Board Thread:Off-Topic Fun/@comment-5367821-20130209055547/@comment-108.49.79.202-20130617082500

"1. Since these stories take place in fantasy realms, Earth history doesn't really count.

2. Not all dark-skinned people were enslaved. There was a whole continent full of them.

3. Even if the fantasy world did have slavery, there's no reason why a famous fairytale character couldn't be retooled to become a freed or escaped slave. Quite a few famous fairytales are about escaping captivity."

Fuck it. I realized that answering this would also help prove my second point.

Because at the time that Ariel's story is set in, dark-skinned people were largely associated with slavery, and light-skinned people such as the man she falls for were not. Furthermore, the man she falls for has traditionally been a sailor, correct? Well, again, it wouldn't make sense for him to have been black, for example, because in the time period this supposedly happened in, it would have been near impossible to find a black man /working/, not enslaved, on a merchant vessel. Hell, I doubt very many even got on merchant vessels.

Also, "Since these stories take place in fantasy realms" You do realize Storybrooke is on Earth, right?

And...to that last point...I can't argue it because it depends on the story. With some, yes, it could work if properly done, and with some, not. Which means that yes, there is a very legitimate reason for some of the stories to not be "retooled" as you put it (which, if you ask me, is just about the most horrendous word you could have chosen), and that's that it wouldn't work. It wouldn't fit with the character, or it'd change the story too much. Remember, what OUaT is doing is keeping basically the exact same characters from the fairy tales we know-same characteristics, personality traits, everything-and asking how they got to be the way they are. Fundamentally, that's what the show is about. So yeah, if it makes sense for someone to have been a slave for them to have become who they did, brilliant. But if the personality of the character has to be at all changed from what we know it as, it won't work. Period. Nor will it happen on this show.