they shot a couple scenes, a little subtle homage to him, lol.
Click to view