Science Fiction — just obey the rules
I don’t watch a lot of science fiction, don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good light saber fight as much as the next guy, but it never fails to disappoint. My other half tells me I need to “suspend disbelief” but actually what’s needed is to let go of any desire that things make sense, or add up. I was reminded of this most recently while trying to kill a few lockdown hours watching Once Upon a Time, a fantasy show set in The Enchanted Forest and Storybrook blending fairytale characters such as Snow White and Red Riding Hood, and a reality where magic doesn’t exist brought about by a curse from the Wicked Queen. So far, so diverting. And for around one and a half seasons it was going okay, the rules are that in The Enchanted Forest magic exists, magic always comes at a price and, well anything goes really, magic beans, straw spun into gold, werewolves etc. etc. In Storybrook, until the curse is lifted, magic does not exist… No magic. Full stop.
Well, until we get to season two, episode 18, that is, then, because it suits a particular story ark this is thrown out of the window, suddenly the queen is able to control the Sheriff using the heart she extracted years ago while in the Enchanted Forest. Okay you may say, but the curse was lifted at the end of season one, magic can exist. And you’d be right, well done for concentrating… except we are in flashback mode, back to way before our story begins and the curse is lifted. So now we are in a universe where the rules say magic doesn’t exist, but somehow the mayor can control the Sheriff by whispering onto his heart… pretty magical if you ask me. Bad enough, but the deal breaker for me is the extended implicates of this, and how this makes a mockery of everything else that happens, and why, if you break the rules you defined, you ruin everything.
When Emma comes to town , season one, episode one, the Sheriff makes her his deputy, the Mayor is not happy, and does everything she can to get rid of Emma. Except we now know she could have just got out the heart and told the Sheriff to run her out of town. If you can control the Sheriff why allow any of the events of season one, why let him find your vault, or fall in love with Emma, you own his heart! And if that magic exists, what else will suddenly be “allowed” because it suits you?
What’s particularly annoying here is its avoidable and lazy. They could easily have found a different way to resolve this story line, using magic was the quick fix, as it so often is. Not sure how to jump from one time line to another, or defeat the supposedly unkillable monster, oh here’s a magic sword we forgot to mention earlier, or “oh that rule doesn’t apply now/here”.
When Sci-fi/fantasy is done well it can be tremendous fun, but make someone only be able to fly/disappear/move objects etc. only when it suits the story, no thank you. Create a world, set the rules, then stick to them, and if you don’t, you’d had better think through the consequences.
