Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-31937823-20180212040050/@comment-24276151-20180312184956

Eskaver wrote: It’s a complex issue. (I won’t argue opinions because I can’t really change them.)

The writers likely went the route they did for two reasons:

1. Everybody knows Cinderella, so why tell that story again? Using the character is different from elevorating on the origin story. For example, do we really need to see Bruce Wayne’s parents die before every Batman movie? The answer is no.

So, they decided to give you a whiff of how Tremaine treats Ella and those around her while “telling” through certain dialogue segments. The issue is as prevalent as it appears is simply due to the perceived and anticipated role that Ella would have. Let’s say it was Henry and Tiana as the anticipated lead couple. Ella’s story would been seen better than it is now because the perceived level of importance doesn’t match the amount of focus it got.

2. Cinderella was the staircase up the tower, but wasn’t on top. That was Rapunzel.

Of course, there’s the things like “The writers like writing villains more than heroes” etc etc, which appear to be true. One could ask, “Was Cinderella just to get access to Drizella and Tremaine?” “Is Princess and the Frog really just to use Facilier?” (After all, I doubt it was just to support Ella with some subplot/friend.)

As for those that say she could have been anyone else...I don’t want to make conclusions about that line of thinking, but let’s say that the idea of using a different fairytale character for Dania really makes minuscule difference. "Everybody knows Cinderella" is exactly my point, and putting an iconic fairytale character whose story we've seen a billion+ times in other works of literature/media with Henry, the original character and viewpoint/audience surrogate for OUAT just... why?

"Was Cinderella just to get access to Drizella and Tremaine?" Potentially, sure, but then that wouldn't make sense if they are both leaving before the season is even 3/4ths finished. If Ella is nothing more than a plot device to use the two "anti-villains", it's beyond awful to get rid of those two so early on, then you have two fan favorites wasted and your main heroine (apart from good ol' Regina) is just... 1D as all heck. I could understand is they were secretly building up Drizella to be the true heroine of the story, but that's obviously never gonna happen since she only has 3 episodes left.