As far as The Wicked Witch of The West entering the story, I assume she's the one set up house in Regina's/Snow's castle. And the Confrontation to regain the Castle is what resulted in the new curse being cast
I don't think so. If TWWOTW just sent them back to Storybrook because she wanted to get rid of them, why did Hook tell Emma she had to drink the potion to save her folks? No... something Wicked is coming to Storybrook, and a certain Witch didn't want Emma involved at all, that's why she's had her flying monkey court the Saviour these last 8 months. I wonder if this Witch and Regina are old buddies, like Regina and Mallificent were old friends. I still wonder why Aurora couldn't warn Regina about the castle & the Witch. I also wonder if Mulan is still with Robin's merry band. It was nice to see the people in the forest didn't have all their memories wiped, since Aurora remembered Baelfire was looking for his son.
I realized the other problem with my theory. She appears to be coming to Storybrooke, which wouldn't make sense if she was just trying to get rid of them. Takeru's theory quoted above does seem to make more sense at this point. Sindataur, that was Regina's castle we saw TWWotW in at the end up of the episode.
I loved how Regina had to keep correcting herself and saying "our castle." I giggled. I think Regina sent them all back to Storybrooke to save them - or perhaps Rumple did? Rumple created the curse in the first place. I think their return is one part someone within their band trying to save them and one part the wicked witch trying to stop that from happening. Where is Mulan? She joined Robin and his band did she not? I guess Tink ended up somewhere else or she could have hit Regina in the head with a cow pat and told her royal highness that the love of Regina's life was standing right in front of her.
Poor writing, mostly. Need to build drama/mystery, and if the characters actually communuicated what they knew, they'd be able to solve it in an hour vice a season. Same problem Lost suffered from so badly; they knew everything they needed, just would never tell each other anything. Robin passes this along, and then they just go grab a squirt gun or bucket of water and take care of it in about 5 minutes. Since they need it to last the back half of the season, we'll get all kinds of silly twists and turns first while no one shares their part of the knowledge. If not Robin, Aurora could have passed along that tidbit just as easy. Or just handed them a bucket of water for when they get there...
Why would a group of nomadic 'outlaws' (figuratively if no longer literally) be privy to information about the WWotW, especially if she was keeping her activities secret as much as possible, which seems to be the case?
Shouldn't all the Storybrooke residents know how to kill the WW after seeing The Wizard of Oz at least once a year for the last 30 years?
Nomads are usually pretty good at knowing the scuttlebutt and what's going on in the area, so would imagine they'd have an idea. And it's tough to be an outlaw when the residents of the kingdom are all AWOL. As the only people IN the kingdom, odd to have no idea what's going on with the other other residents. Have to imagine that it doesn't exist, like all zombie movies don't know about zombies. Either that, or they will specifically try it, and it'll turn out to be a bit of a movie shortcut, and no effect on the witch. More likely to do that route, so they can play it as a joke. Swan tries it, she screams, then starts laughing and shrugs it off as bad PR.
I think it would make the most sense if Swan, or Neil, or Henry knew about her. The first two because they grew up outside of the closed off bubble of Storybrooke which may not have ever heard of The Wizard of Oz or other movies/stories. Henry because while he grew up in Storybrooke he currently spent the last year in the outside world so he may have encountered it there. Otherwise as you said it could simply not exist at all. Like how nobody on TWD ever refers to a zombie as a zombie or reference back zombie movies.
Did anyone else think it was weird that Emma asked how they knew they were gone a year and they did the reveal of Snow being pregnant? It didn't occur to Emma that they could have simply looked at the date?
The calendars may all be reading what they said when the Charmings left a year ago. Before anyone thought to log onto a computer/internet to confirm a date, I suspect Charming and Snow would have already noticed her pregnancy.
"You're getting a little thick, Snow, you might wanna lay off the passta for awhile" "No, I think I'm pregnant, David. And look, our Facebook Page says it's been a year since we left Emma and Henry behind"
It'd be for an interesting twist if they DID throw water at her...and it didn't work. Then she just laughs and says they watch too many movies/read too many books.
I agree, she probably has to die from fire instead. Maybe they can say "Damn, that worked in 'Signs', because i hate how stupid that movie is.