Fairy tale mash-ups isn't something new, Shrek has done it, all four movies( five if you count in the spin-off, Puss in Boots), both Hoodwinked and Hoodwinked too, we even have our local Magika, the tenth kingdom in all its 10 hour glory and a lot more, but these are by far the most mashed and mixed I can think of. So, when I found out there was a fairy tale mash up TV series currently running, I kind of expected redundant possibilities and dull fairy tale impersonations, but I was wrong- deeply wrong.

Once Upon a Time is the most awesome fairy tale mash up ever. Seriously, I never thought altering that much universes was even possible. Everything's brilliant, I simply love how everything isn't in chronological order. The main universe starts at the beginning, but the fairy tale verse started with the curse and kind of reversed it's order and mismatch in every episode, like joining all the puzzle pieces altogether one at a time, everything was like unraveling the answer to the ultimate riddle: What if all fairy tale characters were to come alive and lived in our world where their happy endings are taken away from them?

I've gotta say, this is one of those rare TV shows where I practically grew fondment towards each character, as in EACH character, including the evil queen. I even like both Prince Charmings, I don't usually do. They tend to look utterly plastic and materialistic, but somehow the Prince Charmings in this show are indeed in fact...charming, especially James- well until they pushed him into an unloved marriage with the daughter of King Midas, he was my favorite character, but guess what, I've given that title to none other than.... Rumplestiltskin!

To be honest, Rumplestiltskin is actually one of my least favorite fairy tale, the first time I knew the story was when I read about it in a book at a library, I was about 5 so it was quite late, compared to the other fairy tales whereby I've known about them since I could ever remember. I couldn't find any moral from it, starting with an irresponsible father selling out his daughter, a helpless woman pathetically trying to live up to that expectation, and a creature suddenly pops up and makes things better in return for a price, and the more she exceeded the expectations, the limit gets higher, the more expensive the price gets. And the girl was able to get away with her mounted debt just by having a tattle tail who eavesdropped on Rumplestiltskin singing. He ends up dead.

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the story of Rumplestiltskin was merely for entertainment. The closest thing of a moral that I could find in the story is how important your name is. Throughout the whole story, none of the characters were given a name, no names or even the subject of the matter was mentioned until the climax where Rumplestiltskin makes the final deal. The ultimate deal, that all the girl's debt will be settled for one condition, and by the time people are reading,(or listening, or watching), everyone's curious of what the creature wants and when it's finally revealed that he wants the girl to guess his name, everyone's puzzled.

I've never encountered a book, or a movie- story in general that prioritizes names so much(except for spirited away, but that's like a metaphor for identity, so that doesn't count), as Rumplestiltskin \. As much as it's a fairy tale, somehow it kind of felt as if there's a deep psychological meaning behind the story especially the character of Rumplestiltskin himself, and I like the fact that Once Upon a Time features a very developed character of Rumplestiltskin as the series progresses. At first, I thought he was just a single episode character that's not that important, turns out he's the most important character in the whole series I dare say.

He's always so creepy and powerful, like there's always something up his sleeve, but he's kind of mysterious and honestly, quite charismatic (when he's Mr. Gold that is, he looks crazy when he's Rumplestiltskin). He has this vast ego and confidence inside him, so when there was an episode that showed Rumplestiltskin pre-imp all human, losing his son, it was heart-breaking, I started looking at him in a new light, and then the Belle episode happened, and I'm  heads over heals for this guy. 

So turns out, Beauty and the Beast was altered entirely in this series that it almost looked impossible, but they pulled it off. And I think it's one of the most mind-boggling fairy tale mash ups ever. Seriously, Rumplestiltskin as the beast? That was pure awesome. The way he slowly fell in love with Belle and how he denied his feeling, and when he lost her and the queen told the tragedy that came after, he cried. Can you believe that? He cried! For losing Belle! You have to watch from the start, his heart is so hard and empty, you'll think he's not capable of any emotions whatsoever. Turns out he was willing to give his name to madame mayor in return for a simple chipped cup by Belle. If that's not true love I don't know what is. The only thing that bothered me is the fact Belle has an accent. Why does she have an accent? She's supposed to be a commoner in a remote village dreaming of travelling from the numerous books she's read. Her having a British accent defeats that purpose entirely. On the other hand, I really like Rumplestiltskin's accent. It fits his witty lines very well. 

On a side note, Akah wrote a fairy tale mash up script for a school play way back when we were in Form 5, we were on a ride back to Shah Alam from Bookxcess when the idea came about mashing up which fairy tale with which, and it was customized to fit our classmates so it was a very fun brainstorming session. We ended up not doing it, everyone was too busy and the time was too little and the play was too long, but the script is undeniably very funny and witty I just have to share it. It's called The Fellowship of the Pathetic Heros, written by Syafiqah Othman. Enjoy :)