Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-34657163-20180302022146/@comment-1826156-20180302201609

It's too easy to just handwave this stuff away or blindly defend it as a fan. The abuse in this show is unreal. If you applied these situations to loved ones, wouldn't you be upset?

In season 1, Regina was forcing Graham to sleep with her. This was awful, but Regina was treated as a villain, I can accept that, bad people do bad things. She also mentally abused Henry, Emma and everyone around her in some of the most pscho ways ever portrayed on TV. It was intense and enthralling and even though she was a villain we loved watching her. This is on top of her being a murderer.

I was fine with all of this being portrayed because it made good TV and an excellent villain. Then they started her redemption arc. I was fine with this because early on she struggled and tried and failed. All very realistic for the situation. But as time dragged on, she kept making problems for herself and others and continued to blame others instead of looking within. When she started seeking the author I wanted to slap her in the face with that fairy tale book. She didn't try to atone. She still hoarded those hearts and her dark magic. Unless those people who owned those hearts were dead, she is still a despicable monster. Do hearts last even after the body is destroyed and the person is dead? I suppose they may in the vault.

By season 6, Regina's only had a few years to adjust and I understand she is still struggling, but when she gets preachy I want to roll my eyes. By season 7 I can believe she truly wants to help people and has changed. I am happy she was redeemed, it was just handled sloppy and while she has paid a price in losing others, she's still not really done anything to atone.

As for Rumple, what a frustrating but well acted character. He is incredibly abusive to Belle and I think for the most part the show acknowledges it. The difference I see here is Belle is an adult woman and though he has manipulated her, she ultimately chose him and it's her decision. (Unless he's doing some really shady mindcontrol we're not privy to, which I doubt) I do believe Rumple loves her, even more than his dark magic. (Obviously he does at this point) but Rumple's story showed that he could have both. Which is kind of a bad moral for the story. I've known a few Belle's in my life (and maybe even been one) who keep taking abuse, swearing the person off and then go right back in the hopes they have changed. It's painful and hard to watch, but it's realistic.

When it comes to how the show portrays rape, I think the writers often make the same mistake that many others do...if the victim is male, he's not a victim at all, in fact, he must have wanted it, especially considering a baby came from it! It can't even really be called biased, since they don't even seem to acknowledge it as rape. Sure, Robin went to bed with Zelena willingly. But only because he thought he was with his wife. It's true they were kind of like "Zelena, you bad girl!" but only for a bit. The whole way Marian was just forgotten was kind of odd. And then they tried to make Robin seem like he was taking Zelena's baby, when all she wanted it for at first was to torment Regina with.

Same with Gothel, if they try to portray her as sympathetic to WH and Alice I'll be pretty annoyed. WH slept with who he thought was Rapunzel. He may have even slept with Gothel without the disguise, who knows. It was still a trick. I've seen fans defend this as not being rape. Either way, he showed true character by taking the responsibility of raising Alice when her "mother" had abandoned her. Though I'm no fan of WH, who can hate a man like that?

The one time I believe this happened with a man was when Zelena's biological father tricked Cora into thinking he was a prince. And even that can't really compare to what Zelena herself did.