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Once Upon a Time: A Tale of Two Sisters

“You can have happiness. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but you have to fight.”

‘A Tale of Two Sisters’ felt a little crushed under the weight of its titular plot, but considering how badly new characters can go over when they’re forced down audiences’ throats, I think Elsa and Anna’s debut went down fairly well.

Immediately we were thrown right into the thick of the Frozen takeover, and it really did take over. Those outside of the fan base would be surprised by how little of Anna and Elsa’s history is explained. As someone who knows the story well I wasn’t bothered by it (and I suspect 99.9% of the fan base knew it already, too), it just surprised me is all. Didn’t we get to know Snow White and co through their history?

That aside, I actually loved the sisters’ first appearance. Both Elsa and Anna were perfectly cast, the former being pretty much the real life embodiment of the older Arendelle native. Georgina Haig was easy to fall for, just as much as her animated counterpart and I’m excited to see how the show handles her this season, since it’s pretty obvious that she’s the sister who’ll be driving this arc.

I don’t think she played all that well with the world of Storybrooke yet, but I think that would be an unfair complaint. I thought the post-movie story that was concocted felt right by the characters, without them becoming caricatures of the versions we're more familiar with. Anna running off to help her sister was very Anna, and Elsa worrying about her journey was very Elsa. Even Kristoff was how I imagined his live action version to be like.

I always enjoy seeing all these characters from different places crossing paths and these guys are no exception, but I think it’ll be worth the wait to see them meet Emma and the rest of the residents. This episode was all about establishing Anna’s presence, and she definitely made it known to everyone in town. That attack on the town was equal parts silly and hilarious. Do we have more fun snow fights on the way?

Outside of anything giant abominable snowman related, Regina has been taken down a dark path... again. It’s a relief it’s not in the same vein as I thought it might have been; her trying to kill Marian would have been a little pathetic considering everything she’s been through and all that she’s done up until now. Regina realising that Emma isn’t the one to blame in all this makes sense; she needs to change the game. But what will the quest to find the author do to her? I really enjoyed watching her grow and evolve. It’ll be a shame to see that get thrown away.

Rumple seems to be falling apart, again... I think. I’m not all too sure what was going on with him, but I loved the sentiment of him returning the dagger into Belle’s possession again. That dance was something else, too, wasn’t it? I’m glad to see the Disney license being used to full effect.

As far as cash grabs go, I think I’ll call this Frozen one a success, at least so far. Now I’m just curious to see how Olaf fits in.

3.5 out of 5 giant snowmen

Plus

Emma and Hook got a lot of cute screen time together. I can’t wait to see more of that for the rest of the season.

He Said, She Said

Elsa: “I can’t just abandon the kingdom.”
Anna: “You’re just making excuses.”
Else: “Have you forgotten your last dalliance? Hans?”

Originally posted at PandaTV.

3 comments:

  1. This episode was a mixed bag for me. The storyline with Marian's return and Regina kinda sorta going dark-ish but hopefully not really is a big miss for me. It just feels way too forced. I get that letting Regina be happily ever after this early in the shows run might've been painting the writers into a corner, I just hope they know what they're doing. This whole thing could get really lame really fast.

    The Frozen stuff was actually pretty decent, aside from making it seem like royalty only ever wears one outfit in Arandelle. Yes, I get that they wanted to make Elsa and Anna recognizable, but did they have to wear the EXACT outfits from the movie? Elsa especially, she wore that dress in both timelines. I thought the casting choices were quite good, I especially liked the girl they got to play Anna. She captured the unique voice that Kristen Bell brought to the character pretty well, but less cartoony which was appropriate. And was it just me or did that reindeer steal his scene? :)

    One other thing, I LOVED the look on Emma's face when Grumpy ran past yelling "Evil Snowman!" Absolutely priceless. :)

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  2. ''maybe we should have gone with Baelfyre..." - David while pushing Baby Neal's stroller. LOL :)

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  3. Before watching this I had heard complaints about the Frozen plot that it was just Disney promoting their own stuff, but I didn't get that impression (so far anyway). Frozen fits so well with the other fairy tails they use in this show, having not one but two princesses, it would have almost been wrong for them not to go there. Also considering how immensely popular Frozen is I don't know if it's possible to make it more popular.

    I also liked the way they handled Regina's reaction to Marion. I can't even really blame her for wanting to go back and set things back the way they were considering that's what was supposed to happen for better or worse and it was really irresponsible of Emma to bring Marion along and assume everything would be fine. (Emma's impulsiveness annoys me sometimes.)

    Did Anna abandon her own wedding? Couldn't she wait a few days to get married, have a honeymoon and then check out her lead?

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