The Shipping Forecast

[netgirl_y2k]

-I can't decide if I ship Regina & Tinkerbell, or if I just really like their friendship turned enmity turned whatever it is now, but I really loved all their scenes together. From Regina's little happy face when Tinkerbell was taking an interest in her happiness and she was just so pleased to have a friend, to her bitch, please Evil Queen face when she was lying to Tink about having met Robin. Okay, a lot of this is that I really like Lana Parrilla's face is all. Still. 'Twas great.

And, gosh, I loved their confrontation in the cave. I love that Regina's still petty and childish and, well, Regina, but that she also really has grown as a person. She gets that she fucked up with Tinkerbell, and even understands why she did it without getting all self-pitying or self-justifying about it.

Hmm, thinking about it, I think I could get on board with shipping it if Tinkerbell does come back to live with them in Storybrooke.

-I also can't decided how I feel about the reveal that Robin Hood was Regina's soulmate. On the one hand it addresses one of my major complaints about love in the OUaT universe, especially in regards to Regina & Daniel, that you get one shot at True Love and if you fuck that up for whatever reason you may as well run off and become the Evil Queen because what is the point of anything anymore. So, yeah, I like that this is now a world with room for second chances.

On the other hand, I've always liked that Regina doesn't have a love interest. I like that her saving grace and redeeming feature is her maternal love for Henry rather than any romantic love. After all, the conflation of romantic love with redemption and being a good person is a huge part of why I find the Rumple/Belle relationship icky.

I don't know, I think they could be interesting as a missed opportunity and what-if? but things change and people change, and that ship has sailed, you know? If they get together now I'm pretty sure that Regina, being Regina, will glom onto the kid Roland much more than Robin. Then again, that might be no bad thing, it looks like Robin could use someone to put her foot down and say: No, dear, we are absolutely not going to use your tiny, adorable son as bait for the evil, demonic, child-snatching shadow, because that would be ludicrous.

-I've said this in a few comments, but I feel like Emma & Regina's relationship has come on more in three episodes than it had in the whole of season 2. I like that they can talk like... well, not like adults. "Hey." *Long, awkward pause where the death threat would previously have gone* "Hey." But at least like awkward teenagers.

I loved that Regina calls the quest Operation Henry, and that Emma immediately gets why. I loved that Emma knew that Regina wasn't just hanging back scuffing her feet to be difficult, and that Regina told her about Tinkerbell. Also, Our Magic.

-Mulan loves Aurora. Mulan loves Aurora! MULAN LOVES AURORA!

Okay, I realise some people thought that Mulan was about to confess her feelings for Philip, to Aurora, while beaming and holding her hands for some reason. And I completely respect your opinion, but to quote The West Wing: Stand there in your wrongness, and be wrong, and get used to it.

I loved the scene. Partly because it was lovely and awful, the hand holding, and their little heartbroken faces (and Aurora doesn't know why Mulan has left) and that little smiley moment where Mulan thinks Aurora knows what she's going to say and is about to say she feels the same. Partly because thank fuck, how many universes have we traversed now, and we've finally got our first not entirely straight person.

But. Where is this going? I mean, Philip and the baby. I like Philip, but he was dead and its hard not to feel like he was brought back to life for the sole purpose of preventing me from having nice things. Obviously OUaT, being the show it is, isn't going to go down the OT3 route, it might do something about how even unrequited love is worth experiencing, but I'm not sure it would be the best ever idea to have your only queer romance be one-sided.

Anyway, all that aside, it was more than I ever expected, and as such it delighted me.

-I did find myself fascinated by someone's headcanon that after Daniel died Regina was supposed to end up with Robin, and that Philip was supposed to die and Aurora was meant to get her second chance at a happy ending with Mulan. I just like the idea that the Enchanted Forest has very fixed ideas about True Love and Happy Endings, that people keep fucking up by, well, acting like people.