# Once Upon A Time \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 23, 2011, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574 "2011-10-23T21:19:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 35
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/681 "2012-05-21T22:46:03Z")
But here was the \*potential \*to live out a Happily Ever After, and those happy endings are what Regina took away with the curse. And some people were happy. The Dwarves, at least, seemed content with their lot in life. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/682 "2012-05-21T22:53:17Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Ok, I’m rewatching the series but I still can’t understand what Pinocchio was trying to do, pretending to be Rumple’s son? 😕 I think it was unclear. August may have been ddesperatly looking for any clue on how to help them break the curse. While several people knew that Emma was going to be instrumental in breaking the curse, I don’t think anyone knew \*exactly \*how the curse would be broken. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/683 "2012-05-21T23:32:49Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > I think it was unclear. August may have been ddesperatly looking for any clue on how to help them break the curse. While several people knew that Emma was going to be instrumental in breaking the curse, I don’t think anyone knew \*exactly \*how the curse would be broken. I thought he was going to try and get Gold/Rumpelstiltskin to use his magic powers to reverse his (August/Pinocchio) transformation back into wood. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/684 "2012-05-22T01:20:29Z")
August was originally sent ‘just before’ Emma to Storybrooke (well, just outside storybrooke) - He was meant to be Emma’s protector and prepare her for her ultimate role of curse breaker. As a child he left Emma at the orphanage and went on his adventures. 28 years later, Emma returned to Storybrooke and August was ‘reminded’ of his role when the clock started ticking. He initially returned to Storybrooke with the goal of helping Emma to believe - he started working with Henry, etc - when he saw that it was taking too long (he was running out of time) - he decided to accelorate the plan by getting Rumplestiltskin’s knife - he assumed it still held power over him and that magic (to some extent) was alive and well in storybrooke. As far as his interactions with mr. Gold - he allowed him to believe he was his son, but he only outright claimed to be at the final encounter, as a ruse to get the knife. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/685 "2012-05-22T01:22:25Z")
August pretended to be Rumple’s son so that Rumple would let down his guard and show August the dagger that can be used to control him. Presumably, if August could control Rumple, he might be able to break the curse, or at least put a smackdown on Regina or something. In any event, the dagger apparently doesn’t work in Storybrooke. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/686 "2012-05-22T02:03:51Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > Can someone help me out? Since I didn’t watch as they came on I didn’t follow the thread. What does HEAL stand for? > [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Happily Ever After Land, it was coined by someone upthread and we’ve just stuck with it. Am I the only one that finds it annoying? Not enough to put up a big stink or anything, but since it’s been brought up… it seems like one of those overly cutesy annoying nicknames someone from TWOP would think is so witty. Does the show even use the term Happily Ever After? I seem to recall them usually saying Happy Endings or something of the sort. (no, not THAT kind of happy ending, hell, maybe it’s ubersubtle cross promotion for the ABC sitcom). ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/687 "2012-05-22T18:40:06Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > August pretended to be Rumple’s son so that Rumple would let down his guard and show August the dagger that can be used to control him. Presumably, if August could control Rumple, he might be able to break the curse, or at least put a smackdown on Regina or something. In any event, the dagger apparently doesn’t work in Storybrooke. I suspect a sharp pointy implement of destruction would have worked to kill Gold. I wonder what would have happened to the curse if Regina or Gold had been killed, either before or after time started again in Storybrooke. Regina said something about how she couldn’t just kill Emma, because that would have broken the curse. Does anyone remember what was said in that scene? O, and I remember my other question. When Regina asked Snow to a weaponless parley, they walked past Daniel’s grave. Prior to that scene Snow had admitted knowing that Regina hated her because she (Snow) had destroyed Regina’s happiness. Yet Snow didn’t know that Daniel was dead. Did Snow think that taking away Regina’s happiness was from some other incident? **TBG** , I agree with you that “HEAL” is little twee, but it’s a handy distinguisher between the two worlds, and I’m far too lazy to keep typing it out. I certainly like it better than “fairybacks” which was the other suggestion to describe the flashbacks to the world before the curse. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/688 "2012-05-22T20:56:06Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > Yet Snow didn’t know that Daniel was dead. Did Snow think that taking away Regina’s happiness was from some other incident? Young Snow realized that telling Regina’s mother kept Regina and Daniel apart, since Regina ended up with Snow’s father. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/689 "2012-05-22T21:44:55Z")
It could be called _The Magic Kingdom_. No product tie-in there, no sir. StG ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2012, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/690 "2012-05-22T22:19:24Z")
Ah, I could see August trying to control Gold in order to reverse either the curse or at least Pinnocchio’s personal issue. It just all really seemed far more contrived and unbelievable than anything else in the series, it really threw me out of the story. I didn’t even believe it when Gold started gushing when he thought August WAS his son; none of that whole episode was the least bit believable to me, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/691 "2012-05-23T19:24:07Z")
> [@Saltire](#): > > Young Snow realized that telling Regina’s mother kept Regina and Daniel apart, since Regina ended up with Snow’s father. Hmmm. It really seemed to me that the adult Snow had always believed the lie that Daniel had run away, and was surprised that he was dead. I’m not sure whether young Snow believed (or adult Snow believes) her father to be happy in his second marriage or not. ---
**Author:** ![Indyellen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/indyellen/32/4176_2.png) [@Indyellen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indyellen)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/692 "2012-05-24T16:19:49Z")
I heard an interesting theory on a podcast about the show today: Emma is _Sleeping Beauty_. She’s been “asleep” via not believing in magic or HEAL, true love’s kiss woke her, and she killed Maleficent/the dragon. We haven’t seen a Sleeping Beauty story yet; I tended to think that David/Charming’s fiancee was Sleeping Beauty, but I can see some merits in this theory. Ideas? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/693 "2012-05-25T16:11:53Z")
My first thought was that in most instances the character names in Storeybrook have something to do with who they were in HEAL, and Emma Swan doesn’t really fit. Emma means Universal according to some random baby name dictionary on the internet. As the other names have followed Disney conventions, I suspect Sleeping Beauty would be called Aurora/Dawn or Rose/other flower name. But I like the theory, and I certainly don’t have any better theories on which character Abigail/Katharine will turn out to be. ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/694 "2012-05-25T16:43:40Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > My first thought was that in most instances the character names in Storeybrook have something to do with who they were in HEAL, and Emma **Swan** doesn’t really fit. Emma means Universal according to some random baby name dictionary on the internet. As the other names have followed Disney conventions, I suspect Sleeping Beauty would be called Aurora/Dawn or Rose/other flower name. > But I like the theory, and I certainly don’t have any better theories on which character Abigail/Katharine will turn out to be. _bolding mine_ Would that perhaps mean that she is in fact the Ugly Duckling? That while she was hard and withdrawn and refusing to accept the truth, she was “ugly,” but now that she admits her love for Henry, believes and has broken the curse, she is now the beautiful Swan? Just a thought. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/695 "2012-05-25T17:33:54Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > But I like the theory, and I certainly don’t have any better theories on which character Abigail/Katharine will turn out to be. Wait a second - we’ve already seen Princess Abigail in the land of fairytales, and I don’t see why she needs to have a fairytale all her own… though she could, it would admittedly be a nice twist. She’s King Midas’ daughter, and also a secondary character in this version of the Snow White/Prince Charming story. Maybe she doesn’t ‘turn out to be’ anybody else. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/696 "2012-05-25T17:42:32Z")
exactly - she’s Midas’ daughter. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/697 "2012-05-25T18:41:31Z")
I thought Midas’ daughter was turned into gold, and only when he washed in the river and renounced the gift was she restored. Midas still has (had) the gift when he turned Charming’s sword into gold. Given the way the writers are weaving Rumplestilskin into every story, I would not be surprised to find out Abigail is also in another tale. (It also has the added bonus if not having to hire another actress.) > [@Chanteuse](#): > > Would that perhaps mean that she is in fact the Ugly Duckling? That while she was hard and withdrawn and refusing to accept the truth, she was “ugly,” but now that she admits her love for Henry, believes and has broken the curse, she is now the beautiful Swan? Disney did have an [Ugly Duckling short from 1939](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3t5BmU3uYQ), so it’s likely. (That reads a bit more cynical than I mean it.) ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/698 "2012-05-25T20:19:12Z")
I thnk they are going to have put a lot of these fairy tale characters into more than one tale, as they have already with Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Prince Charming, to name just three. ---
**Author:** ![maggenpye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@maggenpye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maggenpye)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2012, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/699 "2012-05-25T22:10:35Z")
The story of[Snow White and Rose Red](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow-White_and_Rose-Red) could be adapted with Ruby in Rose’s part and Rumple as the ungrateful dwarf (since the 7 are all ‘good’). I thought that’s where they were heading with the women making friends in HEAL. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2012, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574/700 "2012-05-26T06:16:01Z")
> [@Indyellen](#): > > I heard an interesting theory on a podcast about the show today: Emma is _Sleeping Beauty_. She’s been “asleep” via not believing in magic or HEAL, true love’s kiss woke her, and she killed Maleficent/the dragon. > > We haven’t seen a Sleeping Beauty story yet; I tended to think that David/Charming’s fiancee was Sleeping Beauty, but I can see some merits in this theory. > > Ideas? Well, if you’re going to play that game, she could also be Wendy. Henry’s Peter Pan, the young boy who comes and takes her from her mundane real world life to a place that is anything but mundane. Everyone there is Lost and never ages. Then there’s a poisoning and the only antidote is if she really believes! :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574.md?page=34) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/once-upon-a-time-edited-title/600574.md?page=36)