evilneverfeltsogood:

heartsways:

eshusplayground:

dontcharemember:

1st scene, me: “Finally! See? Regina loves Henry! She IS a good mom! FU haters, I was right!”

2nd scene, me: “Of course they had to have Emma out-mom Regina. Of course. FU show!”

So many things wrong with these scenes…

1st: Henry, how about a little gratitude and compassion for the mother who is trying to make you smile… with a video game that as it turns out, you absolutely love! Who clearly feels terrible about your book being lost? Who you still don’t believe she didn’t destroy it on purpose or even got it from the super-secret hiding place?

2nd: What should’ve happened when Henry got his book back: “I guess mom was telling the truth after all, about not having the book…”

What we got instead: “Great! Operation Cobra [in which we destroy my mother, who has just given me a video game that I love and has been completely exonerated of all blame regarding the lost book] can resume!!”

Seriously show? Seriously?

This is really starting to bother me about the show, especially considering how hard Regina works for her happy ending (especially with regards to her relationship with Henry) and how Emma seems to get good things literally because she asked for them (birthday wish, finding the book).

It comes down to the Show vs. Tell thing. We’re told that Regina is evil/bad/wrong/awful/horrible but shown a flawed person who is desperately trying to hold on what matters to her. We’re told that Emma is good/wholesome/awesome/right, but her choices rarely show that.

Heroism is not simply being nice to people it’s easy to be nice to. It’s also about making hard choices — taking real risks and making real sacrifices — because it’s the right thing to do.

The only time Emma makes a real decision that reveals heroism is in episode 1x08 (“Desperate Souls”), where she risked herself to save her nemesis because it’s the right thing to do. It would have been easy for her to walk away, but she didn’t. Wait, I forgot episode 1x05 (“That Still, Small Voice”) where she volunteers to be lowered into the mine to get Henry, not the least because she empathizes with Regina of all people and truly responded to her plea for help.

Funny how in both cases where Emma shows what she’s made of, it’s when she does something for Regina.

I want to see Emma making real choices between Dumbledore says “what is right and what is easy.”

I’m not asking for Emma to be perfect or without flaws. Hello, my favorite character is Regina! But I need to see more complexity and more awareness when it comes to the choices she makes.

For me, the biggest problem I have with this show is the inherent judgments it makes on parenting. I remember listening to a commentary on one of the LOST dvds and the showrunners said that one of their biggest themes was “parents”. Small wonder, then, that OUaT features that largely in its outlook.

I keep going back to one of the first episodes when Regina tells Emma that she “changed every diaper, tended to every scraped knee”. Regina’s done all the work in making Henry a little person, you know? She’s done the parenting thus far.

We’re supposed to believe that she’s a terrible parent, but I just don’t see this. We’re supposed to believe that blood bonds are greater than the adoptive bonds between Regina and Henry. But he’s a little person now, with his own thoughts and feelings and views and personality. And who engendered that? Not Emma, that’s for sure.

I think I’m preternaturally disposed to dislike Emma because she’s taking the word of a ten year old child over Regina. And yes, I’m aware that Regina’s the Evil Queen, but in this world, she’s also a mother. And she’s trying. I feel like Emma hasn’t really done that much thus far to be a parent. It makes me a little resentful, not to mention the harmful and pernicious ideas about adoption that it raises.

I want Emma to make good choices. I want her to be a hero. But not like this, with secretive meetings and outdoing Regina as a mother.

Being a parent is really difficult. The reason I’m not one is because I just don’t feel I have much to offer a child. Yet. And perhaps I’ll adopt one day or even have my own children. I don’t know. But I want to be that child’s hero. I want to make good choices and “do the right thing”.

I want Emma to do that too.

You guys give me all kinds of feelings. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I gotta cut in on this and agree with everything that has been said. I know we all have a love for Regina, so it could be said that our judgement is clouded and perhaps it is. However, that is clearly besides the point in this issue here.

From day one I have had a massive dislike for Henry. As was said above, it’s the difference between what we are shown and what we told. We are told Regina is evil, by many people, but mainly Henry. What we are shown is a mother who is strict and controlling, but loves her son. How that translates in my mind? Regina is the mother and Emma is the cool aunt. The aunt who gets to come in from out of town, do cool stuff with him, be on Henry’s side and generally just pander to his ideas. Naturally this is overcompensation from Emma’s side, but what is overlooked is the message that this sends. Namely that adoption is bogus and blood relations is all that matters. Emma is Henry’s real parent, therefore he loves her, Regina is not, therefore he doesn’t. 

For very personal reasons, I have an extreme problem with this, a massive, huge one. Yes, yes, the evil queen is evil and yes, yes, Regina does evil things, but as I have said before, until we are specifically shown otherwise, none of those things have envolved Henry. And why would they, all that we have been shown is Regina who is a mother and who loves her son. The fact that the creators like to focus on “parents” only makes it that much worse! At the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that parents aren’t always heroes. To small children maybe, but as those children grow up, they resist against what they’ve always known to be their main source of authority, which is their parents. Parents are flawed and do the best they can, blood related or not. If this is some kind of twisted way of implying the book represents Henry’s impending puberty, they are going about it in a fucked up way. 

My point is and what it has always been, is that Henry’s character makes NO sense to me. He is the catalyst of this story, yet nothing he does seems to fit. He only thinks his mother is evil because of a book!? I get that he has a big imagination and I understand that he hero-worships Emma, THOSE things I understand. His continual refusal and dismissal of Regina as his mother, I do not. I simply can not believe that a child who was raised by a single mother, no matter how strict, would behave that way towards their parent. Because lets not forget that nothing has shown us that she has ever done anything to Henry, there is no canon evidence for this, so where.does.the.attitude.come.from!?

(Source: docbrucebanner)

icthehunter:

Once Upon a Time, 1.05 - That Still Small Voice

Okay, I have some feelings/thoughts about this and I am going to vent about them here and now. I have discussed this in my tags before, but I’ll do it like this now. I seriously love this show, I like the premise, I like how it is playing out and the chemisty between the people in the cast is remarkable. Casting did an amazing job. However, I have some qualms about Mayor Regina, Emma Swan and their son Henry. I wanna put aside any shipping feelings I may have on this subject and focus on their relationship with the boy. 

Henry dislikes Regina, he believes she is the Evil Queen. Which is why he favors Emma, who is supposed to save his town and the people in it. Fairytale, happy endings, bla bla bla. That’s the premise of the show, but that shouldn’t dictate how these characters feel about each other. Regina raised Henry. Regardless of what he believes now, she was his mother for the first ten years of his life. She is the only parent he has ever known, it shouldn’t matter that she isn’t his real mother (if it did, this show is sending some really awful messages about adoption), he has to at least feel a connection with her because of that. She certainly seems to. 

Lets not forget he is a ten year old boy. A very precoscious ten year old boy, but ten years old none the less. He is not a rebellious fifteen year old. Ten year old boys still need their mother and in this case that is Regina. I realize Henry is drawn to Emma and she does indeed care about him, that’s not what I am questioning here. Regina may not have the best way about her, but it would appear that everything she does is for Henry. Granted, it is mostly her attempting to keep control over him, but it is obvious she cares. So why doesn’t Henry seem to? 

What I would like to happen in this new episode? For this connection to be somewhat displayed, in whatever way that is. I want Henry to gravitate towards Regina in his hour of need. Whether Regina or Emma go down, that’s besides the point. I will be highly disappointed if he doesn’t. Because yes, she is the Evil Queen, yes she has no idea how to handle his emotions, yes she is trying to get rid of his birth mother, yes she hates his grandmother, but at the end of the day she is the one that raised him. And no matter how evil she is, she is not as soulless and heartless as everyone else likes to believe she is. 

(via evilneverfeltsogood)