Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6175354-20130930170041/@comment-23697155-20131001044516

And finally, I loved so much that Emma didn't repeat her season one "the curse totes does not exist even though it obviously exists" mistake. She listens when Rumpel tells her that Neverland is all about imagination and then instead of blindly accepting it, she takes it into account and then as soon as she has EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE that it's fact (i.e. the storm stopping), she accepts it and plans accordingly. So gooood.

3. Loved that Rumpel immediately showed his true colors, first with the whole "screw you guys" thing and then with heartripping Tamara. Guy's an evil psychopath. I mean, I adore him as a character, but that "oh he's REDEEMED himself because LOVE" stuff was infuriating.

1. Fucking Snow. I could write an essay about how much I hate her and why, but the gist is that she's an amoral, smug, egotistic little troll who likes to put herself on a pedestal of righteousness. And the thing is, if she were upfront about the amoral/smug/egotistic parts? I'd love her the same way I love Rumpel (watching villains be unrepentantly psychopathic is one of my favorite pastimes). It's the sheer hypocrisy that drives me into a frothing rage.

She still does not understand how to family. At all. Zero comprehension of what Emma was trying to say at the beginning of the episode, and zero signs of empathy for the daughter she claims to adore (seriously, telling her she just needs to listen to the Wisdom of Snow? Bitch, Emma's your age. Shut up.)

Compare this to Davidjames, who at least understands what Emma is trying to say and responds with "I know, you're right, and we're here because we want to make things right." He gets that Emma is right about how much real life can suck, but he's trying to remind her that they can fight back. Snow, on the other hand, is ignoring Emma's very legitimate reasons for being upset in favor of trying to impose her strategy of blind faith with no thought about anyone but herself.

Then with the mermaid: I get it, okay? Snow's schtick is pacifism. Of course she's not going to advocate killing the mermaid. But did the reason for her wanting to not kill the mermaid have to be "if we kill her, her family will come and kill us?" you cannot claim to be morally pure when the only reason you don't want to kill someone is that their family will take revenge on you. A morally upright person says, "we can't kill her; killing is wrong."

Aaaand then the fight with Regina: I actually love that Snow threw the first punch. It's so in-character for Snow to resort to hitting to express her feelings (Gepetto, anyone?), and then I love that Regina's initial response is "is that the best you can do?" (<3) and she only gets violent when Snow starts going on about Regina having ruined her life. So perfect. Which does not change the fact that I raged through the entirety of everything Snow said.

This. 100 and 10% this. You summed up my feelings and Rumpel and Snow perfectly. I hate Snow's goody-two-shoes glurge soooo much. I just want to punch her in the face. I nearly put my fist through the TV when she got all emo over killing Cora... Snow turned trolls in roaches and shot people with arrows, ffs! Stop getting all whiney over defending your family. And I love Rumpel best when he's at his worst, being his good old Chaotic Evil self. Rumpel is the epitome of magnificent bastards and I miss his plotting.

And OMG yes on the empirical evidence thing. I get so tired of the "faith faith faith let's take everything on faith" thing and people just beliving what they hear without good reason to. Just examples, Rumpelstiltskin took it on faith that the Evil Queen told the truth about Belle dying, Regina took it on faith that her mother wanted the Dark One's dagger to get Henry back, Snow actually believes Regina and Cora will spare Johanna, etc etc all without stopping to think, to ponder maybe if the other person is lying and to ask for evidence. At least we got a bit  of the consequences of blind faith with the whole "home office" thing. I hope they continue with Emma updating her beliefs as evidence is presented, but given that Goldumple gave a speech about faith and taking leaps of, I'm not sure how it will play out.

Did anyone else notice Henry was born at 8:15? And why did the lights flicker when Emma screamed... magic? Though it's supposed to be a land without magic.... I'm glad they didn't do the stereotypical "Mother holds baby, changes mind, nurse/doctor insists the baby go for adoption" thing.