Once Upon A Time
Dec. 2nd, 2012 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seriousficI suppose a lot of people think all of writing is plotting. It’s an easy mistake to make. Something like Lost will be popular because of how the plotting structures and perpetuates a mystery, and then be unpopular because of how poorly plotted the finale is. OuaT, I think, is reasonably well-plotted. For instance, our antagonists both have clear goals and engaging motives—Cora is an abusive mother and wants her daughter to fail and be hurt so she can control her. She’s an irredeemable version of Regina circa season one. While Hook is the personification of Rumpelstilskin’s sins, someone who wants and deserves revenge for all the lives Gold has taken (when everyone else in the cast has made peace/tolerated this).
But I’d like to take a moment to talk about technical writing, which is simply conveying the plotting to the audience in an entertaining manner. It goes very unappreciated. A lot of Lost knockoffs thought they could one-up Lost by having plots that were completely planned out, but the technical writing floundered. And I honestly think OuaT has some of the more embarrassing technical writing I’ve ever seen.
Take the final scene. The point of this plotting is to show Regina in a sympathetic light, while also showing her gathering resentment towards the heroes. However, this is conveyed to the audience in a ridiculous manner. Henry, who might as well me called Kid Dramatic Irony for how often he drops subtext in the audience’s lap, tells her she dun good, ma, then callously says “See you later” and goes off with a dozen people to have a good time. All of these people are supposedly emotionally mature, psychologically healthy adults, yet none of them sees anything wrong with snubbing her? Several of them are supposed to have great compassion as a personality trait, but they don’t see how this would come as a kick in the balls?
I’m not saying this as a Regina fan. Taken objectively, all she’s done in this episode is not kill Emma and Mary-Margaret,which doesn’t exactly deserve a medal. However, as much as I support the narrative showing Regina’s perspective and how justified it may be, this scene is so. damn. silly. It’s like something out ofparodyof a dumb teen movie, showing a bunch of mean girls bullying an ugly duckling. And we’re not meant to see these people as antiheroes or morally ambiguous. They are the Big Damn Heroes of Storybrooke.
And with a moment’s thought, you could come up with a better scenario to get the same point across. Someone, anyone,could’ve invited Regina to come along, but I would totally believe she wouldn’t accept. Regina has a tendency to be her own worst enemy and the last thing she’d want to see would be Emma palling around with her son and MM snuggling with Charming. Or she could just not come to Gold’s shop in the first place. While the heroes don’t question her absence, we see her watching them go to dinner from afar, envious and resentful. If you really wanted to be controversial, Regina could be invited, but then someone else could say “Maybe some other time, for now, it should be just… us.” I could believe Emma, MM, or David putting their foot down. And which of the characters drew that line, and which of the characters reached out to Regina in the first place, could tell us a lot about their individual feelings towards Regina instead of them just being one mass of goodness.
And speaking of technical writing? Why did Mr. Gold need Regina to shut the portal? She never did anything until she reopened it.I understand the plotting need for her to be the one to save Emma and MM, but in terms of technical writing, why is master manipulator Gold taking the risk of her doing exactly that? They could’ve at least said that Regina was the only one who could use the wand/cast the spell for whatever reason, which would also make her more involved in the plot instead of just a bystander.
But I’d like to take a moment to talk about technical writing, which is simply conveying the plotting to the audience in an entertaining manner. It goes very unappreciated. A lot of Lost knockoffs thought they could one-up Lost by having plots that were completely planned out, but the technical writing floundered. And I honestly think OuaT has some of the more embarrassing technical writing I’ve ever seen.
Take the final scene. The point of this plotting is to show Regina in a sympathetic light, while also showing her gathering resentment towards the heroes. However, this is conveyed to the audience in a ridiculous manner. Henry, who might as well me called Kid Dramatic Irony for how often he drops subtext in the audience’s lap, tells her she dun good, ma, then callously says “See you later” and goes off with a dozen people to have a good time. All of these people are supposedly emotionally mature, psychologically healthy adults, yet none of them sees anything wrong with snubbing her? Several of them are supposed to have great compassion as a personality trait, but they don’t see how this would come as a kick in the balls?
I’m not saying this as a Regina fan. Taken objectively, all she’s done in this episode is not kill Emma and Mary-Margaret,which doesn’t exactly deserve a medal. However, as much as I support the narrative showing Regina’s perspective and how justified it may be, this scene is so. damn. silly. It’s like something out ofparodyof a dumb teen movie, showing a bunch of mean girls bullying an ugly duckling. And we’re not meant to see these people as antiheroes or morally ambiguous. They are the Big Damn Heroes of Storybrooke.
And with a moment’s thought, you could come up with a better scenario to get the same point across. Someone, anyone,could’ve invited Regina to come along, but I would totally believe she wouldn’t accept. Regina has a tendency to be her own worst enemy and the last thing she’d want to see would be Emma palling around with her son and MM snuggling with Charming. Or she could just not come to Gold’s shop in the first place. While the heroes don’t question her absence, we see her watching them go to dinner from afar, envious and resentful. If you really wanted to be controversial, Regina could be invited, but then someone else could say “Maybe some other time, for now, it should be just… us.” I could believe Emma, MM, or David putting their foot down. And which of the characters drew that line, and which of the characters reached out to Regina in the first place, could tell us a lot about their individual feelings towards Regina instead of them just being one mass of goodness.
And speaking of technical writing? Why did Mr. Gold need Regina to shut the portal? She never did anything until she reopened it.I understand the plotting need for her to be the one to save Emma and MM, but in terms of technical writing, why is master manipulator Gold taking the risk of her doing exactly that? They could’ve at least said that Regina was the only one who could use the wand/cast the spell for whatever reason, which would also make her more involved in the plot instead of just a bystander.
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Date: 2012-12-03 06:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-04 10:21 pm (UTC)