Once Upon a Time (TV series): Difference between revisions

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After said 28 years, we meet Emma Swan, a Bail Bondswoman (she prefers Bondsperson) who just so happens to be a [[Living Lie Detector]]. We also meet a little boy named Henry, who introduces himself as her [[Long-Lost Relative|son]]. He persuades her to leave Boston and take him home to [[Meaningful Name|Storybrooke]], Maine, on the way telling her that his book of fairy tale stories is full of things that really happened. Emma, unconvinced, returns him to his adoptive mother, the Mayor.

 

The narrative gets switched back and forth between the past that takes place in Fairy Tale world and the present that takes place in Storybrooke, and the truth is soon revealed: the Evil Queen won, and the citizens of the Fairy Tale World now suffer [[Laser-Guided Amnesia]] in Storybrooke. Emma - who is revealed to be the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming - is the only hope they have of restoring their happy endings and setting the Fairy Tale world right.

* [[Abusive Parents]]:

** Regina is strongly implied to be emotionally abusive in her lack of concern and involvement with Henry beyond trying to one-up Emma. The actress seems to disagree on this, stating she loves Henry.

** Jiminy's family in the Enchanted Forest were this to him, always manipulating his desire to stop thieving to keep him at it.

** Regina's mother in the Enchanted Forest was this to her when she was younger.

* [[Action Girl]]:

** Both Snow White and Emma have hints of this.

** Also, Prince Charming. In the original story, he was, well, a charming prince. Here, he is a great swordsman and archer.

** Little Red Riding Hood is {{spoiler|a werewolf who learns to use her powers to her own advantage.}}

* [[Adult Fear]]:

** The biological mother of your adopted child seeking you out and winning his affections from you. Mitigated in the show proper by the adoptive mother Regina being borderline abusive and the biological mother Emma trying to distance herself (although Henry pushes the issue).

* [[Armor-Piercing Slap]]: Kathryn slaps Mary Margaret after she finds out about the latter's affair with David.

* [[Arranged Marriage]]:

** Belle's engagement to Gaston was this.

** Regina's mother set things up between Regina and Snow White's father.

* [[Backup Twin]]/[[There Is Another]]: The Prince Charming we currently know turns out to be this for his twin brother who had been adopted by the king.

* [[Back-Alley Doctor]]: Harmlessly so in Doc. Lampshaded in "Dreamy".

'''Bossy:''' You're gonna trust a doctor who got his medical degree from a pickaxe? }}

* [[Badass Family]]: The original Prince James was a badass. His twin brother Charming went from shepherd to dragonslayer in days. Snow was an [[Action Girl]] as seen in the third episode. Emma shows off her badassitude in her first five minutes. And Henry is pretty badass too, in a "very precocious child" way.

* [[Barehanded Blade Block]]: Rumplestilskin, of all characters. Against Prince Charming. And he [[Pure Awesomeness|does the two-fingered version]].

** Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold seems to be running one on everyone. He seems to be behind the actions of both the good and bad characters.

*** When Emma was running against Sidney for the position of town sheriff, Gold pulls one in order to get Emma to win, by first {{spoiler|setting fire to the city hall where Emma would pull Regina out of the fire, making her a town hero and thus winning the public's sympathy. However, when Emma discovers that it was Gold who set the fire, she refused to win the election in this manner, but especially so that she could set a better example for Henry. So at the debate, she outed Gold and pretty much said the latter. Astonishingly enough, Gold was counting on Emma to stand up to him, since the town is more afraid of him than they are of the Mayor Regina. And so, Emma won the seat--but at what price?}}

** The Evil Queen also pulls off several gambits.

*** When she met the Genie and he fell in love with her, she feigned depression in order to make him willing to do anything to make her happy. Then she writes about him in her diary, which she knows her husband reads. She makes the Genie think she is going to "free" herself from the King's palace by committing suicide via a two-headed Agrabahn viper, but the Genie instead tells her that he'll use them to kill the King. Shortly after the deed is done, she tells him that the guards are already looking for him because the viper comes from his country and that he must leave the kingdom forever. At this point he realizes that she was only using him to kill the king.

*** {{spoiler|Rumpelstiltskin may not have actually been invested in getting Mary convicted, as he did very little to ensure that Mary actually did leave town like he was supposed to. [[Out-Gambitted|More likely he was just playing Regina,]] as he is almost certainly acting as [[The Chessmaster]] in this series.}}

** It seems to run in the family. Cora ran one on Regina in "The Stable Boy": {{spoiler|she spooked Snow's horse with magic, leading Regina to save Snow, whom she told about Daniel; then she gained Snow's trust, convinced her to tell her about Daniel, then ''murdered Daniel''. ''And somehow still Regina doesn't blame Cora''.}}

* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]:

** Emma confesses that when she lit the candle on the lonely birthday cupcake she bought herself, she wished not to be alone on her birthday. Henry showed up at her door. [[Subverted]] in that while she did not initially want to be found by Henry, she quickly grows attached to him.

* [[The Big Bad Wolf]]: Snow and Red track it down in Episode 15. The two come to the conclusion that {{spoiler|Red's boyfriend Peter}} is the wolf. This is later proven false as it is revealed that {{spoiler|Red is the wolf.}}

* [[The Big Damn Kiss]]: {{spoiler|David and Mary Margaret in Episode 10.}}

* [[Black Magic]]: [[Capital Letters Are Magic|The Dark Curse]] is said to be the darkest kind there is.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: {{spoiler|The Queen telling Rumpelstiltskin that Belle killed herself.}}

* [[Blood Magic]]: The Dark Curse needing a heart of a loved one to work.

* [[Bloodless Carnage]]:

* [[Canon Welding]]: All of the fairy tales are melded together into a single universe that share aspects of each others stories:

** The poison apple given to Snow White was made using the same curse Maleficent used on Sleeping Beauty.

** King Midas doesn't turn his daughter into gold. Instead, he tries to marry her off to [[Prince Charming]]. He does however accidentally turn his future son-in-law into gold.

** The Genie becoming the Queen's [[Magic Mirror]].

** [[Alice in Wonderland|Wonderland]] is accessible from the Enchanted Forest by way of a magic hat.

* [[Capital Letters Are Magic]]: The subtitles for hulu.com has many of the words like Truth (and oddly, some seemingly arbitrary words like Office, which later turn out to be meaningful) capitalized. Though, maybe it's just hulu.

* [[Cat Fight]]: In "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter", Regina and Emma finally stop being passive aggressive and go at it in an all out fist fight, forcing the Sheriff to break it up.

* [[Catch Phrase]]: Rumpelstiltskin's "Magic always comes at a price."

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Archie's umbrella in Episode 5.

** Rumplestilskin's potion of true love.

* [[Chekhov's Gunman]]: Frederick is mentioned in passing in "The Shepherd". He is later revealed to be Abigail's true love seven episodes later. Similarly, his Storybrooke counterpart bumps into Kathryn several scenes before the audience discovers who he is.

* [[The Chooser of the One]]: Henry as the one to deliver Emma's [[Call to Adventure]].

* [[Convenient Coma]]: Prince Charming/Prince James/Shepherd aka John Doe/David Nolan.

* [[The Chosen One]]: Emma is destined to save those in Storybrooke according to Henry's stories.

* [[Comedic Sociopathy]]: Rumpelstiltskin turns Gaston into a rose. He gives it to Belle... who trims the stem before putting it in a vase.

* [[Composite Character]]:

** Rumpelstiltskin turns out to also be the Beast from ''[[Beauty and The Beast]]''.

* [[Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like]]: Regina, after Emma pulls her out of the fire.

* [[Conspicuous CGI]]: The viper snakes in Episode 11.

* [[Crap Saccharine World]]: Storybrooke. When Emma first enters, it seems like a nice normal town and everyone appears content. But nobody can actually leave and people are forced to stay suspended in time and must play the roles that were assigned them, never truly moving forward in their lives. What keeps this from being an outright [[Crapsack World]] is that the entire town is oblivious.

* [[Creepy Doll]]: {{spoiler|Unfortunately, this is how Geppetto's parents are [[And I Must Scream|currently spending their time]].}}

** Snow actually does feel sorry for her after finding out the truth about her lover, as they used to be friends... but then {{spoiler|Regina makes her eat a poisoned apple}}.

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: {{spoiler|Rumplestiltskin vs. Price Charming}} in the season 1 finale.

* [[Danger Takes a Backseat]]: Played with. Emma tells Henry to go home so she can track down Ashley before it's too late. Henry obediently goes. But he literally pops up a few minutes later in the back seat of Emma's Volkswagen and sensibly points out she'd waste too much time taking him home and let Ashley's head start get longer.

* [[Dark and Troubled Past]]: [[Invoked]] by name during the sheriff election. Regina dug up Emma's past, including juvie records that were supposed to be sealed and smeared them across the front page.

* [[Dead Guy, Junior]]: Henry was named after the Evil Queen's father.

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]:

** Emma, with a heavy dose of [[Stepford Snarker]].

** Charming also had his moments in the Fairy Tale world.

** Mr. Gold is the main supplier of this trope. Some of his gems:

"Not if I catch him first." }}

* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: While Rumpelstiltskin was telling Belle what she would have to do for him, he also told her she would have to skin the children he hunted. That one was apparently a quip.

** Grumpy telling Red Riding hood she has a little "someone" on her chin.

* [[Decon Recon Switch]]: The fairy-tale portion of the show often gives classic fairy-tale characters [[Deconstruction|very dark origins and somewhat more realistic treatments, to explain]] the rather simplistic or extreme behavior found in our storybook version of the fables. However, many of these characters also undergo significant [[Character Development]] [[Reconstruction|to become something that matches the uplifting spirit of their stories]], if not the letter. The first episode of the series establishes the [[Foregone Conclusion]] that many fairy-tale characters have reached their happy endings and are otherwise content with their lives, despite their gritty retellings.

* [[Department of Child Disservices]]: Emma has ''very'' bitter feelings about her time in the foster care system, even telling Mary Margaret that all foster parents are just after "a meal ticket" and don't care about the kids. It's also implied to be a horrible fate for Nicholas and Ava (Hansel and Gretel), even worse than leaving them to fend for themselves.

** Hansel and Gretel's father. The same goes for their Storybrooke counterparts, Nicholas and Ava. However, {{spoiler|they end up reunited with him in Storybrooke.}}

** Grace's father never returns from his trip because {{spoiler|he is trapped in Wonderland and becomes the Mad Hatter.}}

* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: After Snow White's personality is radically altered by {{spoiler|the anti-[[Love Potion]] that Rumpelstiltskin sold her}}, Jiminy Cricket and the Seven Dwarves stage an intervention.

* [[Don't Explain the Joke]]: The sheriff tries a joke about how Emma broke the town sign.

* [[Don't Split Us Up]]: Ava (Gretel) begs this of Emma.

* [[Double Standard]]: After David and Mary Margaret's affair is revealed, the town mainly shuns Mary Margaret while David only gets anger from Kathyrn and Mary Margaret. Partly justified since David has much less interaction with the rest of the town while Mary Margaret had been known as a saint up until that point.

** Played very, very straight with a shockingly large portion of the fandom. Please keep working on how you're "not sure" if ripping someone's heart out, using it to inflict intense pain and to threaten death if that person resists, regularly throwing them around through superior magical strength, then ''brainwashing them into believing that the relationship is consensual for twenty-eight years'' "qualifies" as rape. I'll be all ears. If a man had done the above to a woman, it would have been a major [[Moral Event Horizon]] which solidified his [[Complete Monster]] status. Yet the show--and to a much greater extent [[Complete Monster|Regina's]] fans--continue to depict her with varying degrees of sympathy. [[Fan Dumb|But at least the canon depicts her evil acts as evil instead of excusing them.]]

* [[Dramatic Deadpan]]: Snow in "Heart of Darkness".

'''Snow:''' To kill the Queen. }}

* [[Easy Amnesia]]: The entire town. [[A Wizard Did It|An Evil Queen Did It]].

* [[Eccentric Townsfolk]]: [[Averted]]. The residents of Storybrooke, if taken out of context, are not all that notable despite being fairy tale characters.

* [[Emergency Impersonation]]: Seemingly the case for [[Backup Twin|James]].

* [[Enthralling Siren]]: One appears in "What Happened to Frederick" and attempts to seduce Prince Charming under the [[Shapeshifting Seducer|guise]] of Snow White.

* [[Equivalent Exchange]]: According to Rumpelstiltskin, all magic comes at a price.

* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: The witch, Maleficent, considers the Dark Curse to be too evil and traded the Evil Queen for it specifically so no one could use it.

** Mr. Gold wants Emma elected Sheriff. So, {{spoiler|he sets fire to Regina's office while Emma's there to rescue her, thus making her a hero. And when she exposes his plot to prove a point to Henry about good over evil, it plays into his hands again and actually ensures her election. The citizens fear Regina, but they're terrified of Mr. Gold.}}

** Regina, on the other hand, has to change the game. {{spoiler|Her [[Plan]] was successful only after she used Mr. Glass as a poisonous influence to push Emma to play by Regina's rules. Anytime Emma makes the right choice, she has an advantage against Regina.}}

** Regina is under the impression that the Queen of Hearts is out to get her.

* [[Exact Eavesdropping]]: Mayor Regina arranges a conversation with Emma to make peace, then leads the latter to talk about how crazy Henry is, knowing that Henry will be showing up to overhear the conversation.

* [[Fairy Tales]]: Naturally, given the theme of the show.

* [[Fake Memories]]: The Dark Curse not only gave everyone in Storybrooke [[Identity Amnesia]], but a "real world" background that never truly happened though they think it did. Averted with Regina and Mr. Gold, since the former enacted the curse and the latter created it. {{spoiler|Also averted with August, since he escaped the curse by going through the wardrobe with Emma.}} Unfortunately played straight with Jefferson, who also does not suffer from amnesia; he remembers both a life in Storybrooke and the fairy tale world, and it drives him nearly mad.

* [[Fate Worse Than Death]]: How Regina describes a sleeping curse, and by extension the poison apple.

* [[Fire-Forged Friends]]: Snow White and Red Riding Hood.

* [[Gold-Silver-Copper Standard]]: Is in use in the Fairy Tale Land, as seen in "Hat Trick". The different coins don’t even have names; they’re called 'silvers' and 'coppers'.

* [[Gonna Need More Trope]]: Inverted when Charming is tasked to hide a a giant egg containing {{spoiler|bottled true love}} within "the belly of a beast".

'''Charming''': I'm gonna need a smaller egg. }}

** Of course not long after she {{spoiler|[[Scaled Up|turns into a dragon]]}}, so the size is perfectly fine.

* [[Happily Adopted]]:

** This seemed to be the case with Charming's twin.

** Subverted with Regina and Henry. While a cursory glance would show her as a stern, but loving mom who provides material and medical care for a trouble-making, mentally disturbed little boy, the facade is flaking off like cheap paint and keeps getting worse.

* [[Happily Married]]:

* [[The Hero's Birthday|The Heroine's Birthday]]: This is almost the first thing we learn about Emma on her Internet date. And her birthday wish turns out to be a catalyst to the events that bring her to Storybrooke.

* [[Heroes Prefer Swords]]: Defied.

** {{spoiler|Which is ineffective. She eventually uses the sword to kill Malificent.}}

* [[Hidden Depths]]: Abigail, Prince Charming's fiancee in the Fairy Tale world, is introduced as a vapid, spoiled brat, but {{spoiler|she actually has her own secret army and is more than willing to help Charming find Snow White since she doesn't want to marry him either.}}

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: Regina complaining about the Queen of Hearts’ lack of subtlety.

* [[Hollywood New England]]: In Vancouver.

* [[Hot Witch]]: So far, every witch in the series except Miss Ginger has been attractive. Physically, anyway.

* [[Identity Amnesia]]: ''Everyone'' with the exception of Emma, Henry, Regina, {{spoiler|Gold, Jefferson and August. Graham was cured from this after kissing Emma...''just'' before he died.}}

** Two phrases in Episode 16, both uttered twice. "I'm just invested in your future." Said by Rumpel/Gold to Mary Margaret/Snow both times, and "Evil isn't born, it's made." (By ''two'' different villains.)

** A visual version of this for a spoken line. You know how Regina messed with the Queen of Hearts earlier? Well, look at where Emma is aiming in Regina's dream. {{spoiler|"Off with her head."}}

* [[Kick the Dog]]: Regina's speech to Emma at the end of the pilot is absurdly cruel.

** Rumpelstiltskin's first evil act was to [[Bloodbath Villain Origin|slaughter]] the [[Armies Are Evil|soldiers]] who humiliated him in front of his son and were going to conscript said son into the army.

** In "Skin Deep", Mr. Gold behaves as a rather unsympathetic [[Loan Shark]] toward Moe French and later on savagely beats him for stealing something of value to him. This is somewhat understandable {{spoiler|because in the fairy tale world, French is Belle's father and supposedly put her in an insane asylum where she was mistreated until she committed suicide in despair. Of course, this turns out to have been [[Blatant Lies]], but Rumplestiltskin has no way of ''knowing'' that.}}

* [[Killed Mid-Sentence]]: Cinderella's fairy godmother.

* [[Lady in Red]]:

** In Emma Swan's first scene she wears a sexy red dress to a blind date that turns out to be her trap to catch an escaped bailjumper.

** Red Riding Hood's counterpart Ruby.

* [[Large Ham]]: The enchanted forest versions of the Evil Queen and Rumpelstiltskin.

* [[Legacy Character]]: The {{spoiler|Big Bad Wolf}}, of all characters.

* [[Leitmotif]]: The Evil Queen, Snow White, Charming (who has an [[Crowning Music of Awesome|especially awesome one]]), and the [[Official Couple]] Snow/Charming all have their own music themes.

* [[Limited Wardrobe]]: Somewhat in Fairytale Land, at least for some of the more iconic characters. For instance, Belle shows up in a bar in "Dreamy" wearing the same finery she had when in her father's and the Beast's castles.

* [[Local Hangout]]: Granny's diner.

* [[Long-Lost Relative]]: Henry and Emma. Emma and her parents, Prince Charming and Snow White. Charming and his twin.

** A sort of lopsided one appears in Episode 7 between Emma, Graham and Regina. {{spoiler|It ends with Graham's death by Regina's hand.}}

** Then there's Snow White and Prince Charming loving each other despite the latter's [[Arranged Marriage]] to Abigail, as well as their Storybrooke counterparts: Mary Margaret, David and his ''wife'' Kathryn. {{spoiler|The former love triangle is resolved with Charming leaving his wedding for Snow.}}

* [[The Magic Goes Away]]: One of the key points of the Dark Curse is that it transported to entire Fairy Tale World into a world without magic (ours). This has the side-effect of reversing any magical transformations that residents underwent in their world. Archie is no longer a cricket, and Mr. Gold no longer sports the green and scaly skin of the Dark One. {{spoiler|August (Pinocchio) was able to avoid this by transporting in the wardrobe with Emma, but when she decides to stay in Storybrooke 28 years later, he begins to revert to his wooden form.}}

** [[The Magic Comes Back]]: {{spoiler|In the season 1 finale, Rumpelstiltskin uses his bottled [[Power of Love]] to bring all the magic of the Fairytale World into Storybrooke.}}

** King George at the death of his son.

** Lots of these from the Huntsman.

* [[Man of Wealth and Taste]]: Rumpelstiltskin in his real-world form, Mr. Gold.

* [[Men Are the Expendable Gender]]: Almost ''all'' of the characters who die in the show are male: {{spoiler|Henry (Regina's father), the ''real'' Prince James, Graham, Stealthy, King Leopold, Peter, Daniel...}}

* [[Meet Cute]]: Snow White and the Prince meet when she robs him, he knocks her off a horse and right when he realizes that the thief is a woman, she brains him with a rock giving him [[Good Scars, Evil Scars|a scar]] he has to this day. She also nicknamed him [[Prince Charming]] and it ''stuck''.

* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: The chipped cup for Rumpelstiltskin, which doubles as a [[Tragic Keepsake]].

* [[The Millstone]]: Hansel.

* [[Missing Mom]]:

** The "Real World" where Storybrooke is at.

** [[Alice in Wonderland|Wonderland]]

* [[Mundane Utility]]: Snow uses her [[Friend to All Living Things|special relationship with animals]] to deliver messages.

* [[Murder the Hypotenuse]]:

** The Genie kills Snow White's father to free the Queen from her loveless marriage.

** {{spoiler|David and then Mary Margaret come under suspicion of this.}}

* [[Neck Snap]]: How Rumpelstiltskin kills the knight who humiliated him. With one hand. By palming their head.

* [[Never Found the Body]]: {{spoiler|Kathryn}} though the heart was found. In "The Stable Boy" {{spoiler|it's clear that the DNA results on the heart were tampered with because Kathryn is found alive.}}

* [[108]]: The address of Henry and his mother. Appropriate, as she's one of the [[Big Bad]].

* [[One-Scene Wonder]]:

*** {{spoiler|She appears in Storybrooke in the season finale...[[Scaled Up|in her dragon form]]}}

** The Caterpillar and the Queen of Hearts. The only thing stopping all of Wonderland from being this is that the other Wonderland denizens shown are the soldiers and the Queen's servant, and they show up in two scenes.

* [[Operation Blank]]: Henry codenames the fight against the Evil Queen "Operation Cobra", so she'll never guess what it is.

* [[Orbital Kiss]]: {{spoiler|David and Mary Margaret in Episode 10.}}

* [[Orphan's Plot Trinket]]: Emma's baby blanket.

* [[Our Dwarves Are All the Same]]: Played straight or even exaggerated, since dwarves are born fully grown and conscious after hatching from eggs and are single-mindedly devoted to mining.

** Gepetto ''blackmailed'' the Blue Fairy to ensure Pinocchio's safety.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Happens frequently, though it's usually forced abandonment.

** The Evil Queen forcibly separates Hansel and Gretel from their father {{spoiler|though they are later reunited in Storybrooke.}}

** Jefferson is also separated from his daughter, thanks to the Evil Queen. In Storybrooke he remembers her, but she is with a new family and doesn't remember him.

*** Also a retroactive one in the fairy-tale world: Rumpelstilskin is a little subdued when talking to the Shepherd and his mother, and doesn't really do any of his usual antics. When we see his backstory, we find out {{spoiler|that this is because the situation is very similar to the one he went through with his own son, so he can empathize.}}

*** In "Skin Deep", he has several with Belle in their "lighter" moments, {{spoiler|including keeping the chipped tea cup she broke.}}

* [[Picture-Perfect Presentation]]: Either the illustrations in Henry's book become active scenes, or active scenes freeze into the illustrations in Henry's book.

* [[The Power of Love]]: A law of magic in the fariytale world is that "true love's kiss can break any curse." This is such a prominent aspect that Charming and Abigail both deem it a viable solution to Frederick's [[Taken for Granite|situation]] (and it could have worked if his lips weren't blocked by his helmet).

* [[Product Placement]]: Henry is shown quite often reading [[Marvel Comics]]. ABC and Marvel are both owned by Disney.

* [[Punny Name]]/[[Meaningful Name]]/[[Theme Naming]]: All the Storybrooke (pun for "storybook") residents have names that hearken to who they were in their Fairy Tale lives.

** Archie ''Hopper'', Henry's shrink, is really Jiminy Cricket.

** The Mayor, ''Regina''<ref> Latin (and other Romance languages) for "queen"</ref> Mills<ref> her mother Cora was the daughter of a miller</ref>, Henry's mother, is really the Evil Queen. This one wasn't whipped up by the Curse, she was named Regina as the queen too.

*** Also, her first name is ''[[The Bible|Mary]]'' and she's the mother of [[Chosen One|the one destined to break the curse]].

** [[Prince Charming|Prince James]]' counterpart is named David Nolan, meaning "beloved champion". David is also the name of a famous shepherd in [[The Bible]] who becomes king by slaying the giant Goliath and James means "he who supplants", foretelling his background as a [[Backup Twin]].

** ''Ruby'' is actually [[Little Red Riding Hood]].

** Sidney ''Glass'', the local newspaper editor and [[Yes-Man]] to the mayor, used to be the Queen's Magic Mirror.

*** ...And his newspaper is actually called ''The Mirror''.

** Henry suggests that the connection between Emma and Graham stems from the fact that the Huntsman spared Snow White's life, allowing Emma to exist.

* [[Revenge]]: The curse that gets the plot going (and very nearly everything that happens in the fairy-tale world before that) is part of the Evil Queen's plot to get back at Snow White for {{spoiler|telling the then-not-evil Regina's most-decidedly-evil (and manipulative) mother about Regina's affair with the stable boy--which resulted in Regina losing her true love, being forced into a loveless marriage and being precipitated into her [[Start of Darkness]]. And Snow is still blissfully unaware that she did anything wrong.}}

* [[Runaway Train]]: Basically what the horse was that Snow was on as a child that introduced her to Regina.

** Storybrooke's Jefferson has one around his neck that serves as a memento of {{spoiler|his decapitation at the hands of the Queen of Hearts.}}

* [[The Sheriff]]:

** Storybrooke's first sheriff seemed to be the mayor/queen's right hand man.

* [[Single Tear]] : Just about everyone has a go at this.

* [[Something They Would Never Say]]: {{spoiler|After convincing Mr. Gold that he's Baelfire, August uncovers the dagger and tries to use it to control him as The Dark One. Mr. Gold instantly knows he's been fooled, since Baelfire intentionally came to our world because it contained no magic, and therefore the dagger would be powerless.}}

** Emma's simply being in Storybrooke is slowly but surely changing everything in the town.

** King George considers Snow White as this in his plans to merge his and Midas' kingdoms.

* [[Start of Darkness]]: "Desperate Souls" for Rumpelstiltskin. "The Stable Boy" for Regina. In Regina's case, you can actually identify the line where she chooses the dark path (accompanied by her [[Leitmotif]]).

* [[Stealth Pun]]: The book's title "'''O'''nce '''U'''pon a '''T'''ime".

* [[Stopped Clock]]: The one in Storybrooke's town square tower. It starts again right after Emma follows through on her promise to stay in town for a week to "humor" Henry.

* [[Sympathetic Murder Backstory]]: The show tries to portray the Evil Queen this way when she has to sacrifice that which she loves most for her Curse. She tried her beloved and prized stallion; that didn't work. It turned out to be {{spoiler|her father, after whom she named the boy she adopted.}}

* [[Taken for Granite]]: Frederick accidentally fell on Midas' hand while defending him and was turned to gold as a result.

* [[That Man Is Dead]]: David claiming that who ever chose to marry his wife Kathryn no longer exists.

* [[The Dark Side Will Make You Forget]]:

** [[Subverted Trope]] with Rumpelstiltskin when he jokes to Belle that he forgot his past (it turns out he remembers it quite well). And inverted with Snow White. After she takes the memory loss potion, she almost turns evil. In the "real" world, it's also inverted. {{spoiler|The two wicked characters, Regina and Rumpelstiltskin are the only ones who recall ''exactly'' who they were.}}

** {{spoiler|Save for Jefferson--although he has gotten more than a tad sadistic over the years.}}

* [[Throwing Your Sword Always Works]]: [[Subverted]]. Charming threw his sword unerringly, but the queen dematerialized in a puff of smoke! Played straight with {{spoiler|Emma vs. Maleficent's dragon form. Somewhat justified in that it's a [[Shout-Out]] to how she was defeated in the Disney movie that she got her name from.}}

* [[Title Drop]]: The name of Henry's fairy tale [[Mr. Exposition|exposition book]] is ''[[Once Upon a Time]]''.

* [[Tonight Someone Kisses]]/[[Tonight Someone Dies]]: "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter".

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Hansel.

* [[Trigger Phrase]]: Regina has to do whatever Mr. Gold asks her to, as long as he says "please." Unusual in that she's perfectly aware of this, but she was hoping that [[Laser-Guided Amnesia|he wasn't]].

* [[True Love's Kiss]]: Pretty much a law of the fairy tale world. True love's kiss is outright stated to be able to break any curse.

* [[The Un-Reveal]]: [[Zig Zagged]] in "The Return", where is revealed that {{spoiler|August is Rumpelstitskin's son...and then revealed that he actually isn't.}}

* [[Valentine's Day Episodes]]: "Skin Deep". It aired shortly before and was set during Valentine's Day and involved a couple breaking up, [[True Love's Kiss]] not working and a psychotic breakdown.

* [[Villains Out Shopping]]: Combined with [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]] in "Skin Deep". Charming/David runs into Rumpelstiltskin/Mr. Gold at the general store. David's there for Valentines Cards. Mr. Gold's there for {{spoiler|some rope and duct tape to tie a guy up with.}}

* [[Watching Troy Burn]]: Regina tearing down the wooden play structure, Emma's and Henry's secret base for Operation Cobra.

** "A Land Without Magic" {{spoiler|the townsfolk have their memories restored, Jefferson releases Belle and leads her back to Mr. Gold, and Mr. Gold sends magic into Storybrooke.}}

* [[Wham! Line]]: Goes with the above, of course.

'''Mr. Gold:''' {{spoiler|... Rumpelstiltskin.}} }}

** And more of an in-universe one (since the audience saw it coming) in the Mad Hatter episode.

'''Emma:''' {{spoiler|''(in a small voice)''... [[Oh Crap|What curse]]?}} }}

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]]: Kathryn gives one of these to Mary Margaret over her affair with David. The rest of the town shares her sentiments.

* [[Wistful Amnesia]]: Just about everyone in Storybrooke.

* [[World Half Full]]: The Fairy Tale realm. It has enchantment and beauty galore, but what little we've seen of it hasn't been good. King George was flat broke and blackmails the Shepherd to keep up the act of being Prince James. The "real" Prince slaughtered a prisoner without an eye-blink as part of a blood sport. Dragon attacks plague the countryside. The Ogre Wars have been going on for 50 years or more. Rumpelstiltskin cuts deals with impunity, even when he's locked up. And the Evil Queen's bluff to Rumpelstiltskin that Belle was {{spoiler|put in an insane asylum where she was 'purged' with flails, whips, and fire to the point of suicide}} is considered a realistic enough occurrence for him to believe it. What makes the Fairy Tale realm preferable to Storybrooke is mainly that the bad guys had finally been defeated in the Fairy Tale realm, but in Storybrooke they are in charge again - and, of course, that the lives that people lived in the Fairy Tale realm were real and possible to change, whereas in Storybrooke they are caught in a static, fabricated existence where they can [[Failure Is the Only Option|never reach any happy ending]].

* [[Would Hit a Girl]]: The knight who viciously backhands Snow when she tries to make her way to a captured Charming in ''Heart of Darkness''.

* [[Xanatos Gambit]]: While most of Gold's plots are of the [[Batman Gambit|Batman]] variety, his plan to {{spoiler|break the curse}} is pure Xanatos. Best case scenario, {{spoiler|Emma sticks around and breaks the curse}}. But he also put in a failsafe: {{spoiler|If she ''dies'', the curse is broken. Sooner or later, it ''will'' break}}.

* [[X Meets Y]]: ''[[Fables]]'' meets ''[[American Gothic]]''.

* [[You Kill It, You Bought It]]: {{spoiler|How Rumpelstiltskin got his powers.}}

* [[Your Cheating Heart]]:

[[Category:Fantasy Series]]

[[Category:Fairy Tale]]