Once Upon a Time: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. '[[An Aesop|Thou shalt not]]' is soon forgotten, but '[[Once Upon a Time]]' lasts forever.''|'''[[Philip Pullman]]'''}}

Now, stories that began with "Once Upon a Time" often ended with "...and they all lived [[Happily Ever After]]." But [[Fan Nickname|Once]] never got to the end of the stories -- hestories—he always stayed at the [[Beginning Tropes|beginning]]. And that is where he will always be.

Now, are you sitting comfortably? Then let's begin. Once upon a time...<ref> Once upon a time there was a boy who decided to stay up late and read [[All The Tropes]]. Even though his parents had warned him that doing this was a bad thing, still he was compelled to do so. So, the lights of the screen illuminating his face, he carefully surfed the site, reading trope descriptions and examples, going over works pages and forum threads, until finally he looked at the clock and realized it was well past the reasonable amount of time one would surf the web. And then the boy knew his parents were right -- that by surfing All The Tropes, he had [[Tropes Will Ruin Your Life|ruined his life]] in such a way that he could now never go sleep. He was cursed to forever surf All The Tropes, haunting the YKTTW, quietly drifting from page to page like a ghost in the machine; until one day, he met someone else who had been similarly trapped. Together, they decided that perhaps this wasn't such a lonely place to be stuck. And so they lived and troped [[Happily Ever After]].</ref>

* In ''[[Exalted]]'', [[Koan|Koans]]s and sutras associated with the Sidereals inevitably begin this way: "'''Once, there was a maiden...'''"

* In ''[[Blaz Blue]]: Calamity Trigger'', Hakumen's arcade ending is a telling of how the story of the [[Blaz Blue]] franchise began, and it even begins with Rachel narrating, "'''[[Once Upon a Time]]''', there was a Black Beast."

* Albert Barillé produced tons of educational animated series which all got [[Once Upon a Time]] in their title, completed with the main subject (man, space, life, America, inventors, explorers...). They also shared a very similar cast of reccuring characters.