Can't stop won't stop talking about OUaT
I spent the morning browsing Tumblr and finding lots of reaction posts to the Regina episode, and reading lots of people's opinions, some of which, I think, make absolutely no sense. So I made a little selection of the best and worst of OUaT commentaries. I am serious about this - I took notes on my notebook and everything.
Theories I find acceptable:
Theories I find acceptable:
- Regina was a victim of child abuse. I think this one is fairly obvious - the magical equivalent of child abuse, but yes, definitely. See unacceptable theories for the reason why some people think this is a bad thing.
- baby Snow might have actually known what would happen if she tattled, and acted out of selfishness because she wanted Regina as a mother. Now, I'm not saying this is true or that it's valid for me (my stance on this is fairly neutral), I'm just saying it makes sense. Baby Snow is compared to the spoilt brat who knows that by acting naive and above suspicion, she will get what she wants. Children can be extremely manipulative, and I think this theory is just as valid as the one saying Snow was genuinely naive. Besides, Snow's intention doesn't really make a difference for the purpose of Regina hating her. Regina hates her because of what she said - what motivated her to say it is completely irrelevant.
- Regina is projecting her hatred towards Snow because she isn't powerful enough to go against the real culprit. I'm putting this in my acceptable theories, but some people find this unacceptable. They're saying that hating Snow because of what happened is stupid, that it's Cora she should hate, etc etc etc. Except that Regina can hate Snow because Snow is an inferior to her, both for age and intellect (at this stage at least); Regina cannot hate Cora because all her life she's been shown that she can't win against her and this is just another confirmation of it. (And because Regina now has Cora's evil magic, it's Emma now who has this feeling of powerlessness that she can never win against Regina and whatever her move, Regina will always anticipate it and outsmart it. This is how Regina used to feel towards her own mother).
- Regina having been a victim is insulting to the character. I'm not completely sure I understand this one, but I think it's got to do with the fact that she can't be a powerful female in her own right, but it's all because she was abused... That makes no sense to me. I don't think strength can be invalidated; you either have it or you don't and it could have come from any event in your life. Regina is strong in the sense that she is an achiever and she is determined; I don't see how the abuse in her childhood can be seen as invalidating her strength, when it's its very cause.
- This is a stupid/insufficient reason to hate someone that much. I'm sorry - who's to judge this? That guy was the most important thing to Regina at that time and sure, it was probably her first love and she didn't have much to compare it to, but she would feel hatred about it surely. Snow inadvertently started a chain of events that led to the death of the man Regina loved. Heartbreak is a perfectly good reason to hate someone that way!! Don't tell me you all haven't played the "what if" going back a million and one crossroads in your life. Well, in Regina's case, that chain of "what if"s was "what if I hadn't told her about Daniel / what if the King had never come here at all / what if I hadn't saved Snow and left her to die?". Really she probably blames herself most of all for saving Snow. It's irrational - BUT IT HAPPENS TO REAL PEOPLE. DON'T TELL ME THAT IT DOESN'T.
- Regina's life is a metaphor for a gay teen's life. Oh, lord, don't get me started on this. It was the most ridiculous thing I've read all day. Just because she had to keep her relationship a secret, she felt pressured by her mother's expectations, and because the things she likes to do emphasise that she's not behaving as is expected of her gender. I'm sorry but aren't these things everyone goes through? Not being accepted by your parents and recognised as your own person? This theory goes as far as saying that Daniel's gender was irrelevant to Regina's storyline and it could have been a woman. Yeah, it could have been, but it wasn't. This character is being written as straight, so it's relevant to her that it's a man. As much as I would love to see her and Emma tear each other's clothes off, it's just not going to happen on the screen. I can't believe anyone would think the writers are intentionally giving young Regina the typical struggles of a gay teen's life. Intentionally.
- The "moment Regina turns evil" was very mild because the authors have more in store and want to show us a slow descent into madness. The moment was mild, yes - I said so myself in my bullet points yesterday. But that this was intentional and it's because of things to come, I doubt it. I'm sorry but I just don't see that level of depth in the writing of this show - although there is a lot of depth in the acting (especially Lana's and Ginny's). But this whole "why does wickedness happen?" probably didn't really cross their mind in those terms. I don't know - I don't have much faith in the writing.