#alice jones meta

[wicked-storybrooke]

These lyrics from 'Where Can I Run?' (Adamandi Musical) reminded me of how Alice might have felt after she escaped - not knowing where to run or where to escape to because she felt trapped in or out of the tower:

If I manage to escape, where do I go once I emerge on the other side? As they all disperse, I look to the sun, cold and bleary-eyed Footsteps fading into wind and people going places ’til I stand alone No one guiding my direction and traveled too far to go back home I’ll miss being trapped Every movement mapped I don’t wanna get caught Forgetting what I’ve been taught Once they all leave me I’ll be nobody When it’s said and done Where can I run?

@fairytalepsuedonym

[priscilla9993]

Robin: Make a wish! Just not for another troll.

Robin, after Alice blows out the candle with obvious heart eyes: So, what did you wish for?

Alice: You know that's not how it works, but I've got a good feeling about this one.

Robin has been pulling fast ones on Alice all day, stumping her with modern items, lingos, and idioms. But this special moment is significant, as it's the first birthday in years since Alice got separated from her papa where she isn't alone as Robin's stuck by her side. Alice knows entirely how birthday wishes work, (plus or minus hers actually being magical) the traditional superstition of how telling someone your wish will make it not come true.

Alice is on the same page as Robin for once and won't fall for any accidental secret giving. She KNOWS what Robin is up to and cleverly evades the playfully innocent and teasing question. Alice isn't going to quickly profess her love or want of Robin to be in her life/herself to be part of Robin's life. So cute and cheeky, makes me want to go just tell her already!

All gif credits go to @leiandcharles since tumblr gif finding system is whack and they make such pretty gifs. The candle lighting shot with a modern day lighter lives in my head rent free. Robin could probably live in the woods, on a farm, and hunt, but for love of life won't start a fire without her handy dandy lighter from Storybrooke.

[kazoosandfannypacks]

Can we talk about the fact that this statue:

an actual real life statue.

IRL, it was designed to be an anti-homelessness structure. In the show, Tilly, a street rat, makes it her go-to hangout spot. She takes something meant to deter her, and calls it a friend, and in some ways a home- and that's so integral to Tilly as a character. She takes what's given to her and looks at it in a way that no one else does- she sees the world differently, and this statue symbolizes that so well.

[queenofglassbeliever]

For season seven's timeline, I always assumed that time in Alice's tower somehow passed differently. In my mind it was what made sense because of how old I presumed Drizella, Tiana and Ella were. Like, I thought that Drizella and Alice were around the same age (during the Hyperion Heights flashbacks). I know that Alice was 17 when she escaped the tower and that at least a couple years had passed between then and the HH flashback events. I presumed that Drizella was around Alice's age. And that Ella and Tiana were a couple years older. But when Alice was born, Ella and Drizella were already teenagers. So Alice and Drizella couldn't be close in age. Not unless the tower's magic somehow altered time within itself. Or so I've told myself. But what if seventeen years passed by in and outside the tower?

When Rapunzel was imprisoned in the tower, six years passed both in and out of the tower. Why would it not be the same when Alice is trapped? The difference being the magical barrier around the tower that kept Alice there. Rapunzel didn't have to contend with a force field. The magical barrier keeps its prisoner trapped, but it there's nothing really to suggest it affects time within the tower. Only theories and guesses that it does.

So Alice is born, 17 years go by and she escapes the tower. Let's say Ella was 16 and Drizella was 13 when Alice was born. Seventeen years pass. Ella is 33 and Drizella is 30. A couple years go by. Alice has her adventures in Wonderland and other places. She's 19 now. Ella and Drizella are both at the Prince's ball. Ella is 35 now and Drizella is 32. Tiana is somewhere between 32 and 35.

[colleendoran]

The Secret Language of a Page of Chivalry: The Pre-Raphaelite Connection

Adapting Neil Gaiman’s Chivalry is a decades-long dream fulfilled. The story as text can be enjoyed on multiple levels, and so can the art. You look at the pages and see the pretty pictures, but the pictures also have meta-textual meaning. Knowing this secret language adds to the experience.

Some people pick up the references quickly, but I’ll share with you some more of what’s going on under the surface.

In Ye Olden Days of Art Making, most painters made pictures that contained visual narrative cues. Flowers in a picture might be heraldic signs that signaled political affiliations, or could indicate purity, anger, or love. Purple was the color of kings. A dog in a picture might represent faithfulness, and butterflies could represent the soul.

There are Pre-Raphaelite paintings with so many symbols and ideas in them that you need a deep working knowledge of Victorian and Edwardian social mores to understand what’s going on.

For example, Ford Madox Brown’s Work, a painting which took some 13 years to complete, was first exhibited in 1865 with a catalogue explaining all its symbols and elements. There is nothing in that picture that doesn’t mean something.

I brought some of that visual meta-textual sensibility to Chivalry, (and I’ve written about the symbolism and meanings in the work in other essays.)

I also brought into the work direct Pre-Raphaelite art references.

From 1868-1870, Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones created four paintings illuminating the tale of Pygmalion and Galatea, entitled Pygmalion and the Image, and wrote a poem with each line titling one painting:

The heart desires

The hand refrains

The godhead fires

The soul attains.

A perfect little poem for Chivalry, and I think of it often when some people present me with what I think is a very strange question: why didn’t Galaad just take the Holy Grail from Mrs. Whitaker?

It kind of breaks my heart that people would even ask that.

Burne-Jones painted two versions of this series of which this is the second.

In the first panel of this page, Sir Galaad kneeling before the Grail is derived from the figure of Pygmalion kneeling before Galatea: The Soul Attains.

Sir Galaad’s restraint even in the face of his greatest desire makes him worthy of his prize.

There are two Pre-Raphalite references in this page, the most obvious being in panel 2: it’s Sir John Everett Millais’s 1857 work A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford.

The painting was very poorly received on first exhibition, compelling Millais to redo significant portions of it. It was caricatured and ridiculed, and then ended up becoming influential and popular, and isn’t that the way it goes.

That’s an art career in a nutshell, really.

The Sir Isumbras image also influenced John Tenniel’s illustrations for the Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland novels.

Sir Isumbras derives from a 13th century Medieval romance poem about a good knight whose pride causes him to fail in his Christian duty. He is presented with a series of difficult challenges before he can find happiness again, reunite with his family, and be forgiven his sins. The painting by Millais is based less explicitly on the poem than it is on a later parody of the poem. (It’s complicated.)

My using Sir Isumbras as the base for the shot of Galaad with the children is obvious here. In the Millais painting, Sir Isumbras carries a woodcutter’s children across the ford. In Chivalry, Sir Galaad carries the children of Mrs. Whitaker’s neighborhood down the street.

While Sir Isumbras spent many years learning humility and Christian duty, Galaad has a long quest to fulfill before he can achieve his goal. And on the way to that goal, he’s humble and nice to children, too.

That the Millais painting was such a huge influence on many a depiction of knighthood over the years made it a perfect reference point here, and the story behind both the painting and the poem give it further layers of meaning.

The next panel has a far less obvious reference, but the source is Arthur Hughes’s painting The Rescue.

Arthur Hughes is one of the lesser-known Pre-Raphaelites, but his art is widely seen and influential. He’s certainly been a big influence on me, as many of his paintings appear again and again in Arthuriana references, as he was a prolific King Arthur picture tale teller.

The Rescue (1907-1908) was originally part of a diptych which was separated and sold back in the 1920’s. His style was becoming unpopular by the time Hughes painted the work, and little is known about this work except that one panel was in the collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber at some point. Maybe still is. Dunno.

Anyway, the diptych depicts a little child kneeling in prayer menaced by a dragon in one panel, and in the next, safely trotting away with a knight on horseback. I like that this is a diptych, a kind of proto-comic art form common in medieval religious art, so this was perfect to use here.

Another reference to Arthur Hughes is in this double page splash from later in the book as Galaad on his quest encounters the Hesperides.

I didn’t set out to reference this Arthur Hughes piece at first, but it’s one of my favorite paintings. When I realized my sketches for this scene kept echoing the Hughes composition, I went with it. The Hughes painting of Galahad is one of the most famous depictions of the character, so it makes me happy to have this referenced in Chivalry.

Kindly ask for CHIVALRY, published by Dark Horse Comics in the USA and by Headline Books in the UK at your local comic shops or bookstore. Written by Neil Gaiman. Adaptation and art by me.

For further reading on this project, go HERE.

HERE.

And HERE.

Thank you to my Patreon patrons for sponsoring my work and this post.

Colleen Doran Illustrates Neil Gaiman will be a solo exhibit at the Society of Illustrators in New York City this spring. Watch this space for updates.

Have a wonderful holiday season.

[saturnaftertaste]

I would like to hear your hirarchie opinions!

oh anon, you’re too sweet. you do spoil me so ♡

so, my take on hirarchie?

look. as a feminist, my first thought in the archie-ronnie-hiram subplot/relationship triangle will always be veronica. as such, my thoughts on hirarchie come from the angle of thinking about veronica, who is a very interesting figure in the case of the Jughead-Narrated Riverdale Universe.

first of all - veronica is a legacy outsider to Riverdale. i’ve mentioned this before, but out of s1’s protagonist cast, ronnie was the only one to not be white. not only this, but hiram’s history itself starts outside of riverdale. unlike betty | alice, archie | fred, cheryl | penelope, jughead | fp, veronica | hiram do not have history here. in fact, archie, betty, jughead, and cheryl all have direct ancestors who landed in riverdale in 1580 - i.e. as per colonial “american” practice, the town was “built” by them and their descendants.

so what role do the lodges play in all of this? the blossoms are rich, the andrews’ are good, the coopers are cunning and the joneses write the history, so what role do the lodges play in the existence of riverdale? are they even necessary for that existence? my point is this - nothing happens in riverdale until a lodge shows up.

think about it! we’ve seen riverdale prime start up twice - once in season 1, once in season 7. a lot of people pin jughead’s narration from s1 on jason blossom’s death (“little miss inciting incident”) but my take on this is that the starting point of any riverdale story is the entrance of a lodge. one of my main riverdale theories is that while the events of s1-4 are narrated by jughead, s5-7 are original written pieces by jughead within the meta of the river-verse. as given in the canon, jughead is not a very good writer - so to keep riverdale afloat from s5-7, the stories he tells are essentially ripped off from the first four of seasons, remixed and then re-presented: hence, when s7 starts in the 50s, it starts on the day when veronica comes to town, just like s1, except there is no murder; jason blossom doesn’t exist.

what does this have to do with archie? good question. i’m getting there (i promise. i hope).

this post by @/wallbeatjournal talks about how just because archie and hiram aren’t related, it doesn’t make it any less incestuous. that is what got me thinking about the riverdale citizens’ roles in their society. as the town pares down in terms of citizens, season by season, and the “following in. families’ footsteps” themes become more and more in-your-face, one must question the cycles and where they came from. interestingly enough, the modern-day riverdalians are 1-to-1 copies of their ancestors, with a specific focus on gender. the farthest ancestors shown are not patriarchal heads of houses— instead you have: asher andrews, blessing cooper, james jones, charity blossom. obviously, we do not know if these are “true”; as per my personal theory, this is all jughead making filler backstory for s6 bc he’s alone and trapped in an empty bunker trying to power a dead universe for himself. however, the genders and the naming conventions match our current protagonists. moving forward in time and referencing the parents of the riverdale citizens, all of them who have a historical colonial ancestor become one of their parents, usually looking like one of them as well, despite the end goal being to break out of their cycles of perpetual violence; usually, the parent they become is the one they share a gender with:

betty is the “gang leader’s girlfriend/perfect small-town girl/thrill-seeking investigator” -> all roles alice has occupied, in that order. notice how despite hal’s attempted influence on her, she does not become a serial killer.

jughead is the “writer/gang leader/scholarship kid/alcoholic” -> roles both F.P and his grandfather occupied. he is incapable of leaving riverdale permanently, like F.P., but unlike gladys who left prior to any inciting incident.

cheryl is the “alive half of a pair/center of tragedy/repressed rich kid/witch” -> roles occupied by penelope blossom as more of the story is unveiled, reflecting cheryl’s life? or cheryl reflecting penelope? (remember, clifford blossom dies before s1 is up, so in this way, jason and clifford match in that they are the Dead ones.)

(remember, this is all through the jughead lens, so it’s all subjective. anyway)*

so where does that leave archiekins and veronica?

veronica is interesting, like i said before. she has no colonial ancestor; her ties to riverdale do not extend beyond hiram’s own. in fact, you could say that veronica and hiram have no ties to riverdale at all, since it was jaime luna that came to riverdale, and hiram lodge who left to manhattan after he married hermione.

veronica is also interesting in that she’s the only one out of the main cast to not be the same gender as her primary-complex-relationship parent. although hiram is not present for season 1, most of veronica’s conflict still stems from his existence as her father. veronica is a girl, yet she does not resemble hermione in her riverdale role**; she is her father’s daughter, constantly actively fighting him while mirroring his own traits. the owning of businesses, the murderous intent, the guns for hire (reggie, circa s3?) thé illegal activity? the mob interactions? she is not a gangster’s moll like hermione ends up as; she is the gangster. remember that episode when they all got sent to therapy in the guise of “college counseling” in their senior year? it’s openly stated that one interpretation of hiram and veronica’s relationship is combative, and that hiram doesn’t see her as an extension of himself, but rather an outside agent who might take his place (hence veronica has to “beat” him to win.)

all this to say that the lodges are, on a narrative level, instigators. (the party don’t start till i walk in! - veronica lodge, 2017) not the blossoms. veronica comes to town, and the story starts. hiram comes to town, and veronica and hiram start fighting on various battlegrounds, for some unnamed, constantly shifting purpose. the lodges do not belong in riverdale, and the story is aware of this, but the story/the town also knows that it cannot exist in reality without the lodges jumpstarting it’s existence. only one lodge can bring back the other (veronica in riverdale brings hiram to riverdale; hiram’s nefarious plans for sunnydale truly bring veronica back to riverdale); only one lodge can get rid of the other (hiram attempts to send veronica to harvard, veronica chases him out of town with the shotgun AND orders a hit on him), and yet - the town needs one lodge to keep things moving (the juvenile prison, the speakeasy under pops. the sunnydale development project, the babylonium) the lodges are the only access to growth and change the town has. otherwise, it sits on its haunches, repeatedly producing people who are named like their ancestors and look&behave like their parents.

all except for one person; the one person who becomes the rope in the lodges’ metaphorical game of tug-of-war.

see, archie, through the jughead lens, is special. archie is complex. where everyone else has to be bent to fit a stereotype (girl next door, rich girl, tragic victim, mindless jock, gay best friend), jughead’s narration expands to fill in the gaps about archie (he was a victim? he was clout-chasing football star? a musician? a folk hero?every government service? he fought a bear???) archie, i think, is the only one he allows free will/choices—archie is his protagonist, so he must have a story, but also is the object of his affection. hence, archie “tries” to be like his perception of his father (“good” “kind”, “strong”, male) but often ends up behaving like his mother (leaves people, bisexual***, protective, desperate for the american dream****, redheaded) while also making other choices - presumably, those choices were based in the reality that jughead is recording from s1-s4, and everyone’s actions around archie’s choices are folded into their characters to the fit the stereotypes and story arcs they inhabit.

so what happens when an instigator meets the only other person in their path who has free will? when veronica comes into contact with archie, she jumpstarts the betty/archie thing that supposedly has been simmering for years. when hiram comes into contact with archie, archie unlocks a new ability to take matters into his own hands. veronica consistently enables the choices that archie makes, whether good or bad, and hiram constantly unlocks new levels of action in archie, whether good or bad.

hiram’s influence on archie is obviously paralleled with hiram’s own story, but instead of inflicting it on his daughter who he comes into conflict with, he tries to instigate new levels of action from archie. i think if hiram had had a son, riverdale as a story would cease to exist because the point of lodges, (and i do mean lodges, not lunas) is to be different, even to each other - hence them creating change. riverdale’s near-all-white population in hiram’s years? he moves there, and now the town has someone new and different to them in poverty. his daughter comes to riverdale, and all of a sudden the entire social balance and relationship structures of the town’s youth are upended, because she’s new and different to them and rich. he becomes a lodge; she becomes a luna. he pushes archie to take action (i.e, red circle); she takes actions for archie (raising money for the community center). if veronica had been a son, chances are he would’ve followed so completely in hiram’s steps that he wouldn’t have come to riverdale at all.

why else would they fight as equals? only one of them can be in riverdale at a time. otherwise, they cancel out - hiram puts archie in prison, ronnie gets him out. hiram buys pop’s? ronnie buys pop’s back. and so on and so forth.

hirarchie exists and functions because hiram is one of the only two factors the town can rely on for any kind of change, and archie is jughead’s clumsy (remember he’s a bad writer!) projection of the town’s soul onto his best friend; thus archie is at the mercy of the lodges because the town wishes to express itself through a story, and a story requires conflict, something that cannot be produced without the presence of an outsider.

*the jughead lens is both misogynistic and apathetic but most importantly it’s simplistic. jughead himself does not make it as a writer in nyc beyond his one book - this is because he is unable to write characters that cannot eventually be folded into one-dimensional tropes that are very obviously props for his own opinions and desires.

**side note: while hermione does not have any ancestors mentioned in historical riverdale, someone matching a younger version of her/teenage veronica does exist in rivervale. this, along with teenage hermione’s description of her mother’s job cleaning houses in the “midnight club” episode, establishes that hermione may have been here longer than hiram — and yet, veronica only follows hiram’s patterns, not hermione or her unnamed grandmothers’.

***bisexuality is presumed on account of the interest-in-reggie-and-jughead sub?text and the absence-is-presence of jarchie in the polycule from s7.

****it is implied that mary explores her sexuality after she leaves fred (at least, that’s how i remember it, please correct me if i’m wrong) and the marrying fred and settling into the american dream as fast as possible draws parallels with archie being desperate to maintain “normal” - the wedding fantasies with veronica in s2, the trying to make it work with betty in s5, the insistence on a baby in s6 - this, apart from the red hair, is the greatest similarity archie has with his mother.

[disneytva]

The Disney Afternoon: The Making of a Television Renaissance Hints Potential Section Dedicated To Current And Upcoming Disney TVA Productions

New details have merged from The Disney Afternoon: The Making of a Television Renaissance by Jake S. Friedman, Disney Publishing Worldwide And Disney Editions Deluxe slated to be part of Disney Television Animation’s 40th Anniversary and 100th Series debut on 2024 has given new updates in what to expect with the book.

Recently it was revealed that a new section on the book is named "THE NEWEST WAVE: Or Rewrite History", no idea what it is but based on the book's release i wouldn't bet that the section is a celebration to the current "Disney Afternoon" with the following lineup:

-Phineas And Ferb

-Big City Greens

-Monsters At Work

-Mickey Mouse Funhouse

-The Ghost And Molly McGee

-Rise Up,Sing Out

-Alice's Wonderland Bakery

-The Proud Family Louder And Prouder

-Chibiverse

-Hamster And Gretel

-Firebuds

-Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

-Kiff

-Hailey's On It!

-Playdate With Winnie The Pooh

-Primos

-Robogobo

-StuGo

-Ariel

-Zombies The Re-Animated Series

-Tiny Trailblazers

-Cookies & Milk

-The Witchverse

-Rhona Who Lives By The River

-Dusty Dupree

-InterCats

-Fantasy Sports

-Royal Prep Academy

-Darkwing Duck Reboot

-TaleSpin Reboot

And upcoming shows on development for Disney Channel,Disney Junior and Disney+ at Disney TVA from the following creative members “Cheyenne Curtis, C.H Greenblatt, Thurop Van Orman, Nic Smal, Lucy Heavens, Amy Hudkins, Monica Ray, Latoya Raveneau, Daron Nefcy, Noah Z Jones, Ryan W Quincy, Molly Knox Ostertag, Raj Brueggemann, Dave Cooper, Jose Zelaya, J. G. Quintel, Pedro Eboli, Mark Satterthwaite and Patrick McHale” 

📚The Disney Afternoon: The Making of a Television Renaissance

Jake S Friedman

Disney Publishing Worldwide

Disney Editions Deluxe

November 5, 2024

When the Disney Afternoon premiered in 1990, kids tossed their backpacks aside to watch their favorite Disney television characters. Unlike with feature films, these stars had a new adventure every weekday, and their audience journeyed with them on a daily basis. Throughout the '80s and '90s, Disney raised the bar with a lineup of innovative, high-quality television animation. The characters were endearing, the writing was clever, and the art was exceptional. Those who grew up with these characters have continued their love affairs for shows like Darkwing Duck, Gargoyles, TaleSpin, and the irrepressibly beloved DuckTales, deep into adulthood. For the first time, learn the history of the Disney Afternoon shows, read interviews from the creative teams, and revel in rare, behind-the-scenes artwork, plus get the full making of story of the modern-day DuckTales series and the meta-driven Chip 'n’ Dale: Rescue Rangers film and its legacy connections to the past for a new generation of fans.

[supeherosunite]

Original Characters

Pax kent ( cousin of kara) ( Kryptonian cousin / adopted earth sister of Clark) face cam bailee madison

Edith Kent (sister of Clark Kent) face cam Heather Rattray

JaKari Kent (brother of Clark Kent) face cam Laird Macintosh

Lara Kent ( daughter of Clark Kent ) face cam Amanda Fein

Lulu Kent ( daughter of Clark Kent ) face cam Caitlin Fein

Gaia white ( Meta-human with nature powers ) face cam Georgie Henley

Uranus white (Meta-human with nature powers ) face cam Freddie Highmore

Yara smith ( mutant avenger ) face cam Bridgit Mendler

Amity Jones ( young S.H.I.E.L.D. agent ) face cam Drew Barrymore

Lilly Cullen (adoptive daughter of Alice and jasper ) (twilight) face cam Becky Rosso

Violet Smith (profiler) (criminal minds) face cam Haley Lu Richardson

Sammy Brown ( agent) (ncis) face cam Julia Butters

Senara Sohma (Zodiac member) (fruits basket) face cam Emma The Promised Neverland

DC COMICS

Superman

Martha Kent

Clark Kent (Superman)

Jon Kent (Superboy)

Jordan Kent (Superboy)

Jonathan Kent (kon-El)

Lois Joanne Lane

Doctor Emil Hamilton

Tess Mercer

James Bartholomew Olsen

Chloe Sullivan-Queen (Watchtower)

Ryan James

Jonathan Sullivan-Queen (Speedy)

Kara Zor-El (Supergirl)

Alex Danvers (Director Danvers)

Mon-El (Prince of Daxam

Winn Scott (Toyman)

Nia Nal (Dreamer)

Lena Luthor

Batman

James Gordon (police commissioner)

Alfred Pennyworth (Penny One)

Bruce Wayne (Batman)

Selina Kyle (Catwoman)

Kate Kane (Batwoman)

Harleen Quinzel (Harley Quinn)

Terry Wayne (Batman)

Dick Grayson (Nightwing)

Jason Todd (Red Hood)

Tim drake (Red Robin)

Damian Wayne (Robin),

Duke Thomas (The Signal)

Henry King (Gotham)

Luke Fox (Batwing)

David Zavimbe (Batwing)

Minhkhoa "Khoa" Khan (Ghost-Maker)

Barbara Gordon (Oracle)

Stephanie Brown (Spoiler)

Cassandra Cain (Orphan)

Claire Clover (Gotham Girl)

Jean-Paul Valley (Azrael)

Julia Pennyworth (Penny-Two)

Tiffany Fox (Batgirl)

Harper Row (Bluebird)

Flash

Barry Allen (flash)

Iris Ann West-Allen (Eye in the Sky)

Nora West-Allen (XS)

Bart Allen (Impulse)

Wally West (Kid Flash)

Jesse Chambers Wells (Jesse Quick)

Jenna Marie West (Trajectory)

Joanie Horton (Joanie Swift)

Dr. Caitlin Snow (Killer Frost)

Ronald Ronnie Raymond (Firestorm)

Cisco Ramon (Vibe)

Harrison Wells

Dr. Harrison Harry Wells

Harrison H.R. Wells

Harrison Sherloque Wells

Harrison Nash Wells (Pariah)

Maya Wells

Allegra Garcia (Ultraviolet)

Chester Phineas Runk (Black Hole)

Hunter Zolomon (Zoom)

Julian Albert (Alchemy)

Hartley Rathaway (Pied Piper)

Green arrow

Oliver Jonas Queen (Green Arrow)

Felicity Megan Smoak (Watchtower)

William Clayton (White Feather)

Mia Smoak (Blackstar)

Thea Dearden Queen (Speedy)

Roy William Harper Jr (Arsenal)

Dinah Laurel Lance (Black Canary)

Captain Sara Lance (White Canary)

Rory Regan (Ragman)

Zoe Ramirez (Canarie)

Thomas Tommy Merlyn (Dark Archer)

Sara Diggle (Harbinger)

Emiko Adachi Queen (Green Arrow)

Titans/ Young Justice

Garfield "Gar" Logan (Beast Boy)

Koriand'r Kory Anders (starfire)

Rachel Roth (Raven)

Garth (Aqualad)

Karen Beecher (Bumblebee)

Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle)

Billy Batson (Shazam)

M'gann M'orzz (Miss Martian)

Evelyn Sharp (Artemis)

Courtney Whitmore (Stargirl)

Mike Dugan (starboy)

Beth Chapel (Doctor Mid-Nite)

Yolanda Montez (Wildcat)

Richard Tyler (Hourman)

Henry King Jr. (Brainwave junior)

Joey Zarick (Zarrick the Great)

Cameron Mahkent (Icicle junior)

Others

Beebo (God of War)

Zatanna (Mistress of Magic)

Leonard Snart (Captain Cold)

Ray Palmer (The Atom)

Martin Stein (Firestorm)

Nate Heywood (Citizen Steal)

Amaya Jiwe (Vixen)

Patrick "Pat" Dugan (S.T.R.I.P.E.)

Lisa snart (Golden Glider)

Marvel

Spider-Man

Peter Parker (Spider-Man)

Miles (Ultimate Spider-Man)

Gwen (Spider-Gwen)

Cindy (Silk)

Michelle (MJ)

Avengers

Clint Barton (Hawkeye)

Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow)

Steve Rogers (Captain America)

Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier)

(White Wolf)

Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel)

Scott Lang (Ant-Man)

Young Avengers

Kamala Khan (Ms. Marvel)

Doreen Allene Green (Squirrel Girl)

X-men

Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch)

Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver)

[fieryncbles]

Muse list

17 Again

Mike O'Donnell

The Big Bang Theory

Amy Farrah Fowler

Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz

Leonard Hofstadter

Mary Cooper (Young Sheldon non-compliant)

Penny

Sheldon Cooper

Boston Legal

Alan Shore

California Solo

Lachlan MacAldonich

The Catch

Rhys Griffiths

Curtain Call

Stevenson Lowe

The Devil Wears Prada (film)

Miranda Priestly

Nigel Kipling

Emily Charlton

Andrea "Andy" Sachs

Doctor Who

3rd Doctor

5th Doctor

10th Doctor

11th Doctor

Donna Noble

Martha Jones

Amy Pond

Rory Williams

River Song

Clara Oswald

Jenny (the Doctor's daughter)

Josephine "Jo" Grant

Mary Ashe (from "Colony in Space")

Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart

Mike Yates

TenToo (a.k.a. Meta-Crisis Doctor a.k.a. Handy a.k.a. Dr John Smith)

Delgado!Master

Sheen!Master (my original incarnation of Master)

Simm!Master

TARDIS (Idris)

Face

Ray

FRIENDS (now over at @centralperkfamily)

Rachel Green

Chandler Bing

Monica Geller

Carol Willick-Bunch

Phoebe Buffay

Joey Tribbiani

Flood

Robert Morrison

Fools Rush In

Alex Whitman

Good Omens

Adam Young

Anathema Device

Aziraphale

Beelzebub

Crowley

Dagon

Gabriel / Jim

Hastur

Ligur

Madame Tracy (Marjorie Potts)

Archagel Michael

Newton Pulsifer

Gotham

Barbara Kean (canon divergent)

Edward Nygma & the Riddler (canon divergent)

Fish Mooney

Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin (canon divergent)

Hamish Macbeth (TV)

Hamish Macbeth

Isobel Sutherland

Harry Potter

Hermione Granger

Ginevra "Ginny" Weasley

Remus Lupin

Sirius Black

Nymphadora Tonks

Molly Weasley

Arthur Weasley

Severus Snape

Narcissa Malfoy

The Last Enemy

David Russell

Mamma Mia

Donna Sheridan

Sophie Sheridan

Tanya

Rosie Mulligan

Sam Carmichael

Harry Bright

Bill Anderson

Morning Glory

Becky Fuller

Mike Pomeroy

Colleen Peck

Lenny Bergman

Once Upon A Time

Alice Jones / Tilly

Wish!Hook / Rogers

Emma Swan

Regina Mills / the Evil Queen / Roni

Zelena Mills / Wicked Witch / Kelly

Cora Mills

Henry Mills

Lucy Mills

Snow White / Mary Margareth Blanchard

Prince Charming / David / David Nolan

Nova / Astrid

Dreamy / Grumpy / Leroy

Cruella De Vill

Maleficent

Ursula

Lily Page

Hades

Operation: Endgame

Hierophant

Pretty in Pink

Steff McKee

Prodigal Son

Ainsley Whitly

Jessica Whitly

Martin Whitly

Malcolm (Whitly) Bright

Dr Edrisa Tanaka

Eve Blanchard

Dani Powell

Gil Arroyo

Nicholas Endicott

Stargate (1994 movie)

Dr Daniel Jackson

Stargate: Universe

Dr Nicholas Rush

Chloe Armstrong

Dr Amanda Perry

The 51st State

Felix DeSouza

The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box

Captain Will Charity

The Good Fight

Roland Blum

Maia Rindell

The Passengers

Arthur, The Android

The Smurfs (Film Series)

Grace Winslow

The Stick-up

John Parker

The World Is Not Enough

Victor "Renard" Zokas

There's Only One Jimmy Grimble

Eric Wirral

Twilight (Film Series)

Aro Volturi

Underworld

Lucian

[strange-wafflez]

have you read anything good lately? Still picking up super smart books? 😺

This one was brilliant - Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney. A suspenseful and atmospheric thriller.

Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Finished this one recently, loved the book as much as the series.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang. This one is very meta. Started strong, then dipped a bit into the ridiculous

Also here’s a romcom (!!) because I read fun silly books too lol The Charm Offensive by Alison Cochrun - it’s about a reality show which was very educational for me because I’ve never watched one before

Your turn 😽

[wicked-storybrooke]

Trying to Solve an Unsolvable Puzzle: The Characters and their Surprising Canonical Ages

I did some math. It hurt very much but Becky have to do it. This timeline has been haunting my nightmares for years and I finally snapped. I decided to look at canon evidence to determine the ages of the characters. It is not possible for all characters and I've attempted this before but last time I took my own theories into account. I've already posted these thoughts on another site and this time it's using canon as a basis, with some, I think, reasonable inferences made where necessary. And all I can say is:

(gif not mine)

TL;DR (ph indicates what their physical age should be and ps indicates their past self. It's a little adjusted for the months of their birth)

Emma: Present day season one - 28 | Henry met Ella - 37 | Lucy's Birth - 50 | Present day Hyperion Heights - 60 | Coronation - 37 (ps) ~

Snow: Present day season one - 55 / 27 (ph) ~ | Henry met Ella - 65 / 37 (ph) ~ | Lucy's birth - 78 / 50 (ph) ~ | Present day Hyperion Heights - 88 / 60 (ph) ~ | Coronation - 65 / 37 (ps) ~

Regina: Present day season one - 63 / 35 (ph) ~ | Henry met Ella - 73 / 45 (ph) ~ | Lucy's birth - 86 / 58 (ph) ~ | Present day Hyperion Heights - 96 / 68 (ph) ~

David: Present day season one - Present day season one - 55 / 27 (ph) ~ | Henry met Ella - 65 / 37 (ph) ~ | Lucy's birth - 78 / 50 (ph) ~ | Present day Hyperion Heights - 88 / 60 (ph) ~ | Coronation - 65 / 37 (ps) ~

Rumple: Present day season one - 200 ~

Original Killian Jones: Present day season one - 180 ~

Henry: Left for adventure - 18 | Met Ella - 19 ~ | Lucy's birth - 32 | Present day Hyperion Heights - 42

Ella: Met Henry - 51 ~ | Lucy's birth - 64 | Present day Hyperion Heights - 74

Zelena: Present day season one - 65 ~ | Henry met Ella - 75 ~ | Lucy's birth - 88 ~ | Present day Hyperion Heights - 98 ~

Alice: When Henry met Ella - 37 | Lucy's Birth - 50 | Present day Hyperion Heights - 60

Robin: Lucy's Birth - 18 | Present day Hyperion Heights - 28

Drizella: Ella met Henry - 49 ~ | Lucy's birth - 62 | The s7 curse is cast - 70 / 62 (ph), Present day Hyperion Heights - 72 / 64 (ph)

So let's start with the thing that has kept me awake for damn near 5 years: Alice Jones' age makes absolutely no sense.

So, Alice was said to have been born just a little after the curse was cast (so a little after Emma). If we're to go by what is stated several times in the show, this is before her father or his realm even existed lol. in s6 we are told that the Wish Realm was created via a wish made by the Serum Evil Queen on Emma's behalf. But in s7 we learn that a younger Wish Hook travelled to the New Enchanted Forest and fathered baby Alice with Gothel years before the Wish Realm was supposedly created. We could write this off as a fake memory, implanted by the wish, if not for the fact that Alice is living proof that the Wish Realm existed long before Serum Queen's wish.

The only way this makes sense is if the Wish Realm was not created by a wish, but was only assumed to have been. But then were Wish Snow and Charming raising a non-existent daughter? Did the original Emma replace Wish Emma when the wish was made? You would think a Wish Emma had to have existed to have given birth to Wish Henry.

I've seen theories that suggest Alice's ageing temporarily ceased in Wonderland or in any/several of the other realms she travelled to in search of a cure. It's also possible that her ageing is much slower than average due to her Nymph blood (just look at 1,000 + year-old Gothel).

But regardless of the rate of her physical ageing, the major problem is, however much you age up Alice, you have to age Ella up by approximately at least another 14-15 years. This is going by how old young Ella appeared to be in 7x09. And I refer to this because Gothel was not imprisoned in the tower until Anastasia fell into the frozen lake. So, if we're being generous, we could say that Wish Hook found the tower and was tricked by Gothel very shortly after that event and then, of course, Gothel gave birth the next day.

If Alice was the same age as Emma, which is what the show wants us to believe, Alice would be at least 37 when Henry was 19. That, in turn, would put Ella at around 51 at the time, if we assume she was about 14 when Anastasia fell through the ice. The reason for this is that Emma gave birth to Henry when she was 18. We know he spent his 19th birthday in the Crimson Crow in the NEF with Jack, which was before he met Ella and 18 + 19 = 37.

We see Henry's 18-year-old cousin Robin arrive at the NEF when Lucy is a newborn. We can infer that Henry was approximately 14 when Robin was born. So when Henry was 19, Robin was 5. I have to add an extra 13 years to each character, to account for the time it took for Robin to turn 18. So Alice was at least 50 when Lucy was born! Henry was 32 and Ella was at least 64! It's possible they were lovers/married for 13 years or fewer before Lucy was born.

It's most likely that Henry was closer to 19 and Ella was closer to 51 when they met because the S7 Hyperion Heights gang went back in time to when Robin was 5. Henry had just graduated and was set to leave before Emma was visibly pregnant. He was 18 when he left for his adventure. At Regina's coronation, Prince Neal looks to be around 6 or 7. He is around a year older than Robin. Emma couldn't have fallen pregnant too long after 18-year-old Henry left, if not pregnant already because Prince Neal hadn't aged much since before Henry left, and Emma and Hook have a presumably newborn Hope at the coronation.

Then 10 years passed until we found ourselves in present-day Hyperion Heights with a 10-year-old Lucy. That would imply that Alice was 60, Henry was 42 and his wife Ella was 74 in Hyperion Heights!

Regina and Zelena were likely over 90 at this point. For this, I had to make an estimation of their ages when the 1st curse was cast. In the companion canon book 'Regina Rising', Regina is 16 when Snow is 8, so Regina is 8 years older than Snow. In 3x01, Emma states that she and Mary Margaret are the same age. Mary Margaret had just had a birthday, so if we take Emma's statement literally, then Snow would have been 27 when the curse was cast. This is because Henry turned 11 in August and Snow was born during the winter. Emma's October birthday has to have passed since she decided to stay in Storybrooke. Both Emma and Snow are presumably 29 physically by 3x01.

Regina would have been 35 when the curse was cast and Zelena 37. The casting call for young Regina said 'to play age 10' and for Zelena was 'to play age 12'. Given their February and April birthdays, Zelena is 1 year, 9 months and 17 days older than her sister.

I had to add 18 years for Emma's age when giving birth. Then I added 19 years for Henry's age at the Crimson Crow, then an additional 13 years to account for the time it took for Robin to turn 18 and finally, I added 10 years for Lucy's age in Hyperion Heights.

35 + 18 + 19 + 13 + 10 = 95

+ 2 = 97

Regina is 95 in present-day Hyperion Heights and Zelena is 97. But physically Regina is around 67 due to the frozen 28 years.

Where are these people getting their skin creams? I guess the sisters are probably using magic and Alice's Nymph heritage could account for her youth, but there is just no explanation for Ella, or even an 80-100 y/o Rapunzel Tremaine who wasn't a magic user. Heck, even Drizella, who was about 12 when Anastasia fell through the ice would have been 62 before she ever learned how to harness her magic properly. She was turned to stone for 8 years after that, which would have stopped her ageing but still! Is there just something about the Tremaines? Is it something to do with the source of Anastasia and Drizella's magic? It would have to be from Rapunzel's side, given her slow ageing. But Ella is related to them via marriage, so perhaps there's just something about their house.

For me, I just have to believe that Alice was simply not born so closely after Emma. Either that or there was some wild time travel that would make my head explode if I tried to figure that out again. Wish Henry's age could be an indicator of how time works in the Wish Realm. He should have aged up into adult Henry by the time we see him in the finale, given that Emma had given birth after telling an adult Henry about her pregnancy.

And I'm not even accounting for the fact that Zelena implies that time moves faster in the New Enchanted Forest and that Robin would have been younger than 25 had she stayed in Storybrooke. I refuse to make them any older because it's already wild!

As for Rumple, Hook and Baelfire, they have all claimed to be 200-300 years old. We are shown Big Ben in the Land Without magic when Baelfire is about 14 (before Neverland froze his ageing). Big Ben was completed in 1859 (around 152 years before season 1 Storybrooke). We don't know how old Rumple was before he was separated from Baelfire, but it's possible he was around 50 years old and therefore over 200 when he made this claim. It's unlikely Hook stopped ageing due to Neverland in his late 40s (unless he made use of enchanted ye old magical monthly juice cleanses!) and Baelfire was definitely not over 200 at the time of his death. The only explanation is that they rounded up or simply lost count.

Thanks for reading! I hope my calculations are correct. Please let me know if I've made a mistake or if I've missed any canon evidence in regard to this. It's pretty fun to try and work out this timeline but woah, does it hurt my head.

[priscilla9993]

Chess Allusions: White Knight

Currently continuing a draft of some chess allusions in ouat season 7 and by god, the amount of times Gothel pulls an "always my white knight" as Eloise Gardener on Rogers (4-5 times but that's plenty). She knows about his history of wanting to protect loved ones and how he gave Alice a white knight chess piece to remind his daughter of how he'd do his best to save her. Gothel does her best to twist his good intentions into ones that suit hers, as if he can't do anything but be wrapped around her finger, but she's really the wolf in sheep's clothing. It sends chills down my spine as Rogers doesn't even know he's being misled, believing in her through the hazy connection he has for Alice, "her white knight".

Alice, on the other hand, never called her papa a white knight, as much as he wanted to represent that for her. If anything, when Killian and Alice reunited in the future, she gave back the white knight chess piece to him through Ella, implying that she's grown and claiming that she didn't need a reminder anymore because she knew they'd be together again someday, that he'd find a real cure in a way she couldn't.

I like the difference in how the same ideas are used, depending on the intentions of the one wanting to display something; i.e. a heartfelt promise, a gentle reminder of trust, or most blatantly, a manipulative deceit.

[of-monsters-and-werewolves]

My Issues with Alice’s Speech in 7x20

“You want to ruin me the way the world ruined you. But I’m not like you. I’m not an outcast, I’m not an orphan or a street rat, or a crazy girl who’s lost her way. You chose hate, but I choose love.”

I’ve wanted to finish writing about this speech for quite some time now, but never found the time to really and fully get my thoughts on it in order.

I’ll be honest, I’ve always taken issue with this speech.

Because what is it actually trying to say here?

What does being an outcast, orphaned, homeless or ‘crazy’ have to do with that person’s morality? Or Love vs. Hate? Or being better than the people who came before you and ending the cycle of abuse? What difference would it have made if Alice was all of those things?

Nothing. It doesn’t.

So why does Alice bring it up?

The speech, at least as far as I can see, positions these things as negative things to be. In truth, there’s nothing wrong with being an outcast, an orphan, a street rat or a ‘crazy’ girl, at least in the sense it’s trying to convey. Certainly nobody should be a street rat, homelessness isn’t something we should have. But being any of the things listed has very little to do with the actual personality or morals of the person, and much more on things completely out of their control.

There’s just something about the way the speech frames them. Alice bookends her speech by pointing out she isn’t like her mother (at the start) as she chose love and not hate (at the end). Between them she points out all of the things the curse made her. But she isn’t those things. And with the bookending, it’s implied those things are negative things to be. Even though they’re not.

I am an outcast. Many of us are.

The orphan comment particularly baffles me. Alice doesn’t seem like the type to look down on people for superficial things, at least not consciously, just cause they don’t have both of their parents.

And I get that she’s telling Gothel here that she failed. She failed in trying to ruin Alice’s life. That the life she has in the curse: one of struggling and homelessness and absent parents and lacking in friends or meaningful relationships, isn’t real. I get that, I do. But the way it’s worded just comes with some iffy implications that I don’t like.

The bit about choosing love and not hate isn’t too bad. It’s a little, hmm, simple perhaps: feeling hatred is a human emotion we’ve all felt. Rather, it’s who you direct it at, what you do with it and how you choose to express it that raises the problems.

In other words: context is important.

Feeling hate towards someone or something that has wronged you not only happens, but it shouldn’t be automatically villainised. If anything, it’s a pretty warranted feeling in certain circumstances and, especially in more extreme cases, the self-righteousness of staying anger or hate-free exudes privilege many marginalised groups can’t afford to have. But the message to focus most of your anger towards love, those who love you, and people and things you love, rather than constantly wallowing in any hatred you might feel, is definitely not unneeded. And though this is a much wider issue with how society sees love and hate, I still wish it could have been done in a more nuanced manner here. But it's relatively not too bad.

OUAT has a lot of issues when it comes to the way it frames concepts as dichotomous in nature: good vs evil, hero vs villain etc. And whilst it tries to subvert and expand upon those definitions with characters like Rumple, Regina and Killian - and to an extent is arguably successful - it’s still somewhat limited by them as jumping off points. And I think this speech suffers a little as a result.

I understand what the speech is trying to say and achieve, but the actual words hold very little substance and comes across as superficial. All in all it always leaves me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.

Perhaps I’m missing something, and I would love further discussions about this in the comments to see if Ican see it from a different angle.

[whimsicallyenchantedrose]

I confess, I have not been a huge fan of season 7. But the last two episodes have really pulled me in, mostly because of the amazing acting from Colin and Rose. The entire KnightRook storyline is the only one I have been able to get invested in. While watching "The Girl in the Tower", I was struck by several similarities between Alice/Tilly and Emma. Did you notice the same, and do you think it's intentional?

I totally agree about KnightRook!  In general I’ve enjoyed season 7 more than I expected to going into it, but KnightRook is the only storyline I’ve been as excited about as I was about most of seasons 1-6.  There’s just something about that relationship that embodies the very spirit of OUAT.  In a lot of ways, this relationship brings OUAT back to it’s roots, and that’s not in anyway a slam on previous seasons of the show because I’ve loved them all, but OUAT is first and foremost a show about hope and the transformative power of love (in whatever form that love takes).  KnightRook, and their whole story embodies that in a way that’s kind of been lacking in the last few seasons with the preponderance of plot, plot, plot.  We’re still not getting as many quiet, interpersonal moments as I might like, but the balance seems to be better, and I really appreciate it.

I also agree that both Colin and Rose have acted their butts off the last two episodes (I mean, more than the last two episodes, but these have really stood out).  They’ve taken great material and moved it to the next level.

And now I’m tempted to go off on a looooooooong tangent about why I love KnightRook, the divergent paths of Hook, and why I love both the path OG Hook took and the path Wish Hook took in different ways, but equally.  Maybe I’ll get to that, but for right now, I suppose I should actually answer your question, hehe.

Did I notice parallels between Alice/Tilly and Emma and do I think it was deliberate...yes and no.

(The rest under a cut because you got me stated talking about KnightRook and Emma, and this is going to get loooooong)...

Honestly, when I was watching the episode, I noticed shout outs to Emma, but it never occurred to me to think of Alice/Tilly as paralleling Emma until I saw some other people talking about it around here (some positively, others negatively).  Then I got your ask, and it really made me think.

Here’s what I came up with.

I think there are some very definite similarities between Alice and Emma--particularly young, out on the streets Emma.  They’re both young, vulnerable women who have been dealt a terrible hand in life.  They’re both survivors who do what they need to do to survive.  Despite all the horrible things that have happened to them, they both retained their inherent goodness.  They both have a kind of magic that’s unique to them and sets them apart from other magic wielders on the show.  They’re both destined for great things.  (I mean, we don’t know how Alice’s story ends up, but if she’s not really important--maybe even key--to the narrative, I will be shocked.  *cough* Guardian? *cough*)

Do I think the writers were deliberate in setting up the parallels between the two of them in this last episode?  Now that I really look at it, I do.  The writers can often be about as subtle as a piano falling on your head.  Alice wishing on her birthday cupcake, not to mention the re-emergence of the yellow bug were both anything but subtle.  I don’t, however think the parallels are meant to show Alice as “Emma 2.0″ or a rehashing of Emma’s story.  I think they were meant to clue in the audience to the fact that Alice is special in her own way.  She’s very important in her own way.  It also brings in a key component in the fairytale genre--the protagonist who finds a way to break free from terrible circumstances, rise above them, and find a life that is better than she could have ever imagined.

Seasons 1-6 gave us Emma’s story and it was glorious and beautiful and I loved it with every fiber of my being, but that storybook came to a close, and season 7 is the writers’ attempt to move forward in a different direction, but with similar thematic content.  I suspect they originally wanted to make Lucy and her relationship with Henry and Jacinda the connecting link to the past story, but for a number of reasons, that effort fell flat.  It just wasn’t connecting with a fair number of people in the audience.  I think the writers reevaluated and decided, while not abandoning Lucy/Henry/Jacinda, to turn the focus and make the real connecting link Alice and her relationship with her father.  It’s been quite successful in my estimation.

What’s brilliant about the story, though, and this is probably the reason I didn’t originally see the parallels between Emma and Alice, is that Alice is very different from Emma.  Her issues are very different from Emma’s and her way of viewing the world is very different from Emma’s.  (Note:  None of what I’m about to say is at all a criticism of Emma.  I loved Emma.  After Killian, she’s my favorite character and chances are that won’t change.  I’ve just written plenty of metas about Emma, so this one is focused on Alice.)

Alice, as her papa said, sees the world through a whole different looking glass than other people, and honestly, the way she looks at the world is beautiful.  There’s a sweetness and innocence to her, as well as a kind, loving nature that’s a breath of fresh air when it seems like everywhere you turn you find cyncism, grit, snark.  (Not that there’s no place for those qualities, but Alice is something different and it’s refreshing.)  Because Alice looks at the world through her own looking glass, she often sees things others miss.  She has a way of getting to the heart of the matter in a way that others might not.  But, because she’s so different from others, they often dismiss her--as we saw from Rogers in 7x13--or over look her altogether--as we got with her being “invisible” in 7x14.  

Alice, also has an aching openness and vulnerability to her that I can’t help but respond to.  In short, the more I see of Alice the more I like her.

And the more I see her and Rogers/Killian interact, the more I see her as the perfect person to heal his brokenness.  (...Just as Emma was for OG Killian.  Here’s where that whole “both paths Killian took” meta idea is coming in.  IMO, CS and KR are BOTH the perfect path for Killian to take, but in different ways.  One is not “better” than the other, nor does one invalidate the other.  It’s kind of like...a choose your own adventure book.  At the moment of the curse, the story could have gone one of two ways.  One way led to Captain Swan, the other to Knight Rook.  Unlike some Choose Your Own Adventure stories, though, either path is perfect in it’s own way.  There is very, very little I would change about CS.  They will always be my otp of otps and I’ll continue enjoying their relationship for years to come.  But Knight Rook--the opportunity for Killian to heal the wounds his father left when he left him, the opportunity to atone for his mistakes in orphaning Liam II and letting Pan take Bae--also is perfect in it’s own way.  Bottom line in both paths: love conquered pain and vengeance.  Love made a broken man whole and inspired him to be the very best version of himself, and there aren’t words for how beautiful and inspiring I find that message to be.

So this was long, serpentine and rambling, and I have no idea if I even really answered your question, lol, but these thoughts and feelings have been marinating for a while now, and I needed an excuse to organize them and put them out there, so thanks for that, lol.

[captainswanoncerlife]

Guys, Guys, I just realized something: Alice is basically Rapunzel from Tangled but without the super long hair and princess status. More than the actual Rapunzel of S7 in my opinion. Locked in a tower by Mother Gothel and forced to grow up there? Check. Escapes when she’s grown up? Check. Magical hair that glows when she sings? No, but she does have magic (well did now that Wish Henry wrote it away). Flynn/Eugene? Not in a romantic way obviously, but Wish Killlian represents him/the prince in the original tale who climbed the tower and fell in love with Rapunzel. But in this case it’s parental love. Another possibility is that if Alice gets her magic back in the finale, she could have healing tears (like Rapunzel) and save Killian from the heart curse. I was  disappointed when Tremaine turned out to be Rapunzel since I felt like the show didn’t do my favorite official disney princess justice, but since Alice is essentially representing her I now think they did an excellent job.