References and Shipping in Once Upon a Time “Dark Swan”

Our turnaround is going to be little longer this season. The premiere is allusive. And Swan Queens get their first tear jerker.

Cassandra’s “Always… no, no… never… forget to check your references.” (now with a sound file)

I wanted to address a couple references that weren’t technically part of the premiere episode that nonetheless bear on the season and the show. These have mostly to do with the promotional materials both online and off. And they might provide some insight into the overall arc. Or not.

Black Swan

The imagery on the first promo poster draws heavily from 2010 Aronofsky film, but goes for a slicker, more stylized look.

The storyline requires Emma, the embodiment of good as the Savior, to portray her opposite, The Dark One. Oddly enough, there was another Black Swan in 1910 about a reformed pirate. Writers are nerds.

The Dark Knight Rises

This is mostly about color scheme and graphics. What you’re seeing below is clearly twister imagery but the particular monochromatic palette hollers Nolan’s trilogy. The word choice cinches it. Batman plays for the other team, but he can still function as an archetype. Modern Batman is always walking the knife edge between heroism and villainy and I bet that’s what we’re going to see in this story.

Batman

One of maybe three truly iconic caped crusader poses. It’s unbelievably convenient that it’s often depicted on a circular or spotlighted place. So not only do we get a knowing nod to 3×15 “Quiet Minds,” we get a secondary reinforcement of the whole Dark Knight thing.

The Sword in the Stone

Full disclosure. I want missing Merlin to be in Bermuda. They’ve got a really sweet looking poster out with a beautiful blue robe and a serious looking Elliot Knight. But. But. Listen, Once, I never ask you for anything. Give me this.

Anyway, We first see stony faced prophesying Merlin the magician in Minneapolis at an unusual marquee rerelease of the classic adaptation of The Once and Future King. We get a good look at Merlin in the film and young Arthur drawing Excalibur from the stone

Sir Kay, the treacherous knight that tries to draw Excaibur in Fairy Tale Land and gets dusted Buffy style for it is a nod to Arthur’s thuggish foster brother in the film. Nice touch.

Speaking of foster kids, Emma. Merlin’s got a tic.

Once Upon a Time in Wonderland

A previous Dark One, Gorgon the Invincible, is or looks like a bandersnatch.

Fantasia

Mickey conjures the want Merlin gave him on the day he became the apprentice with the now familiar broom music playing over the scene.

Star Wars

Emma Force chokes the traveling peddler with her uncontrollable dark magic. The fear, excitement, and comprehension in the scene mirrors Anakin Skywalker’s descent toward the The Dark Lord of the Sith. Kitsiss and Horowitz are all over Star Wars.

Killian references the old wookie prisoner gag, nicely grabbing the reference within a reference to “Operation Mongoose,” which was also about altered circumstances in Fairy Tale Land. So this is technically an Inception reference, too.

Not enough? Zelena slying slips in, “So, this is a Rogue mission?” It’s all about word choice in context. Right here, it’s more writerly nerdery.

Rumple’s evil ghost-of-Obi-Wan urges Emma to use her anger. Classic Sith move.

Beauty and the Beast

Ruehl Gorm: “This Rose is now linked to your beast, Belle. As long as it still has petals he lives.”

Shut up. I’m not crying. You’re crying. Seriously, they do this just to incite fans of the original. The imagery is so powerful that catching it in other stories evokes an emotional reaction. Rumpbelle should be over, but it’s not. Look!

Brave

The Will o’ the Wisp and the Hill of Stones are repurposed to force Merida and Emma into conflict.

Her trailer, oddly enough, pulls a shot directly from the film; which was itself a reference to the classic Robin Hood shot. Here’s hoping we get to see them both at a tournament.

And, of course, she mentions transforming into a bear. Because she has to. And her people’s lack of confidence in her suitability. Because this is what we want out of Merida. But both an uncontrollable transformation and faithless fraternities are themes for the season. Turning throwaway lines into major points is one of the things Once does best,

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Henry finally makes Nurse Ratched an official reference rather than a sight gag bolstered by a doppelganger of Chief Bromden.

Goodnight Moon

Robin’s carrying a copy when Zelena stops by. I’m gonna pretend it’s all a subtle reference to the death of the Apprentice. Goodnight mouse.

The Wizard of Oz

Zelena summons a tornado to cross realms. Because of course she does.

Garden Gnomes

Emma turns Sneezy to stone, fulfilling some sort of apotheosis for Regina, who no longer would do that, but probably always wanted to.

Erin’s Happy Shipper Moments

The tables keep getting turned. Villains turned heroes. Savior turned dark. But in the end, the enduring question remains: can love save us?

Captain Swan

Hook’s focus to get Emma back is unwavering. It makes him snarky, sexy, and stupid. He’ll scrap with anyone in his way, mostly Robin and Regina. His initial attempt to call her to him using the dagger fails, indicating she’s not in this world.

Then he’s willing to be all manner of sneaky and stupid to open a portal to get her, even trying to take Zelena’s heart, but getting hoodwinked while Zelena escapes.

When he does reunite with Emma, he talks her down from killing Merida. Emma is surprised they have reached her. Hook responds: “Has anything ever stopped me before?” And to convince her to return the heart: “We can find another way…together.” Aww.

They hold hands into Camelot.

Sadly, things are not so romantic six weeks later.

Outlaw Queen

Regina snarls at Zelena at mention of the baby.

Even more tantalizing is the fact that when Zelena glamours herself to look like Regina and kisses Robin, Robin knows it’s Zelena immediately. He might have been fooled by a faux-Marian, but Regina’s kiss is far more memorable. Zelena hangs a nice bell on that fact.

Rumpbelle

Rumple is still comatose. I can only assume he’ll awaken, but the point here is that his lack of consciousness echoes the end of Beauty and the Beast. Belle holds Rumple’s hand, not wanting to leave his side should he die in her absence. “If he goes, I want to be with him.” And to make all the shippers swoon, the Blue Fairy gives Belle THE ENCHANTED ROSE to let her know that Rumple is still alive. You should already know the drill: as long as the rose has petals, Rumple lives.

But has he survived six weeks?

Swan Queen

Regina is set up as the lynch pin to saving or destroying Emma, depending on what the situation calls for. Hook is not. Regina’s failure to wield the wand due to too much light in her heart is a testament to the effect Emma has had on her. Swan Queen OTP. Ignore how distracted Regina is by her (faux) romance with Robin. She uses Zelena’s affection for Robin to open the portal to Emma, despite the danger to Robin.

When they do find Emma, and they offer her the dagger (idiots), Emma only trusts Regina with it, knowing that Regina cares enough about her to use the dagger well, whether that means command or kill. “Someone needs to watch me,” Emma says. “I saved you. Now you save me.”

Book Review: Uprooted

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

“Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. We hear them sometimes, from travelers passing through. They talk as though we were doing human sacrifice, and he were a real dragon. Of course that’s not true: he may be a wizard and immortal, but he’s still a man, and our fathers would band together and kill him if he wanted to eat one of us every ten years. He protects us against the Wood, and we’re grateful, but not that grateful.”
 
Agnieszka loves her valley home, her quiet village, the forests and the bright shining river. But the corrupted Wood stands on the border, full of malevolent power, and its shadow lies over her life.
 
Her people rely on the cold, driven wizard known only as the Dragon to keep its powers at bay. But he demands a terrible price for his help: one young woman handed over to serve him for ten years, a fate almost as terrible as falling to the Wood.
 
The next choosing is fast approaching, and Agnieszka is afraid. She knows—everyone knows—that the Dragon will take Kasia: beautiful, graceful, brave Kasia, all the things Agnieszka isn’t, and her dearest friend in the world. And there is no way to save her.
 
But Agnieszka fears the wrong things. For when the Dragon comes, it is not Kasia he will choose.

I read Naomi Novik’s first novel, His Majesty’s Dragon (2006), last year as part of an organized challenge to read twelve women one had not read before. It was a good book. Plenty of people thought so. Someone named Peter Jackson optioned the movie rights.

Unfortunately, I had eleven other women to read and dozens of other books besides. I never caught up with the sequels and I hadn’t experienced how her writing had grown. When Uprooted became available for review, I took my chance.

And I am so very glad I did. Part folktale, part retelling of “Beauty and the Beast”, it already seems timeless. Novik’s background characters are as vibrant as spring leaves and her protagonists are as solid as old oaks. You care about them, is what I’m saying.

The more I read, and in particular the more fantasy I read, the more I value that. Ideas are exciting. Worldbuilding is interesting. Lyrical writing is beautiful. But none of it matters, none of it lives, without deft believable characters. Agnieszka is perhaps the best point of view character I’ve encountered in half a hundred genre books. She’s the unconventional iconoclast I longed for. The one who doesn’t know they are, or why they are, pushing against their environment. She just is.

Her beast, The Dragon, occupies the other end of that spectrum. Intentionally proper, positioned, and perfunctory. Exactly the pairing you want from the tale as old as time. Even so, the callbacks to that story, whichever version you love, are subtle. Elegant. almost invisible. Lovely.

Uprooted is a story about love and loss, about death and rebirth, about learning and unlearning, forgiving and fulfilling. About two worlds coming together on every scale, reflected in and refracted by one another, colliding and coalescing. You should read it. Risk being drawn into the wood with the first fifty pages here.

Recommended for fans of libraries, Lilia, and Rumpbelle shippers.

Early Observations about “Family Business”

“You’ll have to excuse us, but this is family business.” Title Drop.  Frozen references abound in Arendelle while a sinking ship stays afloat.

Cassandra’s “Always… no, no… never… forget to check your references.”

Frozen

Anna heads to Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna.

• “Yoo-hoo!”
• Half off the sauna.
• Anna gets rope and a pickaxe

Elizabeth Lail gets herself into pretty much this same position with Belle looking on instead of Kristoff.

Grand Pabbie pretty much pulls the memories from Belle’s head the same way he took Anna’s.

Anna falls off a cliff again, just like she did after Marshmallow threw that tree.  Except this time there isn’t twenty feet of powder to cushion her fall.  No blood, no foul.

Regina keeps upping the ante on the unconventional “act of true love.”  First, she tried to help Marian.  Then she vowed to cure her.  Now she’s letting Robin go.

The entrance to the Snow Queen’s batcave looks an awful lot like the one where Olaf got impaled.

Belle discovers the rock trolls in a book that looks exactly like the one the King of Arendelle uses in the movie.  She even has a similar map.

Frozen Futhark makes another appearance.

Samantha Lee – @SamsJag at Once Upon a Fan

Several people translated the Futhark runes briefly visible in the promo spot this week. There were three lines obscured that we saw in the episode.  Here’s a full translation of the entire scroll, since Elsa cliffsnoted us.

I have travelled the world near and far

My search knows no bounds

My obsession will not leave me

My search continue to the ends of the Earth

One thing I know for sure

The name of the savior is Emma

The Savior shall be my sister

The family must be complete

And Anna gave us our weekly dose of, “Wait… What?”

“Fantasia”

The cat with the hat is back.  He didn’t tip his hand until Ingrid’s mirror messed with Belle.

The Snow Queen’s always, like always always, eavesdropping like Eucrates in Philopseudes.

“The Snow Queen”

Anna and Elsa’s mother was Gerda, the nominal protagonist of the Hans Christian Andersen classic.

The disappearance of Helga and Ingrid is analogous to the disappearance of Kay with the Snow Queen.

The mirror’s effect on Belle is precisely what it should be.  All she saw were the worst parts of herself.  They played it as a conversation to save time and exposition.

Belle, however, was already coded bad by her unusually black wardrobe and dagger scarf.  She tried to command Rumple with the dagger and by the time they got to the cave she was disturbingly casual about it.  Gold himself was in all black this episode, lying to Belle and playing for power with Ingrid.

We caught a glimpse of other mirrors over Rumple’s shoulder in the shop.

Paradise Lost

For more information, last week’s post on “Breaking Glass.”  Everyone this season’s been a little bit less than heroic.  With the addition of Belle’s compromising backstory and her present abuse of trust, even the most noble characters are losing some ground.  We saw how her mistake lead her to accepting the Dark One’s deal.  And we know her influence on Rumplestiltskin has been just about the most humanizing influence he had.

If then his providence
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good,
Our labor must be to pervert that end,
And out of good still to find means of evil

There seems to be an exception to the trend in Regina, though.  She started the season enraged and evil.  But in this episode, she offers her own happiness up for sacrifice in the hopes that Marian might be saved if Robin can relinquish his love for her.  With that in mind I took a closer look at the epic poem.  Toward the end, in Book XII, almost mirroring the lines from Book I, we get this:

That all this good of evil shall produce,
And evil turn to good; more wonderful
Than that which by creation first brought forth
Light out of darkness!

So, while I think the goblin mirror will probably affect everyone at the midseason (4a) finale, I expect the salvation of Storybrooke to rest in Regina’s hands as the season carries on.  Heck, Rumple’s plans with the hat might put him on a strange path as well.

Beauty and the Beast

Belle’s mom was an obsessed bookworm, too.

Mirror Belle says, “Deep down, you know what kind of beast you’re dealing with.”

Erin’s Happy Shipper Moments

Rumpbelle

1. Lots of plot revolving around their secrets kept from each other and the betrayals therein. Belle is the first to break down and tearily reveal the secret she’s been keeping. The mirror tells her that she doesn’t have the true dagger, but Rumple explains it away. The worst of it, she says, “You’d never lie to me,” but of course he has and he will continue to do so.
2. What’s up with Belle wearing a dagger-imprinted scarf? Seems a bit inconsiderate, but she’s kind of in that mode this episode.

Captain Swan

1. When moving to infiltrate the Snow Queen’s ice cream truck, Regina snarks, “It’s bad enough having to be here with you and Captain Guyliner making eyes at each other.” Emma retorts, “We don’t make eyes,” just as Hook passes her, says, “Ready, love?” and gives his signature making of eyes at her. Emma sheepishly attempts to stop herself from returning the eyes.

 Swan Queen

1. Regina’s defensive walls arise again when Emma attempts to connect over the issues with Robin but Regina wants Emma to be no part of it. She jealously snarks, “It’s bad enough having to be here with you and Captain Guyliner making eyes at each other.”

Kristanna

1. Adorable outpouring of emotion and Anna lays out her mistrust of her new aunt. She has to dodge Sven’s antlers to maintain eye contact with Kristoff. There is some kissy-face. And Kristoff renews his having of her back, unless she’s going to do something dumb, and then he would tell her. (As he did in Frozen when she told him she was going to marry a man she’d just met.)

Outlaw Queen

1. Robin attempts to talk to Regina, despite her avoiding him. He says he shouldn’t have told her he was still in love with her. She says that’s not why she’s been dodging him. She didn’t know how to tell him that she doesn’t think she’s got the power to reverse the spell on Marian, that his best chance is to forget about her (Regina) and find a way to fall back in love with his wife.
2. Stipulation: You know what would be really, like Shakespearean-style, tragic? We’ve been waiting for a twisty act of true love (ala Anna’s act in Frozen) to defrost Marian. What if Regina casts a spell/curse on Robin that allows him to forget about her, all in order to save Marian, and that act alone breaks the freeze spell because it was out of true love? Then Robin wouldn’t need to fall back in love with Marian, but his love for Regina would have already been wiped away.

Bellanna

1. Oaken offers a 50% discount for use of the sauna to Belle for being a friend of Anna. Sadly, we do not get Belle and Anna sittin’ in the sauna.