cosmicallyphoenix

If I had a nickel for every time I drew a powerful villain getting wrecked by La Chancla, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s interesting that it happened twice.

I want to hear them laugh, chat, comment, speak, roar, cry, get irrationally angry, I need people to respond to my art and get inspired and need more.

If you think that way it’s not only toxic as hell it’s killing creators.

Creating isn’t easy. When there’s nobody to look at your work and say, “You did a good job. This was hard.” The drive and ambition disappears, then so does the work.

Give your content creators value.

I assume the Fentons make enough of a spectacle with their ghost hatred that everyone knows they're out here hunting Phantom for bloodsport. Like there's no uneasy truce or tense partnership going on like the Fentons have not partnered with Phantom in any way. There's not even any chance of a secret partnership because the likes of Jack Fenton would not be able to keep a secret like that.

Which really just leaves the conclusion that Phantom stole all that gear. All of it. Repeatedly. And he's still doing it. He's got some brand new FentonTech-of-the-week every week and he Absolutely is not supposed to have that. Like some raccoon in the trashcan the Fentons can't keep out despite all their broom-swinging and lid locks.

"like two years ago"

"you mean i could've been drinking the tap water all this time?"

"yeah. they gave us individual mailboxes too finally, you don't have to dig through the communal bin anymore"

"are you for real right now?? i just redirected my mail, i didnt know"

and the new tennant is like "why did you guys even live here if it was so bad"

"we like it."

He’s a guy who saw one of the young students there get gunned down and went “I should go find what survivors I can.”

He’s the guy who dropped off Yoda to go try to assassinate the Emperor and picked him up when it failed and everyone was looking for Yoda.

He’s the guy who gave sanctuary to the only two Jedi he could find and the two Jedi that would be the highest of the Emperor and Vader’s list.

He’s the guy who watched one of his closest friends die after giving birth the children of the second most dangerous/evil guy in the galaxy, and began making arrangements for the children’s safety.

He’s the guy that took the daughter of the mass-murdering sorcerer who ruined the galaxy and decided to put himself and everything he held dear at risk to raise her as his daughter, give her a loving home.

He’s the guy that taught his daughter, who has the genes of the most powerful Jedi that’s ever lived, to channel her passions into righteous causes and the aid of others.

He’s the guy that started the Rebellion before there was even an Empire and who constantly put himself, his family, and his people at risk so that people across the galaxy could continue to fight against tyranny.

Disney executives were like "this wouldn't fit the Disney brand", but fuck those executives

thirsty. as. fuck

jk (partially). while that could just be a very solid stand-alone answer, i'm also going to take this opportunity to GO OFF because the wasted potential of the dark swan arc is something i could go on about forever. however, i'll try to keep focused on the question and not get too distracted...

so first of all, i do think a lot of these themes were at play as subtext and undercurrents throughout their dynamic in 5a, but this was mostly to do with the actors understanding of their characters.

like you said, the writers of ouat were cowards. they repeatedly wrote themselves into dynamics and situations that were far too heavy and complex for them to ever explore fully, so they always chose to not explore them at all and rather distract us with some cheap twist or silly plot gearshift. dark swan arc exemplifies this

the first thing i'd love to have seen explored more is the fact that we start this arc DIRECTLY after emma sacrifices herself to save regina. emma, the hero, the saviour, becomes the dark one - her own literal antithesis - willingly, to save regina's life. that's where we're starting from.

this is huge! regina mills has spent her whole life being used by everyone around her. she suffered tragedy and , for other peoples' goals. nobody ever put her first including her own mother, and certainly nobody before emma has ever saved her from anything. regina fundamentally believes she is not worth saving. for emma to sacrifice all that she is for her...

i want to see regina struggling with the weight of that. i want to see her going home that night, back against her bedroom door so henry doesn't see her crack because she has to be strong for him now, and i want to see her questioning why. why emma would do this. how she could be so stupid. how she could mean that much to anyone... and then of course, she tells herself not to be an idiot, not to think like the naive little girl she once was who still had hope for a saviour, she tells herself emma did it because she's a hero. that she would have done it for anyone else.

(but then regina rememebers hook begging her not to, remembers the look on emma's face when she herself told her there had to be another way, remembers the look in her eyes as the darkness took hold and... god, she can't help but wonder. it takes her back to other times, other moments. moments when emma fought for her, helped her, defended her needlessly and without reason. and regina aches.)

i would want MORE tension from them the entire time in storybrooke because of this (and other things). i would want regina, quietly, perhaps later in the season, to just desperately ask her why she did it. and i want to see the fear and vulnerability briefly flash in dark!emma's eyes before she snaps back on the defence with some harsh comment that regina knows is not true, but still cuts deep.

(i would want snow tied into this too, because i think the dark swan arc should have been about snow as much as emma and regina but that's an issue for another rant. on topic, i want her to notice, because the real snow would. she's been noticing emma's protectiveness over regina for a long time, her belief, the way she looks at her... and she would want to comfort regina about it and talk and assure her emma had her reasons but she can never quite say it and there's so much subtext there. but anyway, snow would be regina's rock through this.)

in camelot, when emma is first turning dark, i think regina would have still tried to step up into the saviour role, would still have been trusted with the dagger, and would still have kept such a close watch on her. regina would have tried to connect with her more because she knows better than anyone the lure of the darkness, but emma would be so fucking defensive because sacrificing herself for regina is the closest she's ever been to undeniably revealing her feelings and she is on dangerous ground now. regina would try and get through to her but the tension would build.

(that said, it'd still keep everything from dreamcatcher because it's beautiful and it fits, as well as the weird jealousy/comphet thing with them both kissing their beards at the same time)

i would keep the scene at the well where regina uses the dagger to plead with emma to tell her why she's clinging to darkness, because i think even in canon it's pretty obvious gina is begging emma to admit she loves her and so obvious emma knows, and can't

(if i were to rewrite this arc i would have a bigger confrontation though with emma and regina. i would have all this come to a boiling point with the two of them alone, both highly emotional, the dark one voices in emma's head going crazy, and i would have emma finally snap and kiss her. regina, in her shock, would pull away, and that would be the final straw. emma goes fully dark and other stuff ties in and she uses it all as a defence and an excuse, removes their memories, takes them back to storybrooke etc)

and then in storybrooke... (which i feel is what you were actually asking lol) regina would be guilty that something happened she can't remember that tipped emma over the edge, but determined to get 'our emma' back, wary of her and protecting henry over everything, but also...

dark emma is HOT and our power bottom poster girl would be so close to losing it so many times

i want to see dark emma reverting back to those season one power plays, calling her madame mayor, taunting and teasing her, taking joy in riling regina up and then disappearing (the darkness inside her has twisted her feelings for regina into this strange revenge)

i want to see dark emma touching regina's face, backing her into corners, hell, maybe slamming her against a wall or two like the good old days. and regina is so angry that she is into it

she blames it on fury and anger at the situation, but regina watches her poof away every time with red cheeks and a racing heart and shaky legs and has to fiercely make some snarky comment to brush off everyone else's concern

all of this is making regina more and more confused and frustrated and conflicted...

(also ik i've said this before but i want dark one emma to LOOK like a dark one. it's just misogyny that she wasn't an eerie gold-green colour and covered in scales with slightly inhuman eyes like rumple was - give me my unnerving fucked up but infinitely sexy dark one emma please.

give me regina struggling with seeing her hero look like the man who used her every tragedy for his own gain, but still seeing her emma, the real emma, deep down behind those eyes)

and then after all of it i want regina and emma to have a true loves kiss - regina initiating this time - in a climactic moment, and it slowly removes the darkness from emma the same way belle's kiss did for rumple all those years ago (had he been brave enough to accept it. and now, finally, emma is. emma is.)