Just because your favorite fairytale characters (and some of Disney’s own, too) are in life action doesn’t mean they’re any smarter.
- King Leopold meets a genie who offers to grant him three wishes. However, the genie also warns him that every wish he's granted has turned out badly. Being a nice guy, Leopold says he doesn't need anything and wishes the genie free and hands him the lamp with its remaining two wishes.
You'd Expect: Since the genie had already warned him that wishes always turn out badly, that Leopold would throw away/destroy the lamp. At the very least, you would think he'd think very carefully about his Exact Words before using the wishes to avoid malicious interpretation.
Instead: He wishes "to be able to look at the face of the woman he loves forever".
As A Result: He's turned into a magic mirror. - Captain Hook has had his lips cursed by Zelena so that the next time he kisses Emma, Emma's magic will be taken away. Hook keeps it a secret for a while, but the truth does eventually come out. Later on, Emma decides that she's going to try to fight Zelena head to head.
You'd Expect: That Emma would go by herself, or at least take someone else, like Regina, who actually knows magic.
Instead: Prince Charming insists that she take Hook with her, despite knowing that he does not have any magic of his own, and is the only person who could take away her magic.
As A Result: Zelena drowns Hook, forcing Emma into a Sadistic Choice. - A young Snow White told Cora (Regina’s mother) that Regina was planning on running away with Daniel, the stable boy. Cora catches them and kills Daniel.
You’d Expect: Regina, knowing her mother and what she’s capable of, should understand that Snow was just a little girl who can easily be manipulated by Cora. She should then have focused all her revenge on Cora instead of Snow.
Instead: She blames Snow for everything and wastes years of her life (that she could have spent trying to be happy with someone else) getting revenge. It does not end well for her.
To Make Matters Worse: Snow ends up being the one that kills Cora, meaning Regina could have struck an Enemy Mine at any time. - For even more delicious irony, Cora believed that Love Is a Weakness. She killed Daniel to make the point to Regina that she should not give her heart away to any random person.
You'd Expect: Cora would realize this means her daughter has no reason to trust or love her in turn. Send her away to be fostered, and find leverage over Regina now that the stableboy is dead.
Instead: She raises Regina while oblivious to the fact that removing her own heart made her a terrible parent.
As a Result: Eventually Regina turns against her after some much-needed revelations. When Snow restores Cora's heart to kill her, Cora dies with a My God, What Have I Done? when it sinks in that she abused her daughter. To add insult to injury, Hades in Kick the Dog mode puts Cora in an Ironic Hell where she is a peasant woman that has to constantly work. - Henry runs away from Storybrooke to find Emma, his biological mother. Emma then brings him back.
You’d Expect: Regina should have just thanked Emma for bringing him back and then play nice with her. She then should have just waited for Emma to leave on her own, as she was planning to do.
Instead: She threatens and antagonizes Emma every chance she gets, while also turning Henry against her.
As a Result: Emma starts suspecting that something is wrong and decides to stay, which leads to her eventually breaking the curse. - Much later, Emma decides to leave Storybrooke because she worries that her antagonistic relationship with Regina is hurting Henry. She tells Regina as such that she doesn't want her son to grow up with that negativity.
You'd Expect: Regina would let her go, saying goodbye and good riddance.
Instead: She grabs the Villain Ball and bakes a poisonous apple turnover to feed to Emma.
As a Result: Henry realizes what the turnover is, takes a bite, and gets poisoned instead. Cue My God, What Have I Done? from Regina, and Emma staying longer in Storybrooke. - Captain Hook (Lieutenant Killian Jones at the time) and his brother Liam are sent to Neverland by their king to recover a plant with supposed healing properties. When they arrive, Peter Pan tells them the plant they're looking for is actually a deadly poison, giving Killian doubts about the mission which he voices to his brother.
You'd Expect: To assuage his younger brother, Liam would test the plant on an animal.
Instead: Liam scratches himself with the plant.
As a Result: The plant turns out to be poisonous and he dies horribly. - During "Rocky Road", the third episode of the show's Frozen arc, Elsa and Kristoff discover a magical urn capable of sealing Elsa inside forever. Elsa has the urn, but Hans takes Kristoff hostage in exchange. He does this by putting the tip of his sword to the back of Kristoff's neck, demanding that Elsa hand over the Urn.
You'd Expect: Kristoff to simply walk forwards or leap away from the sword, giving Hans no leverage and Elsa a clean shot.
Instead: He stands there and snarks at Hans until Elsa hands over the urn.
As A Result: Hans then opens it, releasing Ingrid, who becomes a much greater threat than Hans ever was, and the big bad of the arc. - The instigating conflict in season 5: Emma notices Hook has a relatively minor and non-life-threatening cut on his neck.
You'd Expect: She would leave well enough alone and that it would heal just fine over time.
Instead: She uses dark magic to heal the cut.
As A Result: When it's time to get rid of the darkness inside her, she has to pay the price for using her magic, with Hook's life. - Both Cinderella and Anna received contracts by Rumple for them to sign in order to make a deal.
You'd Expect: For them to read those contracts before signing it.
Instead: They automatically sign the contracts without having to read it. - In the penultimate episode of season one, The Evil Queen went on to tell Snow that if she eats a poisonous apple, she will not kill Prince Charming.
You'd Expect: Since Snow has zero reason to believe the Evil Queen, she will not eat the apple.
Instead: She eats it anyway.
As a Result: The Evil Queen proceeds to attempt to kill Prince Charming. - Within the same episode, Regina then proceeds to attempt to make a deal with Jefferson.
You'd Expect: For him to not accept the deal. After all, the last time Jefferson and Regina worked together, it utterly screwed Jefferson over.
Instead: He accepts the deal in which Regina does not hold up her end of the bargain.
You'd Also Expect: For him not have part of the deal involving her wiping Jefferson's memories in the magical lands.
Instead: He made it part of their deal. While Regina didn't wipe his memories, Jefferson would have zero way to know that that she ended up holding her end of the bargain let alone knowing that there any sort of bargain to begin with had she wipe his memories. - In one episode, Rumple casted a spell on Regina that makes her look completely unrecognizable and told her she will not able to use magic.
You'd Expect: For her to remember this.
Instead: She promptly forgets this and acts like a complete moron once she's out and about among the peasants and her guards, insisting she's the Queen and attempting to use magic. - Both Greg and Tamara ended up working for "the home office".
You'd Expect: To attempt figure out who they are working exactly and be more cautious when following their orders.
Instead: They blindly following "the home office" without even bothering to know who they work for. Is it any surprise it backfired on them? - Zelena grew up with a life where Cora gave her up and she lived with an abusive father causing her to wanting to live a different life.
You'd Expect: For her to realize that Cora was a pretty huge Abusive Parent herself and even if she haven't given her up, her life would still been tragic.
Instead: She attempted to cast a time travel spell in order for Cora to never give her up in order to live the life Regina has despite her having a tragic past as well. - Throughout Season Four, many villains decided to team up to find their happy endings.
You'd Expect: For them to think that the author of the book has nothing to deal with why they did not have a happy ending
Instead: They all think the author of the book is the reason why their life is messed up. - During the eighth episode of Season Three, Pan attempted to convince Henry to give up his heart with Regina, Neal, and Emma coming in to convince him not to.
You'd Expect: For Henry to trust his adoptive mother and both of his biological parents instead trusting a known bad guy that he only he knew for a couple of days.
Instead: He gave his heart to Pan. Too Dumb to Live, much? - In the penultimate episode of Season five, Merida ended up having to choose somebody to guard King Arthur.
You'd Expect: For her to choose anybody except for Sleepy to guard him.
Instead: She chooses Sleepy to be put on guard duty.
Obviously: King Arthur easily escapes from his cell.
