Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24898439-20140526200255

Having watched the Season Finale and read some fan fics, I started really thinking about the possibility that Marian is the Black Fairy. Here's my list of thoughts as to why:

1) As I've mentioned on other threads, there are some huge plot holes regarding the way the rescue of "Marian" was handled and the reveal of who she was at the end.

2) As others have mentioned, the writers do tend to foreshadow things, e.g. the Oz arc as mentioned on another thread. How many times have we heard of the Black Fairy and her wand? It might be a little odd if she herself never showed up during the course of the show.

3) How fitting would the irony be if "Marian"/The Black Fairy also played a game of Follow the Lady? Rumple switched his dagger to trick his lady love. Would not the irony be fairly pungent if the Black Fairy, whilst pretending to be unconscious, also switched (somehow) the wands so that she now has it in the present? Also, when they come through the portal there are several things on the ground that could be the wand (or maybe straw). Furthermore, if Rumple figured out that the wands were switched, he might have to also come clean about the dagger switch.

4) After Snow is debugged and hugged by Emma, she immediately embraces Red but entirely ignores Marian. One would think that at some point the whole, "I was willing to die to protect your secret whereabouts, but oops, that looked like it was in vain when I thought that the EQ had executed you, but it turns out no, and by the way I'm Marian" somehow never occurred. Moreover, the rationale Marian gives for being willing to do that is a bit suspect. She states that she believes that Snow White is innocent. However, generally one isn't willing to do that for someone one hasn't even met (unless it's your job), particularly when one has a child at home. Furthermore, while the EQ was vindictive, there's no real reason to assume she'd go after Marian's family. Did we ever see that occur? Granted that EQ did destroy and entire village, yet they were actively helping SW. Moreover, never once did we see Regina harm a child, so far as I remember, nor do any of the characters mention that as occurring. So, for Marian to just assume that Regina would go after her family seems weird.

5) Again, as I mentioned in another thread, having "Marain" be the Black Fairy would allow the writers to preserve the love triangle story for a while and explore the renewed antagonism between Emma and Regina. Plus, that would be the ultimate reason why one does not mess with the timeline and one must always think of the consequences. Thus, the antagonism could be even more intense. Imagine if you were Regina: it's one thing to mess up her happy ending by bringing Marian back, cause eventually she'd come around to wanting Robin and Roland to be happy; it's quite another thing to mess up her happiness and end up bringing back the Big Bad for the latter half of the season, all because Emma couldn't listen to the repeated warnings not to change anything.

6) Finally, Rumple mentions that a trip to the past could have "catastrophic repercussions." Thus far, all the characters are content to believe that there were none. Messing up Regina's love life, providing she does not turn evil again (and the writers have said that she won't), does not in anyway qualify as "carastrophic." It seems that the situation has been too easily resolved. On the other hand, bringing back a major villain would certainly qualify as catastrophic. 