Once Upon a Time 4x19 Thoughts
May. 17th, 2015 05:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaSympathy for the De Vil
It was better than the previous episode.
• "There's an explanation of course. You see, um... I'm a really terrible person." - Cruella. LOL. That was hilarious and unexpectedly 100% accurate. I really enjoyed this whole scene. I loved Cruella defeating Maleficent by getting Maleficent so angry she turned into her dragon-self and left herself open to Cruella's power.
• I liked getting an explanation, and one that worked, for why Cruella/Ursula didn't age. I also liked the reasons for Cruella's look and her magic over animals.
• As per usual lately Emma and Regina were wonderful. I loved Emma's concern for Regina, the fact that she wanted to go with Regina to New York and her offering Regina her gun for protection. Plus she wasn't angry at all about Regina keeping Snow's secret. I also really loved the duel ransom call to their phones. I still always love when they're both referred to as Henry's moms.
• I liked Regina and Hook trying to help Emma move past her anger at her parents and forgive them.
• On one hand, I love that the show didn't try and give Cruella a sad backstory. That for once a villain was always a bad person and completely unrepentant about it. And wow was she bad - poisoned her father as a child and her subsequent step-fathers, compelled her mother's beloved dogs to kill her, killing the dogs and turning them into a coat afterwards. Her explanation being it was fun. It was a great surprise and a nice twist from the expected.
On the other, Cruella then being the person Emma kills loses a lot of it's weight. Cruella was legitly a horrible person. She is clearly a psychopath. She was also threatening to kill Henry, and while she couldn't physically do so Emma didn't know that. Earlier in the episode Emma states that she wouldn't harm a defenceless person - well, Cruella wasn't defenceless as far she knew. Emma knocking Cruella off the cliff was pretty damn justified so as a impetus for her going dark it massively doesn't work for me. It also really feels like a cop-out.
Where I thought the story was going was Rumplestiltskin 'killing' Henry. Having Emma kill could have still worked with that. Rumple forces Cruella to push Henry off the cliff 'killing' him and in anger/grief Emma uses her power to fling a defenceless Cruella off it as well. I think that would have worked so much better.
• I'm not really a fan of Emma's increasingly, uh, ragged look. I get it's supposed to visually show Emma slowly going dark but the reasons for why Emma is slowly going dark don't work for me. I'm not buying it so the look is mainly annoying. I just want her to go take a nap and then maybe a spa day with Regina.
• Regina seemed weirdly calm about Henry's kidnapping. She felt a little off.
• "It was our only option to make sure you grew up good." - Charming. Ugh, no. Just no. I'm really hating how Charming has been portrayed during this storyline. His constant attempts to defend the undefencible and excuse their actions is not a good look for him. They absolutely didn't have to do anything. It's not like Emma was destined to grow up evil. It was only a possibility, just like for every other person. Even in that case, while their actions would have been understandable, they wouldn't have been right or excusable.
• I'm annoyed with Regina taking Belle's heart. Especially since the last words we hear Belle say are "How can I help? which considering all the horrible things Regina has done to her is really generous.
• A little annoyed also that Rumple's explanation for everything he's been doing coming down to saving his heart from becoming completely black and thus destroying his ability to love/feel. I think it's actually a great reason but there should have been some mention of Neal.
It was better than the previous episode.
• "There's an explanation of course. You see, um... I'm a really terrible person." - Cruella. LOL. That was hilarious and unexpectedly 100% accurate. I really enjoyed this whole scene. I loved Cruella defeating Maleficent by getting Maleficent so angry she turned into her dragon-self and left herself open to Cruella's power.
• I liked getting an explanation, and one that worked, for why Cruella/Ursula didn't age. I also liked the reasons for Cruella's look and her magic over animals.
• As per usual lately Emma and Regina were wonderful. I loved Emma's concern for Regina, the fact that she wanted to go with Regina to New York and her offering Regina her gun for protection. Plus she wasn't angry at all about Regina keeping Snow's secret. I also really loved the duel ransom call to their phones. I still always love when they're both referred to as Henry's moms.
• I liked Regina and Hook trying to help Emma move past her anger at her parents and forgive them.
• On one hand, I love that the show didn't try and give Cruella a sad backstory. That for once a villain was always a bad person and completely unrepentant about it. And wow was she bad - poisoned her father as a child and her subsequent step-fathers, compelled her mother's beloved dogs to kill her, killing the dogs and turning them into a coat afterwards. Her explanation being it was fun. It was a great surprise and a nice twist from the expected.
On the other, Cruella then being the person Emma kills loses a lot of it's weight. Cruella was legitly a horrible person. She is clearly a psychopath. She was also threatening to kill Henry, and while she couldn't physically do so Emma didn't know that. Earlier in the episode Emma states that she wouldn't harm a defenceless person - well, Cruella wasn't defenceless as far she knew. Emma knocking Cruella off the cliff was pretty damn justified so as a impetus for her going dark it massively doesn't work for me. It also really feels like a cop-out.
Where I thought the story was going was Rumplestiltskin 'killing' Henry. Having Emma kill could have still worked with that. Rumple forces Cruella to push Henry off the cliff 'killing' him and in anger/grief Emma uses her power to fling a defenceless Cruella off it as well. I think that would have worked so much better.
• I'm not really a fan of Emma's increasingly, uh, ragged look. I get it's supposed to visually show Emma slowly going dark but the reasons for why Emma is slowly going dark don't work for me. I'm not buying it so the look is mainly annoying. I just want her to go take a nap and then maybe a spa day with Regina.
• Regina seemed weirdly calm about Henry's kidnapping. She felt a little off.
• "It was our only option to make sure you grew up good." - Charming. Ugh, no. Just no. I'm really hating how Charming has been portrayed during this storyline. His constant attempts to defend the undefencible and excuse their actions is not a good look for him. They absolutely didn't have to do anything. It's not like Emma was destined to grow up evil. It was only a possibility, just like for every other person. Even in that case, while their actions would have been understandable, they wouldn't have been right or excusable.
• I'm annoyed with Regina taking Belle's heart. Especially since the last words we hear Belle say are "How can I help? which considering all the horrible things Regina has done to her is really generous.
• A little annoyed also that Rumple's explanation for everything he's been doing coming down to saving his heart from becoming completely black and thus destroying his ability to love/feel. I think it's actually a great reason but there should have been some mention of Neal.
