History Recap / OnceUponATimeS6E11TougherThanTheRest

* AdultFear: Belle and Rumple finding out that their son grew up lonely and mistreated.

* Foreshadowing: When Emma drops by Geppetto's workshop to see the real August, he's writing on a typewriter and Pleasure Island is [[FreezeFrameBonus written on the page]]. This will be very important come next episode.

!!Tropes

** Played straight with the Wish!version of Hook with white hair and a beer belly.

** Rather like Emma at Hook's grave near the end of Season 5, Regina hangs back to be by herself after it appears Robin didn't make it through the enchanted tree...only for him to finally appear behind her.
** A minor one, but when Wish!Hook first shows up, he's shown from the shoulders up and speaking relatively clearly, leading the viewers to believe he's just an older version of his usual self. When he's next shown, we can see his beer belly and messy clothes, and it's a lot clearer he's completely out of it.

* ButtMonkey: Rumple still doesn't like the Sheriff of Nottingham though and gives him a lesson in how to fly.

* ChekhovsBoomerang: The fletching from Robin's arrow that Roland gave to Zelena and which she lost (helping set off the breach between her and Regina and her alliance with the Evil Queen) shows up again with Wish!Robin as being from his "lucky arrow." Emma takes this to mean that maybe the reason this Robin hasn't aged is because he came from their Robin's soul or has some portion of him in him.
* ContinuityNod: Aside from the reappearance of the magic wardrobe (and the enchanted tree in the episode title card), there's the HistoryRepeats in Gold's confrontation with Gideon (where he tells him what he really wants to do is prove he's better and more powerful than his father, the same as Rumple did), the swan being the symbol for Emma (both through "The Ugly Duckling" and the wood carving Wish!August had for Princess Emma), and Regina finding Wish!Robin in the same tavern where Tinker Bell had shown him to her years before (complete with the lion tattoo on his arm and a flashback to the episode in question).

* EnemyMine: Downplayed example, since they were never exactly enemies and her opposition to him definitely cooled in the previous episode, but after finding out Gold intended to stop Gideon from killing Emma as well as saving him, Belle seems willing to work with him to accomplish this. And after all his misdeeds of the past three seasons, it seems Gold has learned his lesson--at least to the extent of admitting the dangers and wrongs of the dark path, and claiming he wants to help stop Gideon not just for his sake or theirs, but to save Storybrooke.
* EurekaMoment: After escaping Henry and his soldiers, Emma takes one look at a fallen tree trunk...and instantly thinks of the magic wardrobe as a way home, leading them to that world's August/Pinocchio.

* FatSlob / FatBastard: Wish!Realm Hook.

* HopeSpot: Wish!Robin and Regina are in a cage. People are promptly dispatched by an off-screen Wish!Rumple's magic. He's not there to rescue them however -- he's there to punish Regina for the Wish!Regina letting Wish!Belle starve.

* MagicFeather: Wish!August is convinced that he needs a special magic chisel belonging to his father to carve the enchanted tree, so that when it accidentally gets broken by Emma's magic-blast at Wish!Hook, he despairs and thinks he's never going to be like his father. Emma convinces him all he needs to do is believe in himself, that if he does he can change his fate (turning his own advice from her childhood back on him)...and so when he uses a regular chisel, he's able to accomplish the task, proving he never needed a specific tool, just belief in his skills.
* MeaningfulEcho: The flashback at the opening shows Emma meeting a young boy who talks to her about the story of the Ugly Duckling and how it's meant to be "transformed." He adds how "everyone can change your fate." Later in the episode, Wish!August tells this to Emma and she realizes the young boy was actually August looking out for her.

** Wish!Hook looks far more like the version of Captain Hook from some stories with white hair and a large gut.

** When Wish!Robin gives what seems to be Original Robin's arrow fletching to Regina, he states it's "a lucky feather...from a very lucky arrow", surely referencing the one that won him his famous archery tournament in all the various adaptations of the Robin Hood legend.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Regina thinks Rumplestiltskin has come to rescue her. However, Rumple reveals that in this world, Belle starved in the tower and was nothing but bones when he found her. While he knows this isn't the Regina he wants, [[RevengeByProxy he still wants revenge]].
* ThePowerOfTrust:

-->'''Robin''': It's a little known fact but I'm not just the world's greatest thief.

* {{Retcon}}: After originally being told that little Pinocchio left Emma alone in the orphanage and never came back to help her or Storybrooke until after her return made him start reverting to wood (and after his trip to Hong Kong failed to help him), this episode reveals that August did come back to help Emma once in her childhood--both helping her get off the streets and back into social services, and giving her belief in herself (and, inadvertently, her last name). While it doesn't completely absolve him of responsibility for her fate, it does show he cared and tried to watch out for her when he could.
* RunningGag: The MonumentalDamage of the clock tower's face being destroyed yet again--this time by Gideon's VillainousBreakdown.

-->'''Emma''': If I'm fated to die, I will. But ''not today''. (''blasts Gideon across the street'')
* TakeMeInstead: Variation--Gold goes to Gideon and tries to provoke him into hitting him (or even attacking him with magic) rather than going after Emma. Initially he claims he does this because Gideon would have no chance against the Savior if he can't face the Dark One, but considering he later tells Belle that he doesn't want Gideon to kill Emma, it's more likely he was only saying what he thought Gideon wanted to hear...and that he genuinely does blame himself for what happened and so feels he would deserve such an attack.

** Wish!August has followed in Geppetto's footsteps as a woodcarver in the forest.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: As revealed in the previous episode and elaborated a bit more in this one via Wish!Belle's death, the wish version of the Evil Queen was defeated and banished years ago by Snow and Charming, thus explaining the lack of the Dark Curse and Emma getting to grow up in the Enchanted Forest. But we never find out what happened to her (and this is never addressed in episode 14 or the finale either). This is finally addressed in Season Seven.
* WimpFight: Wish!August vs Wish!Hook.

* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Subverted in that after Emma tells Wish!August about the full story behind who she really is and how she and Regina got there, he believes it instantly. Justified when he makes reference to Geppetto's belief that he could become a real boy being one of the only things that made it possible, and further explained by the real world August's belief in Emma as a young girl on the streets (which ties all the way back to his speeches to her back in Season 1).
* YouKillItYouBoughtIt: Gideon somehow believes that if he does this to Emma, it will allow him to take her powers and become the Savior, so he can then save the land being ruined by the Black Fairy. How exactly [[ThouShaltNotKill killing a hero makes one a hero]] is not clear outside of his own warped views.

* AgeLift: Subverted with Robin as Regina lampshades how he still looks the same while everyone else in the Enchanted Kingdom has aged. The Sheriff Of Nottingham does not appear to have aged either, oddly enough.

* BaitAndSwitch: Rather like Emma at Hook's grave near the end of Season 5, Regina hangs back to be by herself after it appears Robin didn't make it through the enchanted tree...only for him to finally appear behind her.

* WimpFight: August vs Hook.

* ContinuityNod: Aside from the reappearance of the magic wardrobe (and the enchanted tree in the episode title card), there's the HistoryRepeats in Gold's confrontation with Gideon (where he tells him what he really wants to do is prove he's better and more powerful than his father, the same as Rumple did), the swan being the symbol for Emma (both through "The Ugly Duckling" and the wood carving Wish!August had for Princess Emma), and Regina finding Wish!Robin in the same tavern where Tinkerbell had shown him to her years before (complete with the lion tattoo on his arm and a flashback to the episode in question).

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: As revealed in the previous episode and elaborated a bit more in this one via Wish!Belle's death, the wish version of the Evil Queen was defeated and banished years ago by Snow and Charming, thus explaining the lack of the Dark Curse and Emma getting to grow up in the Enchanted Forest. But we never find out what happened to her (and this is never addressed in episode 14 or the finale either).

* AgeLift: Subverted with Robin as Regina lampshades how he still looks the same while everyone else in the Enchanted Kingdom has aged. The Sherriff Of Nottingham does not appear to have aged either, oddly enough.

** A minor one, but when Wish!Hook first shows up, he's shown from the shoulders up and speaking reletivly clearly, leading the veiwers to believe he's just an older version of his usual self. When he's next shown, we can see his beer belly and messy clothes, and it's a lot clearer he's completely out of it.

* ButtMonkey: Rumple still doesn't like the Sherrif of Nottingham though and gives him a lesson in how to fly.