#pris rambles

Alice, since the start of her centric ep, 7x04 Beauty, winked and teased at Rumple by asking, “Are you looking for a prince?” regarding the ball and as Tilly mentioned to Weaver, “I had an ex-girlfriend who worked for [Victoria Belfrey] once.” Unless considered a blink and miss moment instead of casual on the nose comments, it’s clear Alice is queer or lesbian, cursed or not. 7x10 continues laying it on as Alice worries about her love, saying to Killian, her dad, “But Papa, if it happens, I will lose her.” He’s unfazed and responds with comfort, “Don’t say that, love, don’t! True love can win out over so much more.” Even though an act of true love has only been seen in Ouat as a magical solution to a curse when two people, familial or romantic, love each other and believe in magic, it can be taken here to validate and uplift that Alice and Robin’s love is strong enough to connect and endure. He also knows who to deliver her letter addressed ‘My Love’ to, without a mention of a name.

At the start of the episode 7x10, Robin worries and says, “If [the coven of the eight] are here, I have to warn-” to which Zelena, her mom, comforts her, “Don’t worry. Look, darling, we’ll warn everyone. We’ll protect our loved ones,” and tells Regina, “She’s got a case of young love.” Although Robin was a baby prior to s7 and we don’t get a clear look into her as a person before 7x10, it’s certain that Zelena knows who Robin wants to warn and is in love with, enough to nearly run aimlessly around the New Enchanted Forest for.

Assuming the audience is cued in on the love storyline, Robin looking for her love and Alice already explicitly hinting at her sexuality, their parents both supportive to them, the shock value should come from not their sexual orientation but rather who they're in love with. Instead of being reduced to their labels, Alice and Robin’s love story is about two people who come to know and love each other, their differing sexualities being an added bonus.

So, elephant in the room out of the way, where does the coming of age come in?

Well, in the characters’ growth and relatability as Alice and Robin both strive to be more than their past of summed up parts and the people they come from. TLDR: It’s all about finding their place in the world and discovering who they want to be rather than letting their past and others’ views define them.

Girl in the Tower vs Tower Girl

You could say it means the same thing, but like hear me out. Double meaning, Great Gatsby style. Was it intentional? In Ouat fashion, it usually is.

Taken literally, the first represents a girl that happens to be in a tower while the latter emphasizes how a tower is a characteristic of the girl. In context, when Robin first meets a spy lurking to watch a papa with a poisoned heart, she puts two and two together and curiously remarks to Alice, “Wow. So you’re the Girl in the Tower.” 

Just like how Alice is known for being in Wonderland, she’s also given names by strangers who know Killian, seen as “Nook’s kid” and the “Girl in the Tower”. Robin unintentionally gives away how interested she is in Alice, the referential girl in the phrase, caring about her enough to keep track of descriptive names and stories of someone she’s never met until then.

Despite being caged in Robin’s trap, Alice rebuttals uncomfortably, “I got out of that tower years ago.” 

The phrase also gives way to the way Alice thinks and feels about herself. She took notice of the ‘in’ bit, probably gravitating on the word ‘tower’, and wanted to clear the air. Alice defends and distances herself in term, separating away from any connection or fondness to the tower. By saying she got out of ‘that tower’, she claims she’s no longer trapped inside the tower and feigns indifference, as if it's a tower out of many instead of the home and her world before the Troll helped her escape.  

Later on, Robin nicknames Alice as Tower Girl, in fondness, awe, and sometimes disbelief at how Alice exists, seeing and going about the world as she does. Robin only says Alice’s name in moments of sensitivity and as a grounding basis, sarcasm and jokes out the window. To give a list of Robin’s usage of the nickname, it’s after Alice: claims the Troll is her friend instead of a monster flattening villages, is led by Robin through a humorous string of homonyms regarding riding a bug and having a whole life held in a smartphone, has differing views on goals, and tackles Robin upon her aim at the Troll. 

From the starting flashback in 7x14 to the Troll destroying the Tower in frustration, the tower is a part of Alice as much as she was a part of it. Being physically free of the tower wasn’t enough as it haunted her, either on the lips of others or how much she wanted her freedom to be the solution to making reality okay, happiness attainable. When Alice was trapped, she had hope that things were better outside and could be sheltered in the bubble of love her papa gave her. Alice was the girl in the tower, away from the judgement of society, unhurt by the reality outside her scope despite her imprisoned situation seeming bleak. 

Surprisingly, in the last time we hear “Tower Girl” being uttered in 7x14, it’s straight from Alice’s mouth after she says goodbye to the Troll in front of the tower, confronting the things she left behind and couldn’t be free of, coming to terms with her childhood and past. At the age of 18, Alice escaped the tower and ran away to multiple realms on tons of adventures to explore more while on her quest to find a cure. However, there was nowhere she wanted to be more than back home. In the end, she inadvertently did come home, say her honest truth, had someone by her side to hear her out, and realized that the tower didn’t have to be her enemy or her stopping point. By saying, “Goodbye, Tower Girl,” to the broken tower, we get the sense that she redefines herself as not one held back or prisoner to the tower, but one that keeps moving forward in spite of her original circumstances, staying true to herself.

Conforming to Expectations vs Accepting Themselves

Imagine growing up in a small town like Storybrooke where people are larger than life and everyone is intertwined with legends. If fairytales inspired joy, I doubt they did for Robin who had bigger shoes to fill than most. Robin Hood-Mills, daughter of the powerless Wicked Witch and the deceased Robin Hood who saved the world from a vengeful god. To be a powerful witch or leading archer? Both required skills and inadvertently influenced comparisons to be made.

Of course, although her mother had a lot of talent, Robin didn’t have much nor was she allowed to practice magic except in secret. Considering Zelena probably saw what power did to their family and her lack of magic to protect them both from danger, the forbidding of magic was an extreme safeguard. 

So, with small minded people in a school where everyone ages K-12 went, the deck was stacked against her. It wouldn’t be surprising if Robin was a goody two shoes initially, but learned that doesn’t build street cred or help make friends. If she was to survive school, Robin would have to fit in or stand out. And how did she do that with peer pressure and expectations to conform to? By pretending to be someone she’s not, becoming popular and cool. With that, Robin could make a name for herself, gaining attention and acceptance from her peers, leaning towards while stepping away from her parents’ shadows. 

What’s cool to high schoolers in Storybrooke might be being good at magic, making things look effortless, breaking rules, and not caring what anyone thinks. Thievery was frowned upon, but getting away with lockpicking, hotwiring, and stealing earned cool points and recognition in others. Robin might not have powerful magic, but in 7x11, she gets Regina to help her and her friends practice magic in the old vault via Cora’s spellbook. However, Robin doesn’t want to be popular per say; she wants to be accepted and loved for who she is, discover what she really wants with no pretenses.

If Storybrooke wasn’t the answer, anywhere else was. Throughout the season, Robin/Margot runs away to find and be themselves while longing to be home with supportive loved ones. In 7x11, Robin makes a potion to summon Mother Nature, which whisks her away to Gothel in another realm, claiming to have run away. Robin tells her mom upon shunning her away, “I am my own person, one you refuse to let me grow into,” and “I didn’t love magic. I just felt like I was supposed to… and there’s all these things I’m supposed to be good at,” after getting saved.  In 7x14, Robin admits to Alice that she hotwired and stole Emma’s yellow bug, to be away from Storybrooke and only getting away for “eight glorious minutes”.

By the end of 7x11, Robin has reconciled with Zelena; Robin trusts her mother’s good intentions while Zelena vows to support Robin on any endeavor. However, her journey hasn’t ended, even in the New Enchanted Forest. In 7x14, Robin vows to honor her father’s legacy by killing the Troll and becoming the villagers’ hero. She retreads all her mistakes in medieval fashion until she wants to defend Alice from the mob, realizing that protecting those who need it matters most to her and connects her to her dad. Making peace with her parents and her insecure self, Robin decides to forge her own path and be more honest. 

Margot has a similar arc of wanting to change and see change. While less of a jerk and more open to different viewpoints as a mature traveler compared to Robin, she regressed in terms of relationships with her mom, Kelly, and never feeling like she’s treated like an adult, being in the know as equals. In 7x10, Margot is mentioned to have had a job at the bar, a ticket to Amsterdam, turned away from college at Vassar, is currently in Phuket, and never coming back home out of her mom’s lack of coolness. Lots to unpack, but the point is Margot decides to come back after 7x11 when her mom calls saying she’s changed and wants to talk, only worrying about Margot’s safety. By 7x16, Margot fights with her mom, claiming that she left in the first place because they’ve “never been able to communicate”. Hurt, Margot spills, “I am done being patient with you. All I’ve ever done is wait for you to change. You know what? I never should have come back.” 

Margot hates the lies and sinking feeling inside that her mom doesn’t trust her or might be in trouble. She doesn’t give her mom a chance until Tilly suggests that Margot seems amazing and wise, but her mom might be not avoiding the truth for a good reason. They make up, Margot giving her mom a bit more time and eventually chooses to stay in Hyperion Heights regardless of anyone else’s life choices or opinions on her.

7x08

Killian and Alice reunite for the first time in ages, him magically younger and her all grown up. They get up the closest they’ve been in ages, maybe about two or three arms length away for caution and he’s fine. *cue cute hug that turns into dramatic whump and sadness* Alice couldn’t even stand the same meters away from him, and even while running away, he was still clutching his chest and screaming out in pain, groaning as the poison ravaged through his heart, restarting what he hadn’t felt in ages. 

We see Killian later on a cot of warm furs in a tent, still weak and needing to be watched over. Alice is nowhere near, entirely in another realm and yet we can see how much their short embrace had cost him. He’s unable to move and seemingly strained in his efforts of just putting his thoughts together, barely mustering whispers as he clutched the White Knight chess piece Ella handed to him. In typical Jones fashion, he tries to be a fortitude of strength, stating that he’d “go through that pain a thousand times over, just to see her again.” I’d assume he was in bedrest for a week, even with healing magic used on him, grumbling that he was fine while his heart was permanently closer to the end of its lifespan.

7x10

Alice stands nearby, hiding behind a tree as he draws near, Rumple making light to her presence. The father and daughter are close once more, our timeline being at least over eight years since he had the poison reinvigorated drawing him back. I reckon they are no more than eight feet apart, but it’s the least of their concerns with the notion of a casted dark curse looming over them. They’ve corresponded so much over paper that Alice is empty handed for him. Killian manages to talk to her without immediately screaming out in pain as she exchanges worries and he comforts her. Robin’s special letter from Alice is passed, one where she dropped and made more distance as he picked it up and they went back to a tree in the way, them as parallel lines seesaw. Even in the dark midst, they still manage to bring light to the situation, hoping that with the curse, they’ll be able to meet again as Alice puts it, “With fewer trees and walls in the way.” 

7x13 and 19

Tilly is entranced in a spell, unable to get free of the world changing casting and nor does she want to. Rogers tries to pull her away from the circle, knowing she would never want anything to do with it, being part of the Witch’s schemes. He even uses the word himself, having seen unexplainable things in the slums of the theater. He’s safe, protected by being in a world without magic, that is until he touches Tilly, the magical barrier broken and seeping into him enough magical particles to revitalize the poison in his heart. Rogers is drenched in pain, barely able to walk himself out of there, and that’s how strong the volatile curse is, an example of how it worked in our world.

When Killian and Alice are first cursed, her branded and him marked by the green glow on his chest, he still feels extreme pain after being teleported to the base of the tower, a distance away too. Probably the nicest thing Gothel ever did for him, ironically saving his life bc I don’t think he could, mentally or physically, have scaled the wall well in his crumpled painful state, tirelessly focused on breathing. We see Killian is barely able to stand, propped on his knees, where we can only assume he hobbled away in pain, making promises to himself and Alice that he’d be back. Clearly impossible as he could never find her again until after she had escaped.

7x20

They’re all awake after Henry and Regina’s parental TLK, but Killian took a stand by holding Alice’s hand and being by her side during the magical showdown with Gothel. Much as the man said Alice was “making him stronger”, we can see him resisting the phenomenal pain to give her courage to fight her very real nightmare. The toll leads to him being wheeled onto a gurney to the hospital, dispatched after some time as the doctors surely couldn’t do more than stabilize what probably seemed like a heart attack. Killian goes through a lot... 

7x21 and 22

Survivor he may be, but he can’t deny that Lady Luck was on his side. Killian’s time was ticking and he knew it. The whump in this made my heart soar and cry. Henry knocking him out with a candelabra and Captain Floor returns, nearly freezing to death, ah, where were we? Right, Poison Heart Curse detectives we are here. ;) At the grand table, strategy planning room, there was no doubt that there was enough distance between him and Alice for the finale episodes. Heck, he gets freed from a winter landscape/snow globe conundrum only to get hit with poison from her just stepping a foot closer in the wide library room span. 

So umm, yeah, Killian stands a distance away from the round table. Alice eventually joins a mission of what should have been just a trio team of him, Robin, and Henry, failing to be “good at keeping far away enough for safety”, a grimace on his face. 😐 Oh boy, this cannot be good as he struggles to fight and stand with Robin by his side later, Alice being far away with Henry to save Regina (at a dungeon in the middle of a forest?). Killian is full of sweat and worry, happy to give his blessing at Robin’s proposal to marry Alice, but he fears his life is at its end, believing his heart will give out before walking his little girl down the aisle. The last straw and burst of poison takes hold the moment he risks his life in the dark book, portal sucking scene, grabbing hold of Alice and making sure she never has to suffer a lonely fate of towers again. (It might have been an ice biome/Arendelle from the props but I’m disregarding that as a worst fate).