holdouttrout

I don’t know why it is that I keep making what-if fixit meta with Captain Swan. Maybe because if I’m going to do an SQ version, I’d rather write the fic.

Note: this takes into account vague spoilers from the upcoming seventh season, so you have been warned if that’s not something you want to see.

What if Hook sacrifices himself and everyone goes to the Underworld but they can’t get him back? What if death can’t be overridden? What if Hook stays dead and Emma mourns him at the end of the season and then the next season a duplicate version of him shows up? What if he and Emma have that connection but it’s not the same and it takes them the rest of the season to start to overcome this massive problem–that Emma loved him, tried to save him from death, that they went through all these things together but this Hook is not the same person, just similar enough that it’s sometimes wonderful and sometimes awful?

What if they overcome all that (in a meaningful way) and then Emma, who is fated to die, makes the hero’s choice and dies to save Gideon and defeat the Black Fairy?

Instead of breaking death on the show, you make it mean something. You’ve given the audience sympathy for Emma because her love is dead and gone and she’s dealing with that–and you’ve still managed to keep Hook. Not only that but suddenly Emma doesn’t look selfish–she looks like someone who has grown, who has learned that loving is worth it, that laying down her life is worth it for her family. You have made her death meaningful, important, and you have solved the problem of why she isn’t in the next season–again without coming up with some awful contrivance and without making her selfish.

To top it all off, you don’t have to introduce a new Hook, just continue on with the version of Hook people already know from the last season. And this one, while he loved and lost Emma, too, isn’t as tied to her, is better served by moving on.

That’s my high-level idea about how to fix this show in retrospect while keeping the Captain Swan ship. It sure is easier to think of ways to fix shows in retrospect…

My running theory after the first couple of episodes of season 5A (I really liked the first couple of episodes of that half-season) was that Emma was telling the truth when she said that it was all her family’s fault she turned dark, that they had each encountered a problem that needed a Dark One, either for expediency or because it was the only solution they saw. I tried to take things from the episodes where they fit and also added ideas for things I might’ve done to make Emma’s descent into darkness the fault of the people who loved her most, the people who should have known better. I wanted to make her descent rely on Emma’s desire to be the savior and help at any cost to herself.

This is an alternate take on 5A. It holds to established canon ships.

Regina begs Emma to save Robin. This is the big one, the first request, the one that breaks the heroes’ insistence that they are not going to have Emma use her magic because the darkness just too seductive. This is the episode that made me buy that they were going there with Emma, that they were really going to make her family partially responsible for her darkness.

The dwarves (they WANTED to be a part of the adventure, after all) find out that the brother they thought was dead might actually be in this realm, nearby, and that he might have something they need to release Merlin from the tree. But their brother might be in more trouble than they thought, and it seems like they might need to make a deal with the Dark One to help him…

David and Arthur go on their bro-quest for the magic toadstool, but those left behind get a tip from Lancelot that all may not be right in Camelot. They discover that Guinevere is enchanted with the Sands of Avalon and attempt to release her from the curse so she can help them. (Perhaps it turns out the Sands of Avalon, as the creation of a former DO, are powerful magic that can only be undone by another Dark One’s magic.)

Merida makes a deal with Emma for the spell to change her fate so she can rescue her brothers. Belle still convinces Merida she can accomplish her goal without the spell.

Henry’s date with Violet goes exactly the same way, and for the same reasons–Emma is already losing perspective on her darkness. After they free Merlin, she offers to fix it for him–but Henry, as a true hero, turns her down (leading Emma to tell him that everyone else let her down, but not him.)

Arthur and Zelena work together to trap Merlin by binding him to Excalibur. Killian gets hurt in the rescue.

We find out that Killian and Emma have been planning to move in together. Instead of Emma admitting she wants to move forward with her relationship with Hook, she admits that she’s having doubts and that she hasn’t been honest with him because she loves him and doesn’t want to hurt him. He says that he’ll wait until she’s ready. This honesty unlocks the Promethean Flame, but Killian collapses just like before and Emma tethers him to the sword to save his life, realizing that she does want that future after all–at any cost. And why is everyone so judgmental about this? Doesn’t she deserve to be happy? Haven’t they been the ones prioritizing themselves over her this whole time?

And that’s how you turn Emma dark.

Then, you have her working to undo making Hook a DO without killing him, which involves sacrificing someone to the darkness. You have her working to bring this plan to fruition. You have Hook succumbing to the darkness without knowing what’s going on–maybe he starts working with Emma because he is tricked by her arguments about doing what’s necessary, because he believes her. Maybe he turns cruel without meaning to. Basically, you show the influence of the darkness in him before he gets his memories back.

And then the end of 5A plays out largely the same, except Emma does have to sacrifice herself to get rid of the darkness. She dies and Hook is left de-Dark One-ed… and Hades comes and offers him/everyone else a chance to get her back. You see, he’s looking for something to use against his brother, who cursed him to the Underworld, and if they help him, he’ll help them. After all, he’s the ruler of the Underworld, and he’s never met a rule he can’t bend, even that pesky one about not bringing anyone back from the dead.

Rumple doesn’t become the DO again right then, but he offers to help them navigate the Underworld because he wants the power back, because Belle’s gone and he might as well. He cautions them not to trust Hades, because his games are always rigged.

They descend into the Underworld.

1. This episode would have made 1,000 times more sense if neither Charming nor Snow remembered their little jaunt in Cursed!Storybrooke.

2. I absolutely think the writers thought they made it clear TO EMMA that Hook was in immediate danger. (He sent his shadow, his hook came too, and… he apparently needed her to get a random piece of wood?) If we take as a given that Emma knew Hook was in immediate, life-threatening danger, AND that Snow actually made the decision not to use the Pixie Dust and that Emma couldn’t have used it herself to wake them anyway (which I believe)) then I am prepared to give her a soft pass on this one. Mind you, she’s still in Trout’s Bad Character Doghouse for so many other reasons, including that horrible sweater, that she is still failing Trout’s Bad Character Rehabilitation Course.

3. Look, Charming and Snow already made the decision to send Emma away when she wasn’t even yet BORN. And, as far as they knew, she was safe and happy and normal. In retrospect, of course, they doomed her to an unhappy childhood where she felt unloved and unwanted. But they didn’t make that cold calculation at the time. And they always bargained her against the future happiness of everyone in Storybrooke. So while it was sort of a crap thing to do to their kid, it wasn’t new and it wasn’t 100% terrible, either. (Also, I just re-watched the scene where they see her through the door, and from their perspective, they can’t see two other bunk beds that you can see from Emma’s perspective.)

4. Still adamantly against Emma taking blame for Hook not telling her the truth.

5. Okay, the episode was never going to actually make sense. Pixie flowers? Really? That’s a thing now? Also, you can share a sleeping curse by drinking nonexistent liquid from a silver cup. (Whatever. Like I watch this show for its logic.)

I’m not saying Emma shouldn’t be with Hook because he killed her grandfather. If I were, I would be a hypocrite because I ship her with Regina, who not only killed her other grandfather but mass murdered people, killed her OWN father, cast the dark curse, and generally made Emma’s life hell for a sustained period of time.

I’m not saying Hook hasn’t changed. The show has made it quite clear that he’s given up his murderous ways, that he feels remorse for killing people in the past, that he is trying to be a better man.

I’m not even saying she shouldn’t be with Hook.

I actually like(d) Hook and shipped Captain Swan before I re-watched the series and fell hard for Swan Queen (We do not choose our ships; they hit us over the head with the concussion of True Love.). I don’t mind that Hook isn’t perfect, that he doesn’t have this whole redemption thing figured out! I don’t mind that he falls into bad habits trying to defend himself from the consequences of his past (okay, I do mind, but I would understand it)! I don’t mind that he’s not immediately running to Emma to say “Hey, I killed your grandfather, just found out two seconds ago, forgive me?”

What I mind, more than anything, is that there’s a pattern of behavior when Hook does fall back into his old ways, Emma excuses him IMMEDIATELY, without reacting to or seeming to have her OWN FEELINGS about what he’s done.

That is what doesn’t feel like Emma to me, because Emma reacts to EVERYTHING. What does she do when Regina frames her for stealing confidential client files? She takes a chainsaw to Regina’s apple tree.

When she finds out that Neal is Rumple’s son, that he kept that from her and left her on Pinocchio’s say-so, she’s angry. She reacts to the revelation before she acknowledges that if he had told her, she would have thought he was nuts. She brings it up again when he asks her about her doing magic, saying that Rumplestiltskin’s son maybe doesn’t get to be judgy about her using magic.

Before Emma and Hook are together, when he comes to New York and kisses her, she shoves him away from her and slams the door on him. Then, when he again approaches her, she calls the cops on him and has him arrested (before she finds the photos in Neal’s apartment).

When Zelena curses Hook’s lips and he tells Emma about it, she doesn’t really want him tagging along to the farmhouse with her–and even though she does save him with mouth-to-mouth, she’s still not falling over herself to kiss him again. She’s still annoyed.

When Snow gets worried about Emma and pulls back on giving baby Neal to her because her magic is acting up, Emma reacts. She’s hurt. She’s afraid. She’s a little angry (and a lot angry later, when Ingrid riles her up).

When she finds out her parents, who held themselves up as heroes, as the good guys, stole Maleficent’s baby to remove Emma’s darkness, she’s pissed at them. She doesn’t immediately forgive them.

But with Hook after they’re together?

He colludes with Rumple to avoid Rumple telling Emma that he still has darkness in him–instead of owning up to hurting Will. Later, when Hook sucks the fairies into the Sorcerer’s Hat, Rumple had his heart, which you can’t blame him for. But when he threatens to tell Belle the truth about the dagger, when he punches Will, when he acts aggressively toward Emma, when he omits telling anyone the truth about all of those things, he was acting in his own best interest. But the only mention of it is when Emma says, “You didn’t have a choice.”

He kills Merlin; Emma covers it up. (I get why maybe she didn’t bring that up in the Underworld, considering she was at least partly to blame for the whole thing. I just wish the two of them had had a conversation that acknowledged that they both did horrible things as DOs and that they should try to do better from now on (like Snow and Charming after the baby-stealing episode).)

He keeps the shears against Emma’s express wishes and then lies to her about them. Emma’s like, “Oh, that’s fine. I would have done the same thing.” (This in particular made me SO MAD, because if anyone did that to me I’d be absolutely emotional about it and rage and talk to all my friends to see if I was blowing it out of proportion, and let’s just say that I consider myself slightly more emotionally stable than Emma ‘Chainsaw’ Swan.)

So yeah, IF Hook keeps this from her for a significant length of time (which he might not! I could be totally wrong!) and IF Emma just accepts it (which she might not! I could be totally wrong!) I’ll be ticked off. Because it’s a pattern. Because it doesn’t fit with how Emma reacts at other times or to other people or even to Hook prior to them being together.

Look, I will eat my words if the first scene next week is Hook angsting about telling Emma and the next scene is him telling her.

I will eat my words if Emma says “Oh my god, I need to think about this,” and forgives him in the second half of the episode.

But I am not putting money on either of those things happening. I do not think that this show is likely to show ANY consequences for Hook lying to Emma YET AGAIN, no matter how minimal. I do not think the current version of Emma–the woman who said, “Oh, no, that’s okay that you kept the shears that I asked you to drop into the deep sea that you explicitly told me you’d gotten rid of” or the woman who hasn’t even mentioned the fact that she covered up a murder Hook had done–will hold him at all accountable for his continued and repeated lies.

I fully expect this Emma to shrug it off yet again, because true love, etc etc.

I hope I’m wrong.

Yesterday I was convinced I should have studied computer science and today I think I should be a professor of fandom.

( Infinite Possibilities )

( Sam and Jack and Laira )

Crossposts: http://holdouttrout.livejournal.com/264275.html

I'm sorry about this, but I just can't let it go. I put together some thoughts about the cost and consequences of magic in Once Upon a Time and some reasons why I think the magic system in the show is broken and terrible and needs to be fixed. I did this mostly from memory and my own impressions, so if you think I'm wrong about something or am missing important examples, please comment!

( In which I am a wordy, enchanted fish )

P.S. I know it's "Rumplestiltskin" and not "Rumpelstiltskin" in Once, but is it shortened to Rumple or Rumpel?

Crossposts: http://holdouttrout.livejournal.com/262901.html

My question, brought on by boredom and a leftover cupcake from yesterday's birthday celebration, is this:

Would Jack count cupcakes as cake?

Because they really are cake, in one sense, but...they're cupcakes. I never think of cake and cupcakes as essentially the same thing, even though they are.

Right?

And now I've decided I want cake-themed fic. *trundles off to search the web*

Okay, so this post makes me look crazy, too, but trust me, the other one was crazier.

ETA: Wait! Have a couple of sweets before you go. I'll share! I'm nice!

A Stargate-Themed Wedding Cake.

aurora_novarum wrote What Would Jack Do? (A series of ficlets) that mentions cake. A lot. *grins*

aurora_novarum also wrote The Lollipop Guild, which ALSO mentions cake.
Jojo wrote Just Don't Eat the Cake, which is Sam/Jack under the influence of really delicious pastry, and one of the most hilarious fics EVER.

aurora_novarum wrote What Would Jack Do? (A series of ficlets) that mentions cake. A lot. *grins*

Each day of being sick brings a new and inventive horror. Today, it's a headache with coughing, and some kind of weird backache for no reason I can reason out. I'm doing my best to avoid coughing, which seems to help a bit. As long as I don't lay down.

Also: I have been informed that you're not supposed to do chores when sick, where chores means doing laundry and/or vacuuming. But I say that even when sick, and maybe especially when sick, things sticking to the bottom of feet is really, really, really annoying. And also laundry is not that difficult. Taking showers is way harder.

Don't take showers when you're sick. Unless someone is home to drag your naked, wet body out of the bathroom when you faint.

Not that I did that*.

I have been using my time home wisely and watching a ton of SG-1. I decided I needed to see all ten seasons from the beginning, in order, which is a new experience for me. So I started with CotG on Saturday and am now in the middle of "Bane."

( rambling about episodes )

*I actually didn't do that. Faint, I mean. I did take a shower, which was a mistake today. Yesterday, however, it was bliss.

Current Mood: sick
Current Music: The Raggedy Edge Soundtrack

There's been a lot of discussion lately about Merlin, and whether or not this is a good fandom for people to start loving. From what I can tell, this is largely about the same issues that most fandoms have some amount of trouble with: racism and misogyny. Oddly enough, Arthurian legend has never pinged me as much as everyone, including myself, would think. Mostly I read because the women interested me and wore long, pretty dresses. (Note: My involvement with fandoms hasn't gotten much deeper over time.)

( Long meta underneath the cut )

Guys, I REALLY like this show. Like, a lot. I like AT's accent, I like Will, I even kinda adore Ashley's annoyingness. That's leaving aside all the other awesome characters. I just watched "Requiem." ( spoilers ahoy! )

I was thinking today about shipping, and about writing gen as a shipper first. ( Yes, let's talk more about shipping and the lack thereof )

TL;DR= I'm bad at gen but like it a lot.

Well, crap. I already did a weekend post, didn't I? Okay, well, Sunday was spent chasing down my boss who was running a marathon, going to church to stand in the front and have one of the elders say nice things about me becoming a member, getting my hand shaken (not stirred--you may groan), and then going back for a pizza party celebrating the fact that my boss finished said marathon. (His first.)

This morning, I had pizza for breakfast and watched 'Guilt,' from third-season SVU, in which Alex (who is working her way up my list of favorite female characters who also happen to be blonde--it's a short list--) breaks laws so she can put a pedophile in jail.

( Female Characters Who Are Not Perfect and How to Do Them Right )

I have a few recs for fics I've read recently. Actually, if you have delicious or are thinking about using it, I'm holdouttrout over there, too. All of the fics I put on there are ones I've enjoyed--it's not an exhaustive list by any means, but I saved the ones that are on there for a reason. :-)

You can find fics I think are particularly awesome by following my ficrec tag. This is kind of a whimsical tag--some days I'm easier or harder to impress, or I just forget about using this tag. You can combine tags and search for stargate angst fic, or by authors I have in there (again, this is whimsical and somewhat based on critical mass), and you can probably find out entirely too much about what I find funny. *g*

Okay, onto the recs:

Stargate:
A Step Ahead of You, by

mrspollifax. Sam/Jack, spoilery for Ark of Truth and some of SGA season 4 (AU). A very good look at Sam and Jack in the "current" timeframe--kinda twisted and complicated and frustrating in all the right ways.

kings until the power failed, by

_astralis. Sam/Jack, Daniel (Sam/Daniel). From

apocalypse_kree, this has a tone I wish I could capture--all soft and meaningful and really, really quiet while packing a punch.

Iron Man:
Chloe Liked Olivia, by

marinarusalka. Gen. The summary kinda says it all: "One is the personal assistant to a billionaire-playboy-turned-superhero. The other is an ambitious journalist with a political conscience. Together, they fight crime!" It's not as cracky as it sounds, and it is really very awesome--two women, defined partially by Tony Stark, who find their way around that difficulty.

Also, if you have any SVU ficrecs--especially Alex/Olivia--please rescue me from the voles and send them my way. PLEASE. I'm reading mushy romantic fic and it's just not right.

_astralis. Sam/Jack, Daniel (Sam/Daniel). From

apocalypse_kree, this has a tone I wish I could capture--all soft and meaningful and really, really quiet while packing a punch.

Iron Man:
Chloe Liked Olivia, by

You know that lesson you've heard, sometime, about good poll questions? Yeah, that first one on yesterday's poll does not qualify. What happened is I had another one that was slightly better, but lj ate it. Anyway, what I was trying to get at was actually a few different questions, which of course I didn't realize while writing the poll. Well, and it was supposed to be fun, not a lot of meta work. ;-)

Anyway, here are some of the questions that I jumbled into that first question. I also have to say that I am primarily thinking about established media--television, movies, published books. Fanfiction carries a whole different set of expectations.

Do you enjoy fiction with unrealistic premises? (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror)
Do you enjoy fiction where the outcome is certain?
Do you enjoy fiction where main characters can die?
Do you enjoy fiction where it is expected that the "rules" are the same as our reality? (i.e. no one comes back from the dead)
Do you enjoy fiction where a satisfactory resolution takes precedence over realism? (i.e. some crime dramas)
Do you enjoy fiction that doesn't necessarily make realistic sense, but has a greater artistic or emotional mood/resonance?
Do you enjoy fiction that bends/breaks the fourth wall (is self-aware and comments on itself)?

( my (brief) answers, let me show you them )

So...feel free to answer one, some, all, or none of these questions.

Also, I have to say that some of the fill-in answers are hilarious.

likethesun2, I agree that it's probably a good thing most television/movies don't deal with literary criticism. Hah!

pcrackenhead, I knew you'd tick (check) that box. *grins*

Do you enjoy fiction with unrealistic premises? (Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror)
Do you enjoy fiction where the outcome is certain?
Do you enjoy fiction where main characters can die?
Do you enjoy fiction where it is expected that the "rules" are the same as our reality? (i.e. no one comes back from the dead)
Do you enjoy fiction where a satisfactory resolution takes precedence over realism? (i.e. some crime dramas)
Do you enjoy fiction that doesn't necessarily make realistic sense, but has a greater artistic or emotional mood/resonance?
Do you enjoy fiction that bends/breaks the fourth wall (is self-aware and comments on itself)?

( my (brief) answers, let me show you them )

So...feel free to answer one, some, all, or none of these questions.

Also, I have to say that some of the fill-in answers are hilarious.

likethesun2, I agree that it's probably a good thing most television/movies don't deal with literary criticism. Hah!

pcrackenhead, I knew you'd tick (check) that box. *grins*

Why fic? Why not original stories?

Ahem. These are original stories. Just not original characters, situations, or, er--universes, for lack of a better word. Mostly, it's about love. I love the characters/situations/universes, and I want to spend more time with them. Same reason I watch/read the source material, really: I love it.

Do you, as a fanfic writer, write for feedback?

No. I write because I must. I write because stories bubble up inside me and spill out my fingers (I WISH, although that might be a little weird, come to think of it). I write because I can't not write.

Do you post fanfic for feedback?

Partly. I ~~love~~ ~~like~~ think feedback is okay. All kinds of feedback--even the ones that annoy me, because I know someone read it and cared enough to drop me a line or two.

Do you expect reviews?

Never. Sort of. I have an assumption of how many reviews a piece might get, but I never expect any one person to reply. And if fewer people respond than I think will, I have to assume the fic didn't resonate the way I hoped it would, or that I was mistaken about its appeal. I never assume the problem is with the reviewer who didn't respond, but with the story.

Why else would you post fic?

I post it because I write it, because I want to share it, because I hope that it will satisfy something in the reader, like writing it satisfied something in me. I post it because to do otherwise means that no one can read that story/interpretation/mood and recognize it and share it with me. I post it because I love it, because I want others to love it, too.

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holdouttrout

February 2025

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Page Summary

Another OUAT What-If
OUAT Alternate Take on 5A (Yes, another one, I’m sorry, scroll past if you’re bored, I’m only a seas
Moar Thoughts about OUAT 06x17: Awake
In which I explain at length why Emma’s reactions to Hook lately don’t make sense to me
(no subject)
Alternate Universe Versions of Myself
Cost and Consequences of Magic in Once Upon a Time
I had an actual post, but I'm scrapping it because it makes me look crazy
I had an actual post, but I'm scrapping it because it makes me look crazy
The coughing really isn't helping my headache
How I Choose My Fandoms
How I Choose My Fandoms
Sanctuary is Awesome! (and other unrelated thoughts)
Sanctuary is Awesome! (and other unrelated thoughts)
*coughs* SVU *coughs*, ficrecs, Sunday
*coughs* SVU *coughs*, ficrecs, Sunday
Realism and Viewer Expectations
Realism and Viewer Expectations
The Age-old Question: Why Fic?
The Age-old Question: Why Fic?

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Page generated May. 17th, 2025 01:19 am

the merciful fishiness of my life

Entries tagged with meta

Another OUAT What-If

OUAT Alternate Take on 5A (Yes, another one, I’m sorry, scroll past if you’re bored, I’m only a seas

Moar Thoughts about OUAT 06x17: Awake

In which I explain at length why Emma’s reactions to Hook lately don’t make sense to me

(no subject)

Alternate Universe Versions of Myself

Cost and Consequences of Magic in Once Upon a Time

I had an actual post, but I'm scrapping it because it makes me look crazy

I had an actual post, but I'm scrapping it because it makes me look crazy

The coughing really isn't helping my headache

How I Choose My Fandoms

How I Choose My Fandoms

Sanctuary is Awesome! (and other unrelated thoughts)