Pitching in to Emma camp.

Any thoughts on the latest episode?

Spoiler

Like a certain King being evil? Blackcelot?

I was almost hoping something more... dazzling, shall we say, occurred between DarkSwan and Hook aboard his ship. Think that pain in her voice before poofing away was genuine?

Also, the dwarves bitching in the beginning felt filler-y to me.

I'm wondering if one of Snow and Charming's new kid or Zelena's will grow up to be Mordred?

 

Belle. No contest.

Show's not too bad, better than I thought tbh.

 

Red/Ruby > Belle

Emilie de Ravin looked way hotter in Lost.

 

Ruby suffers from not having done anything since about series 2. It amuses me that she hasn't even been written out, not really - they've just not written her anything to do. Canonically, she's just hanging out in Storybrooke, chilling and not getting involved in the story.

Anywho.

Spoiler

I'm not buying into Lancelot being back yet. If the next Camelot flashback doesn't have Snow being highly suspicious of the whole thing, given how many recently the Wicked Witch fooled her by appearing to be something she isn't, amongst other instances, I'm going to be highly annoyed. Arthur being evil...interesting, potentially. I'm more interested in the Dark Swan's plan. I did think Charming's fight scene with the re-animated armour was pretty sweet though. Totally stealing that idea for a fic.

Zeelthor: totally agree about the Dwarves.

 

Double post ftw.

Actually quite liking the direction this is all going. Morrison's pretty good at evil (or Dark, at least), and the plot thus far is intriguing.

Spoiler

I particularly enjoyed the scenes between Merida and Gold. I will say though, while Jared Gilmore was probably the best he's been in the most recent episode, his dating scenes are almost unbearably cheesy. Particularly riding the horse into the dance. Also, while Regina was perfectly accurate in her 'What the hell, hero' speech to Emma at the end...she's spent maybe two thirds of her life as the Evil frigging Queen. You'd think she could at least acknowledge that while Emma fucked up, she was under the influence of Dark magic. It is, after all, how they've justified keeping her and Gold around for three and a bit series after her evil scheme was stopped, so you'd think they could apply the same logic to the main character. Ah well.

 

Yeah I was just thinking to myself that I have yet to face-palm even once this season at the corniness of it all, which is quite unusual for this show.

Henry is far less annoying too. I think I've been wanting him killed off since the middle of season one. Strangely, I haven't felt any homicidal urges towards him at all this season.

 

Spoke too soon. "You saved me!" "Actually...I think you saved me." Vomit.

 

Was Merlin wearing a Roman outfit when he and his buddy came stumbling upon the Grail? I can't believe they turned said Grail into Excalibur - and how does that jive, anyway, that Merlin would send Arthur out looking for the Grail when it was in his hands all along? I've skimmed this season so I'm partially out of the loop on specifics, but what a douche maneuver-- unless Merlin was specifically testing Arthur for something.

First Dark One stuff was... I dunno. I pegged Nimue more as becoming the Lady of the Lake. I think they could have done a better job displaying the previous Dark Ones' than what they did come that revelation. Just the same generic shadowed-with-ominous-eyes appearance wasn't good enough IMO.

 

They just looked like generic slave outfits tbh. I'd have to rewatch the episodes, but did Merlin send Arthur after the Grail in the show? I only remember him looking to find and then reforge Excalibur.

Credit to them though; I pegged Nimue as the Dark One Merlin was facing off with from their first scene, and was anticipating the revelation for most of the episode...but then they convinced me I was wrong just in time to find out I'd been right.

 

IIRC Arthur said they(Knights etc) had been sent out on a futile quest for the Grail in the episode where Merlin was let out of the tree.

 

I'm not digging the Camelot plotline. It's pretty boring. And the fact that they didn't really utilize the costume designs from Sword in the Stone is like a slap to my childhood.

And honestly... why is Archimedes not making a major appearence? What the shit are you doing Disney producers?

 

Interesting turn of events...

Spoiler

I can buy Hook being incredibly pissed off with Emma for turning him into a second Dark One, but his instant desire to punish her, probably violently, seemed a little too excessive...50/50 whether it's genuine out of a desire for angst, or a ploy to distract Zelena.

Shame about 'The Bear King'. Some nice moments, but the even higher than normal levels of cheese made it practically unbearable (pun not intended). Also, finding out Ruby has actually been back in the Enchanted Forest for the last series and a third was amusing at first, in a 'laugh at the iron strength retcon' way, but then fridge logic set in. I get the main cast not wanting to go back, whether because there are people they care about in the 'real' world or because there's precisely fuck all for them left back home, but what about literally everyone else in Storybrooke? They've had so many episodes about efforts to get back home, and then we find out that they grew a bean (maybe more?) and didn't tell anyone else? Bit of a dick move.

 

As much as I enjoy seeing Robert Carlyle play the villain, I wish they'd make up their mind which direction his character is going in...

 

Agree 100%

Woe is me, Belle left me. Time to betray everyone and turn evil again I suppose.

 

I didn't think I could be more disappointed with the waste of potential in a season of Once Upon a Time then I was with 4A, but, they proved me wrong.

Bitching about the entire season below.

Spoiler

It seems to me the whole Rumpelstiltskin is a villain again thing is a symptom of problems that the entire show has with being unable/unwilling to commit to a direction though. I've read some speculation that they changed the entire plot of 5A around episode four so there is that. A lot of the the interesting stuff they were setting up early in the season didn't really make sense with what we eventually found out had happened during the missing six weeks. Seriously what happened to the whole Emma is going to be the most dangerous villain that Storybrooke has ever seen stuff that they were promoting/that it looked like we were going to get after the first few episodes.

They promised us the Dark Swan and instead we got Emma being kind of a jerk and ultimately out villained (in terms of body count) by not only King Arthur and Hook, but, by herself before becoming the Dark One. Seriously? I'd really like to know who thought that Hook as the Dark One would be a better story line then what they were setting up with Emma as the Dark One. To be fair, Hook as the Dark One was the most interesting he'd been to me in about three seasons, but, that's still not saying much.

Similarly, they completely dropped the Regina as the saviour thing that they were setting up/promoting. Once we found out Emma's plan, episode two doesn't really mesh at all. There were those lines to Regina about a problem that only the saviour can solve and that Regina couldn't be the saviour/Emma telling Regina to go pay the price to save Robin Hood (go off and die). As we found out, Emma's plan had absolutely nothing to do with making Regina the saviour. So in-universe there was a very non-trivial chance that Regina was actually going to die to the fury and Emma had no way to know that wouldn't be the case. As Emma as the Dark One this season is basically just Emma being a jerk, the whole episode doesn't make sense to me. Emma became the Dark One to save Regina and now she just doesn't doesn't care whether or not Regina lives? If she was actually (serious) as the Dark One or had a plan I could understand, but, neither of those things were true.

All the reveals about the backstory of the Dark One this season were also pretty disappointing. From what the Sorcerer's Apprentice was saying at the end of the last season, I was kind of imagining the Dark One Entity as some sort of unstoppable primordial chaos that Merlin managed to stop because he was the best wizard of all time. Instead, apparently you get the Dark One when you drink from the Holy Grail and then do dark magic. Also the Dark One curse is so weak that you can stop it with a memory spell... cool.

I was disappointed with Swan Song a variety of reasons. One of which being that all the heroes were pretty much ready to roll over and die. Emma is an idiot and gives Hook Excalibur. Even if it was really Henry there absolutely no reason to let him have the sword. In the most predictable twist ever, Hook sacrifices himself to stop the Dark Ones and Emma decides lets all go to Hell to rescue him. I'd turned off the TV in disgust at this point, but, I've read online that her plan was to split her heart with Hook is that right? How is that supposed to work? I understand when Snow and Charming did it because Charming's heart was crushed, but, Hook died because of unhealable neck and stomach wounds. He still has his heart, what's an extra half going to do? This show really needs to stop teasing me with killing characters I don't like. I know they're never going to do it and it just annoys me at this point.

Was I the only one who thought that Emma was going to break out into a psycho smile when she had Excalibur and Hook was saying to let him die hero. I thought we were actually going to get a twist there and Emma was going to go full villain and say that something like "You were never a hero and you were never really a threat to me as the Dark One. You were only my pawn." Then reveal she had his heart the whole time and stab him for that sweet sweet hand delivered from Hell resurrected Dark Ones dark power? It would have been as much of an ass pull as I thought Hook being the Dark One was, but damn if I wouldn't have loved it. I would have forgiven pretty much everything I disliked about the season if that was the case. We actually could have gotten Emma being a threat as the Dark One next season.

Despite all the stuff I didn't enjoy, there was some stuff I did like this season. The first few episodes where it still looked like Emma was going to be the main villain were a lot of fun and reminded me of season one which I really enjoyed. I liked that the dwarves and Granny got some dialogue. I thought that the scene where Zelena was having the baby was a lot of fun and had some really great lines in it. Henry and Violet's interaction was cute. I really liked when Hook was mimicking Rumpelstiltskin's mannerisms as the Dark One when challenging him to the duel. Nimue was pretty cool as the Dark One. Finally as is par for the course for myself, I thought that pretty much every scene where Emma and Regina shared the screen was gold.

The main question I have, is Emma still supposed to be the Dark One? When she stabbed Hook it looked like she was cured (back to her normal appearance), but, she heard the dagger whispering to her near the end of the episode, how could she do that if she wasn't the Dark One?

TLDR: In my opinion this season was a train wreck. I don't think I'll be watching any further unless something really changes . At least there's always fanfiction.

 

Not that impressed with the Underworld arc thus far. Hades isn't that intimidating, and isn't amusingly hammy to make up for it. The Cerberus was...bad, and more teen!Snow wangst to go with it.

 

Latest episode seems to have done the unbelievable, and actually settling on a characterisation for Rumplestiltskin. Fucking finally.

 

I said earlier in the thread that series five was the first time I hadn't felt the urge to roll my eyes whenever Jared Gilmore was onscreen. Well, nice while it lasted. Although in fairness, such an OOC and changeable plot arc was always going to be a struggle for him - for anyone.

Pretty lacklustre season as a whole - lots of interesting plot threads started up then quietly dropped in favour of the next cool thing, and some back and forth characterisation (Henry, above, but also Rumplestiltskin like whoa). Next series could be fun; Regina and the Evil Queen have always been one of the best things about the show, so having them both around should be good, and Hyde looks promising.

 

I dropped this show sadly enough. Mr. Gold and Regina were basically the only reason I watched past the first season along with the diminishing hope that it would get better and less cheesy.

I think I watched it up to the point that Hook sacrifices himself to save everyone from the dark ones and then Emma decides to take everyone into the underworld.

I just couldn't bring myself to continue.

Arrow, Sleepy Hollow, and Once Upon a Time were all dropped within the same month.

Which is saying a lot because I'm still watching Supergirl. :facepalm

P.S; Arrow is that saddest of all, because there was a point where it was one of my favorite shows. Once Upon a Time never came close. Still surprised yearly when it's not cancelled.

 

I'm eight episodes into season one and the impression I have so far is it's Disney's Power Rangers for how cheesy it is. I'm watching for Regina, really.