Queen of Hearts

[seraya7]

...also consider this the place to put thoughts and spec on the other episodes between Tallahasse and Queen of Hearts: Child of the Moon, and Into the Deep. This is all stuff I wrote a few days ago; currently my brain is all about Stargate, but if I don't post it now I never will! So.

Comments

[seshathawk]

Re: Hook. Yes! He seems to have the bare minimum of requirements to be called Hook at all (i.e. a hook), and has been crossed with Jack Sparrow and possibly Ralph Fiennes. But I was thinking-here is the thing about most of the characters on the show. Taken from their source material (being Grimm/Andersen), there is very minimal description of characters like Snow White and Cinderella. Snow White’s main characteristic is being pretty, and Cinderella’s is being downtrodden (she cries a lot). That leaves them very open to almost any interpretation you want to give them.

Hook, on the other hand, was written as a full-fledged character and is less open to interpretation. Barrie wrote a huge, distinctive paragraph about him describing his characteristics. I have read several stories that attempted to take on Neverland and overall got everything wrong. Peter is too often pushed into adventurous teenagerhood (when the center of his character is that he is childish), and Hook is too often pushed into a caricature villain. Every version I have read has at least attempted to keep his elegance and counter it when appropriate when his occasional violence. Somewhat amusingly, considering the terrible books I have read, this is the worst interpretation of Hook I’ve ever seen/read. As I said: he barely even qualifies as Hook. He is just some guy with a hook.

I think this is interesting because they have taken on at least three other relatively major characters who were invented by actual authors as opposed to derived from very old fairy tales. These characters are Pinocchio, Jiminy, and Jefferson, although several other character from their stories make appearances too. These three characters have been skewed from their original stories but they still retain characteristics from the original stories. They all do this EXCEPT FOR HOOK and I don’t understand why except for the possibility that Hook’s elegance and occasional violence do not play out well in the modern world, especially if he is meant to flirt with Emma.

So I guess I was apprehensive of their take on Hook with good reason. So, so few people have met my very high (although still fair) standards. I guess I was expecting so little that it didn’t surprise me when my expectations were met. They have done a decent take on Alice so far; I am only concerned now for when/if they take on Dorothy/Oz.

I agree that this season is much more plot-driven; however, it is overall a more plot-driven show than, say, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I think had many more breaks for character episodes as opposed to plot episodes. All I meant was that last season was not delivering as much character as I wanted and it was frustrating. It was mostly pushing the mystery of the town and fairy tales and it was more episodic but still, not a lot of character exploration. Or possibly just not the characters I wanted; I know Snow and Charming got a lot of attention. Now I know what to expect. Though I agree-the puzzle piece flashbacks and present-day character exploration are my favorites too.

Good point about Archie/Regina. Possibly a reason why I like him is because he has almost no mental blocks against people. He is almost like a friendly (if restrained) dog-he seems to like everyone. We need more characters like that!

I still think it’s possible (though not probable) that Hook will make a comeback of awesomeness sin the second half of the season.

The girl in Dealing with Dragons: Oh, right! Alianora! I just like it when women are allowed to be pretty and tough. It occurred to me this morning when trying to think about how to answer these comments that even Snow, who is arguably pretty and tough, doesn’t really let those two lines cross in her life-you never see her shooting arrows while wearing a ball gown. Just one of my little pet peeves, as Tamora Pierce said in Lioness Rampant: “I don’t see why you feel you have to be all woman or all warrior. Can’t you be both?” Also, frankly, I get tired of people magically being awesome at sword-fighting. I like that Aurora is crafty instead.