#OUAT Season 4a

[happy-emmdings]

Captain Swan Vibes 1/2⚓️ 🦢

Seasons 2&3&4

[ladystrallan]

Once Upon a Time season 4A thoughts

I’m rewatching OUAT and I wanted to share some of my opinions on each season!

- Funny story about this season, back in the day when I was watching OUAT for the first time, me and my dad watched it on netflix, and when we finished season 3, season 4 wasn’t on netflix yet, so we bought a box set and then a week later (no joke) it was put on netflix lol

- It’s beck from You!

- That cgi ice…

- I mean marian is a little bit right (even though I don’t like her)

- I feel like Regina’s redemption was a bit fast, and her only motivation for being good is Henry (not her having actual remorse for her actions)

- Rumple visiting Neal’s grave :(

- The ogre wars are the funniest thing in this show

- How long did they last? How did they start?

- I guess we’ll never know

- Regina… girl… just turning evil at the smallest inconvenience

- RUMBELLE HONEYMOON

- They are so adorable omg

- Him trusting her with the dagger… awww

- Aaaaaaaa! The beauty and the beast dance

- This is too cute

- “Maybe we should have gone with baelfire” yeah if you want him to get bullied

- Sidney is so thirsty for Regina lol

- THE SORCERERS HAT

- I’m sorry but the enchanted forest also being called misthaven??? I kinda hate it

- “Anna, I will find you” would you say… you will always find her? Lol

- LONG HAIR DAVID

- Omg he looks like he should be riding a horse on the cover of a romance novel

- “They call her bo peep” aka the least menacing name ever

- What are your intentions with my daughter???

- I forgot they made bo peep a lowkey mafia boss

- Not David calling her a warlord lol

- “When I was six years old, one morning I woke up hearing my father and mother going at it” yikes

- Ohhhh they were fighting… I thought they were doing something else

- Nooooo he died from drunk driving

- Ok I think I’m a full on captainswan shipper now

- “I don’t like to say such a name out loud” he’s not voldemort

- I’d know that giggle anywhere…

- INGRID

- This is the frozen 2 we deserved

- Oooooooo she got the white streak

- Ponytail Regina looks kinda fruity ngl…

- That painting clashes so bad

- Marian looks like she ate a blue popsicle

- Why don’t they disguise Elsa? She’s not exactly looking inconspicuous like that

- WILL SCARLET (For some reason I called him will roland for the longest time)

- Wait but didn’t he literally switch it out with the real dagger though???

- The way he hooked her arm!!!

- It’s zoso

- Ooh has rumple not “succumbed to darkness in his heart”?

- Captainswan date!!!

- “I don’t pillage and plunder on the first date” lol

- Awwww that’s cute that he wants to hold her

- But the hook is kinda sexy

- “Captain hand” that’s so funny

- “Is there something wrong with your skin?” Please—

- Wait… granny’s ISN’T the only restaurant in town?

- His old self is coming back to haunt him…

- Those brooms in fantasia used to give me nightmares

- Placebo hand

- Should I watch OUAT in Wonderland?

- LILY

- Awwww they’re cute

- I like how she poofs away in a little blizzard

- Ooh this is like the broken glass curse

- The Neal picture…

- Omg plot twist (I actually remember this lol) Ingrid was Emma’s foster mom

- THAT OGRE IS SO SCARY

- Ogres killed my mom…

- OAKEN

- “I pray you never have to cross paths with that twisted man” she’s married to him lol

- Omg the duke’s moves lol

- Rumple is in every single story

- This man is everywhere

- Ew the duke of weselton is such a creep

- Oh no she froze her heart

- Yikes what happened to focus on your wife???

- Zelena actually could have been the sister Ingrid was look for

- She was born with magic and misunderstood

- Why does Robin dress like a lumberjack???

- I forgot about the whole rumple stealing Emma’s magic thing

- Why doesn’t Ingrid wear shoes?

- Why do they hate happy? What did he do?

- I really like the emma/elsa friendship

- Rumple stop being evil and just be married to belle!!!

- At least for a season

- My plan to resist the curse: wear goggles

- Noooooo the vows before they die

- That is so sad

- Honestly serves blue right

- Hey, at least the curse looks pretty

- Alternate plan: tear out everyone’s hearts (the curse didn’t work on hook because he didn’t have his heart)

- Everyone fighting each other is really funny

- Awwwww that’s actually so cute (Ingrid adopting Emma)

- Why does anyone bother running when they can just poof away

- Henry? More like Kevin McAllister

- And… she ruined it

- That’s sad :(

- Rip Ingrid

- Finally a villain that shows ACTUAL REMORSE for their actions

- “Don’t you sneeze on me, you son of a—“ lol

- Oh, rumple. When will you learn?

How I feel about the characters this season

Love: Belle, Emma, Anna, Hook

Like: Rumple, Elsa, Ingrid, Kristoff, David

Neutral: Regina, Snow, Henry

Dislike: Marian, Robin

Hate: Hans, the duke

Season rating: 7/10

I liked this season more than I remembered liking it! The beginning felt a little slow, but it got really good towards the end. I like Ingrid and I think she is the best ‘misunderstood’ villain in the whole show. Her sacrifice was so sad but such a payoff! I’m just not a fan of the Marian plot and Rumple being evil for the sake of it (he didn’t really have a strong motivation for his actions imo)

[kelyon]

In your opinion, what was the biggest lost opportunity on OUAT?

I mean, Neal is the obvious answer, though I am going to come in with a hot take that things might have been better if he had died sooner than he did.

If he had actually disappeared into a portal at the end of season two as some kind of heroic sacrifice and everybody who mattered to him had to actually deal with his death and the fact that their time together was cut too short... that would have been fine. Emma would have regressed a little in terms of her openness--because even if people aren't always going to let you down, you can still lose them. Henry would have to cope with only knowing a little bit about his father and wanting to know more. Snow, Charming and Regina try to comfort Emma and Henry and don't know what to do. Even Hook might be useful in this scenario, connecting with Emma about lost love, connecting with Henry over knowing Bae in Neverland. (And also about knowing Henry's grandmother, because that's never brought up. Which I get, but still. A kid might want to know that his dad's mother was a pirate.)

And of course Gold. Rumple had 300 years of working to get his son back and then when he finds him, Bae hates him and then he dies. How does a man come back from that? In the real show, he goes off to Neverland on a suicide mission, determined to give his life to save Bae's son. Then Neal is alive and they reconcile--but what if that doesn't happen? What if Rumpelstiltskin has really, finally, lost everything? How does the Dark One live with that? How does Belle cope with her True Love suffering so much and also probably becoming truly dangerous?

This is all a bummer of course, and I understand why ABC wasn't going to go in that direction. But if Neal couldn't live, is it too much to ask that his death mattered? That's the real insult of season 3b (and season 4a), that everyone just acted like this vital part of the story... never existed

[dani-luminae]

What are you planning to do to replace OUAT Frozen arc in Rose's story thats got you so excited? I've seen you tossing around ideas so im curios on what you settled on

I'm gonna try and adapt something that OUat never even tried: the Nutcracker! It will end up sort of a mixture of the original ballet, the Nutcracker and the Four Realms (bc I love that version sue me), and something brand-new!

Bc Season 3B is sort of the world looking at Rose, reeling from the events of TOA, and reminding them "you are still a hero and Savior," season 4A is sort of the addition "you are also a prince, and you cannot change this" with the introduction of the one thing that a prince of Rose's stature is missing in these kinds of stories: a True Love!

Honestly, I get what the Frozen arc was getting at for Emma, but it was completely misplaced - it came too late in Emma's story. If we were going to get a "tentative fear to learn to trust herself with magic" arc it should have been season 3B. But as it is, the arc is completely avoided in Rose's story because of Rose and their family, so I'm really excited to get started on this new thing.

Of course. Gotta finish 3B first.

[themattress]

OUAT Observation

It’s funny...my system of grading the quality of OUAT episodes/seasons ended up making a perfect match for my ranking of the series’ story arcs....except for in one specific instance.

Season 5A / The Dark Swan Saga, is by my grading system, technically better than Season 2B / The Price of Magic Saga (Part 2) and Season 3B / The Wicked Witch’s Revenge Saga. Its quality is directly equal to Season 4A / The Frozen Storybrooke Saga; it even has the same style of pacing to the arc’s events and the noteworthy factor of having an episode that is a result of the network’s unexpected demands (“Smash the Mirror” as a double-length episode and “The Bear King” respectively). So why do I place 2B and 3B’s arcs above it?

Upon reflection, there are three reasons.

1. The “feeling” of 2B and 3B vs. 5A.  Because they were back when Daniel T. Thomsen was still the story editor, 2B and 3B still felt like Once Upon a Time, despite all their faults. They still felt like the same show I knew and loved. 5A, right from its very premise of Emma Swan as the Dark One, honestly didn’t. It just felt way too miserable and grim for the most part, or else doing the same substance-less Disney plugging it did in Season 4. Only the Camelot stuff felt on point; that should have been the main focus of the arc instead of Dark Swan.

2. The context. 5A directly follows after 4B, where a huge focus was on turning heroes into villains and trying to push Emma toward “going dark”. I didn’t like it then, so I naturally didn’t like any more of it in the following arc. Worse, 4B’s whole conflict was driven by Regina and Rumple feeling entitled to having reality rewritten so that they get what they want. In 5A, we see Emma and Hook suffering the consequences of this, while Regina and Rumple not only get off scot-free; they actually get rewarded. 5A is when it became crystal clear that when A&E say that OUAT is “a show about hope”, what they really mean is “hope for oppressors”.

3. The fact that while 2B lost the plot and spiraled into total misery before ending on a note that promised a better arc to follow, and 3B was a huge waste of potential that the whole series suffered from in the long run, 5A was both. Perhaps not to as drastic a degree as those individually, but still a combined problem that gets on my nerves far more as a result. The version of Season 5 we should have gotten, the one that was the show’s final season that ended it on a high note, was dead in the water once A&E botched this particular story arc. Emma and Hook becoming Dark Ones with the latter even dying, Rumple becoming the Darkest Dark One, all of that build-up and lore connecting to the show’s past history with Merlin and Nimue and Excalibur and Camelot and the Gods...it was ultimately all for nothing. The crappy Author mythos from Season 4 ended up being more meaningful to the show by the end of its run! This, above all else, is why I do not like this arc, regardless of its quality.

....Its usage of an obscure pop song was great, though!

[snowangeldotmp3]

Hey, Jacket Anon here to apologize! Don't worry about it! As a still in the thick of it MCU fan (working on my own Black Widow Nancy fic even!) I didn't think.

I'll confess that the Frozen season (4A) sticks out in my mind as the last mostly good season until the very final one, so it's always there for me, but that's my bad!

no worries jacket anon! it’s all good :)!

and same on the frozen arc, it’s hazy, but i always think of it as “the beginning of the end” of ouat for me, so i tend to remember the good and forget anything else from it 😅 so that’s all on me lol!

[emmasaviorswan]

Ouat opinions

Loved seasons 1-4a

I felt the writers went away from actually focussing on the characters to drive it and became plot based to find whatever magical object alot to resolve issues.

Didn't initially enjoy dark swan storyline they could've done so much more with it but it was good to see a flip side to Emma.

I'm not Zelenas biggest fan but I actually liked her in season 7.

Loved the first half of season 7. Finale was okay in part 2, part 1 felt clumsy.

[enixamyram]

The explicitly disney storylines (frozen, brave etc)

One Thing I Like: ... The actresses were pretty good? I mean, I did like Merida and Anna was fun at least.

One Thing I Dislike: It was a complete cash grab and did not work with the rest of the series! Once Upon A Time was about fairy tales! As much as I love those films, it makes zero sense why they would be part of this classic retelling except that they quite obviously just wanted to cling onto what was popular at the time which actually brought those seasons down for me.

One Thing I’d Change: I wouldn’t have included them. I like the actresses and I liked some of the scenes so it wasn’t completely awful but I would honestly have scrapped the lot of them. At the very least maybe I would have included a couple hints and winks like with Maui’s fish hook - they could have included Elsa’s gloves for a storyline about the Snow Queen and later maybe Merida’s bow or a potion that turns someone in a bear for some other story?

Send me a character - ship - storyline/season and I’ll tell you a like, dislike and change I’d have made.

[once-upon-a-ouat]

OUATtober 2022 Day 7 - Favorite Spell (Alternative)

[chaoticbug]

unpopular once upon a time opinion:

4a > 4b

[justlookatthosesausages]

It’s old speculation time !

remember that urn ? yep, let’s analyze it a bit.

okay, i’m brining this back literally years after, buuuuuut i really wanted to KNOW what was goddamn written on that urn. I mean, OUAT writer often are lazy and they totally didn’t told us what the runes engraved on it means. 

(also it doesn’t make any sense that Elsa says she doesn’t know what it says because come on Elsa is a giant nerd and also she certainly learned old runes meanings during her isolation)

SO. the thing is that i suck at runes, so please, PLEASE add below what is your interpretation so we can maybe get to the truth.

okay so here’s what i think i can get :

(is it even it ? i don’t even know. but those 3 runes are the closest ones. oh gosh, if only i had a Hermione Granger by my side.)

what’s interesting is that those 3 runes have amazing meanings :

the first one means Laguz – “Log-uhz” – Literally: “Water” or Ocean – Esoteric: Unconscious, Collective Memory

the second one means Isa – “Iss-ah” – Literally: “Ice” – Esoteric: Stasis, Stillness

the thrid one means Inguz – “Ing-guz” – Literally: “Seed” or “The god, Ing” – Esoteric: Process, space

in summary, it’s about (at least of course, i don’t have the entire message engraved) : WATER, ICE, UNCONSCIOUSNESS, STILLNESS, PROCESS AND SPACE.

how fascinating considering it’s a magical urn made to trap magical beings, uh? and who especially trapped Ingrid and Elsa, uh? :D

[long-live-the-many-fandoms]

Unpopular OUAT opinion...

Season 4a (with the Ingrid, Elsa, and Anna) is seriously one of my favorite storylines in the entire show. I remember being so annoyed that the writers wanted to bring 'Frozen' characters to the show, I was actually a bit angry. However, the roles were cast perfectly and the storyline was so good! Ingrid is my favorite villain (that isn't a series regular).She believed wholeheartedly that she was justified in her actions, and she was relatable enough to see her side of things. I could go on and on about this storyline, but I won't. I am just going to say that it is one my favorite storylines of all time. The cast was great, the villain was wonderful, and the story in general was entertaining. I was so angry when they decided to bring these characters to our show, but I am glad they did. I really enjoyed it.

[dani-luminae]

I just realized that I could, feasibly, actually could work in the Frozen arc of Season 4A from OUAT into An Untold Story II...

but I still don't want to. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[florafaunaandeldritchhorrors]

so I stopped OUAT fandom around then but my conspiracy theory is that Neal wasn’t killed for Captain Swan, he was killed because the writers don’t know how to write Rumplestiltskin getting better. look at how they couldn’t commit to destroying the Dark One in 5a.

[truessences]

Should I start watching once upon a time? How many seasons is it?

Thanks for your question!

There are technically 7 seasons but most people will only say there are 6 because the 7th season was supposed to be a soft reboot and it didn't quite work out.

I personally didn't mind it, it wasn't fantastic like the first two seasons but it was fine lol. I want to reboot it one day myself lol.

But if you like fairy tales and like to see how they connect, it's a good show. I think the first two seasons are the best, that first season is really killer. It starts to do this thing in season 3 where it has 3A and 3B and 4A and 4B stuff where each half of the season kind of follows a new story and I personally don't think it always works but I always enjoyed the story and the casting. If there is one thing OUAT did so fucking well, was the casting.

Also there are some really great episodes, like the beauty and the beast one, is so good.

Some personal stand outs: Regina, Rumple, Snow (in earlier seasons particularly), Zelena, Merlin, Jefferson.

There is also a short lived spin-off, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland and it's not nearly as good but I did like it lol.

Give it a try!

[firelxdykatara]

Your Regina salt posts give me life. The show bending over backwards to her is part of why I noped out and only kept up with Captain Swan fanworks post 4A (I loved the Frozen cast, if not the plot). Did she suffer b/c of Cora? Absolutely. But she chose to make everyone else suffer for DECADES and never even gave a half assed "sorry for the murder and stuff"? Gotta love placing the blame for your actions on the woman you victimized since infancy. Yay! What a hero!

(tumblr hates my very accurate memes, so insert ‘is this a pigeon’ meme but it’s regina and ‘is “using emma as an emotional punching bag while refusing to take responsibility for any of her own actions and their consequences” a redemption?’)

that’s it

that’s the show

like honestly i will never not be fucking incensed that they stopped letting emma actually be fucking ANGRY at regina after season 2. she deserved a whole lot more chances to punch regina mills in her fucking face. especially when she pulled shit like ‘blaming emma for saving the life of a woman she fucking murdered because it happened to be someone the man she loved was married to’ like idk regina if you’re so serious about redeeming yourself maybe show it by prioritizing the fact that suddenly you turned out not to have murdered someone else that someone you claim to care about loves over your sad feelings because oh no my boyfriend’s wife is back? and maybe, MAYBE, don’t blame the woman who saved her fucking life for your own fucking choices oh my god

like regina if you weren’t the way that you were for decades then none of this would’ve happened because you never would have murdered all those people in the first place. but it did, so maybe deal with that instead of blaming everyone else for the fact that you never did anything to earn a happy ending and were somehow upset at the fact that you hadn’t (yet, because eventually the show did exactly this lmfao) been handed one on a silver fucking platter?

-cough- sorry. i still have a lot of uh. frustration lmao. and honestly a lot of this wouldn’t bother me half so much if emma were still allowed to get angry about the way regina treated her and fucking push back. but no. she just starts taking the abuse, especially in seasons 4 and 5, she takes the fucking dark one curse because “You worked too hard to have your happiness destroyed” when NO, SHE FUCKING DIDN’T, you just spent half a season dealing with the fallout of regina attempting to rewrite fucking reality to get her boyfriend back rather than actually deal with the fact that being evil and murdering people for decades had fucking consequences, AND I STILL GET SO, SO FUCKING MAD AT THE END OF S4 AND EVERYTHING ABOUT 5A, SO SO ANGRY.

TL;DR: Emma deserved better and I will never stop screaming about it. The fact that she consistently is treated best--supported best, and upheld best--by Killian (even her own fucking parents, EVEN DAVID, started treating regina like more of a daughter than emma jfc) is part of why captain swan is my favorite ship from ouat, and it is intensely ironic to me that SQ stans were like ‘omg emma’s unrecognizable now, we want s1 emma back’ because she, like, wanted to wear a pretty dress on a date with her boyfriend, when if ‘s1 emma’ came back she’d punch regina in the fucking face for half the shit she dared to say to her in s4 and beyond lmao