samantha24

Well obviously the QOD have nothing to do with her and the connection seems to be rumple but it does seem the show needed an easy way to bring Robin back to SB without marian.

koodles

Because QoD was just a marketing ploy...

There are really only two storylines in this arc - Changing the "rules" of heroes and villains in the storybook and the history of Snowing, Malificent, Emma and Lily.

If anything I feel like Ursala's purpose in the story was to show that villains can find happy endings through good means. Who knows how Cruella's storyline will be wrapped up in 18 but at this point her car is a bigger star than she is on this show.

scififan2009

The Queens of Darkness are just underwhelming. They're really just Rumple's pawns at this point. A means to an end. Maleficent is the only one he really needs. It's because of Lily and the spell connecting her with Emma.

Say what you want about Cora Pan Zelena and Ingrid, but at least they were nobody's pawns.

samantha24

I think the problem here is a case of too many villains and not enough time to write a proper story for they are way to time constraint because of frozen if they were going to do a story this involved they should have started before winter break which is why we get one episode per villain because they need to cram everyone in they had the QOD story with rumple, they had their story individually, the author, snowy, hook past, robin hood, zelena, then they have stuff with outlaw queen, captain swan, Rumbelle, scarlett beauty and of course rumple's plan all in a matter of 10 episodes that is a lot

phoenix_shine

Oy! I go to sleep and you guys get to another thread??? that was fast!! Tftnt!

Also, welcome here Clarice83 I hope you enjoy our company!

I don't think zelena was the "easy" way to bring Robin back. I think her existence and the fact that she is probably impersonating Marian and has been doing so ever since the beginning is more like a way for the writers to unite Regina and him without every hater yelling "He's cheating, he's cheating". Plus, Zelena was crazy powerful and a very intense character, let alone determined. She would only add to the QOD had she been included in that team, imo.

Gwen107

I agree with this and I wish they had written the story so that it would cover the whole season and not only 11 episodes because it is sometimes not enough to deal well with one villain and now they have 3 and Rumplestiltskin who is a villain again this season and now Zelena too. It is simply too much for less than 1 dozen episodes and then they have to rush some of it like Ursula's story and writing her out at the end of her centric episode already. I hope they will think about writing stories for 22 episodes again instead of 11 like in the first and second season.

About Marian as Zelena they said after the season 3 finale that there is more to the story of how Marian died than we saw in the finale and they would come back to this story and sometimes they say these things and nothing ever happens or they say it to make it look like they planned something for longer than they did, but I will let them finish this story with Zelena first and then I will judge. But I hope that it can clear up why Robin told Regina about how Marian died at the beginning of 3b and it did not match the finale of season 3 at all.

Randysgirl

Hi!

It's always fun to know the actors are friends off set. Hopefully, we'll get some great Hook/Hood moments down the road.

Tftnt!

phoenix_shine

If Marian follows Robin in Oz and never returns then it's quite possible he thought that Zelena was the one to kill her? It still doesn't make much sense considering that he never mentioned her in 3B, so yeah I think we just have to wait and see what kind of an explanation they come up with.

I do agree though that this is a story that would be so much better told in 22 episodes rather than just 11. I still cannot comprehend Frozen's existence...

Austenphile

Blame any inconsistencies on the altered timeline. Obviously the story told by Charming, Snow, Ruby and Henry at the beginning of the episode changed. Maybe the way Marian died or Robin thought she died changed too, especially if Zelena herself managed to time travel.

One thing is for sure. Robin never acted like he thought Marian was imprisoned or executed by Regina.

T'Lynn

I didn't pay attention to how Robin and Zelena interacted ... but now I'm definitely going to.

Whatever Robin thought he clearly didn't thin Regina was the reason that Marian died. I'm really hoping that will be explained this week. But that wouldn't have changed with the altered timeline since Marian was already presumed dead by the time Emma and Hook fell into the past.

Austenphile

I'm blaming any inconsistencies on the altered timeline whether they are or not. That way I am not drowning in the koolaid. I do think Zelena successfully travelled back right before Hook and Emma and that she did something to Marian.

DR76

I think that Ursula was nothing more than part of a marketing ploy and an excuse to muffle the complaints about how the show treats POC characters. Then they got rid of her as fast as they could.

koodles

Sadly I agree. One of the biggest problems with this show.

I agree with the discussion on the previous thread that it is very bizarre they changed Lily's ethnicity and I'm sure viewers are going to notice. Just because they are dyeing Agnes's hair dark doesn't make her look like the young Latina actress who played Lily as a child.

I think it's because they originally didn't plan for Lily to be Malificent's daughter (do they ever plan anything on this show? ) so then when they came up with that storyline for 4b they were forced to change her ethnicity. I think Lily was originally just meant to be someone who betrayed Emma in her past and they cast a Latina actress to add some diversity even though the character was short term.

scififan2009

I'm not so sure. They had the stuff with her star mark in and how she was adopted. They were leaving things open to use her again.

koodles

Perhaps, but I'm sure however they thought she might be used again it wasn't as Malificent's daughter. I mean you don't cast an obviously Latina actress to play a role and then cast a blonde white actress to play the older version of the character, dye her hair dark and then expect the audience to buy it. That's bordering on offensive IMO.

The only thing I can think of is that maybe Lily was always meant to be Malificent's daughter and was meant to have a Hispanic father, but maybe A&E had the scrap that part of the story so they just decided to change her ethnicity.