#sqdimension

Rule number 1 was that every story on OUAT is connected to Emma Swan’s life. (Don’t worry, Regina’s clearly important, we’ll get to that.) Rule number 2 is that this is not a coma theory! (Okay, that’s not really the rule, but it’s the best place to start to explain it. Bear with me. Pleaseandthankyou!)

This is a magical story, because the magic begins in our world.

Regina Mills: “There's a reason they call this place the Land Without Magic.” The Dragon: “Yes, because that's how it appears. There's magic everywhere if you're willing to see it.”

The Dragon said it loud and clear that there is magic in OUR WORLD. Meaning in the physical dimension where the show starts. But magical shit is subtle af. Subtle as in hard-to-believe “coincidences”. Like when you make a wish on a cupcake not to be alone and your long lost son shows up in the next second... Yeah. Always love it when that happens.

They even show the candle’s flame covering her third eye. Someone’s ready for a magical journey. Then the doorbell rings. 

Welcome to the Swan Queen dimension! A crazy meta that explains the world building of Once Upon a Time AND why romantic SQ is canon once you understand how the rules work.

1. Maybe we’ll meet in a different dimension

A general explanation of how the different dimension works and how it relates to OUAT.

2. Dimensions infographic

A visual representation of the dimension to make it easier to understand.

3. Rules of the world 1

Explanation of the first rule you need to understand to get OUAT world building: Every story is somehow about Emma Swan.

4. Rules of the world 2

Explanation of rule number two: The story is a mix of the wisdom of archetypes and fairy tales, combined with memories from Emma’s past and new stories from the world around Emma’s body. 

(I will update this pinned post with links whenever I write a new meta.)

OTHER META

The big conversion therapy post

Why Emma’s wedding was full of shade

The show really ended with a SQ wedding duh

Henry is a shitty author (sorry boy, love yah, you clitblocker)

SwanQueen IS intentional

Another SQ-Snowing parallel

Long-ass hopeful SQ crap

SQ synchronicity in the real world

Emma/Lily/Ruby parallels

It’s SQ meta time!!! Nobody’s doing it anymore, so I'll have do it myself! *flexes and kisses biceps*

Okay okay okay! Sooo please tell me I ain’t the only one hanging out with spirits in esoteric parts of libraries?! Because seriously, all the roads of questionable pop-science lead to Swan Queen. 

Let’s have a little chat about dimensions first. We all remember the line “Maybe we’ll meet in a different dimension” from “Dreams” by Ruth B. that played while we saw Emma and Regina looking at Henry and Violet dancing, right?! YOU BET YOUR ASS THAT WAS A SWEET CLUE!

Don’t mind me, just throwing in some evil cleavage SQ screenshot just to remind you of the moment... I mean, who wouldn’t fawn over the both of them all day long? Not caring that it’s 2020, I’m here, still doing it.

Alright... SO... according to some esoteric traditions everything in existence is simply vibrating energy. What’s INTERESTING is that our thoughts are vibrations too. (More clear info here.)

So, following this logic every story ever told is real in another dimension. (Also, little side note there, did you know your brain cannot tell the difference, emotionally, between fiction and reality? Well now you do, you’re very welcome. Further proof how everything is real just on different levels of reality.)

That explains why the world of Once Upon a Time is made up of not only fairy tales (duh!), but references to One flew over the Cuckoo’s nest or Terminator II or Harry Potter and Star Wars or Lost or... Anything really. It’s a world that Karl Jung labeled “the collective unconscious”. We all have our little personal dimension of thought, but beyond that is a world we all share - and they’re not really separated. 

If this is all a bit OUT THERE for you, don’t worry about it, it kinda is; BUT FOR A WRITER, it’s enough to have a scientific possibility to set a story in a different dimension.

So basically all you have to remember is that the world of stories, whatever they may be, is literally a real physical place, it just has a lower density than our physical world, it’s in another dimension. Say, our world is solid and the fairy tale world is... gassy (LMAO, I laughed like a 5 years old). SO telling a story in another dimension isn’t that different from setting a story in unexplored space.

Okay, so now that we know the story world is a real place, it gets really exciting when we know that we can travel to it through meditation or in our dreams, because thoughts are vibrations. Our mind can give us access to other dimensions by raising our vibration.

NOW BACK TO SWAN QUEEN! Remember Emma saying “You came to this crazy world to save me.” to Regina?!

Yup.

Emma has been stuck in this other dimension, the world of stories, from the Pilot. REMEMBER HER ACCIDENT AND THEN THE CAMERA SWOOP TO THE STORYBOOK?! THAT WAS THE CLUE! 

Henry was a kid, so he hadn’t been trained out of believing in this world, so he could sorta live in both worlds more easily, even without interacting in it. He could easily travel to that higher vibrating world, where Emma is metaphorically (oof, big word) trapped.

Regina at first just thought Emma was gone and dying, so she was ready to give up on her and let someone have her organs, basically (I mean, it’s a whole thing, I’ll explain in another post). Hence. Evil. Heart. Ripping. You know, organ harvesting. Emma sort of understood all this, but it was translated into the language of her dimension: the dimension of shared thoughts and stories.

And then Regina - first for Henry’s sake, later cause she cared awwww - managed to be in touch with Emma through this dimension that Emma was trapped in. Probably in shared dreams and then deliberately through meditation and stuff.

WHICH IS WHY THIS DREAM METAPHOR IS IMPORTANT, IT IS THE WAY THEY CONNECTED IN THE “REAL” WORLD. Also, remember THAT WAS THE EPISODE IN WHICH THEY WERE TRAPPED TOGETHER IN ANOTHER DIMENSION (the mirror dimension) AND THEY COULDN’T CONTACT THE REAL WORLD (except Henry).

I think maybe their shared magic is about them being able to communicate. And also... a realm is just another word for dimension. True love transcends realms. 👀 

(More clear info on the graph here.)

Previous post: Maybe we’ll meet in a different dimension

Now that we agree that Once Upon a Time (mostly) takes place in a realm where all of our human thoughts (art, stories, music) are physical, touchable things, the show makes SO much more sense.

You’ve been sayin’ plot holes, I say WRONG! It’s world building, bi*tch! Seriously though, when we said “EVERYBODY HAS THE SAME BACKSTORY THEY’RE SUCH LAZY WRITERS!” we were actually so close to getting it! Hear me out.

I know what you all do at night. Don’t lie.

That’s right, you go over the same thoughts over and over again. Every trauma and every issue is brought back over and over and over... to be looked at from every angle. No mercy for yourself.

Yeah, I thought so.

HOW DID WE NOT SEE THIS? The repetition of car crashes, abandoned & abandoning/sold children, killing of fathers, shitty dudes, references to conversion therapy, ... over and over and over again was SO on purpose. We do it all the time, except we don’t live in the nightmare where THOUGHTS TURN TO F*CKING THINGS like Emma Swan does! Seriously, imagine all that sh*t from the past in your mind suddenly become personified.

Yup, you got it. Indeedio, when Emma crashed her car, she got stuck in a dimension where all of her issues became real all around her, played out by both her and other characters. Now you imagine facing an endless version of your night. Not fun. Does that make us sadists for watching? Guess I always knew this fandom was full of kinky bastards.

Anyways, I think that’s enough for now. So to sum it up; rule number one is: 

“Everything story on Once Upon a Time is connected to the present and the past of Emma Swan.”

And I pinkie promise we’ll get to SQ, but I gotta get through all this stuff first.

This is a little extra info to explain the first SQ dimension meta post which you can find here. Wrote it as a reply, but hey, I did the work, so now it gets its own post. Lazypeoplehighfive!!!

I get that it can be confusing, because I’ve needed time to be comfortable and familiar with all these ideas before presenting them! Basically, the theory is that our thoughts form another dimension (or another level of reality if you will).

We have the physical dimension, which is our bodies and everything we see. Then there is another dimension made of our thoughts. Our thoughts vibrate “faster” so we don’t see them (kinda like vapor compared to ice) when we are not dreaming/meditating. 

The world of thoughts is divided into two parts. One is personal, but another part of the world of thoughts is shared by all humans. And that’s basically where most of Once Upon a Time takes place.

I made this pretty kick ass info-graphic up there to help, sometimes it’s clearer visually than with words. I know, I’m just too nice.