Once Upon a Time: 2x17
Mar. 20th, 2013 11:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyFinally got around to watching this!
Seeing how much Regina was basking in everyone else's misery when they first got to Storybrooke really reminded me of how she is generally a horrible person. I mean, I hadn't really forgotten it, but this episode really put it in the foreground.
Ugh, the Regina/Graham stuff is squicky. I mean, the whole point of SB is to make people not!Regina unhappy and to make her happy. And she can and is willing to mind-control him via his heart. So, yeah. Major squick there.
And this episode also pointed out why Henry figured out that Regina had to be lying to him -- the not-aging but also that people kept repeating the same patterns unless pushed to a different one by Regina or himself (or Gold, sneakily). Every 'night before' the sign has fallen and Ruby has stayed out late. Every day, it's the day to build birdhouses. Every day, Cinderella is on the exact same day of her pregnancy. They're stuck in a state of miserable stasis until Emma finally made time start moving forward again.
It also reminded me of how desperately Regina worked to keep the other people in the town (and especially Snow) miserable back in S1, despite realizing that forcing other people to dance to her tune didn't actually make her happy in the long run, only momentarily. And yet she's also completely unwilling to ever try to be a better person so that people will actually like her rather than just fear her. She just has zero understanding of how people actually work, you know?
(and did the show want me to feel bad for Regina when she's crying over Owen? I mean, she's withholding a father from a kid who already lost his mother. I don't care how many tears she cries -- she's making it all about her and ignoring the people that she's hurting. I mean, what happened to Owen's dad? Did she kill him?)
Rumple was right -- Regina's fundamental problem is that she's incapable of learning from life.
I'm...not sure if there is any way to fix that. Especially since Regina is aware of it and yet continues to refuse to learn. So, it's not even that she can't learn; it's that she won't.
Also, it's weird to talk about how Rumple is right. But it's easier to diagnose someone else's problems than your own, so maybe it makes perfect sense that he can see what's wrong with Regina's approach while still effing up his own.
I do have sympathy for her pain over her mother -- it's horrible to lose a parent, even a terrible one.
re: the obvious logic gap between Snow's heart having a dark spot and Cora's heart not appearing to have any -- might be based only on actions done while the heart is inside the body, yes? Cora didn't start killing people until after she'd already pulled out her own heart, so it remained untouched all that time.
Also, this episode once again pointed out: Snow gets things done; Regina likes to gloat and gloat. Which is why Regina still hasn't managed to kill Snow after years of hating her while once Snow decided to off Cora, it happened in a matter of days. Like, I'm pretty sure what she did at the end of this episode is going to backfire on her.
And I'm not sure why she thinks Snow 'going bad' would make Henry automatically revert to her? Seems more likely he'd just wash his hands of the entire mess and, idk, move to Alaska and take up ice-fishing. Regina is far more likely to end up with 'nothing' than 'everything' if she continue the way she's going. Once again, I think it's tied back to how Regina just doesn't understand the way other people think and feel. Lack of empathy strikes again.
And whoo! Loved the reveal on "Gregor Mendel" being the kid that Regina screwed over at the beginning of the SB period. That was awesome.
Seeing how much Regina was basking in everyone else's misery when they first got to Storybrooke really reminded me of how she is generally a horrible person. I mean, I hadn't really forgotten it, but this episode really put it in the foreground.
Ugh, the Regina/Graham stuff is squicky. I mean, the whole point of SB is to make people not!Regina unhappy and to make her happy. And she can and is willing to mind-control him via his heart. So, yeah. Major squick there.
And this episode also pointed out why Henry figured out that Regina had to be lying to him -- the not-aging but also that people kept repeating the same patterns unless pushed to a different one by Regina or himself (or Gold, sneakily). Every 'night before' the sign has fallen and Ruby has stayed out late. Every day, it's the day to build birdhouses. Every day, Cinderella is on the exact same day of her pregnancy. They're stuck in a state of miserable stasis until Emma finally made time start moving forward again.
It also reminded me of how desperately Regina worked to keep the other people in the town (and especially Snow) miserable back in S1, despite realizing that forcing other people to dance to her tune didn't actually make her happy in the long run, only momentarily. And yet she's also completely unwilling to ever try to be a better person so that people will actually like her rather than just fear her. She just has zero understanding of how people actually work, you know?
(and did the show want me to feel bad for Regina when she's crying over Owen? I mean, she's withholding a father from a kid who already lost his mother. I don't care how many tears she cries -- she's making it all about her and ignoring the people that she's hurting. I mean, what happened to Owen's dad? Did she kill him?)
Rumple was right -- Regina's fundamental problem is that she's incapable of learning from life.
I'm...not sure if there is any way to fix that. Especially since Regina is aware of it and yet continues to refuse to learn. So, it's not even that she can't learn; it's that she won't.
Also, it's weird to talk about how Rumple is right. But it's easier to diagnose someone else's problems than your own, so maybe it makes perfect sense that he can see what's wrong with Regina's approach while still effing up his own.
I do have sympathy for her pain over her mother -- it's horrible to lose a parent, even a terrible one.
re: the obvious logic gap between Snow's heart having a dark spot and Cora's heart not appearing to have any -- might be based only on actions done while the heart is inside the body, yes? Cora didn't start killing people until after she'd already pulled out her own heart, so it remained untouched all that time.
Also, this episode once again pointed out: Snow gets things done; Regina likes to gloat and gloat. Which is why Regina still hasn't managed to kill Snow after years of hating her while once Snow decided to off Cora, it happened in a matter of days. Like, I'm pretty sure what she did at the end of this episode is going to backfire on her.
And I'm not sure why she thinks Snow 'going bad' would make Henry automatically revert to her? Seems more likely he'd just wash his hands of the entire mess and, idk, move to Alaska and take up ice-fishing. Regina is far more likely to end up with 'nothing' than 'everything' if she continue the way she's going. Once again, I think it's tied back to how Regina just doesn't understand the way other people think and feel. Lack of empathy strikes again.
And whoo! Loved the reveal on "Gregor Mendel" being the kid that Regina screwed over at the beginning of the SB period. That was awesome.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-03-20 07:11 pm (UTC)Excellent points about Regina's character, and you are right, Snow does get things done. I think there's still a possibility that Regina can decide to change, but it certainly isn't a foregone conclusion. And change for what? Who is going to accept her after everything she's done? Maybe Henry, who seems more forgiving of her this season than last–he even refers to her as his mother now–but I sure wouldn't blame him if he wanted to go ice fishing instead.
I would've preferred if, instead of moping all episode, Snow had discovered that she could actually live with what she'd done. That would have been a much more interesting reason for Regina to conclude that Snow was going bad. It wouldn't necessarily mean that Regina was right (after all, Snow's decision was not unequivocally immoral), but it would have been a lot more interesting.