Once Upon a Time premiered six years ago! Here are six things we love from the last few years!
Six years ago, Once Upon a Time brought Emma Swan into Storybrooke and flipped the fairytale world on its head. Now, with season 7, the creators are pulling the same trick with a new tale, a new hero, and a few new worlds.
With any series there are highs and lows. Here we will highlight the six moments, arcs, realms, and even deaths(!!) that keep us coming back for more!
Happy birthday, Once Upon a Time!
Happy Once-iversary, #Oncers! 6 yrs ago today, #OnceUponATime premiered! Thnx for all the love & support to take us to season 7! Love y'all!
— Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) October 23, 2017
Snow and Charming find each other: Take one
“I will always find you.” Is there any phrase said more on Once Upon a Time? Snow White and Prince Charming’s relationship did not start out with Happily Ever After. Instead, the two were lovers cursed in a small town in Maine, where one was in a coma.
Even after Charming, aka David, wakes up, he and Snow, aka Mary Margaret, still are not aware of their epic romance. So when they finally make it over all the hurdles the first season of the show throws at them, is there any feeling better than them coming together?
From here the show went on to reveal that they share a heart, have two children, rewrite their futures, and make amends with their pasts. We miss them in season 7, but at least we can always look outside of the show to see one of our favorite couples in love.
Dark Swan, Dark Hook
Look, the Dark Swan storyline was not for everyone. But it was captivating, gave Jennifer Morrison something fun to play with, and presented a few interesting scenarios for the heroes and villains of the show. After all, there are only so many times you can go on an adventure for a magic bean.
The episode “Birth” fills in the Camelot blackout that overshadowed the first half of the season. There were plenty of breadcrumbs throughout the first eight episodes of season 5, but the reveal of Emma’s willingness to create a second Dark One to save her shot at true love presents quite the conundrum.
Was Emma simply being selfish? Do her actions as the Dark One make her an irredeemable character? Would Snow and David destroy their daughter if it came to it? Yes, no, and not if they have anything to say about it. Season 5 (the first half anyway) operates in the gray area. When Once Upon a Time does this well, you get the Emma Swan, Killian Jones Dark One sagas. You get the Regina redemption arc.
Season 5’s Dark Swan arc gave viewers the opportunity to see Storybrooke in a new way. By witnessing how each character either took advantage of, or played against, Emma’s new identity, we were able to tease out a new facet of their character.
Regina and Emma finally become friends
What is more frustrating than watching Regina try to kill Snow White? Watching Regina and Emma battle it out over who is a better mom to Henry. In the later seasons of Once Upon a Time, Regina found bigger fish to fry than a woman who was doing nothing but good things for her son.
Enter Zelena, Robin, and a slew of emotionally traumatizing events. Sure, watching Regina suffer in other ways was not pleasant, but at least there were strides in the mothering area of her life. And at the close of season 6, Regina had a friend. Someone she could trust with her life and vice versa.
Emma entrusting Regina with her Dark One dagger was the first step in a long, battered history between the two. While they still had a ways to go, the two saw each other for the first time. Emma understood the power Regina fights every day; Regina saw the darkness slowly consume an innocent soul.
All the small strides they took over the years led to the best scene between the two characters — one that felt natural and earned. In “Only You,” when they are hunting down Henry on his mission to destroy magic, they share a moment in Neal’s apartment. The scene is one where Emma can provide Regina the comfort she needs about coping with Robin’s loss in an apartment that reminds her of great loss.
Henry becoming the Author
While nothing truly happened with this plot line until season 7, it was nice to have Henry integrated into the world if only for a little bit. We literally watched him grow up over the past six years, from the little boy who wanted everyone to believe, to the person who set off to discover his own story.
Frustrating as it was to watch an entire season of Henry having the Author powers and devoting little to no time exploring what that means, it served as the catalyst to let Once Upon a Time live on.
Unfortunately, we will not see Jared Gilmore live out his future, but Henry Mills lives on in season 7.
Realm hopping
Storybrooke and the Enchanted Forest can only fodder so many stories. To make the series great, you need to realm hop. The three best realms visited on the series were Neverland, the Land of Untold Stories, and Arendelle.
Neverland was not the most visually stunning place in the world. In fact, the dirt patch with a few fake trees surrounding grew old quite fast. Luckily, the stories being told in Neverland were enough to keep the focus off of the casts’ single outfit for the season.
Peter Pan, Hook’s backstory, and Emma and Hook’s problematic budding romance all took place thanks to a land where time stood still and temptation left you wanting more. In fact, the secret keeping, and ultimate reveal of said secrets, provided some of the best tension the series has ever produced. David’s mortal wound that ties him to the island, Neal and Baelfire’s history aboard the Jolly Roger, Emma maybe not loving Neal as much as she thought. There was never a dull moment in Neverland.
The Land of Untold Stories, however, flew by in a flash. It is one of Once Upon a Time‘s biggest missed opportunities. Jekyll and Hyde were two of the most interesting characters to come out of a world-hop. Not to mention the plethora of stories that are untold in Once‘s canon. But no, really, please carry on with Cinderella 2.0.
And finally, Arendelle. While the announcement of a Frozen arc left some fans feeling the easy-Disney-money push from the creators, the casting, set design, and even most of the story paid off. Focusing on “The Snow Queen” origin story, rather than most of the Disnified Frozen plot, gave the season a warmer feel. The characters, besides being so well cast, played well with the Once Upon a Time cast and Elizabeth Mitchell’s Snow Queen is one of the rare villains you kind of wish would stick around.
Killing Neal and Robin
Before you come after me, let me explain. Death is not something that tends to stick around on fantasy shows. There are ways to bring people back. Deals can be made, spells can be cast. But Neal, aka Baelfire, aka Henry’s dad, was not meant to live in this world. In fact, when rumors of his return started circulating two years ago, the Once Upon a Time fandom turned into investigators.
A trip to the Underworld is what led to a single episode return, but otherwise, Neal remains buried in Storybrooke for good. His spirit lives on in Henry and continues to torture Rumpel (albeit not enough to cause any true change in his character). Death and acceptance of death are part of reality. Not all fairytales end with a wedding.
Robin, on the other hand, was a bit more dramatic. How many true loves can we kill off and still have it mean anything? Regina, after all, has not had an easy go of it over the course of the series. She has, in my opinion, earned and lost the most of any character. Why take away yet another thing in her life?
In the way that Neal’s death should have helped Rumpel’s character, Robin’s death helps Regina’s move on. Fake Robin was brought back for some time (see, no one is ever actually dead), but he isn’t the same. The bigger lesson for her was to stop blaming her past for what happens in her future. As much as it feels like the universe is trying to punish her indefinitely, Regina is able to move forward from her life as the Evil Queen.
Hopefully, we will see more of that in season 7.
Once Upon a Time season 7, episode 4, “Beauty” airs Friday, October 27 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.
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