Aha! A third tale that I do not need Disney to go anywhere near, because Jim Henson's The Storyteller has already adapted it and therefore won my heart forever <3

To be fair this adaptation - Sapsorrow, althought I always call it Straggletag - is based on the German Allerleirauh (All-Kinds-of-Fur), rather than Perrault's Donkeyskin. But I already preferred Allerleirauh over Donkeyskin because it has the three royal balls and the way The Storyteller mixes in some Cinderella (two jealous sisters and a lost shoe) and extra character development for the prince (he agrees to marry the strange, furry Straggletag before he knows she is his mysterious princess) makes it even better. They also rewrite it so the King does not want to marry his daughter, but is forced to because she fits the Royal Ring, which makes the plot more tragic and less icky.

Also it's just as dreamy and nostalgic as all the other adaptations they did:

And they actually made the princess look like a creature!

The only thing I'd change is go back in time and give them a bigger budget for Sapsorrow's silver, golden, and starry dress. Because you can tell they struggled with the fabrics. But that's really the only thing. Honestly, who could possibly improve upon this ending narration:

Comparing similar folklore from region to region is always great! But I think my favourite at the moment is the one I discovered most recently, namely the Sicilian version of what most people know as the Grimms' All-Kinds-of-Fur.

In the Grimms' version a princess escapes from having to marry her father (because she is the only one as beautiful as her late mother), by disguising herself in a cloak made of a thousand kinds of fur. She is found by a king who thinks she is an animal, when it turns out she is taken to the palace as a lowly servant. One day she takes of her furry cloak and dresses as a princess again, to go to the king's banquet. He instantly falls in love with her and after two more banquets manages to discover All-Kinds-of-Fur and the beautiful princess are one and the same.

Now the version of this story I fell in love with as a kid is the adaptation in Jim Henson's The Storyteller: Sapsorrow/Straggletag, where they make the relationship between the young King and Straggletag more equal by letting them talk extensively while she's in her disguise and scold him for his pride and vanity. He does not win her until he has proven he respects Straggletag as well as the princess she secretly is.

So imagine my joy when I read a variant of this tale type called Betta Pilusa in Zipes' translation of Laura Gonzenbach's Sicilian Fairy Tales and it goes like this:

After going through the usual method of trying to delay a marriage to her father (asking for three impossibly beautiful, expensive dresses) this young lady (not a princess) asks for a dress made of grey cat fur and escapes to a forest.

A young king goes hunting there and almost shoots her, until she reveals she is not an animal. He asks her name, she says its Betta Pilusa (translated as Hairy Bertha). He asks her if she wants to come to the castle. She says yes, as his maid. He asks where he wants to live, she says in the chicken coop.

The king visits her at the chicken coop every day to talk to her and bring her treats.

He asks if she want to come to the royal ball, but Betta Pilusa grumbles at him that she could never go. Of course she does go, dressed in her first gown, but disappears before the king can stop her.

The first thing the king does is going to tell Betta Pilusa about the mysterious lady and she scolds him for waking her up.

This happens three more times. With the king inviting Betta Pilusa each time and her grumbling and growling at him and then scolding him when he confides in her about how in love he is.

Finally the king is so lovesick that Betta Pilusa bakes bread for him, every time hiding a golden trinket inside it which the king had given to the mysterious lady at the ball.

The cook reveals to the king that it was Betta Pilusa who baked his bread and he finally confronts her and declares that she is the mysterious lady.

Betta Pilusa denies everything and they argue until he resorts to threatening her with almost comical theatricality, after which she dramatically throws off her catskin gown and falls into his arms.

They get married and live happily ever after.

Yes. I agree. After so long being manipulated I can’t see Rumple allowing that to happen to him again. We know Rumple’s genre (and general) savviness was not due to the curse alone and so he should retain that quality now that he is cured.

I do also wonder if, as a previous dark one, Rumple knows what Emma is trying to do and won’t help her on the principle of it. He did make a trip to Camelot before and I think it’s likely that while he was there, under the dark one’s tuition, he already made a failed attempt to reunite the sword so he probably knows what that will do.

11. Favorite art styleI’m very very partial to really really well done pixel art that’s obscenely well animated ala Metal Slug and Legend of Iya. People who say that pixel art is just a talentless style is completely wrong. Sure there’s a plethora of games with shitty pixel art because developers can’t afford a decent artist so they try and do the art themselves, but that doesn’t distract from the great games. Ultimately though, I’m not interested in art style as much as art direction. So give me something just unique. I have no interest in games trying to be as realistic as possible, nor the boring shades of grey and brown prevalent in fps games. Give me a brand new world to explore. Make the most out of the video game medium and create somewhere unique. Beyond Good and Evil is a good example, as is Psychonauts, Bastion, etc etc. 16. Your guilty pleasure gameI can’t think of anything that I’d alt-tab out of if someone walked into a room. I don’t know if that just means I have awesome taste or if I just don’t give a shit what people think. 20. Favorite features (ex: character customization, real time action, 3d graphics, etc)STORY. That’s it. Considering the state of the gaming industry these days, a good story is considered a feature. I’m not massively interested in massive open worlds that give you complete freedom. I know a lot of people absolutely loathe ‘linear’ games, but really, a well made linear game is 100% about the experience. Games like ICO are a great example of that. It’s a very linear experience. It’s pretty much “You are in a castle now get out of it and there’s only one way to go” and it’s incredible. Gaming isn’t about how many features you can throw into it. It’s about the experience.