Once Upon A Time

... I think we have an issue of semantics. When Charming and Snow are wed(ie "when they get married"), Rumpelstiltskin is still free from captivity. After Snow/Charming get married, they attend the wedding of Cinderella and Prince [no-name-given], have the prison built, and assist in his capture.

The vast majority of Cinderella's story must occur after the opening few scenes of the pilot(where Snow and Charming wed, and the Queen threatens them). Not least because if they aren't married(and by extension, haven't defeated the Queen), then it doesn't really follow that they'd be together for Cinderella's wedding(since Snow would still be a fugitive)...

It really isn't a matter of "who looks like who". All the characters can't have "meaningful names" if there are ones like Mr. Gold(which doesn't equate to Rumpelstiltskin "better" than some other characters)... Not to mention the fact that it's going to have to be explained to me how Mary Margaret Blanchard is a "meaningful name" with regards to Snow White...

As for the order... Episode 5 is about Jiminy Cricket... It's after Rumpelstiltskin's origin, but before the Huntsman...

edited 12th Jan '12 6:51:23 PM by Swish

Well, Ruby is Little Red Ridinghood, and Ashley = Ash = Cinders, so there is definitely some thought put into it.

Blanchard is derived from the French blanchart, which refers to white.

I always thought "Gold" referred to the colour of Rumple's skin, which to me, looks like it's slightly goldish.

Edit: I hadn't thought of that one.

edited 12th Jan '12 7:01:24 PM by zombielovescore

And Mary is the person who gives birth to Jesus, the chosen one. The savior. Not fairy tale related, but plot related.

Obviously. The fact that they have the same actor is how we were told. I'm saying that if Rumple hadn't been seen yet in the fairy tail world, like how we haven't seen whoever Dr. Whale is, we wouldn't have been able to guess.

And Granny is Granny...

I don't doubt that there's some thought... But at some point, it has to come around to the fact that not every name is meaningful... You're going to have to get into to some serious reaching get find the meaning behind David and Kathryn Nolan's names(you know... until we find out that Kathryn's maiden name is Goldfinger)...

edited 12th Jan '12 7:12:10 PM by Swish

The Jewish David, what with the dragon slaying :D

Eh, hell if I know.

David is meaningful too. David, associated with shepherd. Guess what the prince was? Don't know what the association with Kathryn is.

edited 12th Jan '12 7:14:35 PM by zombielovescore

Oh. Yeah. There we go.

That's probably just a coinkydink though.

edited 12th Jan '12 7:17:28 PM by MrAHR

Incidentally, I'm somewhat ashamed that I didn't catch who Ruby was until this thread pointed it out.

Gilphon: Yeah, I didn't realize until I saw Pot of Gold just now. Oddly enough, what gave it away for me was when someone was towing her car, and she said not to break the glass wolf in it.

I might have something for Kathryn's name.

"KATHERINE The Romans derived it from Greek katharos "pure" and changed their spelling from Katerina to Katharina to reflect this. The name belonged to a Christian martyr who was tortured on the famous Catherine wheel."

So, perhaps pure as in, right now she seems like a genuinely sweet lady? Although, that may be trying to read too much into it.

edited 12th Jan '12 7:26:37 PM by zombielovescore

Thanks for the correction on the timeline; I'd forgotten that Snow and Charming played a part in the Cinderella plotline, probably because it was the first episode I saw so I didn't recognize the characters at the time. That makes more sense, now.

Rumplestilkin (or however it's spelt) has a really obvious connection to Gold, as in Mr Gold, because in the fairytale he spun gold out of hay. The connection's in his mythology.

I know the connection is there.... But knowing that King Midas exists in the fairytale universe, it's hard to accept that Mr. Gold is "better" for Rumpelstiltskin than Midas(you know, Assuming Midas is still alive and all that).

The problem with the idea of meaningful naming is that, for the most part, if you don't make everyone obvious(Archie Hopper, anyone?), it can start to reach levels of incredulity. Especially when you're expected to believe "Leroy" is Grumpy, and "Marco" is Geppetto, because "the names are meaningful"...

edited 13th Jan '12 4:08:10 AM by Swish

Whale's not exactly a very common last name is my only defense to that. Which isn't a very good one.

Given that we haven't yet met Midas We've got to wait a few weeks for his episode in the real world, he could have an equally appropriate name.

Speaking of whom, the original mythology ends with him killing his daughter by turning her to gold. Some versions she stays like that, some versions she comes back. I'm betting she gets permanently bronzed, freeing up Snow White and The Prince.

Also, the women in the real world have terrible, terrible names. They're meant to be queenly, I suppose, but god they're just twee and Mary-Sue-esque.

RE: Whale: Setting everyone's name aside, every character thus far has had some quirk, job, or status that is directly related to their time in the Fairytale universe. Most are in similar occupations, while some have had similar experiences in life.

When we find out more about Whale's life(other than he's a doctor), I'm sure it'll become more obvious who he really is. I just hope they give us that info before we're told his story. Unless he really is Monstro. Because I don't really want to know what the good doctor has in common with the whale...

Possible. But if it were permanent, it'd have to be a weird version where she's still alive while still being solid gold... Otherwise Kathryn wouldn't exist.

More likely Abigail Midas falls for someone else... The only thing more important than gold to King Midas, in every version, has been his daughter... So if such a thing occurred, it'd stand to reason that Midas would let Charming out of the engagement(or "demand" it for his daughter's sake, with an offering of gold to "appease" him of course).

edited 13th Jan '12 5:14:00 AM by Swish

Not all the names are clearly meaningful; Graham's wasn't.

I really like it that most of the main characters in this show are female, and nothing's really made of it - it's not commented on, just the way things are. The main antagonist, the main protagonist, and Mary Margaret - who all have a role in every episode - are all female; the only male characters with similar prominence are Henry and Mr. Gold.

I was thinking, especially because of the small town setting, maybe Graham was his first name, and everyone was on a First-Name Basis with him. For all we know, his name could have been "Graham Hunter" or something like that.

Yeah, not everyone's name is meaningful, but most the one's that aren't don't really have any obvious meaning at all.

I mean, if he doesn't have any connection to fish, why name him Whale rather than, I don't know, Anderson or something normal like that?

If he's not Monstro, maybe he's connected to "The Little Mermaid"? That would be a fish connection.

Considering how expensive live action mer-people will be, I seriously doubt we'll be seeing very much of The Little Mermaid (though, since they're doing the movies, they could so that parts where she's on land.)

Well, they did a pretty decent dragon 9of course who knows how much of the SFX budget that swallowed) so a mermaid or three shouldn't be all that difficult.

A tail is fairly easy to do. It's the underwater scenes that would be a bit tough. If you just have someone on a rock, with a tail, that's not nearly as expensive to pull off.

• smacks head on rock*

That's so obvious. How did I miss that!?