#likehandlingroses

Thank you!

14. Who kisses the hardest?

Slight lean on Percy.  I think Oliver holds harder because he’s a stronger person, but Percy kisses more intensely.

21. Who is more likely to start dancing with the other?

Oliver.  Percy isn’t as comfortable dancing in front of anyone (and the twins made fun of his dancing/singing enough to get him to stop) but Oliver doesn’t care and know Percy secretly enjoys it and is more than happy to make him happy.

24. Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ears during inappropriate times?

*waves* I’ve been enjoying your recaps for a...

Well, that took longer than expected.

First of all, everyone go and read likehandlingrose’s reblog here, because she raises some excellent points.

Part of why this took me so long is that I disagree on some details, but I don’t want that to sound like I disagree on the whole, which is: Cruella suffered serious abuse at the hands of an adult who was supposed to care for her, and the show didn’t address that properly.

I just don’t think the story of Cruella snapping from her abuse and committing that first murder is sufficiently supported by the text. Not in a way that I would say “ah, this is the story that was actually being told”. It would certainly make more sense, but I wouldn’t give the writing that much credit in this respect. (Mind you, your version makes for a better headcanon, but with this kind of thing, I’m reluctant to go the “well, I can headcanon that into making sense, so I’ll just ignore it” route) And like you said, this supports a dangerous mindset that gets real-life people hurt.

Yeah, not sure if that made any sense, but I definitely thought about this a lot, and, like I said in the beginning, I pretty much agree with you, and I really should have caught the more horrifying implications of that backstory.

I forgot about the Snowing scam! Such a good...

It was so much fun. And their slightly-tense but overall amicable “we had a big fight, but we got through it together” tone made it even better. So much of their relationship comes across in tone (not a surprise, really), even more than is usual on TV, and I love it.

The Swan Queen thing... OK, it’s late and I’m not super articulate on the topic right now, but my thoughts basically boil down: I think we have reached the point where it’s more effort to explain why they aren’t a couple than the other way round.

And to be fair, we did see what Rumple was like before/without the curse. But I get what you mean--having been cursed and getting rid of it is a distinctly different thing than never getting cursed in the first place. Rumple is a very different person than he was 200-odd years ago, and I’m excited to “meet” that person, as it were.

I’ve heard from several people that the next two episodes are good, and if it’s good because of character moments, I’m even more excited. I may have said this before, but when this show sticks a landing, it tends to hit allll of my buttons, and it’s great, and possibly worth sticking out the less-than-stellar  (shh, I’m trying to be diplomatic here) bits.

This is an iconic gay episode. That’s Season 4’s...

Yeah, this gift very much cuts both ways, though. Just make it gay, you cowards! You obviously want to make it gay, so...

That said, this episode has a good number of other reasons for a thumbs-up, I’d say. There’s just the Unfortunate cliffhanger, which would probably have soured me on all the rest, if I hadn’t had a very kind warning ahead of time. As things are... yeah, that’s gonna be great fun to deal with, won’t it? -.-”

(Glad to hear about the Gay of Episodes Future, though. Something to look forward to, at least *g*)

Will is a great character—it has to be weird to...

Gotta say, s4 Will didn’t leave much of an impression beyond the “careful, I’m scrappy” line, which I probably shouldn’t have found as funny as I did.

And I’m really grateful to the people who said “nah, wait until s5 for this”, because the story makes a whole lot of sense this way around. Whatever happened with Anastasia... happened, and so Will moped off to Storybrooke where he entered into an ill-advised mutual-rebound relationship with Belle. Things went as they did, and when he heard that his friend was in serious trouble, he took off without saying goodbye to anyone, because screw that, Alice needed help. (And after two episodes of seeing the “actual” Will, I am 100% convinced that he’d do exactly that.)

As for the theme: yessss! I’m really glad to hear that’s a recurring thing, because I loved the way it was set up in this episode, and I’m eager to see where they go with it.

I watched this episode the day after my one (and...

Oh, dear… I don’t even want to imagine having a hangover and then adding the headache of this episode on top of it. You have my sympathies.

I think you’re right with that theory, but the weird thing is that this turn of events makes Emma look even worse. (Never mind that I really liked Dark One Emma — I freely admit to not being the “average” audience in many regards.) Before, you could at least believe that she was doing all of these bad things for a good reason. You know, classical Dark One style. This… falls a little short.To put it mildly. And no, it doesn’t gel with the initial trajectory of the season at all.