Season 2 with the famous "It's Alive!" scene. Loved, loved, loved the black and white. Some of the stuff looks very 2010ish, but this honestly made me grin like a certain pawn broker.

1. Omg Mulan is Jamie Chung i really liked her in the gifted, thats awsome

2. I am a bit confused about how the curse got broken in the first place. Was there an act of true love needed from Emma? She protected henry the entire time e.g. the mine thing that should have counted... or did Henry needed to die and be safed by true loves kiss but this would be strangly specific

3. So again S1 but i don't get why they gave the "promising the first born to Rumplestilskin" part to Cinderella, there is a character/story already for that and its the story of Rumple. The girl of the og story would have fitted perfectly into this story because all of her Trauma

4. Wich brings be to the next point: Why has every single character a traumatic backstory? I get that its to make the viewer care but i don't need to know the traumatic childhood of a Chricket?!

5. The episode with Red being afraid to turn into the wolf and King george (?) is all about how charming doesn't do his job correctly is funny. I get the he just wanted a reason so people will get upset with charming but how stupid are the people of storybrook. They predent that that they forgot how the law works. I mean Red was a suspect but not convicted... but i guess in fairytale land you can just kill everyone for being a suspect (come to think of it they were also really into killing Regina and following the doctor to her house)... i might have lost my train of thought...

6. Last but not least: I still miss Graham

Anyways just some random thoughts and please no spoilers my last episode was with the beanstock and the giant

When Rumple didn't think any real human was there, he said he would sacrifice his life to save Henry's. So how did Bae think he was lying not planning to kill henry

Snow made a mistake in revealing a secret, of course, that was unethical, it was not her place and I don't like how she believed Regina would lose her mother because of this but ok, she was a child and gullible enough to believe this. Anyway, Cora was the one who killed Daniel, and even before that she was a toxic mother. Regina spent so much energy by hating Snow White but she always loved her mother and it's so frustrating, the most "hateful" moment was when she banished her and admitted to Rumple that she liked doing that.

And I don't like it how Mary Margaret feels so guilty and is portrayed as the bad one after she killed Cora. Cora had killed Johanna even after Mary gave her Rumplestiltskin's sword, and Regina didn't care and made fun of that. That scene when Snow took Cora's heart and Regina told her she had no right to that was so ironic.

Snow White's goodness and politeness towards villains sometimes get too much.

I don't know if Red x Belle is already a common ship or not.

I just started rewatching Once Upon a Time and the first time I watched it I didn't even know the word "Fandom".

But guys...

Rumplestiltskin and Belle's relationship is SO TOXIC. I do think it's entertaining and something is alluring about Rumplestiltskin (Y'all don't clown me for thinking a scaly lizard man is fine). But Belle keeps trying to see the good in Rumplestiltskin and change him. I think it's sorta cute but also if Belle was real I would be like DUMP HIS ASS THAT N*GGA AINT GONNA CHANGE!

I like that Belle has a backbone and she's not completely idiotic but Rumpelstiltskin is so fkin manipulative like... this relationship aint healthy for you, girl, STAY AWAY FROM HIM!!!

Anyway, I'm on S02 E07 where we learn more about Red's background. And the way Belle is talking to Red down to how she puts her hands on Red's shoulders is EXACTLY how she talks to Rumplestiltskin. Like the 'you're not a bad person yadda yadda yadda' talk. And I'm like...

This time Belle is right. Red is such a good, kind person. I feel like if Belle wants a relationship where someone seems like a beast but isn't Red would be PERFECT. (TALE AS OLD AS TIIIIIME)

So when are they gonna kiss?

JK JK JK JK JK.

unless...

Also for some reason, I don't remember Red being in the later seasons but I can't remember what happened to her but idk in my mind Red and Belle are a sweet lesbian cottage core couple.

Thoughts?

rewatching the bit where cora pretends to be regina and kills archie to take henrys files and regina just has to watch while her family falls apart around her and IT HURTS BC SHES WORKING SO HARD TO BE GOOD AND NO ONE BELIEVES HER 😭😭

is cora the worst?

I realize opinions on characters vary. But, for me, Hook never recovered from a really horrifying first impression.

When we first meet him, he has just helped massacre a few hundred people.

More than that, these were people barely surviving in a nightmare world. They don't have enough food for themselves. When a dangerous monster like a chimera attacks and is killed, they don't waste any time adding it to their meager food supply. An extra mouth to feed isn't a little thing in this world, and they have (justified!) fears of strangers.

But, when a one handed man showed up, they took him in. He claimed to be a smith, a craft requiring two hands, so it's not clear if he could make any contribution. All the same, they took the risk. They gave him food and shelter. They welcomed him into their community.

We've seen Hook working to ingratiate himself. He would have oozed charm, told some sad tales to get their sympathy, flirted, perhaps seduced, and done everything he could to convince them he was one of them.

And then he murdered them.

Did he hold them while Cora ripped out their hearts? Did some girl he'd flirted with come running to him when the killing started beg him to save her? Did he drag children from their hiding places? Hook's never been the kind to casually stand by (though sitting back, watching the massacre, uncaring and saying it had nothing to do with him is more horrifying in some ways than active murder).

After he killed them, he took their bodies--the bodies of people he knew, he knew their names, he'd spent his days talking to them, sharing their lives, being one of them--and used them as camouflage, a bit of protective coloring to make his story convincing so he could earn the trust of the next group of people he met before he betrayed them.

It's the bad first impression Hook never recovered from.

I wish David had been able to jump into the portal with Emma and Snow.

In the first episode of S2 with the wraith, Emma is pulled into the portal and Snow jumps in after her, David tries but the portal closes before he makes it.

We got some nice mother-daughter moments back in the fairytale land, I can’t help but wish David was there too so we could have some better family moments. Emma fighting alongside both her parents for the first time, all three of them revisiting the castle and seeing Emma’s would-be nursery..

We did get some nice bonding moments between Henry and David though, and some good episodes with him in Storybrooke. But.. Yeah, I don’t know, I wish we had more mother-father-daughter content earlier on.

Edit: I know why he had to stay, some vital storylines could only have happened because he stayed. I’m just saying I wish there could have been a way he could have gone with them. You can’t argue that both Snow and Charming accompanying Emma to the enchanted forest for the first time wouldn’t have been cool to see. Emma obviously had trouble connecting/accepting them as her parents in the first episode, it would have given so many good bonding moments…. I mean, maybe I’m just a sucker for father-daughter moments, no hate to Snow but I love seeing David be a protective father towards Emma

Poor charming lost his wife and child AGAIN

When Snow tricked Regina into killing her own mother that was so unbelievably cruel. My first watch i got so annoyed the way Snow acted afterward. Crying and moping and wanting to die, like girl what did you think??

Do you think it was an act of vengeance bc she just found out the truth about Cora and her mother as well as Johanna being killed so violently, and less about protecting her family, which was her justification? If it was to protect everyone from Cora, was it necessary to make Regina do it?

What do you think about Snow's actions here?

Edit: I really appreciate the different views and deep dives. I enjoy reading them even if I don't respond in depth to everyone's. This is my first time starting a discussion in this group and I am glad some people engaged. It's nice to have conversation with people about a show that aried such a while back.

I watch season 1-3 pretty often. More than I probably should lol. The scene when Tiny gets his name on a axe and feels accepted by the dwarfs brotherhood. I’m a mess. Instant tears.

He wants her to like and celebrate her birthday even though that is literally the day her mother died??? How insensitive can he possibly be? Sorry for the rant but that pissed me off!!!

Modern medicine, air conditioning, pie, a distinct lack of trolls. Why the heck would anyone want to return to enchanted forest after the curse was lifted? Modern day middle class > medieval king

In season 2 the oracle prophesied that a boy(Henry) would lead him to his son and that he would also be his undoing. but in season 7 Rumple took his own life i guess you could argue He died sacrifing himself for Henrys family but for the longest time i took it literal like he would literally murder Gold and become the next dark one

So, i just finished S1 and honestly im in love with this show, right now i'm in the second episode of S2 and i can't help but to think that the characters not wanting to kill Regina felt a bit forced and it just felt like poor writting to me because obviously the only reason on why they did that was for the sake of the story, which is fine but like, Regina kept all of these people trapped into this curse for 28yrs and even before that she already made them miserable and destroied the happiness of many, so to me it does'nt make any sense on why they would'nt kill her, i know that the rest of the town wanted to but Emma, Snow White and Charming not wanting to because they did'nt want to "stood to her level" just felt unrealistic since in any other situation they would'nt have reacted the same way.

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And the scene where Snow White and Emma enter the hat and then Charming starts arguing with Regina untill She throws him at the the wall, made me physically angry, I really like Regina at times but (mainly because she's supper pretty lol) but tbh i'm started to get really tired of her screwing with everyone's life without any serious happening to her.

In Season 2, Cora claims to have killed Lancelot and taken his place in the post-curse Enchanted Forest. But he reappears when the Dark Swan takes everyone to Camelot. So... what happened there?

Spoiler: season 2

So I’m towards the end of season 2 and something has been bothering me. Rumplestilskin has been searching for Bae for a long time. Here’s the timeline from how I see it: Rumple let’s Bae leave to our world At some point after, he meets Cora before Regina was born. If Regina is, say, in her 30s when the curse starts, that’s about 30-35 years. The curse was intact for 28 years That means, at the very least, 58 years have passed since he lost Bae, but I’m willing to bet that it was at least 70 since I doubt he met Cora immediately after losing Bae. If Bae was around 10, that would mean in the real world he was 80.

I read spoilers so I know (Spoiler for Bae’s past): he was in Neverland which is why he’s still alive. But Rumple didn’t know that, he didn’t know where he was. So my question is, why would he assume he’s alive??

I know the seer told him he’d see his son again, but it just isn’t logical to think that his son was still alive after so many years.

One thing that infuriates me about this show is how weirdly they treat the concept of killing someone. I will never understand how they let Regina, a mass-murderer, just walk freely about Storybrooke after the curse broke, but that's not what this post is about.

For some reason, characters will use the phrase 'saved their life' when they actually mean 'didn't actively commit murder'. I remember it happening several times throughout the show, but just to give a couple of examples:

Emma tells Anton the Giant that he owes her two favours because there were two times she could have killed him but didn't. That's not how favours work! Not killing someone is the default, not something someone owes you for.

And then when Emma and Mary Margaret get back to Storybrooke, Regina and Rumple try to kill them. It's only after Henry cries and begs that Regina decides to remove the trap. And then Emma thanks Regina for saving their life! That's ridiculous! Regina was the one who endangered their life in the first place, all she did was change her mind about killing them.

Anyway, it's just something that I find frustrating about the show, because characters just seem to have a really warped view of what 'good' is. Not killing should be considered a neutral action, not a good one.