One of my favorite TV programs is ONCE UPON A TIME and I particularly enjoy the way many fairy tale characters and people from other fantastical stories are introduced – they’re never quite what you expect. The fun starts there!
I’ve thought long and hard about which fairy tale character I’d be, if I popped up suddenly in OUAT. My decision is – (blare of trumpets and drum roll) – Elisa the Wild Swan Princess from Hans Christian Andersen. No, not THE Swan Princess from Grimm’s Fairy Tales and the animated movies. Not even the lady from Swan Lake. Elisa was an ordinary princess with eleven brothers. The inevitable wicked witch who married her less-than-observant-Father turned the boys into swans. They could only be human at night.
Next the witch tried to turn Elisa to the dark side….um, I mean to be evil, but our girl was too strong minded for that, even at the age of 15. So, the brothers flew her to another land for safekeeping. The Queen of the Fairies advised Elisa to gather nettles in graveyards at night and weave them into shirts for her brothers. (Can’t you just hear Mr. Gold whispering “All magic comes with a price, dearie?”). Elisa can’t utter a single word the entire time she’s making these shirts, or the brothers will die. (I’d say all magic is kinda convoluted too!)
The Archbishop of the land decides this activity means Elisa is a witch herself. The king falls in love with her but somehow lacks the power to commute her sentence and save her. Hmmm. She keeps knitting those nettles into sweaters right up to the last second. (HOW does one knit a nettle??? Time for research!) The brothers swoop down and save her from burning at the stake, she gives them their shirts and they transform back to handsome young men (ah, the sequels)….but the youngest brother is left with a swan’s wing for one arm because she didn’t have time to finish his shirt.
Elisa faints from all the stress (into the handsome-if-a-bit-ineffective King’s arms, I HOPE) and the brothers launch into the complicated backstory. While they’re talking and the townsfolk are oohing and aahing (and the bad guy is creeping away presumably), the logs piled around that nasty stake burst into flowers. (I demand roses!) The king plucks one rose and asks Elisa to forgive him and to marry him and you can guess the rest.
So that’s me, folks, and I feel quite sure that I would have been behind the dry cleaner’s counter in Storybrooke when the TV show first came on the air, and could have done a mean set of alterations on shirts!
What fairy tale character would you like to be?
3 comments:
Before the series came on air I would have probably said one of the princesses...But I find myself aligning with The Queen...I can be a bit naughty myself, so maybe I'm a bad girl deep down
Sleeping Beauty was always a favorite of mine. But I was really disappointed with Aurora when she showed up on the show. Aside from the love triangle thing with Mulan, she's been a bit weak so far. I'd love more backbone besides one or two pivotal lines.
I know what you mean about the Queen of the show - she's fascinating! And, Beth, yes I was sort of disappointed in that whole triangle on OUAT. The writers do like to surprise and confound us!
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