Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-1894786-20150504062119/@comment-25926288-20150603200729

Edward Zachary Sunrose wrote: Eskaver wrote: Edward Zachary Sunrose wrote: Begfhn wrote: FrancisPaul wrote: Jane Esperson confirmed that Ingrid waited many years. The final scene in Smash the Mirror, with the Apprentice operning the door, happens quite some time after the rest of the episode. So, Lacey may very well be 2-4 years before the curse This still does not make sense. If Belle moves into Rumpel's castle four years before the curse, that means she lives with him for alost 3 years. This also means Snow spends at least 3 years running from Regina. Based on the story I assumed she was only running for a few months, unless there's a huge time gap between "Child of the Moon" and "Snow Falls". Well, I've always been under the impression that Regina threw Snow out of the Palace while Snow was still 16-18. If Snow really is Emma's age like we've heard throughout the show (29 as of 4B) then that would mean that Regina was chasing Snow for 8 years as a bandit and in the span of four years, she met Charming, led a resistance and dethroned Regina, after which Regina cast the Curse. I agree with this ^^^. I think the whole 4a thing messed with the timeline because it simply makes little sense.

Belle was with Rumple for at most a year and then imprisoned by Regina for about three to four years based on tally marks.

Snow was roughly 18-20 at the time of Leopold's death, given that she's unbethrothed and picking flowers, but she seems to have looked that way since Regina's early magic days, so I'd say at most 22. But then Mal told Regina weren't you her age when Snow ruined it all. This means Snow is around her early 20s a year before the curse. I doubt that Snow and Charming are her exact age because it wouldn't make sense.

Regina would need time to gain a title of Evil Queen and we saw that Regina barely knew magic even when Snow was 16-18.

Either Snow was older than we thought.....but then remembering Ingrid and Helga and Gerda....apparently you can still be single even though you are in your 30s. (Their father was 70, so I doubt they were any younger.) Even if it doesn't all add up, I think Adam and Eddie will have to retcon it to be this way, because otherwise the timeline really does make no sense. If the EF was Storybrooke, definitely. (I mean, all four seasons in present time take place over the course of about 19-20 months and it's been confirmed and does add up pretty well. That's pretty fast.)

But since the EF is still stuck in like the 1200's, there is no way Snow and Charming got an army ready to fight Regina in around less than a year. Especially if Snow literally had to stand on soap boxes and lecture everyone into helping her. The technology to communicate or travel quickly enough just isn't there. About the whole army thing, the EF maybe a land stuck without any technological progress, but the FTL has a widespread level of technology and stuff. Killian has a pistol, while he came from 300 years past in the EF who still have swords. They look to have progressed no more from Rumple's and Hook's day. The EF is also technologically behind Arendelle. Look at the outfits in the EF, some can be considered recent-ish, but then everyone lives in small villages of a couple hundred people or so.

The Kingdoms of the EF are really, really small. Example: We know that Regina reached the Royal Castle within a day from the Dark Palace. David reached Sherwood Forest within a day. The Dark Palace is a day or two from Midas' castle. They went from Aurora/Phillips kingdom which is at least one to two kingdom's away to the Dark Palace within the day. They went from Henry's estate to the Dark Palace within the day. Regina ran from her kingdo to Rumple's palace within a day. The biggest one is that Snow was said to be far from home (Dark Palace) and then the Black knights managed to get back to the Dark Palacew within the day! We know this because Ariel turned her fins to legs and only had a day  to have them, in which Regina knew, went to Rumple, and did all that stuff.

They are described, by Jane Espenson as more like city-states. Remember that ary of warlord Bo Peep....two guys. Maybe the rest where on break. Regina seems to have disbanded the Royal army and had her Black Knights and given that she knew some of their names I would think less than a couple hundred. I think of the armies of the rulers as a personal guard than an army. Even The Sheriff had a couple of men and couldn't even defeat the Merry Men.

So, Snow going to that village in 3x02 that seems to consist of one building (lol) and infiltrating towns (saved Regina in one, wanting to buy passage in another), which means that the kingdom has a few towns within it. However, we never see any cities with in the EF. King George's land is the same case of having a number of villages and having a Royal guard of maybe a couple hundred or less. (I know they have budgeting to do,  but we never see more than ten Black Knights and 20-30 Royal guards in the invasion of the Royal Castle.)

Known that Regina ripped out all the hearts in one village and stuff, it can be surprising for people to rise up and sefeat/ capture the Black Knights easily since some of the towns have a militia and have weapons of their own. I doubt many towns were loyal to Regina. The King George thing is a real question since they defeat him first and captured Regina shortly after, I assume they battle once and defeat his army and more importantly capture King George. Otherwise, I don't see people supporting David since King George may have been a bit ruthless, but he was a good king.

The other question is how they allowed to have Regina keep her personal guard (now diinished), Graham, and her slaves (aka Belle). Did they just never bothered to check the castle?

So in this long post, with the city-state size of the EF kingdoms (Thomas's one may be Sherwood Forest) and the small personal guards, it is no wonder they were conquered as easily and swiftly as they were.

As an aside, in the comic "Out of the Past", it mentions multiple or at least neighboring kingdoms involved in the Ogres War that Belle's town had escaped.