[ SECRET POST #2302 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2302 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 065 secrets from Secret Submission Post #329.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - personal attack ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[miarrow]

I don't think that's where it's coming from all the time. Most of my issues are from the first season with the REAL mom BS and that they had no real idea of Regina doing anything except being kind of strict to the kid that always runs off and skips school. The show has a really gross narrative framework about adoptive parents versus "real" parents. You can comment on that without apologizing for Regina's behavior.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, even in the first season, you can see that Regina tried to trick Henry into thinking he was wrong about everyone never growing up/old and being stuck in a groundhog's day; she even sent him to therapy over it while trying to manipulate him with it. That's a little more than simply being strict.

[miarrow]

I didn't mean from Henry's perspective, I meant from the way the show treated it. I don't think they clearly brought into focus his feelings on the matter and growing up in a town that wasn't changing except him (which is super creepy) until the second to last episode. It's just... it's kind of a fun show, but the writers are really unclear with what they want to do with most characters and introduce a lot of uncomfortable elements (like their "kill off almost every POC that comes on screen" quota).

[(Anonymous)]

I agree this show's writers don't always think things through. But when I was listing off those things, I meant it as things I saw as a member of the audience. I saw Regina force Archie into lying to Henry, but Henry didn't. I saw her doing more than just a strict mom. (Reminds me of Rapunzel's Mother Gothel, in a way.)

As far as Emma, I got the feeling that it wasn't Emma's blood ties to Henry as it was just the fact she wanted what was best for him and no one was giving that to him, so she stepped up. I could even venture to say that their narrative could have been the same even if Emma was a non-relation, and that their blood ties are only a minor plot device to get certain events into motion.

[thelonebamf]

I realize there's not a huge chance of me getting a response to this- but regarding the groundhog day scenario-
Did nobody really notice that Henry was growing up year to year but the other children stayed the same age? Could he not have grabbed his school picture from the last few years and said "Look, here I am with these kids. Next year I'm in this new class, but all those kids stayed in the same grade. Same thing happened next year. And the next."

[(Anonymous)]

Given that everyone blew off the fact they could not remember when they first met people, and that its a magic curse making the logical passing of time completely meaningless to them, I would say that they would also blow off Henry ("You know, that loner, school-skipping, tall-tale telling kid that Regina loudly tells everyone is going to see a shrink every week") if he showed them a picture. Or anything else a curse/Regina might devise to keep them oblivious.

[thelonebamf]

Ah, yes, I get that (and boy have I tired of hearing the phrase "as long as I can remember") but I meant specifically to Emma. I know, I know, don't examine it too hard and enjoy the ride- I just started thinking about some of the weird implications of never passing time. (Like the fact that Ashley/Cinderella was pregnant for 28 years.)

[(Anonymous)]

Even Emma, I think, would also simply blow off Henry if he showed a picture. She has very strong denial skills, as illustrated when she refused to see August's wooden leg even when he flat out showed her.

[(Anonymous)]

So, it's okay for her to steal children away from their parents, but not okay for Emma to take back her son? A son that wants to be with his biological mother/father?

Why is it okay for this woman to completely disregard other people's rights to their children(Owen'sFather/Jefferson/Hansel+Gretel'sfather), but if someone does the same to her it's all "OMGZ ADOPTED PARENTZ RIGHTZ OMGZ TEH HORRORZZZZ"?

[miarrow]

...no. Where are you getting that from what I'm saying? They've had some iffy adoption narratives in other storylines too. The only positive one is maybe Pinochicoo, but arguably his "real" father made him.'

Just look at how much easier Gold has had it compared to Regina now that his relation is discovered and he's arguably worse than her.

[(Anonymous)]

He isn't Emma's son. He ceased to be Emma's son when she signed him over for adoption. She is just a creepy stranger who decided to make her entire life about another woman's kid. That it turned out alright in the end is neither here nor there. Emma's actions are the same as the creepy creeper who hangs around outside schools and tries to make a random kid think they are "cool" and get them to come into a car with them and drive off with no one knowing. Which is what Emma did really. Normally that ends with an Amber Alert, and a shallow grave.

Just Disney decreed this time it would be the hero that was the creepy creeper, so it would be okay this once.

[(Anonymous)]

You're stretching that a little far. Henry was arguably the one who stalked HER, found HER when she didn't want to be found by him. He tricked her into coming to storybrooke, tricked her into staying longer, and then basically begged her to stick around because he kept calling his adoptive mother "evil". Anyone with compassion would probably want to stick around for the kid's well-being. It was only after Emma started seeing how manipulative and creepy Regina was that she wanted to have more say in Henry's life (which Henry WANTED might I add).

Basically Emma didn't want this. Henry roped her into it. Regina's somewhat sociopathic behaviour made her worry for the kid she was trying to deny she cared for in the first place. I mean by the time Regina framed Mary Margaret for murder, and they found her skeleton keys, Emma had a hell of a right to contact child protective services if she wanted to.

[(Anonymous)]

Emma went too far when she drove the kid out of Boston. Morally when Henry turned up on her doorstep she should have done nothing more than call for the police and have him picked up by child services. That was when the showrunners started screwing up regarding adoption. That they then decided Henry's adopted parent was the main villain of the piece in order they could continue screwing up by showing the evil adoptive parent and the true, noble, heroic, "real" mother was just a cavalcade of nasty implications.

The showrunners screwed the pooch on the basic setup and plot-starter. Everything that happened from there on in with Emma and Henry's relationship (because the problem with this setup isn't Regina, she is irrelevant to it) is offensive and serves to only rubberstamp the idea of a "true" motherhood based in biology.

The only reason they get away with it is the fanbase is so distracted by bashing Regina for her being the villain that they give it a free pass. Imagine if the adoptive parent in this case was Nun/Fairy Blue's character (example picked at random using a Storybrooke character sheet and a die), the kid runs away to find his "real" mother because he cannot deal with Storybrooke, Emma still drives him back and decides to stick around and fight for her bloodchild (because blood is blood) in the face of weirdness all the while sneaking around the back of Fairy-Nun-Blue. Regina is still the evil villain doing evil villain-y things and still tries to drive Emma off as a threat to her curse. Just now the family conflict is pared off of the hero/villain conflict and all of a sudden the Emma/Henry relationship begins to sound more than a little suspect and sketchy.

[(Anonymous)]

If Henry had been adopted by the Blue Fairy, and she wouldn't have stuck around to care about Henry. Because then she'd have known he was being taken cared of. She never stayed in Storybrooke to claim Henry because he was "her blood." She only did because she got bad vibes off Regina and thought she was the only one who could help him. When she decided to take him back from Regina and say things like "He's my son!" even she didn't fully understand that that would mean she would be his mother; she just understood "if he's with me, he won't be hurt by this woman anymore" and not "now I have to raise him as only a true biological mother can." At the end of Season 1, Emma was trying to leave Storybrooke so that he could live with Regina and cease the conflict. Even now in Season 2, Emma's capabilities as a mother are being questioned by Henry himself. Its always about "finding what's best for Henry" and not "blood relations are the only ones who can give it to him."

I guess all I'm driving at is the blood vs adoption thing seems so irrelevant to the plot that I don't understand this particular point of contention with the show. Still plenty of others though.