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OUAT Season 2 so far
Feb. 18th, 2013 10:46 am* Spoilers through OUAT 2x14 "Manhattan" *
Oh, Once Upon a Time. I had a lukewarm reaction to your first season that steadily heated up as time went on, only to cool down again for the finale. Season 2 has lost a lot of the fun of the show and instead brought in problem after problem.
Part of what made Season 1 great was the focus on retelling a lot of fairytales, from Snow White to Red Riding Hood to Hansel and Gretel and beyond. In Season 2, a lot of that is lost to focus on old characters' backstories instead. The problem is that after a while it begins to become excessive. We do not need to know every single thing that happened to the characters in the past. Really.
Other actually interesting characters, on the other hand, have been neglected. Did Kathryn/Abigail ever reunite with Frederick? (Argh, that one bugs me so much.) What about Jefferson and Grace, are they all fine now that they've found each other again? And so on and so forth.
Generally OUAT has been pretty good at focusing on empowered female characters, but this season has begun to run into some issues. For one, Jack was completely wasted potential and I found her character rather insulting. For another, Belle has become a true damsel in distress who just doesn't get a break in terms of having bad things happen to her. Both Emma and Regina have been manipulated by men who decide they can control their lives. And neither Mulan nor Aurora are particularly likable.
Speaking of Mulan, OUAT has introduced (slightly) more diversity in the cast in Season 2, but PoC characters have not been treated well. In Season 1, there was Sidney Glass/the Genie of Agrabah, a rather pathetic villain who is hopelessly in love with Regina but is shamelessly used by her and ends up in an asylum at the end (and hasn't reappeared since). This season we had Lancelot, who was shaping up to be an awesome character and was then revealed to be Dead All Along (I raged so hard when I found that out), and then Mulan. Mulan is fairly wooden and unemotional, and she's consistently mean to other female characters until she becomes pals with Aurora. She is shoehorned into the Sleeping Beauty tale for reasons I still don't understand; the issue of sexism in the military is brought up for her backstory but just seems to justify her portrayal as an Angry Feminist (or anti-feminist, considering she thinks every other woman non-warrior is useless); she doesn't even get the chance to save her own village when it's being rampaged by the Yaoguai, because she's injured; and she's also shoehorned into a (pseudo?) relationship with Philip even though technically she owes Philip nothing. I was excited when I heard Mulan would be in OUAT Season 2, but now I would've preferred if they just left her out.
OUAT has always had a problem with small plot holes (Emma's "superpower" conveniently flickers in and out of existence), but Season 2 takes it to a whole new level with some of the screwed-up character relationships. It made absolutely no sense for Nealfire, who has in every other respect been written as a kind, caring character, to break Emma's heart and cause her to end up in jail except to cause backstory angst and romantic angst. I have no idea whether the extensive forays into Regina's history tried to pin her descent into evil on the death of her true love or her manipulative mother, whom Regina alternately dislikes and then loves again.
And then there's the central theme of Season 2, which is supposed to be redemption, I presume for Regina and Rumplestiltskin.
Only so far, it's been handled really badly.
I think about redemption a lot because it's a theme that fascinates me and that I often use in my own stories. In order for redemption to work, though, two things need to happen: the character has to realize that what he/she did was wrong, and the character has to feel regret and want to atone.
Neither of those are present for Regina or Rumplestiltskin. Regina began a redemption arc with Henry, but it was rapidly aborted. As much as the fandom loves those two characters, the fact that both are blatant murderers who have done horrible things is often glossed over. And as much as I think the idea that love changes people is sweet, it doesn't automatically make characters good. There are plenty of criminals out there who have loved ones. Also, trauma does not and should not turn a villain into a Woobie; at the most, a rough childhood might explain why a character does certain things, but it does not justify their actions or mean we should excuse them.
I find it disturbing when redemption is easily won, because that defeats the purpose of the narrative arc. And the story acts as though redemption is a black and white, all or nothing deal: either you don't forgive someone and you hate them forever and ever, or you forgive someone and make up and now you're best friends again. In reality, it's possible to forgive someone in the sense of letting go of your hatred, without actually forgiving the crime--in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words: "Forgive, but never forget."
I will probably still watch OUAT if only because I'm interested in how the situation with Nealfire will be resolved and the show remains mildly entertaining. But I'd definitely say that I'm now watching OUAT mostly for the lulz.
Oh, Once Upon a Time. I had a lukewarm reaction to your first season that steadily heated up as time went on, only to cool down again for the finale. Season 2 has lost a lot of the fun of the show and instead brought in problem after problem.
Part of what made Season 1 great was the focus on retelling a lot of fairytales, from Snow White to Red Riding Hood to Hansel and Gretel and beyond. In Season 2, a lot of that is lost to focus on old characters' backstories instead. The problem is that after a while it begins to become excessive. We do not need to know every single thing that happened to the characters in the past. Really.
Other actually interesting characters, on the other hand, have been neglected. Did Kathryn/Abigail ever reunite with Frederick? (Argh, that one bugs me so much.) What about Jefferson and Grace, are they all fine now that they've found each other again? And so on and so forth.
Generally OUAT has been pretty good at focusing on empowered female characters, but this season has begun to run into some issues. For one, Jack was completely wasted potential and I found her character rather insulting. For another, Belle has become a true damsel in distress who just doesn't get a break in terms of having bad things happen to her. Both Emma and Regina have been manipulated by men who decide they can control their lives. And neither Mulan nor Aurora are particularly likable.
Speaking of Mulan, OUAT has introduced (slightly) more diversity in the cast in Season 2, but PoC characters have not been treated well. In Season 1, there was Sidney Glass/the Genie of Agrabah, a rather pathetic villain who is hopelessly in love with Regina but is shamelessly used by her and ends up in an asylum at the end (and hasn't reappeared since). This season we had Lancelot, who was shaping up to be an awesome character and was then revealed to be Dead All Along (I raged so hard when I found that out), and then Mulan. Mulan is fairly wooden and unemotional, and she's consistently mean to other female characters until she becomes pals with Aurora. She is shoehorned into the Sleeping Beauty tale for reasons I still don't understand; the issue of sexism in the military is brought up for her backstory but just seems to justify her portrayal as an Angry Feminist (or anti-feminist, considering she thinks every other woman non-warrior is useless); she doesn't even get the chance to save her own village when it's being rampaged by the Yaoguai, because she's injured; and she's also shoehorned into a (pseudo?) relationship with Philip even though technically she owes Philip nothing. I was excited when I heard Mulan would be in OUAT Season 2, but now I would've preferred if they just left her out.
OUAT has always had a problem with small plot holes (Emma's "superpower" conveniently flickers in and out of existence), but Season 2 takes it to a whole new level with some of the screwed-up character relationships. It made absolutely no sense for Nealfire, who has in every other respect been written as a kind, caring character, to break Emma's heart and cause her to end up in jail except to cause backstory angst and romantic angst. I have no idea whether the extensive forays into Regina's history tried to pin her descent into evil on the death of her true love or her manipulative mother, whom Regina alternately dislikes and then loves again.
And then there's the central theme of Season 2, which is supposed to be redemption, I presume for Regina and Rumplestiltskin.
Only so far, it's been handled really badly.
I think about redemption a lot because it's a theme that fascinates me and that I often use in my own stories. In order for redemption to work, though, two things need to happen: the character has to realize that what he/she did was wrong, and the character has to feel regret and want to atone.
Neither of those are present for Regina or Rumplestiltskin. Regina began a redemption arc with Henry, but it was rapidly aborted. As much as the fandom loves those two characters, the fact that both are blatant murderers who have done horrible things is often glossed over. And as much as I think the idea that love changes people is sweet, it doesn't automatically make characters good. There are plenty of criminals out there who have loved ones. Also, trauma does not and should not turn a villain into a Woobie; at the most, a rough childhood might explain why a character does certain things, but it does not justify their actions or mean we should excuse them.
I find it disturbing when redemption is easily won, because that defeats the purpose of the narrative arc. And the story acts as though redemption is a black and white, all or nothing deal: either you don't forgive someone and you hate them forever and ever, or you forgive someone and make up and now you're best friends again. In reality, it's possible to forgive someone in the sense of letting go of your hatred, without actually forgiving the crime--in Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words: "Forgive, but never forget."
I will probably still watch OUAT if only because I'm interested in how the situation with Nealfire will be resolved and the show remains mildly entertaining. But I'd definitely say that I'm now watching OUAT mostly for the lulz.
