People you may have forgotten were on Once Upon a Time

It's been a year since the final episode of Once Upon a Time aired, and while even casual viewers may be aware of Sebastian Stan or Jamie Dornan appearing on the show, here's a look at some of the actors/characters that many casual viewers may have forgotten or not known had appearances. This list features specifically actors best known for other pieces of pop culture.

Tom Ellis as (Magically Disguised) Robin Hood - 2x19

Marilyn Manson as the voice of the Shadow - 3x08

Brad Dourif as Zoso - 1x08, 4x04

Emma Caulfield as the Blind Witch - 1x09, 5x12, 5x13, 5x16, 5x18, 5x20, 5x21

* The character also appears in the novel, "Regina Rising"

Christopher Gorham as Walsh - 3x12, 3x16, 3x20

Alexandra Metz as Rapunzel - 3x14

David De Lautour as Jonathan - 3x18

John Rhys-Davies as Grand Pabbie - 4x01, 4x06, 4x07

Jonathan Whitesell as Hercules - 5x13

Craig Horner as The Count of Monte Cristo - 6x02

Alex Désert as Stanum, the Tin Woodman - 6x18

Robin Givens as Eudora - 7x05, 7x12

Ehren Kassam as Young Kay - 5x04

Manny Jacinto as Quon - 2x18

Lesley Nicol as Johanna - 2x15

David Nykl as Fisherman - 2x10

Daniel Dae Kim as the voice of Fast Food Worker - 4x12

A Story on Privilege (Bilingual Edition) / Un cuento acerca de los privilegios (Edición Bilingüe)

The Ostrich and the Vulture
El avestruz y el buitre

In a faraway land, a tall tree bears golden apples that give the eater the power to fly.

En una región lejana, un árbol alto da manzanas doradas que dan al comedor el poder de volar.

These apples only grow on the highest point of the tree.

Estas manzanas crecen solamente en el punto más alto del árbol.

An ostrich named Struza treks through the woods in search of the powerful tree.

Un avestruz que se llama Struza camina por el bosque buscando el árbol poderoso.

A vulture named Grib flies through the woods. He also searches for the apples.

Un buitre que se llama Grib vuela por el bosque. Él también busca las manzanas.

"Where are you going?" Grib asks the ostrich.

-¿Adónde vas? - Grib pregunta al avestruz.

"I'm on my way to find the golden apples," she says.

- Estoy de camino a encontrar las manzanas doradas - ella dice.

Grib flies away from Struza, but follows her without her seeing him.

Grib deja a Struza volando, pero la sigue sin que ella lo vea.

Struza finds the tree. Because Grib has followed her, he also knows the location.

Struza encuentra el árbol. Como Grib la ha seguido, él también sabe la ubicación.

Struza struggles to reach the top. She tries to jump and fly but cannot reach the apples.

Struza lucha alcanzar la copa. Trata de saltar y volar pero no puede alcanzar las manzanas.

She sees Grib flying to the top, taking one of the apples.

Ve a Grib volando hacia la copa, tomando una de las manzanas.

"Hey!" says Struza. "Could you pass one to me?"

-¡Oye!- dice Struza, - ¿Me puedes pasar una? 

"Why would I do that?" asks Grib.

¿Por qué haría eso? pregunta Grib.

"I can't reach it," says Struza. "I can't fly as high as you, nor can I climb."

-No puedo alcanzarla - dice Struza. - No puedo volar tan alto como tú, ni sé subir.

"If I can reach the top of this tree without any help, then so can you. "

- Si yo puedo alcanzar la copa de este árbol sin ayuda, pues tú también puedes.

"But I already told you that I'm not built like you!"

- ¡Pero ya te he dicho que no soy construida como tú!

"Not my fault if you can't fly."

- La culpa no tengo yo si tú no sabes volar.

"Ostriches usually can't fly, but if you help me have an apple, then I'll fly like you."

- Los avestruces usualmente no saben volar, pero si me ayudas a conseguir una manzana, volaré como tú.

"I'm not sure I like the idea of that."

- No estoy seguro si me gusta esa idea.

"Why do you need the apple anyway? You already have the power to fly.”

- Por cierto, ¿Por qué necesitas la manzana? Ya tienes el poder de volar.

"I just need more power to make sure my flying abilities don't get taken away."

- Es que necesito más poder para asegurarme que no me quiten las habilidades de volar.

Grib flies away with faster flight than before. Struza stays on the ground.

Grib se marcha volando con más rapidez que antes, Struza queda en el suelo. 

Tale as Old as 25 Years: Bully for a Villain

Disney's Beauty and the Beast turns 25 and soon there will be an upcoming live-action film. (This article will not be talking about the Once Upon a Time interpretation because of reasons...)

In this article I talk about the villain of the film (who isn't talked about much compared to other villains like Ursula and Jafar, and arguably doesn't deserve much credit due to his bullying nature.) Unlike many villains who have a sensational or magical disposition/look, Gaston is represented very much as an alpha male (quite distinct from Captain Hook or Dr. Facilier for example.) While everyone knows without a doubt that Hades (from Disney's Hercules) is a monstrous villain, most of the characters don't see Gaston that way at all.

To be honest, Beauty and the Beast isn't really a villain driven film. The main plot of Belle meeting the Beast is mostly independent of the sub-plot involving Gaston until the end of the film when he riles up the villagers in a mob song to attack the Beast in a nearby castle that they didn't believe existed because of reasons. They don't like what they don't understand because of reasons.

Belle is smart enough to see right through Gaston and figure out that he's the real monster and yet none of the villagers see that. They love him (especially the three silly girls). He's majorly loves himself and the villagers seem to agree with him. He believes he's entitled to what he wants and no matter how much of an ignorant "how can you read this? there's no pictures" man or chauvinist ("It's not right for a woman to read") boar he is, people still view him as a hero while Belle sees him as primeval. (When I was younger I thought she said "prime evil"...)

Note that for the purpose of this article, I decided not to put any pictures of this man. What's amazing is how many people have seen this film for the first time who because Gaston is portrayed as an alpha male and not a typical cartoon or theatrical villain, there are many people who may not have figured out right away that Gaston was necessarily a villain at all.  There were probably many who did not see the belligerent signs and only figured out that Gaston was a villain after he wanted to harm the Beast. And that's only because we spent most of the film feeling sympathy for the Beast and discovering the real monster of the story.

OUAT: 5 Seasons

In the past I've written posts about one of my most loved TV series, so I thought I would write another article, especially in response to the loose ends and other things mentioned in those articles.

First of all... here was my (totally '90s) thought to the plot reveal
of the Season 5 finale of Once Upon a Time.

If you've never seen The Pagemaster, this is probably not much of a spoiler. Be warned if you don't want spoilers for things that have happened during the first five seasons of Once Upon a Time.

Here is the latest OUAT article I wrote last year.
http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2015/07/once-upon-time-beyond.html

Since then one minor loose end was formed which was a question that has existed since Episode 1x17 (Hat Trick), which was how Regina's father ended up a prisoner in Wonderland. Despite people's head-canons that it could have taken place during Cora's flashbacks in the Season 4 episode "Mother"... it turned out that Cora returned from Wonderland a different time as seen in the flashback for 5x12 "Souls of the Departed" where Regina has drama with both of her parents. We also saw a flashback that (although felt a little like retcon) showed Cora's relation to Zelena, and I'm glad that we saw some of Regina's childhood (although it did not answer the loose end of what happened to King Xavier's kingdom.)

I also enjoyed seeing Camelot in the first half of the season, since there had been hints of it in the past few seasons, for example we saw a sort of prequel to 4x12 "Heroes and Villains" with the gauntlet, and we also saw the return of Lancelot... although I admit I was a bit disappointed how he was written out as well as his situation with Guinevere. I was glad that we got to see Mulan and Ruby again and more of Oz, and I hope we haven't seen the last of them! I also hope we haven't seen the last of Maleficent and Lily, because I feel there were still loose ends on that end as well.

Although it's not likely, I would like to find out (even if it's resolved in a book or something) some explanation to the anomaly of Will Scarlet's appearances as a starring character in Season 4. He was introduced as if we'd find some big reveal with him, but he didn't do much... I think the Sorcerer's Hat had more screen time (and more plot significance) than he did in Season 4. For people who didn't watch the spinoff "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland"... the character must have been a mystery.... for those of us who did watch the spinoff, it's a mystery what happened to Anastasia and why he left Wonderland. Now that the Merry Men have left, we may never know. Also what happened to Rapunzel? lol (A character self-contained in Episode 3x14 "The Tower")

http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2014/06/questions-on-once-upon-time.html

Above is a list of questions I made after Season 3.... Question 3 did get answered in a major way of course, concerning Zelena and Cora.

Also...

Question 11 - We did find out what happened to Mulan (who had a storyline in DunBroch) 

Question 13 - Answered in 5x12

Question 14 - Not answered lol 

Question 16 - We did get to see what happened to Dorothy and the Silver Slippers! 5x16/5x18

Of course since then a whole lot of other questions have come up...

Also I'm glad we got to see the Dragon again! I wonder what the Evil Queen will do with his heart and what other new characters and dangerous situations involving magic we will see next season!

Book Reading: The Once and Future King

This weekend I started reading T.H. White's The Once and Future King which includes the several volumes of The Sword in the Stone, The Queen of Air and Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight and The Candle in the Wind.

The Disney animated film, The Sword in the Stone, is based on the first book, and the musical/film Camelot, produced during the same era, is based on the later parts. Let's see how it works out reading all of these pages!

Once Upon a Time: Beyond

Here is the cover for the Once Upon a Time comic book Out of the Past, which ABC/Marvel released this spring. Unlike the previous comic book, this one divides itself into four separate stories focusing on Killian Jones (Hook), Rumple/Belle, Regina and Jefferson (The Mad Hatter). I enjoyed Jefferson's Wonderland story the most. Plus we also see a little bit of Camelot in Jefferson's story, which will be a major setting next season.

Last year I wrote an article talking about loose ends and things I wanted to see for Season 4. As we stand in the middle of summer with about 70 days left until the Season 5 premiere, now would be a good time to see what came true. Spoiler Warning if you have not caught up to the end of Season 4!

Here is the article:http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2014/06/questions-on-once-upon-time.html

Note that many of these loose ends involve withheld information that the show may never reveal, which probably the case for 1-6 and several others. For number 7 it is mentioned/implied how Hook and Baelfire left Neverland, but we never actually saw such flashbacks. For this article, I will comment on the questions that did have at least a partial answer.

13. How did Regina’s father, Henry, end up a prisoner in Wonderland? (Is he “The King of Hearts”?) 
In episode 4x20 "Mother" many have suspected that the flashback scenes with Cora occur around the same time that Cora took Henry,Sr. to Wonderland although we did not see it onscreen. I also loved hearing a mention to the White Rabbit which confirmed the theory that Cora did indeed know him. 
18. What is the full back story to Maleficent and her relationship with Aurora and Phillip?
We did not see the full back story, but we did see a lot of Maleficent. I wrote this question before hearing the news that Maleficent would return for a major story arc. Most of Maleficent's flashbacks focused on her history with Snow White and David as well as Regina and Rumple (and Cruella and Ursula and what Snow and David did to her). It has not been announced if Maleficent will return next year but we may find out more about her next season. 

19. How was Ariel’s relationship with her family under the sea?
We did see Ariel one more time in Season 4, but not her family. Instead, we saw Ursula's relationship with her father Poseidon, which had strong parallels to Ariel and King Triton. 

20. How will Elsa/ The Snow Queen fit into OUAT?!!!
It's funny that when I wrote this article, I did not know that Elsa and the Snow Queen would be two separate characters, I was just referring to the original fairy tale. We found out a lot during Season 4A, including Emma's involvement in the sister story. 

One question that I did not write in this article, but something I and many other Oncers thought was the identity of the author of the storybook, which turned out to be a major issue in Season 4!

I also wrote this article:
http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2014/09/once-upon-time-returns-in-less-than-week.html

I wrote about the characters I wanted to see return. Not only did we see Zelena again, but she returned in a big way. We saw a little bit of Oz again and found out that Will Scarlet once lived in Oz and that's where he met Robin Hood. Zelena will also return in Season 5 as a series regular. Robin Hood will also be an official regular, however Will will no longer be a starring cast member, however I still don't know if he will return as a guest star, considering the big plot holes with his character.

As mentioned before, we did see Maleficent return as I had hoped and a little bit of Aurora, but only a little and no Phillip. We definitely saw some of Emma's foster families and in the comic book Out of the Past, mentioned above, we met Priscilla, Grace's mother. Also in Season 4 we saw Ashley (Cinderella) appear in an episode, as well as Cora. Next Season we will see Lancelot again and Merlin too!

One of the most hated villains...

Earlier I wrote an article about what makes someone horrible.

http://bennyrotondi-smith.blogspot.com/2015/06/a-horrible-person-but.html

The limitations were that
A) No violence
B) No magic curses
C) No derogatory slurs

I made a number of points on this topic, but I overlooked one major detail. I won't describe in words this characteristic, but instead show different interpretations of one character, who actually fits the shoe on this personality.

P.S. The character may be horrible, but these actresses played her wonderfully!

Once Upon a Time Returns in Less than a Week!

[SPOILER ALERT]
As you know, earlier I made a post back in June
about some unanswered questions that are still held
over since Season 3 ended. Let's see how many of the 20 questions are answered next season!

Last season dealt with an Oz theme (although Oz only actually appeared in 2 episodes) and focused on the Wicked Witch of the West and the mystery of the gap year. Rumple apparently destroyed her but will she return (at least in flashbacks)??

Zelena, The Wicked Witch of the West

One thing I did not include was what happened to Jefferson and who is Grace's mother and how was she lost? This of course is because unfortunately Sebastian Stan, who plays Jefferson, like Jamie Dornan, has been busy with many film projects. We all know what happened to Sheriff Graham/The Huntsman, but what Jefferson is doing is quite a mystery.

Jefferson, The Mad Hatter

The Huntsman (Sheriff Graham) 

Of the 20 questions I placed, we all that number 20 will definitely be a main issue when the season begins!

We will also see a return of Sidney Glass/ The Magic Mirror, who as we know, was also a Genie of Agrabah. But was he Aladdin's genie? (Making the presumption that Aladdin exists in the OUAT universe). In the Wonderland spin-off there were several different genies, so I wonder if any of them are connected with Aladdin or if Jafar had any connection to an Aladdin character or perhaps connected to any other OUAT character (such as Cora, Regina, Rumple, etc.) It would be amazing to see him return!

Sidney Glass/The Magic Mirror/Genie of Agrabah 

Jafar 

Speaking of the Wonderland spin-off, Will Scarlet/ The Knave of Hearts (the first one) will be appearing as a character this season on the regular Once Upon a Time. We know he had a history with Robin Hood and the merry men. I wonder who else!

Robin Hood with Will Scarlet, The Knave of Hearts

I also wonder what happened to some of the other Oz characters.

Glinda, The Witch of the South

Walsh, The Wizard of Oz

Dorothy Gale

And then there are other characters we haven't seen much lately, whom I'd love to see return (at least in flashbacks)

Mulan

Aurora

Prince Philip 

Maleficent 

Rapunzel

Cinderella (Ashley) 

Tinker Bell

Lancelot

Cora, the Queen of Hearts

Another interesting point is when we have cases where characters have been specifically mentioned (not necessarily by name but mentioning them beyond simple implication) but haven't yet appeared (as far as we know)

* The Black Fairy
* King George's Late Wife
* The mother of Grace/Paige (Jefferson's daughter)
* Merlin
* Emma's foster family (families)
* And Probably more to come and others I've forgotten!