Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-24386552-20180204001624/@comment-24593235-20180204050510

I love Dania Ramirez. She played my favorite character in Devious Maids and I believe that, with good material, she really is a fantastic actress. The thing is, Once Upon a Time isn't giving her good material.

We're ten episodes in and Ella's had no real character development and hardly any backstory past meeting Henry. For a show that relies on its flashbacks to help make a character grow, this isn't a good thing. They should be showing us Ella's struggles growing up, the loss of her mother and (step)father, the abuse she suffered from Tremaine and Drizella, not just telling us. All we've really seen is that she's a "badass" who can hit guys with rocks, steal motorcycles, and sword fight. I'm glad she can do all those things, but so far that's all there really is to her. We've never gotten to see her in a vulnerable state that makes us feel bad for her. She's just mad all the time, and it's unpleasant to watch.

Then there's her whole relationship with Henry. We keep being told that this is an epic love story, a tale of two who share true love, but I'm just not buying it. Unlike a lot of people, I think Andrew and Dania have chemistry sometimes. There are scenes where I find their attraction to one another believable, but then there's others where I just don't. It feels like the writers don't actually know how to write them, and now it seems they've given up and are just shoving them off to the side. We went from their first kiss to Lucy's birth (which Ella was absent for) to ten years later. Maybe they'll fill in more gaps, but despite both Henry and Ella being series regulars and having costarred in a handful of episodes already, they still somehow feel rushed and forced.

My hopes are that 7B learns from its mistakes and manages to turn this around. I really do want to like Ella/Jacinda.