Warning! Once Upon a Time seasons 1 and 2 spoilers!
::cries:: Soooooo much more I wanted to do with this, but it's taking too long and I need to post! Peace out! Will probably continue working on this one on the side for my own closure....
Disney is famous for repackaging classics and fairy-tales (for more, see The Hunchback of Notre Dame). They’ve been pegged for some of the best-worst messages we could send to young women:
Snow White: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT2R3E7vDUc
Ariel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_71889&feature=iv&src_vid=eT2R3E7vDUc&v=N8xCgC3w1zs
Belle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uuk-h2ZYNJU
There's probably a sexier way to list those links but I'm now and forever technologically impaired and afraid of getting sued, so, there you have it.
My favorite Disney princess is Belle, for obvious reasons: a dysfunctional bookworm with a Messiah complex?
Absolutely.
Mulan and Jasmine are awesome; feisty, intelligent, independent women, along with Disney’s Esmeralda but as their version can at best be described as “loosely based”, I have a difficult time thinking about it without twitching. Really, on the one hand, it’s a relief because you want to push each and every character in the book (besides, maybe, Djali, the goat) down an open elevator shaft.
On the other hand, Victor Hugo…. You just massively screwed with VICTOR-EFFING-HUGO!!!!
I’m not really that keen on Cinderella. The Snow White and Sleeping Beauty movies had other things going for them that made up for their passive, personality-less heroines (#creepytrees #medievalismanddragons), but Cinderella never was all that entertaining for me. Singing mice sneaking stuff around? I really don’t care. Make that dress for Cinderelly, but I want to know what she and the prince were talking about. Why are we spending so much time on a demonic cat? Aren’t there other people at this ball? Does the prince have any lines???
However, as far as damaged fairy-tale reputations go, she got the short end of the stick. We’ve got the name “Cinderella-complex” for someone who waits around to be saved or an underdog that suddenly soars to the top. It does seem fair, except for one detail from the original fairy-tale generally not emphasized in any re-telling, but IMHO it definitely gives Cinderella a little bit more savvy and sassy.
The tiny detail is that, at least in some versions, she doesn’t lose her glass slipper; she purposely drops it. Victorian CSI cred right there. I mean, when you think about, it’s brilliant; they couldn’t bump iPhones back then, she was in a hurry, and I think we can all agree that glass slippers would have been something of a novelty item. There’s also a little bit of a class issue here. Dainty feet were considered hot back then because, one, you couldn’t see much else south-wise on a woman, and two, they were associated with “people of quality”, because tiny feet meant you weren’t on them working all day (any woman who’s ever been pregnant knows what I’m talking about). That itty-bitty glass slipper would have reminded him quite chastely that there was a tiny, beautiful, eligible young lady out there waiting for him to get his shit together.
When I think about it in this light, I have a little more respect for Cinderella's discretion, if never for her boldness....
And finally to the point. Watching One Upon a Time has been for me, like appreciating Cinderella.
Initially the show has some serious detractors.
Awful, awful, awful one liners, “I will always find you” (and even the spectacular, “You can’t or you won’t?”); random magical objects that for some reason or other didn’t exist before that episode (really, that magical dream-catcher would have been sooooooo useful last season); and some curious plot consistencies (if the town was stuck in time, how did Henry grow up? How does the kid even know about the curse and geez, Evil Queen or whatever, Regina is a good mom!).
Let’s not even get started at the unabashedly whorish tribute served to the Disney franchise.
The show pretends to be painfully naïve (really, the clock is ticking, is there time to have your little moment now?!) and cheap with hackneyed plots and tricks we’ve seen again and again and at moments the costume look like they could have been ripped from a Halloween expo.
But for as many awful one-liners, there’s some subtle, wonderfully ironic moments that show a little bit of wit behind the naiveté. Such as the Evil Queen telling Belle, as she explains the power of “True Love’s Kiss”, a Disney invention, “I would never recommend that you kiss a man that is holding you captive, what kind of message would THAT send?”
My 3 Favorite Moments from Season 1
#1 Rumplestiltskin—who, as far as I know has never before been a Disney character—blowing up Cinderella’s fairy god-mother.
#2 A dreamy Snow White, complete with a red ribbon in her hair, sweeping while she hums what I think is the same song from the Disney movie, sets a dainty blue-bird on the tables and then savagely whacks it with her broom.
#3 Mary Margaret, aka Snow White, starts having an affair with David Nolan, aka James, aka Prince Charming, the book they discuss but never name, I believe, is Anna Karenina.
As I watch, I get all hung up in the subtext about good and evil. What the characters seem to be trying to teach us about good and evil is actually at odds with the subtext, particularly in regards to the tension between Regina and Snow White.
First off, according to the “good” characters there are heroes and there are villains. Period, end of story.
The Blue Fairy (who is adorable with Tina Turner hair) tells another character that she’s on the “right side”. Mary Margaret, aka Snow White, is furious with David Nolan, aka James, aka Prince Charming, when his own memories (incorrectly) indicate she has killed Kathryn. Like, they’re his MEMORIES! Really?!?! Give the guy a break! But this is treated as a serious transgression because she is a “good” person and because he loves her. And we don’t believe anything bad about people we love, especially when they are patently good people.
The villain side is a little different. First off, things aren’t so black and white. So far there aren’t any thoroughly, gratuitously evil characters (although piecing together his back story, the Mad Hatter would be a good candidate until he has his daughter). There are some serious jerks and butt-faces, but not one evil from the womb, without some sort of given to explain, though not necessarily excuse their behavior. The show handles them both sympathetically and unsympathetically. The portrayals of the Evil Queen, aka Regina and Rumplestiltskin are at first in all their evil glory. As their history is revealed, however, both characters display initially sweet, sensitive natures caught in a situation of some kind of abuse until they discover magic as a source of power and revenge. Classically, as in Buffy and other worthy traditions, magic becomes a drug for them, supplying the strength they need outside to deal with the emptiness and weakness inside.
Both the Evil Queen and the Machiavellian Rumplestiltskin say, “Evil isn’t born, it’s made”. While Rumplestiltskin’s anger makes him go from zero to dark one almost instantly, Regina takes baby-steps. Each progression towards Evil Queen comes with a moment of fear that eventually disappears as Regina finds her strength and stability in magic.
The tense storyline between Snow White and Evil Queen Regina gets even more complicated as we see how each responds to remorse and shame.
With a little help from Dictionary.Com
Shame: embarrassment, mortification, humiliation… different kinds or degrees of painful feeling caused by injury to one's pride or self-respect. Shame is a painful feeling caused by the consciousness or exposure of unworthy or indecent conduct or circumstances
In Biblical terms, this is the difference between “worldly” and “godly” sorrow.
Despite her past, all the wrong done to her and all the wrong she has done, Regina chooses during the second season to try to redeem herself for Henry, her adopted son. Looking back, Regina is actually more vicious in the first season when she has no magic, than in the second season when Rumplestiltskin brings magic to Storybrooke (gag, I know, right?). In season 2, she allows Henry to live with his grandfather, Prince Charming (it’s a long story, sorta), stops trying to do magic completely and even regularly visits the town psychologist (the interesting thing is that’s Jiminy Cricket, Disney’s conscience, who seems to be most sympathetic and hopeful for Regina’s rehabilitation).
However, instead of this being a beginning for Regina to climb out of the mind-sewer she’s been living in, the “good” people of Storybrooke—now in their idealized, fairy-tale identities—decide instead to drag her through the mud. Once they are no longer afraid of her, they make it clear to her she is still evil and not part of their good-guy club. At least as the Evil Queen she got some respect! Once the only power she has is removed, they confirm her worst fears by treating her like she is nothing, a nothing they would squash if it wouldn't dirty their shoes. Once she relinquishes her power, heroism seems limited to self-righteousness, rather than rehabilitation, much like in the church today.Regina’s dedication to redemption downgrades her from Evil Queen to Social Pariah.
Someone could argue, well, if she was doing it for the right reason, it wouldn’t matter. I’d say “good” better not act so self-righteous if they’re not prepared to understand that Regina’s moral compass is weak and broken and if it’s going to function right, it needs what they received growing up, support, trustworthy examples and love. Regina IS doing what she can to get better, which is a phenomenal step considering her childhood role-models and the powerlessness she feels until she finds magic, after her mother rips out the heart of the only strong man that loved Regina in her life.
Inevitably, good is more concerned with its shining armor than the people it is supposedly saving. Much like the church. Hey, could this count for one of my 95?
Snow White’s reaction when she tricks Regina into killing her own mother (while making Regina believe she is actually saving her mother) is entirely another story. The first thing Snow White says when Prince Charming finds her is, “You’re right, this isn’t me.”
Her first thought is what her actions say about her. Not about the damage she has done.
After that, she lays in bed for days, completely horrified and sickened of what her crime means about her, NOT about the pain it has caused. Her next step is to go to Regina. She doesn’t go to ask for forgiveness or ask for peace, she asks Regina to kill her so she no longer has to live with herself. Restored back to her Evil Queen status, Regina rips out her heart (only fatal if the person ripping crushes the heart) and shows her a little black spot oozing from it and Snow White loses her shit. Regina replaces her heart, leaving Snow White alive with the ultimate torture, knowing that she has sullied herself with an evil action.
Blog is getting way too long for a blog, so I’ll wrap it up here.
All this isn’t to say they should reinstate Regina as queen or let her off with a clean slate. If you see a train coming, you owe it to yourself and to others to jump off the tracks. Be shrewd; never get hit with the same train. But if you’re going to parade the moral high ground, you also have the responsibility of discerning compassion and humility.
Enjoy Season 3!
Agree? Disagree? Please let me know! It’s no fun to dialogue alone!
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