Bring It On Storybrooke

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen last Thursday's episode of The Vampire Diaries or last night's episode of Once Upon a Time, please leave the blog and come back later. There will be spoilers. Also, a minor spoiler for next week's Once Upon a Time. I consider it minor if it's revealed in the teaser, trailer? Whatever, it's minor.

The Vampire Diaries - "Bring It On" - Review

So... this episode we got Elena essentially being soulless, Caroline finally realizing Tyler's not coming back, and Klaus and Hayley attempting to manipulate each other. It was... filler as far as I'm concerned. Everyone needed to cool off after the whole "Finding the cure" thing and deal with their issues before the next Big Bad thing.

I enjoyed "emotionless" Elena less than I thought I would. Also, slightly annoyed they kept calling it "emotionless" because A) it was her humanity turned off and B) Elena had emotions. Those emotions just weren't colored by all of Elena's guilt. The way Nina Dobrev played "emotionless" Elena gave me Katherine flashbacks. I felt like the setting and everyone (meaning just Caroline and Stefan) stressing over her made it hard for "emotionless" Elena to really be the best of what "emotionless" Elena could be. She's essentially shown to have a "Want. Take. Have." mentality, to borrow a phrase from Buffy: The Vampire Slayer.

Stefan and Caroline were rather boring this episode. I felt no connection to them. They're both mourning the loss of their lovers and babysitting Elena. Neither of them made any kind of attempt to understand "emotionless" Elena. They just kept telling her she wasn't herself. And no, I did not buy Stefan's apparent change of heart before he vervained Elena. It's no wonder Elena went off on them over it. I didn't even feel for Caroline at the end. It was just... okay, she can stop calling Tyler over and over now.

I enjoyed the small bits we got with Damon and Rebekah. They're my favorite characters right now and seeing them interact was fun. I especially liked how Damon told Rebekah why she didn't really want to be "cured." That was a brilliant moment. On a side note, I'm watching Lost and I just can't take Boone seriously because of Damon. I end up breaking into fits of laughter when he shows up.

Anyway... last but not least, we have Klaus and Hayley. I've made it quite clear how much I despise Klaus, so I won't go into that again. Hayley... I don't like her. She falls very flat, in my opinion. Their interaction was serious filler. Yes, we get she'd been working for Katherine. Yes, we get that Klaus apparently knows about her family. But that was it.

So, not much else to say about this episode. It was a rest point between Big Bads. Looks like the Big Bad is going to be Silas. I'm sure we'll find that out for sure this week.

Once Upon a Time - "Welcome to Storybrooke" - Review

This was definitely more interesting than last week's episode, even if it was rather basic. Even the "surprise reveal" wasn't much of a surprise to me after the rest of the episode.

During "Welcome to Storybrooke" we get the backstory to Greg Mendell and Regina's idea to have a son all wrapped up in a nice bow. We still don't know how Regina got Henry, but we do know why she wanted him. Something to break up the monotony of her existence. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the fact that "Greg" hasn't sought out Regina, especially since he filmed her doing magic. However, I thought he came across as very creepy during his present day interactions.

As for present day Regina, I'm still not happy with her. That sudden turn during the last story arc just ruined her for me. It was really obvious she wouldn't end up actually casting the curse, too. She apparently learned nothing during that scene with Henry and the cupcake at the beginning of the season. Or else anything she did learn got killed during her time with her mother.

Past Regina was kind of fun to watch. I thought the way Lana Parrilla portrayed Regina being really happy with the way the curse worked out was positively amusing and then as she got bored with the monotony, it made me grin even more. I thought the way Regina got really attached to Owen was a) really quick and b) kind of sweet. That she got so attached that quickly was just kind of... odd.

Last stop for this review is Snow. I'm not sure I really buy her never having killed anyone before. Or at least, she apparently didn't see any of those kills as being as big as Cora's. They were at war in the Enchanted Forest, what did she think was going on exactly? I didn't like her reaction to essentially killing Cora nor her going to Regina asking for death. That would not have solved anything, in fact it would have made things worse had Regina gone through with it. I also don't think Snow's going to become evil. Her massive guilt over Cora's death is proof of that to me.

So, I can't wait till next week. The ball will be fully rolling again and I can't wait. Also, looks like August is going to be back! Yay!

Obelisk War Update

The war is apparently over. The Neopets team hasn't told us who's won yet. We're apparently having a breather. Can't say I'm sad to see the constant Battledome-ing stop.

Love ya, Jessie.

PS. Whoops, forgot my emoticon the first time.