Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160516005939/@comment-25926288-20160519131007

Aine1989 wrote: As I got very sidetracked the last time, I'll try to restate my beefs with this episode: -Snow blaming herself for "helping bring the EQ into the world." I know it's Snow's personality-hell I would be prone to doing that-but it was the fact that no one denied it. Snow did not birth the EQ, she was an innocent victim manipulated by Cora. If anyone brought the EQ into the world, the blame should fall on Cora, Rumple and Regina, not Snow.

Snow accepts partial blame and I'll agree that if I were her, I wouldn't, but even Regina said it was her own fault because she could have forgiven I don't think anyone can change Snow's mind.

-The EQ being separated from Regina. My problem with this is that any blame for Regina's past actions (or anyone the EQ hurts this season) will now fall on the EQ not her (despite the fact that Regina and the EQ are the same person). I know, wait until season 6, but I still have low expectations. That and you can't just erase all the dark parts of yourself to avoid dealing with (well-deserved) karma. If you have to physically remove and kill you bad parts to make sure you aren't tempted by them well what does that say about you?

Having low expectations after the writers spent 4b confusing words and poorly defining darkness is cool, but I'm sure the lesson they'll get at is that there are no shortcuts.

-Emma being Regina's punching bag. Emma had just got her boyfriend back after losing him twice and Regina threatened him again. Regina stood in front of the woman who was a former Dark One and told her she doesn't understand darkness (she does Regina but obviously no pain compares to yours). And then there was unfairly criticising her ability to find people-"I won't hold my breath"-completely rude and uncalled for. Why Regina felt the need to belittle Emma's talent is beyond me.

I can see why, but as I tend to scour the realms it's generally CS fans that think that while mostly everyone else sees it as alright. Interesting anecdotal talk. Regina clarified that Emma wasn't consumed by the darkness like she was, which is true. Emma respects brutal honesty. It's not like Emma and Hook are one person that have to get offended for both. It's not like Emma would sit there while Regina tortures Hook. That's a punching bag. Regina saying that she wanted to hurt Hook but knew she wouldn't isn't some threat to go threatening Regina about. You don't calm down a person that's on edge by making them angry and Emma knows that.

I also find that people should see that Regina isn't really belittling people to be rude, but that's just a defense mechanism. When Regina coments on David's vocabulary or Snow's intelligence, it's okay. But as soon as Regina talks about Emma or Hook, there are some fans that cry foul. Regina snarks at everyone, except Henry.

-And on that point, Regina's "I keep suffering." Know who else suffers? Emma Swan, who in the past six weeks alone became the Dark One and lost her boyfriend twice. Killian Jones, who (unwillingly) became the Dark One, died, was tortured and mauled and lost his brother and girlfriend and found out that his ex was currently residing in eternal torment. Snow, who was disowned, hunted like an animal and terrorised and yet she never stopped doing good just because she was suffering. Yet did either of them sit and say "Well why should I do good, I keep suffering?" No they didn't. It's called life, Regina, suck it up.

And Regina never said that noone else suffers. It was a nice inlook at what she was feeling. She's pretty much saying that being evil loses those you love, but being good leads to suffering, so is there any benefit to be good? And in that same convo she choose that she'd choose family and being good over giving into evil.

-Henry criticising Emma. "You thought she was going to go all Evil Queen again." "I'm sorry I should have trusted Regina." Given Regina's past history, it was completely reasonabe for Emma not to trust her.

Well, Regina lost Robin like twice and she didn't go evil then, so why now?

-Henry's "I want to destroy magic" quest. You would think he'd have learned by now that magic is not the problem it's the person using it.

-The Captain Swan kiss. I know how much of a big thing it was for Emma to be able to say 'I love you', walls down and not when they are in imminent danger. But after 20 episodes of the going through metaphorical and literal hell, I would have expected a "Let's go home" and a shot of them moving into their new house at least.

But secretly they are in imminent danger, lol.

-It felt more like the beginning of season six than the end of season 5. While they could have been neatly tying up Camelot (seriously where was Guinevere. Is she still cursed), freeing the Lost Souls and actually acknowledging and talking about Emma and Killian's trauma, they simply got in with the season 6 plot to leave it on a cliffhanger. Comments are in bold. I'd pretty much agree with it all, but each portion of the fandom have glass half full and glass half empty thoughts. Hopefully, I try to say, "Why not both?"

I do agree totally with the fact that the finale was almost a premiere. I also think that you probably can tell that two different set of writers wrote the two episodes. So, likely that's one of the reasons we some things differently.

Regina's monologue to me was great, but coupled with the next episode it seemed to underplay or take away from what it could have been, but then the last episode was written by A & E.