Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24589671-20140928145450/@comment-5106672-20140929031716

First off: they paid one of the most amazing tributes to the Frozen movie with the Emma & Regina scene towards the end of the episode. I absolutely loved it – I mean, beside being hit hard in my feels.

Big surprises: David got a line that made me smile. Henry is finally acting like a decent son and human being. I kind of enjoyed the Captain Swan moments (thanks to Killian's tongue-in-cheek). Emma acts surprisingly smarter than her standards. I would still bitchslap Robin Hood for his speech to Regina, but they pulled it off rather good; the “I love you but I made my vows to that bitch” part was predictable but felt perfectly in character, given his frame of mind and his lack of a Storybrooke persona with a modern set of values. So it doesn't sound like the authors junked it in just to make up more drama.

Big let downs: Rumple is douchier than I thought. For switching the dagger behind Belle's back (and going back on it), but especially for that conscience-clearing speech to Neal's tomb. As if that made up for the trick he played on basically everybody in Kansas. Then CGI. BAD CGI. The snow monster was bearable, but the troll made me cringe. Sven looks a bit out of place: unless we find out he was turned into an animal like Jiminy Cricket, such a degree of sentience for a reindeer is too cartoonish for the show. Even in Arendelle (btw, does the two-week ship trip means it is in the same world as Misthaven aka the Enchanted Forest?).

Things as bad as I expected: Elsa's costume looks just as bad on camera as it did on photographs. And her hair too. Seriously, I've seen much better cosplays out there.

Things as good as I expected: Georgina and Elizabeth do really look the part and are perfectly cast. Unfortunately I had Belle and Rumple's dance spoiled: as much as I don't like the general direction of the Rumbelle ship and that scene was clearly 100% pure fanservice, my inner B&tB fangirl exploded in a cloud of chipped cups for it. Regina was beyond awesome, but I didn't expect any less of her, so she would qualify as meeting my epectations. It's great that they show her conflicted rather than going back to being downright ruthless. Also, they found a nice way to incorporate the Frozen storyline into that of the show.

Mixed feelings: while I liked present-day Elsa, I'll have to see more episodes to decide how I feel about the flashbacks, whether the Frozen characters feel fanfiction-ish or not. I trust Edward and Adam's writing skills, but this time they're not taking fairytales and twisting them, they want to continue the very same story of the movie characters. Which techncally means it is a fanfiction, time will tell if it will also feel like one.