Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-27094327-20151019041819

So, the Sands of Avalon seem troublesome and inconsistent in Episode 4, Season 5. Maybe this is just a hangup. but....

Do the sands actually mend broken things, up to some power limit? This is what the restoration of Arthur's kingdom and his and Guinevere's relationship seems to imply.

Do they merely appear to fix broken things, as both Rumplestiltskin and Guinevere seemed to think? If so, what is the nature of the "appearing"? Guinevere's loyalty to Arthur, or the restoration of his castle, definitely seems to be more than an illusion.

Why do the sands seem to turn Mary Margaret and David into a  yes-woman and  yes-man for Arthur, when that relationship had never been there in the first place? Does it "repair relationships" in the sense that anyone who ever felt at all cordial toward the user becomes undying loyal.

Perhaps most peculiar, the Sands seem to violate the laws of magic in making Guinevere love Arthur again (restoring "broken hearts"). Now, there have certainly been some edge cases on the laws before, most prominently Zelena's spell. But at least the spell obeyed the amended law of in spite of a nail, where Zelena's actions both changed nothing substantive and nothing that she had set out to change. Presumably to actually get anything done, you need to ask three genies very nicely.

However, the Sands of Avalon seem to break the rule against making someone fall in love into a thousand pieces. Is what the Sands induced some different form of magical brainwashing? It certainly seemed to cause love, rather than mere loyalty or obedience. Is it in some way an illusion, like everyone does what Arthur wants them to do, but their emotions toward him are unchanged? Is it just that powerful?  