Once Upon a Time 5x01 Thoughts
Sep. 30th, 2015 11:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iariaThe Dark Swan
It was okay. There were things I liked and things that didn't work for me. For the moment I'm interested enough in Emma as the Dark One to keep watching.
Good
• I really like Merida! She looks good and I’m really enjoying her personality. Her introductory scene was great. I wonder if she’s going to play a significant part in saving Emma perhaps by reminding her of mercy?
• I loved Emma all episode and I’m so ready for Emma as the Dark One.
• Emma was looking fabulous. After how horrible she looked at the end of last season this was a relief. I loved her enchanted forest outfit (she was so pretty!) and I kind of dig her Dark One look. She looks very badass.
• I loved Emma giving the dagger to Regina. That really does make the most sense though I doubt if Regina would be able to actually destroy Emma.
• I liked Regina playing Zelena.
• Regina calling Hook ‘guyliner’ lol.
• I liked the twist that the Dark One dagger is the tip of Excalibur. It’s a neat way to tie the whole Camelot situation in with our gang and it makes me interested in learning more about how that came about.
• The Charming/Emma hug was lovely. I also liked Snow yelling at Regina and Hook when they were bickering and taking charge of the situation.
• I really liked the look Snow and Regina shared first when Regina said they were using the portal Zelena created to get Emma, and then later when Regina revealed Emma’s baby blanket. I love how their relationship has changed.
• ‘Rumplestiltskin’ as Emma’s jiminy cricket of being the Dark One was great.
• The Emma/Hook hug after she turned away from killing Merida was nice.
Bad
• The emphasis on Hook/Emma was my least favourite part of the episode. It bothered me that his reactions to what happened to Emma were given prominence even over her parents and son. I hated the fact that he took the lead in talking her down at the end. Snow or Charming or Henry all would have been better choices. Considering Regina’s past even she might have been better. It being a team effort with no one person taking prominence would have been the best way. As it was I found myself resenting Hook and Hook/Emma for the way he took away from Henry/Emma and Snow/Emma and Charming/Emma. I find the lack of Snow/Charming in general weird and annoying. If anyone should be taking the lead right now it’s Emma’s parents not Hook and Regina. Also where’s Henry creating Operation Swan or something, or showing any interest in figuring out how to help his mom?
• Boo on Snow immediately pulling out the dagger to use against Emma and having Hook stop her because Emma had to make the choice herself. I miss season 1/2 Snow. I miss the Snow/Emma relationship. The lack of hug between Emma and Snow was weird especially since Snow is right there as Charming and Snow break their hug. It ended up feeling kind of pointed. Emma forgave Snow last season, right?
• Henry going along with Hook’s plan felt off. Even beyond it being a bad plan. Henry himself actually came off weird because I didn’t see any worry for Emma or desperation about getting her back. He was just casually hanging out and casually interested in what Hook as saying. Or at least until Hook brought up Regina not liking the idea and then he was all ‘she’s not the boss of me’ about it and sharing a smirk with Hook. Is he hitting his rebellious teenage stage? Whatever, his mom just became the Dark One and disappeared so the way Henry was played in this scene felt all wrong.
• Aw, Fergus died? That makes me sad. He was so great! I hope this doesn’t mean that Elinor isn’t dead as well.
• I hated the time skip. Repeating the whole ‘back in Storybrooke, missing time’ situation is so lazy.
• All these different ways of getting between realms rather undercuts Rumplestiltskin’s centuries long game in order to find Baelfire. At this point I feel like he just wasn’t trying hard enough or was being a giant drama queen.
• It would have been nice that when Granny, Belle and the dwarves came out of the diner all happy to see Emma we could have gotten a hug or two between her and them. Again it felt like the show missing a character beat by having her just stand there/having Granny stop instead of just walking up and hugging her.
• Why would the gang take baby Neal and Roland with them on an adventure to the Enchanted Forest? That’s a bad idea all around. The safer choice here would have been handing them over to the Blue Fairy for safe keeping. Or since Red is coming back so they could have said she was babysitting.
It was okay. There were things I liked and things that didn't work for me. For the moment I'm interested enough in Emma as the Dark One to keep watching.
Good
• I really like Merida! She looks good and I’m really enjoying her personality. Her introductory scene was great. I wonder if she’s going to play a significant part in saving Emma perhaps by reminding her of mercy?
• I loved Emma all episode and I’m so ready for Emma as the Dark One.
• Emma was looking fabulous. After how horrible she looked at the end of last season this was a relief. I loved her enchanted forest outfit (she was so pretty!) and I kind of dig her Dark One look. She looks very badass.
• I loved Emma giving the dagger to Regina. That really does make the most sense though I doubt if Regina would be able to actually destroy Emma.
• I liked Regina playing Zelena.
• Regina calling Hook ‘guyliner’ lol.
• I liked the twist that the Dark One dagger is the tip of Excalibur. It’s a neat way to tie the whole Camelot situation in with our gang and it makes me interested in learning more about how that came about.
• The Charming/Emma hug was lovely. I also liked Snow yelling at Regina and Hook when they were bickering and taking charge of the situation.
• I really liked the look Snow and Regina shared first when Regina said they were using the portal Zelena created to get Emma, and then later when Regina revealed Emma’s baby blanket. I love how their relationship has changed.
• ‘Rumplestiltskin’ as Emma’s jiminy cricket of being the Dark One was great.
• The Emma/Hook hug after she turned away from killing Merida was nice.
Bad
• The emphasis on Hook/Emma was my least favourite part of the episode. It bothered me that his reactions to what happened to Emma were given prominence even over her parents and son. I hated the fact that he took the lead in talking her down at the end. Snow or Charming or Henry all would have been better choices. Considering Regina’s past even she might have been better. It being a team effort with no one person taking prominence would have been the best way. As it was I found myself resenting Hook and Hook/Emma for the way he took away from Henry/Emma and Snow/Emma and Charming/Emma. I find the lack of Snow/Charming in general weird and annoying. If anyone should be taking the lead right now it’s Emma’s parents not Hook and Regina. Also where’s Henry creating Operation Swan or something, or showing any interest in figuring out how to help his mom?
• Boo on Snow immediately pulling out the dagger to use against Emma and having Hook stop her because Emma had to make the choice herself. I miss season 1/2 Snow. I miss the Snow/Emma relationship. The lack of hug between Emma and Snow was weird especially since Snow is right there as Charming and Snow break their hug. It ended up feeling kind of pointed. Emma forgave Snow last season, right?
• Henry going along with Hook’s plan felt off. Even beyond it being a bad plan. Henry himself actually came off weird because I didn’t see any worry for Emma or desperation about getting her back. He was just casually hanging out and casually interested in what Hook as saying. Or at least until Hook brought up Regina not liking the idea and then he was all ‘she’s not the boss of me’ about it and sharing a smirk with Hook. Is he hitting his rebellious teenage stage? Whatever, his mom just became the Dark One and disappeared so the way Henry was played in this scene felt all wrong.
• Aw, Fergus died? That makes me sad. He was so great! I hope this doesn’t mean that Elinor isn’t dead as well.
• I hated the time skip. Repeating the whole ‘back in Storybrooke, missing time’ situation is so lazy.
• All these different ways of getting between realms rather undercuts Rumplestiltskin’s centuries long game in order to find Baelfire. At this point I feel like he just wasn’t trying hard enough or was being a giant drama queen.
• It would have been nice that when Granny, Belle and the dwarves came out of the diner all happy to see Emma we could have gotten a hug or two between her and them. Again it felt like the show missing a character beat by having her just stand there/having Granny stop instead of just walking up and hugging her.
• Why would the gang take baby Neal and Roland with them on an adventure to the Enchanted Forest? That’s a bad idea all around. The safer choice here would have been handing them over to the Blue Fairy for safe keeping. Or since Red is coming back so they could have said she was babysitting.
