Disney+ shows: Once Upon a Time

“You did a terrible thing, but just because you made one bad move, or 30, doesn’t mean you can’t make a good one now.”

-Regina Mills

Season 4: Anna and Elsa & Villains get their happy endings

The first half of season one introduces the flashbacks of Anna and Elsa. Elsa was about to be queen after the loss of her parents. Anna and Elsa’s parents died in a shipwreck on a journey to find something. Anna was curious as to what it was and left to the Enchanted Forest for answers. In Arendelle Kristoff and Elsa had to worry about Hans and his army planning an attack. Anna met David on her jpurney. David and his mother was struggling to keep their farm and Bo Peep wanted to be fairly compensated. Bo Peep was another character portrayed as a protagonist in the Disney movies, but was an antagonist in Once Upon a Time. Anna helped David fight to keep the farm, making a huge impact on David and his mother. Kristoff and Elsa got word of a special object and pursued it. Hans also got word of it and he managed to get access to it. It was an urn. He opened the urn thinking it would help his army take over Arendelle but a woman came out of it. The woman had magic like Elsa. Her name was Ingrid and she Anna and Elsa’s aunt, also known as the Snow Queen. In present day

Storybrooke, when Hook and Emma got back from the time portal, the urn they brought back had Elsa trapped inside. Elsa had no idea how she got there or what happened the past few years. Elsa needed to find Anna and demanded help forcefully. This made Storybrooke think she was a villain. After proving that she didn’t want to hurt anyone, David explained that he knew Anna and that they were going to find her. Ingrid was also in Storybrooke. Ingrid used magic to hurt Marian and froze her. Regina helped save her because of Robin. The magic was too strong so Marian had to leave  Storybrooke. She had to go to a world without magic. She, Robin and Roland went to New York. In the flashbacks, Ingrid imprisoned Anna and tried to pin Anna and Elsa against each other but Elsa knew better. Ingrid used magic and cast a spell on Anna called the spell of shattered sight. This spell made everyone see the worst in the people they loved. Under this spell, Anna captured Elsa in the urn. Out of anger, Ingrid froze Arendelle and left it frozen for years. By the time Arendelle unfroze, they were in present day. In present day Storybrooke, Ingrid was enacting the spell of shattered sight on Storybrooke and Hans succeeded in taking over Arendelle. Through the wishing star Elsa, Anna and Kristoff were reunited; but the spell of shattered sight were still among them. Elsa, Emma and Anna were the only ones immune to the spell and went to break the spell. Ingrid eventually realized the evil she created and sacrificed herself. All she wanted was a family.

Her sisters died and Ingrid missed them, but she was at peace knowing that she was going to join them. The second half of the season introduced Maleficent, Ursula and Cruella DeVil. After Regina’s heartbreak with Robin because of Marian, she believed that she would never get a happy ending. The fairytale book always made her the villain that never got to be happy. Regina wanted to find the author of the fairytale books and have him write her a happy ending. Rumpelstiltskin heard of this plan and after he lost his happy ending, decided to pursue the author. Regina wasn’t going to help him and all of Storybrooke now hated him. He was banished from Storybrooke and went to the seawitch Ursula. He and Ursula invited Cruella to join them. Rumpel’s banishment didn’t last long because he managed to find a way into Storybrooke. There, they got Maleficent to help them. These villains wanted to find the author but had no idea who he was. Emma and Regina were suspicious of the new villains and Regina went undercover. This season also showed Ursula’s tragic backstory and the role Hook played in it. After making amends, Ursula revealed that Rumpel’s plan also involved Emma. Ursula was able to turn away from being a villain and went back to her father. Cruella was always a villain. Cruella had a complicated past because unlike everyone else, she knew the author. He gave her the power to manipulate animals to listen to her. Cruella kidnapped Henry and Emma confronted her. During the confrontation, Emma unintentionally killed Cruella. Maleficent’s past revealed that she had a baby. Snow

and Charming took her baby to save Emma. Snow and Charming’s child had a potential for darkness and light. In order to ensure that Emma would be good they had to send Maleficent’s child on a dark path. Emma and Regina were able to track down Maleficent’s child Lily. As fate would have it, Emma knew her when she were younger. After they found Maleficent’s daughter, Emma and Regina went to find Robin Hood because Rumpel was threatening him. A plot twist revealed that Marian was actually Zelena. Zelena went through the time portal and used magic to become Marian. Things got more complicating when it was revealed that Zelena was pregnant. After Maleficent reunited with her daughter, she didn’t want to take part in evil anymore. Rumpel got to the author and asked him to rewrite the book. The new book was called Heroes and Villains. This time, the villains would be the heroes and the heroes were the villains. The book became reality and the roles were reversed. Snow and Charming became evil while Regina became the hero of the story. Zelena was written as the hero as well as Rumpelstiltskin. Hook became cowardly and Emma got locked up in a tower. In this world even though Regina was written as the hero, she still didn’t get a happy ending. Henry got Emma and tried to undo the author’s work but it was too late. Rumpel fought with Emma and Henry to stop them from changing the story back. Regina sacrificed herself for Henry and was dying. It was too late. This would be their real lives, living life with the roles reversed. Then, Henry started to reach for the author’s pen and it started glowing. Henry was the next author. Henry wrote to make everything go back to normal. Everyone was back in Storybrooke and Regina wasn’t hurt. Rumpel was dying and the dark magic in him was looking for the next dark one. The dark magic claimed Emma, giving Emma the darkest magic. Emma became the next dark one.

My review:

The fourth season was also amazing. The third season and the fourth season were the best seasons of the whole show. Bringing Anna and Elsa’s storyline to the show added so much to it. There were tons of plot twists in this season as well. The plot of finding the author was so good. Giving villains a backstory and them finally getting their happy ending was really interesting. When Anna and David met, David was living in fear. He refused to fight for himself because he knew that he would lose. Anna told him that’s exactly why he should fight. David asked Anna, “Why fight a battle you can’t win?” Anna responded by saying, “Those are exactly the battles you should fight. If you know you could win, it’s not a fight.  If it’s impossible, you have to fight to achieve it.” There’s nothing more to lose after you’ve already lost everything. Another lesson I learned from this season was that we love each other despite our flaws. The spell of shattered sight made people see the worst in each other. We all see everyone’s flaws but we still love each other. Our love for each other is stronger than our imperfections. We choose to love each other above everything, even our shortcomings. The second half of the season taught the lesson of second chances. Regina, Ursula and Maleficent stopped being evil and became good. They chose a new life. People can change and people deserve second chances. It’s never too late to change.

As Anna once said, “If you know you could win, it’s not a fight.  If it’s impossible, you have to fight to achieve it.”

As Regina Mills once said, “You did a terrible thing, but just because you made one bad move, or 30, doesn’t mean you can’t make a good one now.”