Well, we asked for world-building, and we got...well, in the words of Hermes Conrad, "That just raises further questions!" So, in the EF, Dwarfs are a whole, one gendered slave race that are hatched from an egg (and the eggs come from where exactly?) in clothes and already fully grown, and they are instantly given a lifetime job and a name that defines their one personality trait that they're allowed to have, and they also cant feel love (I assume they mean romantic love, because they seem to love each other as brothers and thats apparently allowed) for some creepy reason (even though they clearly can, and this is just some bizarre systematic racism thing), and they're all mostly cool with this because of reasons. And I know that we learn mostly about the dwarfs this episode, but I have questions about the fairies too. Is fairy godmother the only career track available for them, or if they arent up to snuff, are they stuck as unpaid interns collecting dust in uncomfortable outfits for all of eternity? Do they just hover all day in the clouds, granting wishes from time to time, or work in the mines? Is being a supernatural creature in this universe just a fucked up form of cosmic indentured servitude for life? And, is this just a naturally occurring part of their life cycle, or did the fairies actually create the dwarfs to be their miners/slaves, and magically engineered them to be happy in their slavery like a magical Brave New World, or did they just happen to find these guys, and decide to have them mine fairy dust for them, and its a symbiotic relationship of a sort, or did both the fairies AND the dwarfs pop up out of nowhere, two one gender races of magical slaves that exist to keep the EF running for the humans? Holy shit, this is a fucked up episode, more so than I remember it being! I remember mostly finding this episode boring the first time around, but now its just confusing and creepy, and raises about a billion questions about this world.

I mean, I guess its nice that they tried to build up some kind of mythology, and, if nothing else, its certainly unique, and its not a bad thing to come up with an interesting, original origin for a magical species. But, its like the show created this whole concept, seemed to only use it as a way to create a rather meh Romeo and Juliette story, and didnt think it through any further. They certainly seem to think its tragic that Dreamy/Grumpy and Nova cant be together because "dwarfs cant love, and fairies have other shit to do"and because dwarfs are apparently slaves who exist to toil in mines, but it also feels like its just something they think thats inevitable. I mean, cant they just, like, hire miners to do that? Or at least pay the dwarfs for their lifetime of hard labor? His dwarf brothers seemed happy for him, so are they all secretly miserable too, can they form a union? 

Spoiler

And nothing ever comes of any of this! We never get resolution to Grumpy and Nova (yeah apparently there was something in the bonus features, but it sure as hell wasn't closure or a happy ending), we never know why it was so important for Dreamy and Nova to not run off together, Blue is looking super shady, the system that apparently exists is a horrible mess of mistreatment, no one ever questions any of it, the dwarfs apparently never question their free will, or lack thereof, ever again, and we never get to find out how they feel about any of this, how this started, or if it continued when they got back! They drop all of this huge stuff on us, and stuff that works perfectly in their Happy Endings obsession, and its like it never happened after this episode! I would have liked for Nova and Grumpy to maybe get some subplots later about her figuring out if she still wanted to be a nun, or if she wanted to embark on this previously forbidden love. But, I guess we couldn't spend time finding out what happened with Nova and Grumpy, we had to see how Regina picked out her favorite hat or some shit. You know, as much as I bitch about the lack of world building on this show, if this is what they give us, maybe its for the best. 

The Storeybrooke stuff was hit and miss. I liked the miners festival, it seemed very authentically small town, and seeing MM and Leroy bond was nice, and reminded me of how much I liked Leroy and the dwarfs, especially in Storeybrooke. He and MM going around the town was great (when I first saw this, I thought the guy with the carrot eyeing MM would turn out to be Bugs Bunny), and the candles were really beautiful. I also liked seeing some glimpses of old/supporting characters here (Hi Stealthy! Hi Belle! Hi Granny!), and I did think that Leroy and Sister Astrid were pretty cute, and I always love Amy Acker, even if she is stuck here playing another "cute klutzy nerd dream girl" type. I've always kind of suspected that she got tired of those, and started deliberately looking for things WAY outside that range later on. I also liked the beat where MM was explaining Miners Day to Emma, and Emma was kind of confused by the festivals backstory. "Coal Miners in Maine?" I think thats what I want to see more of at this point, Emma noticing little inconsistencies and weird details about the town and its history, that no one from there ever questioned before Emma the outsider arrived. So, the SB stuff is kind of boring, while the EF stuff is super confusing and disturbing. And, because its Once, its hard to tell if its supposed to be disturbing, or if its not supposed to be. 

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This actually seems like the kind of thing that would have been interesting for them to explore when everyone gets their memories back. Maybe in the EF, everyone knows about how dwarfs are made and what their life is like, and it doesent occur to them that its an issue. Dwarfs being bred to mine fairy dust is just the natural order of things, the dwarfs are fine with it, and no one thinks to question it, because thats just the Way Things Are. However, after being in Storeybrooke, and having the memories of 21st century people who have lived in Maine their whole lives, when they get their EF memories back, it hits them how messed up that whole thing was. They have more ideas now about freedom of choice and democracy and such, and the idea of a whole race of people all having no choice in their livelyhood, and never getting paid, might sit badly with them. It would have been an interesting way to use the We Are Both stuff, and meld the real world with the EF world. Or, you know, not.