An Update for #Kzoo2022

𝔖o it seems a sneak preview of the conference schedule for this year's International Congress on Medieval Studies is up, here. To follow up on earlier comments about the conference, it looks like the Society will be doing the following:

• Business Meeting, Monday, 9 May 2022, 7pm Eastern Daylight Time
• Roundtable: Twenty-First-Century Neo/Medievalisms, Thursday, 12 May 2022, 5pm Eastern Daylight Time
  

We hope you'll be able to join us for one or both events. At the former, there are three primary points of business to conduct:

• The determination of what panels, if any, will be proposed for the 2023 International Congress on Medieval Studies;
  
• The election of a Social Media Officer, 2022-2025; and
• The election of a Vice-President (USA), 2022-2025.

The last elections for those offices was conducted at the 2019 AGM. Duties for the offices are noted in the Society Constitution. Nominations, including self-nominations, may be sent to talesaftertolkien@gmail.com. 

Other business will be entertained as it is brought to the Society's attention. If there are points you'd like to consider at the meeting, please let us know! And, again, we hope to see you virtually at the 'zoo!

Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.9, "Queen of Hearts"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

---

2.9, "Queen of Hearts"

Written by Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz
Directed by Ralph Hemecker

Synopsis

Hey, we're back here again!
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Following a recapitulation of previous events in the series, the episode begins with a hooded figure ascending a metal tower. Upon being challenged by the guards, the hooded figure attacks, revealing himself as Hook and defeating opposition handily. Hook proceeds to where Belle is incarcerated, and he makes to release her in the effort to hinder Rumpelstiltskin. She offers no information, and Hook abandons her back to her imprisonment. Regina interdicts his killing Belle and commissions him to ensure Cora does reach the "land without magic."

Following the title card, the episode pivots to Regina and Gold keeping vigil over David. They confer about the likelihood of success against Cora--which Gold views as unlikely. He urges preventative measures against Cora's arrival be taken. Gold's methods risk Snow White and Emma, which Regina views as unacceptable.

I'm jealous of the pen-hand, actually.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Emma, Snow White, Mulan, and Aurora reach the cell where Rumpelstiltskin had been imprisoned, looking for the squid ink they will need to interdict Cora. Aurora uncovers a scroll bearing an unsettling message.

Henry reads to his grandfather from his book. Regina goes to confer with him, asking Henry to watch David while she and Gold make ready to enable Snow White and Emma to return. Smiling, Henry agrees, and Regina joins Gold in the tunnels beneath the town to collect magic via a wand stolen from an unmourned dead fairy.

In her castle, Regina enchants Hook's hook to take a single heart, charging him to retrieve Cora, aided by the guard he killed on the way to Belle--who will be the second body he needs to effect travel via Jefferson's hat. Regina dispatches him to Wonderland, where he is soon captured and brought before Cora. Hook attacks, finding that Cora has removed her own heart--and begins to take his, pressing him for information. He reports the errand Regina has sent him on, and she begins to interrogate him.

In Rumpelstiltskin's cell, Emma contemplates the scroll as her companions find there is no ink to be used. Aurora triggers the cell door, closing it as Cora and Hook emerge and take the compass. They move off to enact their plans, and Emma pleads unsuccessfully for Hook to hold back from it.

Ruby reports to the mines, where Leroy has marked the missing magic. Henry continues reading to his grandfather until Ruby and the dwarves interrupt, asking him about Regina and Gold's whereabouts. He joins the search for them as Emma works to free herself and her companions from captivity. They confer about their prospects, Snow White offering hope as she can as Emma doubts herself. Cora and Hook proceed to an enchanted lake, there to acquire the power they need to effect magical travel.

Should help, yeah.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In Wonderland, Cora commissions Hook to work against Regina by taking her to where she can rip out her daughter's heart. Hook delivers a seemingly dead Cora to Regina in the Enchanted Forest, who is unable to attack at her daughter's protestations of love. When Hook returns to Cora, she arranges to protect both of them from the coming curse, working a magical shield to protect a small area. The shield is efficacious, allowing Cora and Hook to proceed with their machinations.

Regina and Gold proceed to where Gold expects the arrival of Cora: the well outside town, a clear analog to the enchanted lake. Meanwhile, Emma, Snow White, Mulan, and Aurora continue to consider their situation, realizing belatedly that the ink remains--in the writing on the scroll. Snow White uses it to secure their escape, although Aurora remains behind, noting her condition makes her a risk to the others. Mulan vows to restore her heart and secures Aurora. Hook and Cora enact their ritual to travel between realms, opening a portal to Storybrooke. Regina and Gold note the opening portal and begin their own working, thinking to interdict Cora. Snow White, Emma, and Mulan arrive to interdict the pirate and Regina's mother. Mulan retrieves the heart and returns to Aurora, leaving her sword with Snow White. Emma defeats Hook.

Henry and company arrive to confront Regina and Gold. Regina tries to explain her reasoning to Henry, who does not accept the argument. Cora makes to take Snow White's heart, hindered by Emma, whose heart is somehow protected and who reflexively works magic against Cora. The way clear, Emma and Snow White proceed through the portal, where Henry rages against Regina as Gold looks on. His pleas win through to Regina, and she disables the barrier Gold has placed on the portal. Emma and Snow White emerge unharmed, to Gold's surprise and Henry's relief. Henry reports Regina's aid, and Emma thanks her, noting Cora's nature. Mary Margaret rushes to rouse David, her kiss restoring him. Gold returns to his shop, and Emma confers with him about the message he had left and his machinations. He acknowledges the limits of his powers, and she begins to realize her own.

Elsewhere, Mulan restores Aurora's heart to her; the two proceed to work for Phillip's restoration. Cora and Hook take stock of their situation and resume their machinations. Henry embraces Regina, though he goes with Emma instead of with her. Gold mocks her abandonment, and a new threat approaches from the sea, Hook and Cora sailing into Storybrooke.

Discussion

Given how many times I've commented about the architecture on display in the series, it shouldn't be a surprise that I do so again--this time to note the extravagant use of metal in a pseudo-medieval construction. The seemingly iron-plated tower of the opening sequence...the mind boggles, really. And, yes, it is the case that magic might circumvent a number of material concerns, the juxtaposition of constructions, particularly in such a one-off fashion as in the opening sequence...jars.

Surprisingly for a primetime mainstream broadcast program, the present episode does offer an interesting meditation on fate. Part of Emma's distress in the series to the present point--and it is not resolved in the present episode, to be certain--is her difficulty in accepting her role, one to which she is conceived and born, one for which she might well be called fated. The revelation of as much of Gold's machinations as emerge in the present episode and earlier ones does seem to point toward a deterministic universe within the series. So, too, does the conviction, repeatedly stressed, that good will win out over evil. That fate ever goes as it must--"Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel" as the scop sings--seems to be taken as a given by many of the characters.

But.

The present episode, as well as some others before (like this one), point to the idea that a person can, in fact, change, returning from what seems a fated end, if they advance bravely--that is, without certainty of reward. Regina works, with difficulty, to do right and have faith despite her fears, and she is not rewarded (yet, although there may well be a penitential strain at work in her storyline). Emma struggles with faith and hope, yet still moves forward, albeit with encouragement. And she shows in herself that the machinations that enmesh her--the workings that might be called fated--are not complete. While the idea of fate is far from new to the medieval mind--the Morai Clothos, Lachesis, and Atropos might like to have a word, among others--it was an idea current among them. So, too, was the idea that fate will sometimes preserve the noble one who faces it bravely--"Wyrd oft nereð / unfægne eorl, þonne his ellen deah," as the scop sings it. And, as a later writer remarks, it is said of one of the greatest kings that he changed his destiny, in the end.

Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.8, "Into the Deep"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

---

2.8, "Into the Deep"

Written by Kalinda Vazquez and Daniel T. Thomsen
Directed by Ron Underwood

Synopsis

After a recapitulation of relevant events, the episode opens with Hook descending the beanstalk, where Cora meets him. He reports his loss of the compass to her, but he reaffirms his commitment to their agreement. She rejects the affirmation and leaves him behind, returning to her collection of disembodied hearts and rekindling one to which several others respond. Those she had most recently slain rise at her command and shamble forward to do her bidding.

Beats a milk carton...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Emma presses Aurora about her dream-vision, finding that her Henry is in the sleeping-curse vision. Snow White puzzles out that the shared experience of the sleeping curse is what brings Aurora and Henry into contact, and an argument about full disclosure briefly ensues. Snow White notes that there is hope of return to Storybrooke--via communication through Henry with Rumpelstiltskin. Attempts to effect that communication ensue, and Henry reports the initial contacts via Aurora--and the coming need to best Cora.

Belle and Gold confer over lunch until interrupted by Regina. Conversation between Regina and Gold immediately grows strained as she reports the imminent return of Cora and the need to interdict it.

Work to coordinate interdiction and recovery efforts proceeds. Mulan notes that Aurora is showing the effects of the dream-realm upon her and objects to Aurora's participation, with the objection overruled. Regina and David look on as Gold attempts to work through Henry, narrating a means to subdue Cora via harvested squid ink secreted in his old jail cell. Henry attempts to pass on the message, although environmental conditions prevent its transmission; an attack demands Aurora be roused prematurely, the wights Cora sent assailing her, Mulan, Emma, and Snow White. In the melee, Mulan flees with Aurora, although they are soon separated; Snow White and Emma follow. Henry wakes and reports his failure, his own burns coming to attention.

In a hole in the ground...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Aurora finds herself Cora's captive. Cora notes her intention to use Aurora as bait for Snow White and Emma and chides Aurora for her desire to move ahead from the loss of Phillip. She also offers to resurrect the departed, occasioning only an angry outburst from Aurora. Cora casts her aside and sends a crow to inform Snow White, Emma, and Mulan of her demands. Mulan rages, and Snow White offers to travel to the dream-realm to retrieve information, and work to redeem Aurora from Cora proceeds.

Henry, Gold, Regina, and David confer about how to proceed. David recalls his wife having been under a sleeping curse and volunteers to go under one himself to effect his wife and daughter's redemption. Meanwhile, Hook redeems Aurora from captivity, citing his opposition to Cora after her refusal to take him with her. He sends her off with a message for Emma affirming that his deal with her remains in place, if she will accept it.

You're so vain, you prob'ly think this comment's about you...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

As Snow White, Emma, and Mulan proceed along their plans, Emma resolving to assign blame to Regina for events, she works on crafting a sleeping-curse draught for David. Henry asks her about her methods and her use of magic; he commends her use of it for helping people and her resolve. He also reasserts his desire to help, Regina refusing him and citing his grandparents' tendency to find one another. Gold explains the risks and procedures to David, and the sleeping-draught is completed and administered. Snow White and David enter the dream-realm together after some travail, and the needed information is relayed. That done, they are parted in sorrow, Snow White waking as Charming remains under the effects of the curse.

Henry, Regina, and Gold look on as David lingers under the curse. Snow rouses, however, reporting events in a frenzy. Emma calms and comforts her, but they realize that Mulan has stolen the compass and fled. She proceeds to where Cora had imprisoned Aurora--and Cora finds Hook has released Aurora. He notes having a gift for her, which she seems to appreciate. Aurora reaches Mulan, Snow, and Emma, and she reports events--under the influence of Cora, who holds her heart, Hook's gift. Efforts by all concerned proceed.

Discussion

The present episode, as several others working with the aftereffects of sleeping curses, works with the trope of the dream-vision to some extent. It's a point that has come up before, both in the present series and in others (here and here, for example), so it's not surprising that it manifests again--or that it would be reworked from its medieval antecedents. As in earlier cases, there is something of the deus ex machina at work in the present episode's rendering, but that's hardly uncommon for neo/medieval/ist works. So much seems to be the same as earlier treatments, though, so it's not something I can really add to at present; it's there, again, but it's there in the same way it's been there elsewhere...

Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.7, "Child of the Moon"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

---

2.7, "Child of the Moon"

Written by Ian Goldberg and Andrew Chambliss
Directed by Anthony Hemingway

Synopsis

There's one way to get a break...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Following a recapitulation of earlier events, the episode begins with the dwarves at work in the mines under Storybrooke. They reach the end of their workday, but Leroy resists leaving work, inadvertently opening a new tunnel in his dudgeon. David rushes to the scene, along with Henry and the Mother Superior, and they find that the found tunnel contains the diamonds that can be processed into the fairy dust they need for magic to function. Hope returns that Emma and Mary Margaret can be returned. Celebration ensues, and Ruby tends to the restaurant until she is met by a local with whom she had been enamored before the curse was broken. He asks to get to know her better, and she demurs out of concern for her lycanthropy. Meanwhile, Henry voices his concerns about nightmares, David offering comfort until he is confronted by George. A tense exchange follows, as do preparations for restraining Ruby.

Peter Jackson oughta sue somebody...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Ruby recalls escapades with Snow White in the Enchanted Forest, the pair fleeing in the night to evade Regina's forces. Her hood is damaged, and Ruby, as Red, frets about the implications, sending Snow White away out of concern for her safety. She remains struck by Snow White's kindness--and she is observed as she departs from her friend.

Granny returns to the restaurant the next morning to find that Ruby has escaped restraint--evidently as the wolf. To add to matters, in the night, Henry had again suffered a nightmare of a flaming room, seeing another figure within it; he is roused from the dream by Regina, present because David is answering an emergency call. She notes a burn on his hand--as David and Granny find Ruby asleep in the woods. She has no recollection of events and panics that she has caused harm; David tries to comfort her until he is summoned away.

In a hole in the ground there lived a...pack of wolves?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Back in the Enchanted Forest, Red wakes to find her cloak still functioning. It is soon stolen from her, and she pursues the thief through the woods. The thief, Quinn, confesses being a werewolf and presses her about her experiences and attempting to recruit her into the local lycanthropic community, living hidden in the forest in what "used to be the grand hall of a castle, until it sunk underground." She is struck by the organization of the community and is introduced to the local leader, Anita--her mother.

David conducts Granny and Ruby back to town. Along the way, he stops off to address a reported illegal parking job--where the three find the dismembered corpse of the local who had expressed interest in Ruby before. David refuses to accept that Ruby is culpable, but she calls for her own incarceration against the threat of a relapse.

Regina consults with Gold about Henry's injury. Gold notes that the nightmare is a side-effect of the sleeping curse--and that the scene of the nightmare is a spiritual realm that stands between the living and dead worlds. Henry has been traveling there, and Gold offers some assistance to Henry: a talisman that will allow him to control his presence in that realm. Curiously, Gold attaches no price to his aid.

Red and Anita confer, Anita noting that Granny had stolen Red from her and explicating the nature of their shared lycanthropy. She notes, too, that embracing her lupine nature is required for controlling it, and she offers to teach her how to do it. Red begins to study the technique--but Ruby is jailed, as she requested. George intrudes, demanding the surrender of Ruby to the mob. David refuses.

Red exults in her lupine exploits, prompted by Anita and the others. She wakes at peace among them--unlike in Storybrooke, where George incites a mob against Ruby and David. They break into the jail, only to find Ruby's cell empty, David having taken her to the library and restraining her. David tries to find proof of Ruby's innocence.

Snow White makes to rejoin Red and is captured by the other lycanthropes. Red intercedes, and Snow White is spared. She tries to take Red off, but Red seeks to remain among the other lycanthropes. Surprised, Snow accepts the decision and readies to part in amity from her friend--only to be interrupted by an attack that, while handily defeated, kills Quinn.

Belle remains with Ruby, trying to comfort her. Ruby restrains Belle and departs to face the mob in an act of atonement. Meanwhile, David and Granny stalk through the town to search out the actual killer. They find Ruby's hood and a bloody axe--in George's car. Ruby's howl summons them.

Well, there's your problem...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In the wake of Quinn's death, Anita determines that Snow White is to blame and must be made to pay for his death. Snow White is restrained in favor of being eaten after the moonrise. Red refuses to participate, and Anita moves to execute her prisoner. A brief melee ensues, leaving Anita impaled. Red sorrows over the accidental matricide.

In Storybrooke, the mob George has gathered pursues the transformed Ruby. David and Granny arrive in time to intervene, saving Ruby and revealing George's perfidy. George flees, Ruby and David pursuing him. They find him on the beach with a fire burning, into which he casts Jefferson's hat. Hope for the return of Mary Margaret and Emma dims.

Red and Snow White reconcile and continue on their quest. Ruby considers David as he considers Henry and the loss of a means of inter-realm travel, offering comfort before she returns to her wolf form. Mary Margaret and Emma consider their return to Storybrooke, and Aurora dreams of terror--until Henry offers comfort and she wakes to report what she has found.

Discussion

The present episode clearly follows up on "Red Handed" from the first season, and I find it echoing or resonating with Hobb's presentation in the Realm of the Elderlings novel of the Wit (associated with lycanthropy, as I've noted) as a metaphor for homosexuality (discussed here and following). Both cases concern themselves with is an inborn quality that meets with a lack of understanding and anger, prompting sometimes-violent, sometimes-armed oppression that leads those with that quality to suppress it to the extent they can among the broader community. Both also see focal characters mentored by scarred, stern foster-parents to enact that suppression. Both also serve as uniting forces of hidden / sequestered communities that dwell in hiding in the forests, bringing in wayward members that happen their way. Certainly, there are more parallels to explicate. Just as certainly, enough time passed between the first mention of the Wit and the presumable drafting of the present episode's script that the writing staff could be familiar with it, although I'm not aware of any direct connection and am not accusing the writers of cribbing--any more than any writer ever really does. An adage about ideas under the sun comes to mind...because, again, the lycanthropy serves as a (somewhat frustrated) metaphor for homosexuality.

The episode does not frustrate the metaphor quite as much, however, in that it falls into the same problem with its stand-in for homosexuality that it does with many, many other minority groups: it reinforces stereotypes, rather than rejecting them. Hobb's Old Blood are presented with nuance and sympathy, and while there are evil people among them, they are themselves a minority within that minority. In the present episode, the werewolves are, overall, evil, with Red the token "good one," and only that because she was raised outside the community. Indeed, the episode seems to be working in the racial-essentialist paradigm that pervades fantasy literature and the RPGs that emerge from it (if less now than previously). And while that paradigm is prevalent in medieval literatures and cultures (though less than is often assumed), and some might argue that "it's how it was, so you have to show it," other arguments--including many of those linked above--rightly point out that there's a limit to how "realistic" a work that includes overt magic and such creatures as dragons and lycanthropes can be. (And, again, things were far more complex and nuanced than is often admitted by the people who want to argue "That's how it is." Funny, that.)

If it's alright to bring in magic, it's alright to move away from harmful tropes, as well.

Once upon a Time Rewatch 2.6, "Tallahassee"

Read the previous entry in the series here.
Read the next entry in the series here.

---

2.6, "Tallahassee"

Written by Christine Boylan and Jane Espenson
Directed by David Barrett

Synopsis

After a recapitulation of events, the episode begins with Emma, Snow White, Mulan, Aurora, and Hook approaching the beanstalk that rises into the clouds. Emma questions the beans, Hook noting their history of misuse and a genocidal war against the giants who had cultivated and misused them. Hook also notes that one giant, the worst of them, remains and who must be addressed if the compass they need to get to Storybrooke is to be attained. Doubts are rightly raised about Hook's allegiances, and arrangements for the climb--which will only be done by Hook and one other--begin to be made.

Now that's a familiar face...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In the "real" world eleven years previously, Emma breaks into a yellow Volkswagon Beetle, stealing it. She is not alone, a man sitting up in the back seat behind her with the keys. As she drives, they confer, the man naming himself Neal Cassidy and propositioning her. They are pulled over by police, and Neal successfully bluffs his way out of trouble. As they recompose themselves from the near-arrest, Emma realizes Neal has also stolen the car.

At the beanstalk, the decision is made that Emma will ascend with Hook. Mulan offers Emma a powerful soporific and agrees to cut down the beanstalk if she is not back within ten hours of beginning her climb. Hook's hook is restored to him, and the ascent begins. It proceeds apace, Hook chatting amiably along the way, noting his history in Neverland and identifying her as having been abandoned and provoking Emma's reflection on her past.

In that past, she and Neal continue their criminal life together, conducting petty larcenies and fleeing shamefully. Neal suggests that they settle down and establish a more normal life together in Tallahassee. Emma voices some doubts but agrees.

Been there, done that.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

At the beanstalk, Mulan marks out time, and the three--she, Snow White, and Aurora--set up for watches. Snow White and Aurora take the first watch, conferring about their shared experience of sleeping curses. Nightmares are noted as a side-effect of such suffering, and Snow White offers to watch over Aurora against their return.

Emma and Hook reach the top of the beanstalk, entering into a ruined palatial landscape. Hook tends a wound on Emma's hand and notes the plan for retrieving the compass--which is simple enough, and amended by Emma, who stumbles into Hook's revenge plot.

In the past, Emma and Neal confer again, Neal noting that he is wanted on federal charges. He explains the theft, noting the location of the stolen merchandise to Emma and saying that he has to leave the country--alone. Emma rejects being separated from him, arguing him into her plan to stay with him amid their mutual admission of love for each other.

Atop the beanstalk, Emma and Hook bait the remaining giant into attacking them. They succeed, and Emma is able to deploy the powder she received from Mulan to put the giant to sleep. That done, they proceed towards the giant's treasures. Meanwhile, Mulan checks the time, and Snow White wakes Aurora from her nightmare, the setting of which is described--along with the presence of another within it. Snow White offers such comfort as she can, while Mulan considers what she may have to do.

There's another familiar face...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

In the past, Emma makes to retrieve the stolen merchandise about which Neal had told her, successfully gathering it back in. She delivers it and herself back to Neal, who makes off to fence the goods--save for one watch, which he clasps on Emma's wrist as he gives her directions for how to proceed. Neal is followed and apprehended--by August, who begins to enlist him in his plans for Emma. Neal is convinced to go along with the plan after seeing what August carries, and he abandons Emma to capture by the police. Months later, Neal meets with August again, conferring with him about Emma. Neal tasks August with delivering some small support to Emma and with summoning him if Emma succeeds in her task.

Atop the beanstalk, the search for the compass continues, hastened by the giant having reawakened. Emma and Hook attempt to take cover against the giant's angry entrance. The giant makes to crush Emma, and she flees again, successfully restraining him and retrieving the compass. She lets him live, the last of his kind, and he lets her escape--but not Hook, whom she restrains against the risk that she has misjudged him. Meanwhile, Mulan begins to fulfill Emma's charge to her, beginning to cut down the beanstalk and provoking an attack that is stopped only by Emma's return with the compass. The four head out.

In the past, Emma receives the keys to the Volkswagon and the news of her pregnancy. In Storybrooke, Henry wakes screaming from a nightmare, and David attends to him as he had been described as doing for Snow White before. The nightmare Henry describes echoes that Aurora had described to Snow White...

Discussion

Feels like Otranto...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

I find myself once again struck by the architecture on display, the present episode making substantial use of Gothic tropes in its presentation of the giants' domain. I'd very nearly lay money that the writers or illustrators had recently read Walpole, honestly--but that would itself be an example of a somewhat distributed neomedievalism, with Walpole's novel and the genre it inspires both making much of the crumbling walls and towers of centuries past. That the present episode deploys such tropes--though it does not fully engage with them, using them more as window-dressing than in any structural way--reinforces the prevailing neomedievalism at work in the series. It also suggests. that mainstream presentations of the same (and how much more mainstream can a thing be than a Disney-produced primetime broadcast serial?) are necessarily shallow--which is not much of a surprise, really.

It is tempting, given the persistent misuse of neo/medieval/ist tropes and figurations, to decry popular audiences as "not getting it." It's easy enough to do, certainly, even from so far "inside" academe as I remain, and I find that I have to work to avoid doing it. But that's work that needs doing no less than the work of getting things right or the work of creating a more just and equitable world. With shallow presentations being the norm, and people constrained by material conditions, it is not to be wondered at that prevailing understandings are cursory even when they do align with fact--though, given rampant compression of ideas, that's not so often as can be hoped.