On the other hand, though, the fantasy world setting itself actually feels much richer and more morally complex. Snow White as a bandit, Cinderella as deal-maker rather than passive recipient, and strong evidence for moral struggle by the Wicked Queen–all of these are interesting additions. I wonder if, as you say, the fantasy world seems like a safer place, in some way, for the production team to locate these strong female characters.

I agree that there’s still hope for the show and am watching with you to see if our patience will be rewarded!

And, perhaps, these characters will get complicated over time–this is the blessing and the curse of serial storytelling. You have to get the character types out there early, but have plenty of time to develop them into shades of grey. Perhaps, eventually, we’ll see another side to the evil queen?

All of this to say–the post is great, precisely because it opens up interesting avenues for considering our own readings and interpretations of the series, and what they mean in a larger context.

I admit that I don’t take the same reading of either Grimm or OUAT that you lay out here, although your points are valid. To my mind, OUAT seems to undercut as many fairy tale stereotypes as it presents. I found Emma to be wonderfully “real,” despite her fairy tale origins as the daughter of Snow White. Her gruffness wasn’t overdone, and her eventual and reluctant choice to stay in Storybrooke to follow up on Henry’s concerns seemed genuine to me.

Part of the issue, I think, is that this is a series based on fairy tale stories, and thus has to adhere to fairy tale storytelling, to some degree. The evil queen has to present as…you know…evil in order to make the concept work. If she’s evil, then she’s only keeping Henry in order to keep her hold over Emma and, by extension, Snow White and the rest of her evil plot–not because she loves him. Fairy tales are difficult because they rely so heavily on simplified narrative tropes–the evil queen is evil. Period. We don’t have a second act moment of redemption, in which she realizes the error of her ways, or questions her motives and tactics. To my mind, despite being somewhat constrained by working within the genre they’ve chosen, the creators, writers, and actors seem committed to updating the narrative by adding in characters whose qualities we aren’t meant to immediately recognize (primarily Emma & Henry, although I’d argue that the inclusion of Jiminy Cricket and other less clearly-defined characters–what’s Red Riding Hood’s deal, really?–marks a similar move).

Sorry for the long response, but your analysis gave me a lot of food for thought–something I always appreciate!