I recently saw the ABC series "Once Upon a Time" for the first time. Okay, I started it on Sunday and finished it last night. 22 episodes to catch up on season 1, and then the season 2 premiere from Sunday night. The pilot was cheesy, I'll admit. But my interest was piqued. I have to say that the idea of having fairy tale characters living in our own world is fascinating. I mean, just how exactly would Prince Charming cope not being, well, a prince and living in a castle? How would some of the most evil characters in fairy tales cope with having to live in our world without their evil magic?
These questions were kind of tackled in the first season of the show. Of course, none of these characters remembered who they truly were when placed in our world. Only Emma, the show's heroine and daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, could make them remember who they really were. I absolutely had zero interest in this show when it first came on last year, pretty much casting it off as yet another occultic and demonic show (and a lot of shows DO fit this bill mind you). For whatever reason, I had an interest in seeing it. So, I found it on Netflix and decided to see it while it was on instant streaming. I could not stop watching it. I sat and watched at least 7 episodes in one sitting, one right after the other without stopping. The show isn't horrible; you've got your magic, and your spells, and your curses. And yes, sometimes those elements make me uncomfortable. But there is at least one valuable lesson that I've gleaned from the 23 episodes so far: unforgiveness can make you into a horrible and despicable person to be around. Regina is the perfect (or imperfect?) example of why forgiving people their mistakes is so important. Unforgiveness can eat away at the person that you are, causing you to be bitter, hateful, spiteful, and mean. The show explores, through every episode, why exactly Snow White was the object of the evil Queen's (Regina) wrath. Okay, maybe not in the context of the REAL fairy tale, but in the context of THIS show's storyline. Snow White broke a promise not to tell Regina's mother (a witch?) about Regina and Daniel (a stable boy that was Regina's true love) and their plan(s) to run away and marry, since Regina's mother wanted her to marry Snow's father the king. Regina's mother proceeds to rip out Daniel's heart and crush it, leaving him dead and Regina heartbroken (no pun intended). Regina discovers it was Snow who broke the promise, and makes her life miserable from that day forward. It is this unforgiven mistake that leads Regina down her path of getting revenge on Snow White, the person that she claims has "taken everything she loved away from" her. Of course, Snow is in the wrong for breaking a promise that she made, but Regina's mistake was allowing her unforgiving attitude towards Snow White erode the person that she was.
Because Regina, as we learn, was actually a nice person before marrying Snow's father. Before I move on, let me say I'm NOT making the case for the humanist argument that all people are basically good inside and/or that we're born good. Every person is born evil. Every person is born with a sinful nature. We're all born with a natural tendency to be mean, to be unforgiving, and to be spiteful. Regina was a caring, kind and [mostly] unselfish person before the incidents that led to her marriage to Snow's father. The show is barely into its second season, and there may be more moral lessons to glean from both season 1 and the season yet to come. But if there was any lesson that came out of season 1, it's that we cannot let past wrongs and injustices get the better of us and shape who we are. We usually turn into the type of person that nobody else can stand being around.
