#love during the flashbacks of S1 is approached with two characters having their own narrative and coming together

[lovecanbesostrange]

"#people who skipped S7 are fools" YES. I mean, I haven't finished yet, but I always MEANT to. I love the AU world and how different they are, and I even like the new version of these characters!

Anybody who watched OUaT past S2.1 knows it can only be lovingly described as a clusterfuck (and not in the Sense8 way). And season 7 has so many issues, but what’s one more nonsensical timeline of events where everything happens so much. I honestly could not faithfully re-tell what for example happened with Ivy/Drizella. But I enjoyed her scenes, so what?

S7 is different, because well, Snow and Emma are missing and they are this sorta huge part. But sorry, the story of Regina Mills is continued and Lana Parrilla carried this show on her back start to finish and she has so much fun stuff she gets to do. We meet her curse counterpart Roni, the bartender. HALLO!! (Emma isn’t even there and the lesbian energy radiates on.)

Henry’s daughter Lucy is cute as a button and once again Lana gets the best out of the child actress (I know she was the one to fight for Regina and Henry having a better relationship despite the abusive parenting before and I still think that was a good choice and she is really good in scenes with kids and helps their perfomances).

Cinderella and Tiana aren’t used to the best of their capabilities and with the new Cinderella it’s something where this whole endless-realms-with-the-same-stories-but-slightly-different is weird. But hallo, Cinderella is THE OG Disney Princess and she is finally here and pretty cool.

The weirdest bit is that I like Rumple again. I like him as a villain-villain and during the show, well, it was clear why he was kept around, but omg did that make him insufferable (Robert Carlyle is not at fault, he gives it his all and his performance no matter the material is flawless; because of him I wished I cared about Rumple as a conflicted character). Strangely the absence of Belle is doing him favors here. (Which clearly shows that Belle should have had another beast in the first place. Around him she became a glorified sexy lamp, while every of her lady-adventur-meet-ups was exiting.)

And Hook!! I could not care less about S2-6 Hook even if I tried. He is 100% the type of het love interest that is booooooooo~ring. Because the writers said “they are it” and never bothered to really let him be a good supportive boyfriend. Drama only and then kisses. And I could not buy that bs. (And no, this isn’t disgruntled Swan Queen talk, it’s just that Emma deserved someone who didn’t behaved like an asshole everytime she wasn’t looking. The writers didn’t even make him morally grey or interesting, they used him for bs and then “but I love her”. ugh) But S7 Hook?? Wishverse!Hook? HERE FOR IT!!!! I mean, his story revolves around love. But not romantic. It’s all about family. He has a drive and actually tries to be better. And he sacrifices in an honest way. I suddenly enjoyed his scenes!!

This time the gay fairytale is stretched out over multiple episodes like an actual building relationship, hooray! What a nice surprise that was.

After Underbrooke, the absolute waste that was Emma Swan as the Dark One (it was because of Hook and for love??? and halfway through they forgot to explore Emma’s actual darker side, because she wasn’t anywhere near evil all along?? IT WAS ABOUT A MAN AND NOT THE STORY OF THE WOMAN HERSELF??? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY), the nonsense with the Black Fairy, who was Rumple’s mom and while looking fabulous (Jamie Murray always brings her sexy A-game no matter the story, see Fright Night 2 for reference), was a terrible character (Cruella was the best villainous villain after Cora and she was thrown away too soon)... wait where was I? Right, after the suffering that was most of S5+6 (not you The Bear King, sweetie, mommy loves you, you did nothing wrong), season 7 was fun again. The characters were treated better and not bullshit like Arthur or whatever they did with poor background Robin.

Really the only good constant throughout the whole show is Regina’s story. And if the writers cared for a moment of course Snow. They even let Emma down HARD. (S4 with Ingrid was kinda dope and really, that ending with Emma’s name on the dagger, but then... ball dropped. And a whole building on top.)

OUaT is my love-hate obsession. I choose to cling to everything I love about it and imagine a version of the story, where the threats get followed in a satisfying way. I don’t even totally hate how they shoehorned in all the known Disney properties. Having half season arcs with specific guest characters like from Frozen or Brave isn’t a bad concept per se. And I can enjoy camp. But it’s like the writers always fell in love with exactly what I didn’t care about and that makes me so sad. (if you go through all my tags you will end up with a 50k word essay: Ruby Lucas - The missed potential of using the bi werewolf Lady)

For what OUaT was overall, S7 isn’t especially bad or insulting.