#also yes i used a frankenwolf quote i'm sorry

[heatherfield]

Regina thought she was punishing us by erasing who we were, but I think she underestimated how much crap we wanted to forget. She gave us a chance to start over and I wanna take it.

My Top Obscure/Under-Appreciated Ships [7 of ?] ↳ Ruby and Archie, “Once Upon a Time”

Bonus:

[lovecanbesostrange]

ouattober2023 Day 4: Fav Quote

"You're Frankenstein. And I'm the werewolf. I ate my boyfriend. Regina thought she was punishing us by erasing who we were. But I think she underestimated how much crap we wanted to forget."

-- Ruby, 2x12 In the Name of the Brother

I can't do pretty graphics to collect some funny, insightful, inspiring moments. But I can think of one of my favorite scenes from Season 2, that set up a big theme (that sadly wasn't followed through imho) and I can ramble about it.

First of all shout out to the FrankenWolf shippers out there. While I'm not invested, I can see the appeal to this. This moment set up a monster angle nicely, a cool contrast to the (Disney) fairytale about princesses and love. It's a step removed from just villain, monsters can live in the inbetween. Imagine Ruby and Whale being around when Mr Hyde showed up (throw in a vampire, because Storybrooke deserves to have a previously unmentioned castle somewhere with a suspiciously coffin-shaped table in the living room).

So, that quote? Masterful. Even in a town filled with all sorts of people of peculiar backgrounds (dwarves, fairies, witches, talking animals), some come with a stigma, marked as bad. This goes with what Leroy says in the same episode, when he mentions E.T. and getting cut up by the government, which goes for everything magic. A follow-up to him and Ruby bringing up that point the episode prior. Some magic wasn't even liked in the Enchanted Forest. It was a dangerous place, not just songbirds and romance.

Not to be a Regina-apologist (yes, given them indoor plumbing surely improved some aspects of life), she very much doomed them to a certain kind of misery. But I love how Ruby here - without anybody of significance (sorry, Whale) hearing - frames the curse as a second chance. Free from the burden of accidentally killing her True Love. Free from the wolf altogether, until magic hit (which is Rumple's doing). It is also interesting to remember that for Regina to enjoy her triumph, she had to remember everything that had happened. She had to keep the good and the bad for her victory. The townsfolk lived mundane lives, void of their happy endings, but also not knowing the full horrors of their lives (look at all the trauma that gets uncovered later on).

For the whole of Season 2 this is a great moment. It goes hand in hand with David and Mary Margaret arguing about where to live, do they even want to go back? It follows up on how dangerous it could be to have magic in a world without magic (becoming a circus attraction). It's also a reminder that "back home" means tragedy and misery for some. What does it mean to have this second "modern world persona" intigrated, to be a somewhat new person.

Of course being the Ruby stan I am, I love this quote for the simple angst of it all. And the way Ruby speaks about Peter's death is a whole evolution. (So far as to maken a joke out of it in front of Merida and Mulan, until she finally uses the word "killed" instead of "ate" when talking to Dorothy.) The whole monster-to-monster thing is cute and I wouldn't have minded a friendship coming out of it. A specific perspective when confronting new threats. And I wish I could have seen Ruby laughing in Regina's face "You think being held back in life by staying with my sick grandma is the worst??". Cursed!Ruby was a naive smalltown girl dreaming big, she was not happy and felt stuck. Yeah, sure sucks. But Red carried the burden of killing innocent people unknowingly and even killing her own mother, when choosing herself instead of what anybody else wants her to do. Red's freedom came with a high price. (And then her loneliness continues, while her friends move on, oops.)