Once Upon A Time Season 5 Discussion Thread -Spoilers

[JD]

The new of Once Upon A Time started last night, and we saw the beginning of Emma's time as the Dark Swan, the introduction of Merida, Camelot, Arthur and the Knights, and possibly even Merlin.
I'm not sure about Merlin, but I certainly got the impression that the usher at the movie theater was him.
I loved Merida, she seems like she should be a really fun character. I loved her trying to fight Emma for the Will O' The Whisp.
I love the hint that of The Dark One's Dagger is the end of Excaliber. It definitely looked to me like the same pattern.
The whole thing with them just sending Granny's into the Enchanted Forest.
Zelena was actually pretty fun this week. I wasn't sure about bringing her back, but we got some pretty good scenes with her this week. It will be very interesting to see what she gets up to in the Enchanted Forest.
It is a little annoying that we are getting the whole memory loss thing again.
Dark Swan was pretty cool.

 

[John Clark]

Just finished watching it myself.

Thought Merida was great and with the whole memory loss, went "again?" just before MM said it

Had a few funny moments, "your turn" being one of them. Grumpy having his priorities right too.

 

[SAndrews10]

Loved the last two minutes!! Great start to the season. And really Belle's gotta carry that rose jar all over Camelot lol

 

[JD]

Just finished watching it myself.

Thought Merida was great and with the whole memory loss, went "again?" just before MM said it

Had a few funny moments, "your turn" being one of them. Grumpy having his priorities right too.

I forgot about Leroy's little temper tantrum, that was great. I've always liked him, so I look forward to seeing take a more active role in the season.
I'm wondering if Merida has Angus in OUAT. I kept expecting her to hop on him and ride off during the episode. They did have Sven in the Frozen arc, so they are willing to bring in the animal sidekicks, and there've been people riding horses all over the Enchanted Forest so that's not an issue either.
EDIT: IGN has a post premiere interview with Adam Horowitz and Brian Kitsis.
They do confirm that it was Merlin Emma met at the theater, and they say the "Merlin mystery" will be resolved in the first seven episodes.
We will meet the first Dark One and learn about the origin of the whole Dark One line.
Arthur and Charming with have a big bromance.
Episode 5 will be a big Henry episode, and he will meet his love interest in Camelot.
The flashbacks will be a combination of what happened in Camelot after the premiere, and some origin stories.
Emma didn't lose her memories.
Merida will get her own episode with her origin story with her family back in DunBroch.
There's a lot of other good stuff in the interview, so it's definitely worth checking out.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Besides the introductions of Merida and King Arthur, I thought it was a lukewarm opening. It seems the writers deliberately wanted to add more characters to the Camelot arc by bringing the dwarves, Granny, Belle, and Zelena along for the ride.

 

[SAndrews10]

They are the writers, they are allowed. The more the merrier for me at this point. It's more convoluted at least to me it's always the same few people involved.

 

[JD]

I'm very curious what kind of trouble Zelena is going to get up to in Camelot.

 

[Gryffindorian]

They are the writers, they are allowed. The more the merrier for me at this point. It's more convoluted at least to me it's always the same few people involved.

I'm not saying otherwise. When Grumpy complained about being on the sidelines all the time, I thought that was probably reflective of what the secondary actors were saying in real life.

 

[Jolaris]

To repeat what I said in the other thread:

Best part of the premiere -

The Dwarves show up and almost to the point of breaking the fourth wall ask to be in the show again...

And also that those six weeks when the Heroes were off partying in Camelot turned Storybrooke into a quiet and happy little town where nothing bad ever happens...

Also:

Dammit, Disney, now I have to watch Brave just as I had to watch Frozen last year, well played, Disney, well played!

 

[RJDiogenes]

And now I'm in the right thread:

Merida was amazing. Now that's what I call a redhead.

I mostly liked the episode up until the end. Making the dagger a part of Excalibur was a clever twist. Regina tricking the Wicked Witch was a nice development. Relocating Granny's restaurant to the Enchanted Forest was excellent. I was looking forward to a season of adventures in the Enchanted Forest with Granny's as the home base. But then we got another amnesia and missing time plot. So they'll be dealing with Dark Swan in the present, while the Camelot story unfolds in flashbacks-- I suppose that's the classic format of the show, but sometimes you can stick a bit too close to format.

 

[Naira]

The amnesia thing was a bit lame, as others have noted. I do not understand why it helps, we could have simply watched the story evolve without knowing for sure if Emma turned into the Dark One or not. Apart from this, I liked the first episode.

(How cool was Regina in that red dress at the end? )

 

[Mr Light]

I enjoyed the episode more than I thought I would (wasn't looking forward to Dark Swan and Camelot). I do wish Merida had a more outrageous accent like in the movie. Also, I thought the narrative choice at the end was just truly bizarre, jumping the timeline forward six weeks and erasing their memories of it. I was looking forward to the slow decline of Dark Swan (which we'll obviously get in flashbacks) not a jump forward to her being all evil like that.

 

[JD]

The actress who plays Merida, Amy Manson, is Scottish, so I'm thinking that is probably just her real accent. They seem to be pretty content to just let people use their normal accent, which is why we ended up with so many different accents in The Enchanted Forest.

 

[Gryffindorian]

So the Fury that came to take Robin was like a collections agent/repo guy from the underworld. It appears Regina had begged Emma to save Robin's life back in Camelot six weeks ago, so Swan was forced to use dark magic on him - with a price.

I must say for a Dark One, Dark Emma isn't so evil. She still cares about Henry and has feelings for Hook. Rumple, on the other hand, was more sinister and devious. Dark Emma is just into dark clothing.

Since Henry has a crush on a girl, he can't be the gay character on the show, unless he's bisexual.

 

[JanewayRulz!]

If Camelot knew about the evil Queen, why didn't they know about Snow White and Prince Charming?

And since David knows about Excalibur, does he also know the part of the tale about Guinevere and Lancelot?

And speaking of Arthur's best knight...where is Lancelot? I assume that was him with Arthur the day he pulled the sword from the stone? Has he already left Camelot and been killed by Cora, or was that story a lie from the Evil Queen's mum?

I'm liking this season so far, especially since I'm totally in the dark on where they are heading.

 

[Thestral]

Well I decided to give the show another chance after ditching during the Queens of Darkness borefest because I love a good Arthur tale. (Of course I love a good Robin Hood tale too and I'm studiously ignoring the horse$7^% they pulled with Marian, so fair warning to myself)

I'm liking it again so far! I really like their Arthur and Guinevere and the glimpse we got of Merlin in the Theater. If they can manage to avoid treating their Guinevere as a Manipulative Lecherous Whore in contrast to our heroines I'll be most pleased. I'm not keen that the only knights with any focus beyond Arthur have been Dumb and either Evil (Kay) or Vengeful (Percival). Speaking of...

Spoiler: Percival

Where exactly did Percival get that necklace? He just happened to have a Magical Bug Necklace that he passed off as a gift from Arthur (and that never got questioned? Never a "Thanks for the necklace Arthur." "Ummm that's not from me")? I was expecting him to be working for a larger conspiracy but no, he's apparently just a rogue agent. There's an awful lack of clarity about what exactly the heroes know about Arthur and Camelot and vice versa.

You just know this whole "Regina posing as the Savior" thing is going to backfire horribly, my guess is that her taking credit for Emma's actions is what drives her further and further into embracing the darkness. That said, I really like her in the present day trying to be the savior and wholly embrace her role as the good guy. The Fury scene where everybody linked hands was very Guardians of the Galaxy-esque, but effective. I'd like if it turned out they effectively all lost a bit of life, but I know that's unlikely. Speaking of, wtf random Greek mythology? That's not how Furies... sorry, distracted again. Cool little bit with the boatman coming to collect Robin though. Snow continues to be as bland as day-old oatmeal; Charming and Arthur look like they might be fun together. Henry and Violet are cute as heck, and I loved the "if you feed it, it sings to you" explanation for a jukebox.

Merida was awesome, and I do hope she comes back soon! Looking forward to the returns of Mulan and especially Ruby quite a bit too. This show has a good stable of really cool female characters. The fourth-wall scene with Grumpy and the Dwarves was a hoot, as well as the "Everything's fine in Storybrooke without Regina and the Charmings" bit.

Dark Swan is much more interesting better than I expected so far. I only read about her becoming the Dark One at the end of last season so I was ready to be annoyed by it but I'm looking forward to the flashbacks showing us what happened. Harvey-Rumpel is a great idea. I do think that having the Camelot scenes all in flashback is a bit "ehhh" but there's one definite benefit: no more ridiculous cramming of events in the time before the initial curse and finding out that "Oh actually Snow and Charming visited Camelot between their wedding and Regina's curse and it was actually Zelena that put Merlin in the tree!" Hook and Belle sharing a drink and bonding over loving Dark Ones was a nice bit.

The Dark One's dagger as a piece of Excalibur is... especially interesting, IMO. I'm not gonna complain about Excalibur being the Sword in the Stone, that's fairly common. Was the darkness inherent to the sword, or something particular to the fragment?

 

[JD]

Really enjoyed this one. We got a lot of nice material for Regina, and I liked the tie between the past and present stuff.
Henry and the Camleot girl was fun.
The little bit with Regina and Zelena was fun.
I liked what we got of Arthur and the other people from Camelot. The big twist with them getting pulled into our world with the others was unexpected.
I'm liking what we're getting with Dark Swan. I'm very curious what exactly will happen if she does rebuild Excaliber.
I was a little surprised by the Merlin in the tree thing. I was expecting them to go on a big quest to find him.
I'm a little disappointed we didn't get more Merida this week. Hopefully she'll pop back up soon, maybe even in Storybrooke.
I enjoyed the stuff with the Fury and the underworld. I've been hoping for a while now that we'd get Hercules, and this makes me wonder if that might actually happen. I could see this being a small introduction to some ideas from Greek mythology before they jump full into later. We did get hints of Neverland with the introduction of Hook, and I'm pretty sure we saw a door to Oz in the Hatter's hat before they went there.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I wonder if Morgan Le Fay will show up? She's a magic user and nemesis of Merlin and Arthur.

 

[Thestral]

I was a little surprised by the Merlin in the tree thing. I was expecting them to go on a big quest to find him.

I didn't actually expect them to have that, but I like it and it's a fairly common element in the lore. I think it's significant that Dopey turned into a tree when he crossed the town line - whatever re-cursed Storybrooke and stole their memories (presumably the Dark One?) is probably the same thing that put Merlin in the tree.

I enjoyed the stuff with the Fury and the underworld. I've been hoping for a while now that we'd get Hercules, and this makes me wonder if that might actually happen. I could see this being a small introduction to some ideas from Greek mythology before they jump full into later. We did get hints of Neverland with the introduction of Hook, and I'm pretty sure we saw a door to Oz in the Hatter's hat before they went there.

Ooooh good point! I like that idea!

I wonder if Morgan Le Fay will show up? She's a magic user and nemesis of Merlin and Arthur.

Right, and I wouldn't be too surprised to see them combine her with Nimue/Niniane/Viviane as the one who put Merlin in the tree. Maybe the first Dark One?

 

[Awesome Possum]

I enjoyed the stuff with the Fury and the underworld. I've been hoping for a while now that we'd get Hercules, and this makes me wonder if that might actually happen. I could see this being a small introduction to some ideas from Greek mythology before they jump full into later. We did get hints of Neverland with the introduction of Hook, and I'm pretty sure we saw a door to Oz in the Hatter's hat before they went there.

Disney did make a Hercules movie and that version of Hades remains a popular character for them.