Challenge 18: Pros & Cons Review
I decided to go with straight-up meta for this review, since I had a lot to say about it lol XD
As others have noted, these are just my opinions, and I am always perfectly happy agreeing to disagree with people.
LIKES
Rumbelle Honeymoon: I knew there wouldn't be much of it, and I was right, but I'm sooooo glad we had at least a few minutes of a happy Mr. and Mrs. Gold. Belle in particular was just adorable, and seeing her happy was such a treat. I know things are going to come to a head with the dagger, and I just really wanted a little bit of calm before the storm, I was thrilled to see they were able to be uninterrupted, at least for a little while. And yes, I'm a total sap and loved the dance. I had one small issue with it, which I'll get into later, but overall, it was adorable and I was squealing like a teenager XD
Nealfire's Grave: More than anything, I was just so glad that the writers actually acknowledged his death. With all the Captain Swan crap, I knew we wouldn't get any real comments from Emma, but I really wanted Gold to have some closure. (If you can't tell, I'm more than a little bitter about his death in general, just because it was totally useless =/) Anyway, considering the man had spent over three centuries looking for his boy just so he could apologize - and, you know, that search is the entire reason for the curse itself and therefore the backbone of the whole show - I wanted to have at least a little more meaning attached to it. I found Gold's speech to be a bit lacking, but the sentiment was there and I'm thankful we had it.
Regina vs. Snowman: I kinda wanted to slap Regina for the vast majority of the episode (more on that below), but she ended on a really strong note with the snow monster, which gives me hope for the rest of the season. She saved Marion, despite her own personal feelings, because that's what good people do. Despite her faults, I DO want her to have a happy ending, and if she continues to act selflessly like this, she'll absolutely deserve one. It was a great moment for her.
The Book's Author Hunt: I'm ridiculously excited about this. I've wondered since Day One where The Book came from and how it got into Mary Margaret's possession, and this has the potential to be one of the most interesting plot threads in the entire series (assuming they do it right). I'm also interested to see if the author really did believe that villains can't ever have happy endings, and how they'll deal with that, since the show is all about redemption. I really can't wait to see how this develops.
Frozen Casting: I'm not all gung-ho on the idea of Frozen in general, but - like many others - I have to admit that the casting is pretty much perfect. Anna is by far my favorite, for sure. The actress has her childlike wonder down wonderfully, as well as her tendency to run at the mouth and then look embarrassed about it. Elsa's actress also has her regal bearing down, but more importantly, her fear and self-doubt. And of course, Kristoff is just adorable <3 I have the feeling if I end up actually liking this arc, it's going to be more because of their excellent acting than anything else.
DISLIKES
Regina's Backpedaling: Like I said before, this was not a good Regina episode for me. She pretty much pushed ALL my dislike buttons when it comes to her character. I get really, REALLY upset when she pulls the martyr card about how she never gets happy endings. She loves to shove the blame for her fate off on other people, starting with Snow (you know, the KID who was manipulated by Cora, but somehow Regina still managed to blame her for Daniel's death instead of her mother). For this episode, she played the same game with Marion. Let's review: In the original timeline, she killed Marion for simply defending Snow White, thus depriving Robin of his (at least then) True Love and Roland of his mother. Now that she's back, she has the gall to say Marion is ruining her happiness??? Um, no. In the real world, we call that karma, and it was completely deserved. I was REALLY glad she did the right thing in the end, but for most of the episode, I was pretty enraged.
Rumple's Backpedaling: Similar story to Regina's. Rumple starts off the episode promising his dead son to do better and deserve Belle's love and Bae's respect. But by the end of the episode, he's right back where he started, lying about the dagger and pouring over a new magical object. I know he's been compared to an addict with magic as his drug of choice, and I think that was really apparent in this episode. Plus, even when he DID try to do right, I felt like the fell short. Like, freezing Belle to switch daggers so she had the real one? That doesn't solve anything. It's just more hiding. If he really wants to turn over a new leaf, he's going to have to sit down with her, admit what he did, face her judgment, and go from there. So far it's just been lies upon lies, and that's really unfortunate.
Frozen Characters: I wasn't happy at the end of last season with Elsa's big reveal, and I'm still not buying it. For one thing, it's a clear cash cow. They're making the characters carbon copies of the movie, which is simply boring. OUaT's strength has always been the twisting of traditional tales and putting unique spins on the characters we thought we knew. This is just pure drag and drop, and it feels weak. For another thing, I'm getting rather sick of new characters in general. There are sooooo many minor characters already introduced who should have their time in the spotlight before moving on to someone else. Bring back Cinderella and Nova and RED! Even Ariel never had much time in the spotlight, and she just got here! I'd much rather see them flesh out old characters than keep bringing in new ones, especially cardboard cutouts like they're doing with Frozen.
Direct Costuming: Speaking of cardboard cutouts, I really wasn't at all pleased with a lot of the costuming in this episode. Rather like their characterizations, the Frozen cast is simply an exact copy of the movie. Elsa and Kristoff's wardrobes in particular look more like bad cosplay than anything else. Again, OUaT's strengths lie in the twists and turns. Snow White as a bandit is so much more interesting than Snow White in her princess dress. Putting Aurora in purple - a combination of pink and blue - was perfection. This is just boring. And remember I said I disliked one part of the Rumbelle dance? Yeah, that would be the costuming. Gold in particular just looked uncomfortable, and rightly so. He's not a prince, nor would Belle want him to be. Don't dress him up as one.
MacGuffin's Everywhere: Elsa just happens to find her mother's diary laying around while Anna is trying on her wedding dress. Rumple just happens to find Yen Sid's hat in the random house Belle chose for their honeymoon. Ann's necklace just happens to be front and center in Rumbelle's engagement photo. (P.S. That's a story I want to hear!!) And of course, Elsa just happens to see a copy of the paper with said picture. I get that coincidences sometimes happen, but this particular episode had waaaaaay too many. Some plot with the random encounters would be appreciated.
RATING
Overall, I think I'd give this episode a 5 out of 10. It had some good moments, but it suffered from a lack of originality on the part of new characters, and a lot of really poor choices on the part of some normally very strong older characters.
As others have noted, these are just my opinions, and I am always perfectly happy agreeing to disagree with people.
LIKES
Rumbelle Honeymoon: I knew there wouldn't be much of it, and I was right, but I'm sooooo glad we had at least a few minutes of a happy Mr. and Mrs. Gold. Belle in particular was just adorable, and seeing her happy was such a treat. I know things are going to come to a head with the dagger, and I just really wanted a little bit of calm before the storm, I was thrilled to see they were able to be uninterrupted, at least for a little while. And yes, I'm a total sap and loved the dance. I had one small issue with it, which I'll get into later, but overall, it was adorable and I was squealing like a teenager XD
Nealfire's Grave: More than anything, I was just so glad that the writers actually acknowledged his death. With all the Captain Swan crap, I knew we wouldn't get any real comments from Emma, but I really wanted Gold to have some closure. (If you can't tell, I'm more than a little bitter about his death in general, just because it was totally useless =/) Anyway, considering the man had spent over three centuries looking for his boy just so he could apologize - and, you know, that search is the entire reason for the curse itself and therefore the backbone of the whole show - I wanted to have at least a little more meaning attached to it. I found Gold's speech to be a bit lacking, but the sentiment was there and I'm thankful we had it.
Regina vs. Snowman: I kinda wanted to slap Regina for the vast majority of the episode (more on that below), but she ended on a really strong note with the snow monster, which gives me hope for the rest of the season. She saved Marion, despite her own personal feelings, because that's what good people do. Despite her faults, I DO want her to have a happy ending, and if she continues to act selflessly like this, she'll absolutely deserve one. It was a great moment for her.
The Book's Author Hunt: I'm ridiculously excited about this. I've wondered since Day One where The Book came from and how it got into Mary Margaret's possession, and this has the potential to be one of the most interesting plot threads in the entire series (assuming they do it right). I'm also interested to see if the author really did believe that villains can't ever have happy endings, and how they'll deal with that, since the show is all about redemption. I really can't wait to see how this develops.
Frozen Casting: I'm not all gung-ho on the idea of Frozen in general, but - like many others - I have to admit that the casting is pretty much perfect. Anna is by far my favorite, for sure. The actress has her childlike wonder down wonderfully, as well as her tendency to run at the mouth and then look embarrassed about it. Elsa's actress also has her regal bearing down, but more importantly, her fear and self-doubt. And of course, Kristoff is just adorable <3 I have the feeling if I end up actually liking this arc, it's going to be more because of their excellent acting than anything else.
DISLIKES
Regina's Backpedaling: Like I said before, this was not a good Regina episode for me. She pretty much pushed ALL my dislike buttons when it comes to her character. I get really, REALLY upset when she pulls the martyr card about how she never gets happy endings. She loves to shove the blame for her fate off on other people, starting with Snow (you know, the KID who was manipulated by Cora, but somehow Regina still managed to blame her for Daniel's death instead of her mother). For this episode, she played the same game with Marion. Let's review: In the original timeline, she killed Marion for simply defending Snow White, thus depriving Robin of his (at least then) True Love and Roland of his mother. Now that she's back, she has the gall to say Marion is ruining her happiness??? Um, no. In the real world, we call that karma, and it was completely deserved. I was REALLY glad she did the right thing in the end, but for most of the episode, I was pretty enraged.
Rumple's Backpedaling: Similar story to Regina's. Rumple starts off the episode promising his dead son to do better and deserve Belle's love and Bae's respect. But by the end of the episode, he's right back where he started, lying about the dagger and pouring over a new magical object. I know he's been compared to an addict with magic as his drug of choice, and I think that was really apparent in this episode. Plus, even when he DID try to do right, I felt like the fell short. Like, freezing Belle to switch daggers so she had the real one? That doesn't solve anything. It's just more hiding. If he really wants to turn over a new leaf, he's going to have to sit down with her, admit what he did, face her judgment, and go from there. So far it's just been lies upon lies, and that's really unfortunate.
Frozen Characters: I wasn't happy at the end of last season with Elsa's big reveal, and I'm still not buying it. For one thing, it's a clear cash cow. They're making the characters carbon copies of the movie, which is simply boring. OUaT's strength has always been the twisting of traditional tales and putting unique spins on the characters we thought we knew. This is just pure drag and drop, and it feels weak. For another thing, I'm getting rather sick of new characters in general. There are sooooo many minor characters already introduced who should have their time in the spotlight before moving on to someone else. Bring back Cinderella and Nova and RED! Even Ariel never had much time in the spotlight, and she just got here! I'd much rather see them flesh out old characters than keep bringing in new ones, especially cardboard cutouts like they're doing with Frozen.
Direct Costuming: Speaking of cardboard cutouts, I really wasn't at all pleased with a lot of the costuming in this episode. Rather like their characterizations, the Frozen cast is simply an exact copy of the movie. Elsa and Kristoff's wardrobes in particular look more like bad cosplay than anything else. Again, OUaT's strengths lie in the twists and turns. Snow White as a bandit is so much more interesting than Snow White in her princess dress. Putting Aurora in purple - a combination of pink and blue - was perfection. This is just boring. And remember I said I disliked one part of the Rumbelle dance? Yeah, that would be the costuming. Gold in particular just looked uncomfortable, and rightly so. He's not a prince, nor would Belle want him to be. Don't dress him up as one.
MacGuffin's Everywhere: Elsa just happens to find her mother's diary laying around while Anna is trying on her wedding dress. Rumple just happens to find Yen Sid's hat in the random house Belle chose for their honeymoon. Ann's necklace just happens to be front and center in Rumbelle's engagement photo. (P.S. That's a story I want to hear!!) And of course, Elsa just happens to see a copy of the paper with said picture. I get that coincidences sometimes happen, but this particular episode had waaaaaay too many. Some plot with the random encounters would be appreciated.
RATING
Overall, I think I'd give this episode a 5 out of 10. It had some good moments, but it suffered from a lack of originality on the part of new characters, and a lot of really poor choices on the part of some normally very strong older characters.