Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-26385535-20160127061149/@comment-26159109-20160215161128

CoolDudeAl wrote: Farerb wrote: CoolDudeAl wrote: Farerb wrote: CoolDudeAl wrote: Pokemama1 wrote: Farerb wrote: Pokemama1 wrote: After looking at a few of this wikia's forum topics, I see it's basically set in stone that Mulan is a lesbian just from the various interviews, in addition to her visit to Aurora in the Bear King episode. I'm kinda disappointed because of the tomboy=lesbian thing, but meh.

I edited my post above, though, because my thinking that Mulan was straight was because of a vague recollection of an event in an earlier season:

I thought I recalled an old season broadcast when Mulan and Phillip finally acknowledged in a very oblique way that they had developed "feelings" for each other while they travelled together, but that acknowledgment came too late because by that time they'd found Aurora.

I don't want to have to watch every episode from back then to find it, but I assumed that's where *everyone* got the perception that Mulan had crushed on Phillip. But after all these forum discussions, soneone would have unearthed that old episode by now, so I'm probably just crazy. Oh, well. From what I recall Aurora confronted Mulan about Phillip, I don't remember something else. You might refer to the official podcast of the show with A&E, I didn't listen to them, but I can definitely see that they might have planned for Mulan to have feelings for Phillip, and then changed it to Aurora in season 3. We already know that a lot of things they planned were changed between season 2 and season 3 when they had that camp like: Rumple's father, Emma and Neal, etc... Mulan and Phillip might have been one of those things. I meant an actual episode, not a podcast - I never kept up with anything outside the show except for using imdb now and then to identify and actor or whatever.

I do agree with you that Aurora got jealous over Phillip - she was pretty suspicious and grumpy. Mulan of course denied it, which she would do whether it was true or not.

Thanks for enlightening me about the s2-s3 planning changes - I would never have known about them. That probably explains a lot. Except for the fact that Farerb doesn't actually know that they changed anything in the planning between Season 2 and 3, that is just his personal belief. As far as episodes with Mulan and Phillip, you can only be thinking of two episodes, as there were only two episodes that featured them both. 201: Broken and 211: The Outsider. Many people assumed that Mulan and/or Phillip had feelings for one another though, so you are not alone. I never saw anything like that, but I think what happened is people saw that Mulan and Phillip had been traveling together and stuff, and assumed (incorrectly) that they must have feelings for one another, because god forbid we have a male and female character that travel together and have only have a plantonic relationship. So really the whole thing speaks more to society's mindset that everyone is straight and men and women can't have platonic friendships, than anything else. No. That's because there was an implication in Broken. Seriously just watch the episode again and pay attention. Not just what the characters say, but body language as well. Stop assuming that people has some kind of mindset and that we can't understand body languages and face expressions. The intent for Mulan and Phillip was there, from the way Mulan talks at Aurora to Aurora confronting Mulan about the latter's feelings for Phillip. I have watched the episode multiple times. I have never seen anything that confirms a feeling other than friendship. People see what they want to see. Heck, there is a whole group of fans who see Regina and Emma as a romantic pairing. Yes, they have charged scenes together, but that alone does not make it a relationship. Just as Mulan helping Phillip and then feeling bad when he goes to sacrifice himself, and Aurora being suspisious of Mulan and Phillip, doesn't make them a relationship. Except there is a name for what the writers do with Emma and Regina, it's called queerbaiting and it's intentional. Just like Aurora-Phillip-Mulan's scenes in Broken. There is some things that are subtle, a Mulan does not have to say "I love Phillip" to convey that she has feelings for him, that's why it's called acting, and when A&E wrote Aurora's Line "Do you love him?" and Mulan's denial, they weren't thinking "foolish jealous Aurora", they obviously wanted the line to mean something for the future. I am 110% sure that when Adam and Eddy were originally doing Season 1 they had no intention to "queerbait" with Regina and Emma. That is something viewers saw, and ran with it. It also somewhat reflects on society: "Oh look, Henry has two mommies, wouldn't it be great if they were lesbians and fell in love". Because again, god forbid we have a child with a biological mother and an adoptive mother who are both single. I will give you that they wanted to create drama between Phillip, Aurora, and Mulan, but I don't think that drama was ever going to be that Phillip and Mulan were in love with each other. And really they did create drama, because Mulan helping her friend Phillip save his love Aurora, only for him to "die", and then Mulan falling in love with Aurora and help to bring him back, leaving Mulan dejected and alone, as they start their life together is pretty great drama. Not all drama has to be a heterosexual love triangle. Actually Jane admitted on twitter after season 1 that they were queerbaiting.

I'm not going to be in a rabbit hole argument about Mulan and Phillip, Broken speaks for itself. Later seasons speak for themself about the lack of A&E's planning ability.