We’re Not In Storybrooke Anymore (Once Upon a Time in Wonderland Recap)

[@haleywhipjack]

If you're free on Saturday, June 8th 2024, PLEASE join me at twitch.tv/unpreparedcasters for my TTRPG show's annual charity stream for Trans Lifeline! Watch me play Dungeons and Dragons with Brennan Lee Mulligan, Vic Michaelis, Travis McElroy, Connie Chang, Spenser Starke, Erika Ishii, Persephiroth and so so so so many more!!! Support trans rights and cause chaos with donations! I'd love to see you there!

[@randomgeekcrap]

Am in ❤❤❤

[@rocki_bb]

I hope you raise SO MUCH MONEY!!! I followed them on Twitch to help me remember. Y'all should consider simulcasting on KZbin as well now that Twitch allows it. I gave up on watching people on Twitch because the mobile app rarely worked and the only TVs they allow streaming to are Apple TVs.

[@Dagenspear]

PLEASE, you, and EVERYONE, if you haven't already, embrace the One True Only God YHWH Jehovah, Only One Jesus Christ His Only Begotten Son and Lord and Savior of our souls and the Only One Holy Spirit. God is good. God is love. Jesus is Lord. Jesus IS coming. Your soul depends on it! I have seen God act in my life. He saved my soul, changed my heart, changed my mind, helped people through me, took care of people in my life, people I hurt before I found God. God is the only reason I was able to reconcile with my dad before he died. God worked through Jesus Christ to save our souls. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins. Believe in your heart and confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. Be baptized in The Holy Spirit, and if He wills, water as well. Repent of your sins, accept God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit into your heart, that Jesus Christ died on the cross for your sins. For God so loved the world that He gave His only Begotten Son Jesus Christ, that all who believe on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus Christ is The Way, The Truth and The Life. No one comes to the Father Jehovah God but through Him. Not long after I got saved I prayed to God for help understanding the Holy Bible, and that same day someone knocked on my door asking me if I wanted to understand the Bible. The Holy Bible says, "love thy enemy", "turn the other cheek", "If your enemy is hungry, feed him", "if he is thirsty, give him a drink", "pray for those who persecute you", "do not repay evil for evil". LORD willing, all humans may commit sin of almost every kind (gay, straight), and that's wrong, and all humans sin, as God tells us through the The Holy Bible, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus." The Holy Bible also says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness."

[@TheRealValGalstyan]

Quick clarification, Cyrus is not Genie of Agrabah, Sydney Glass aka Genie who fell in love with Regina is

[@adamiseasilystartled]

Putting Sephie and Erika in the same round together is so brave of y'all, tbh.

[@hollyferguson5500]

The most unrealistic thing about this story is that Rumpelstiltskin is not littered all through it

[@mel-burnes]

he's there in proxy via cora whose influence is all over the story by the virtue of her ruining anastasia's life

[@Lolbitdrangonmaster]

If he were in this story before bailfire, he'd ask, "Is it possible to learn this power?"

[@NevermoreRMG]

He would've been the Jaberwocky if this had been in the main story for sure LOL

[@whittledraws]

bro he wouldve been a fantastic jabberwocky

[@crimsoneclipse0618]

Hell when they mentioned a genie, I was 100% expecting it to be him

[@mahogany1923]

Cora has a sixth sense for young couples in love and she will not allow it.

[@JDM-is-my-name]

She teleport nearest to ANY happy young couple and does her darnst to break them up, because she might as well, it kind of maybe sorta worked once!

[@MassielRoss]

😂😂😂

[@madnessarcade7447]

True

[@hada__02]

A-train senses

[@Alden2001]

The fact that the white rabbit is very willing to just cart people between worlds like he’s a travel service and yet the mad hatter had to go insane trying to make a hat to get back to his daughter. Insane plot holes

[@hyalina7098]

i love to think that the white rabbit just hates the hatter specifically lmao

[@HLGamez]

Rumplestiltskin had to create an entire WORLD ALTERING CURSE to go to the land where his son was, meanwhile this rabbit is just… making portals for everyone who asks slightly politely?? 💀💀

[@marocat4749]

@@HLGamez To be fair, he might hate rumple too

[@yeontanssugadaddy]

​​@@HLGamez the white rabbit must have daddy issues

[@SayaCeline]

@@HLGamez See there's the problem. Rumple wouldn't ask politely

[@bussyfrappe9762]

the fact that one of the genie rules is “you can’t wish for the genies freedom” is ESPECIALLY wild because snow whites dad wishes for that exact thing

[@gwyn3122]

And it was this desire that influenced most of the series.

[@Acornzest]

LMAO you're right

[@elainaperry3519]

Maybe it’s specifically a “cursed genie” rule? Like idk how much we know about Sydney’s backstory other than that one episode in season one so maybe he was just.. always a genie? So he could get freed via wish?

[@kairi99roxas]

I just watched this show and Cyrus says you CAN use a wish to free him but it will have terrible results . Like how snows dad got killed by the genie he freed

[@lilylundeen9551]

every time you said "and guess who it was" i thought it would Rumpelstiltskin every single time

[@dimitrescusmaiden]

or cora haha

[@latronqui]

OUAT had conditioned us to think that every time, right?

[@AceAutistic]

If I had a nickel for every time the Once Upon A Time universe had an evil freaky wizard man & a beautiful, magical, slightly pathetic (wet cat energy) queen (who also couldnt be happy with their true love specifically because of Cora) who hate each other but for their goals have to work together, I'd have 2 nickels but it's weird that it happened twice

[@anakin-is-panakin]

LMAO REGINA MILLS WET CAT ENERGY?!!?!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 you’re not wrong. I’m commenting early but I’m assuming you mean the uhh Red queen is also that

[@springwater6693]

twice upon a time

[@-eight-]

@@springwater6693CRUSHED IT 😂

[@JDM-is-my-name]

​@@springwater6693yes

[@ZellyTheFangirl]

Somewhere in the world, two people have plans to be happy Cora: "And I took that personally"

[@saviorbob]

Truly amazing Victorian England managed to colonize it's own dimension before somehow being cut off from the mainland and getting culture stuck

[@Jellybeansatdusk]

I will never not wonder if it’s the same Victorian england the darlings are from??!! Like is this the same dimension without magic? Separate from storybrooke?

[@thatcat5401]

​@@Jellybeansatdusk its not, its the one in storybrooke because its "the land without magic" that baelfire asked to go to

[@Jellybeansatdusk]

@@thatcat5401 well actually it’s A land without magic, but they’ve shown that there are multiple

[@lilchaos9212]

@@Jellybeansatdusk It's a totally separate realm. Wendy and the Darlings came from Victorian London in our world, since Baelfire used the bean to travel to the Land Without Magic, while Alice comes from a "magical" realm that doesn't believe IN magic but still has enough magic to be travelled to.

[@Jellybeansatdusk]

@@lilchaos9212 well you don’t need magic in the world to travel between realms. Having magic in one world is enough to travel between the realms. Hence why they can create storybrooke in the first place, or why Jefferson’s hat and the poison apple work there in the first season pre-magic. Or the magic well water from lake nostos coming with them. Second, the land without magic isn’t stated to be the ONLY land without magic. Dr. Whale/Frankenstein comes from a land without magic that’s different to our world/the storybrooke world. Third, there’s no evidence that the land Alice comes from possesses any magic of its own. The only magical elements shown are the ones that take people to and from wonderland, so the magic is originating from wonderland. So in conclusion, it could be a separate parallel world without magic, or it could be the very same world without magic. And the Darlings could be from our world without magic, or their own world without magic, or Alice’s world without magic, or they could all be the very same world. And yes it seems that the Darlings are from our world without magic, but that’s not necessarily 100% true either. Bae was sent to A world without magic. If time passed and he remained there, we would know that it was the same world. Instead, he goes to Neverland which is canonically a different world, and then he escapes and doesn’t return to Victorian England. So we don’t know for sure it’s the same one. Same with Wendy and Michael and John. They probably have no way of knowing if they returned to the same world without magic, especially since so much time has passed to the modern era. Interesting food for thought.

[@fawnlowell6094]

"The snake he's been carrying around has been a woman this WHOLE TIME??" jk rowling is quaking rn, that girl really watched an episode of ouatiw and went "everyone shut up i know what to do for my next movie" 😭

[@Blueeyesthewarrior]

You're so right! 😂

[@gekko9007]

The fact that a WONDERLAND SHOW doesn't feature a lot of WONDERLAND CHARACTERS is insane

[@madnessarcade7447]

Budget

[@Superlad9494]

Isn't that kinda the point though? I mean Wonderland is generally opposite.

[@kileyeileen]

The face that a WONDERLAND SHOw features fucking JAFAR from ALADDIN is insane

[@Superlad9494]

@@kileyeileen well Wonder Land is strange, but Aladdin and Wonderland are generally the more "wide range" spots and Aladdin is the only "Prince" movie...unless depending on his mood you count Peter Pan as a Pixie Prince.

[@fisht2707]

My favorite Once Upon a Time trivia is that after season 4 the writers apologized to Will's actor saying they had no clue how to write him into the show.

[@turnipcrazy4602]

I really wish they didn't write him into the main show. I liked his story with Anastasia. Instead they just turn him into a thief that doesn't have a true soft side.

[@rubenopdenkelder2771]

Orly? That's hilarious

[@magix6782]

HELP LOL imagine being an actor and the writers tell you "yeah sorry man we have no idea what we are doing"

[@samrobotsin]

I feel so bad for Haley expecting any of this to be relevant for the other show. Not even Jafar.

[@Emma-rj4nd]

My boy deserved better I love him

[@magicquill4260]

Ngl i actually liked OUAT in Wonderland better than OUAT itself. Mainly because it came, it served, and it let itself fucking end

[@alexx5064]

lmaoooo yes!! exactly

[@michalhanna4374]

Yes!

[@madnessarcade7447]

It didn’t tho it was canceled because of low views so it ended before it was ready OUAT ended when it felt ready to end it got a proper finale Don’t disrespect the writers

[@anac.r.1478]

i remember LOVING this show so much but maybe that's because I was 12 when it came out 😭😭

[@crazysmith5408]

Low-key, I still rewatch it because I think it’s better

[@charleshockenbury353]

Red Queen; Perhaps the one villain I've seen redeem entirely because she's just so sad. Like she takes all the L's. She stops being evil mostly because she's just not good at it and it's not working for her.

[@thatrantinggirl7376]

#1 girlfailure❤️

[@queencleopatra007]

Regina needs to learn from her when to give up 😂

[@kateoneill4983]

Stopped being evil because she's not good at it 😭😂

[@lilchaos9212]

Her and Will are both just so pathetic (affectionate) throughout the whole show, you cannot help but love them.

[@cholaundry]

as if it's not bad enough that this WONDERLAND show is full of Aladdin and Robin Hood and Pixie Hollow, even the monster Alice and Will go to to get the forget-me-knot isn't one of the MANY wonderland monsters, but instead the GRENDEL??? As in the monster from BEOWULF??? Truly an insane show, I love it so much

[@jungtothehuimang]

The wolf from Beowulf making a cameo but not the mad hatter shouldn't be shocking at this point, yet here I am quite shocked

[@madnessarcade7447]

Then it’s good not bad

[@levihoogstoel4470]

thank you!!! I was like "where have I heard that before? is that a Wonderland thing?" my English lit degree is failing me

[@thatcher6923]

@jungtothehuimang Wait I’m sorry, I haven’t gotten to that part yet, but they made the monster from Beowulf a literal wolf??? Why??? What a diss to wolves lol

[@jungtothehuimang]

@@thatcher6923 in the show he is just a guy with deformities, but I have always pictured Grendel as a werewolf type of creature so that is why I called him a wolf. My apologies for the confusion.

[@Zelda00Gamer]

Quick someone tell Mikes Mic that there’s a new worst wig ever to enter into his bad wig competition. This Jabberwocky wig could really go toe to toe with Allison’s Gaga wig

[@iwouldgiveyouthemoon_]

but could anything ever beat the crusty vivian darkbloom wig? 😔😔😔😔

[@madnessarcade7447]

Shouldn’t judge a show for its budget they did their best

[@liamross340]

love the idea that the only reason they couldn't just swim across the ocean was that will can't swim. like the implication that if she wanted alice could just swim across the ocean

[@CatHasOpinions734]

There's lots reasons to be annoyed that they cast a white guy for a role that really should not have been played by a white guy, but one that particularly annoys me is how cool it would've been to watch back-in-Victorian-England Alice get married to a Middle Eastern man. Would've shown that she's less afraid of the expectations that made her miserable before, and not being racist about it would've been a neat culmination of Edwin's personal growth arc.

[@sunshineeee]

The actor is actually English and Mexican, so the writers were actually operating off of a different fun brand of racism: “Well they’re both brown people so it’s fine?”. Which sucks! I wish we could’ve seen Cyrus be played by an actual middle eastern actor, and one that wasn’t Conveniently White Passing™️. I wish OUAT had more darker-skinned leads generally, esp romantic leads. Edit for me absolutely butchering the spelling of the word conveniently

[@latronqui]

​@@sunshineeeeHAHAHAHA that makes more sense, in a very infuriating way.

[@madnessarcade7447]

As a middle eastern myself I didn’t pay attention to it I was just entertained by the character I’m not surprised tho cuz Hollywood

[@madnessarcade7447]

@@sunshineeee As a middle eastern myself I didn’t pay attention to it I was just entertained by the character I’m not surprised tho cuz Hollywood

[@IzzyCherryLime]

“Bullocks! I’m pretty sure I’m a genie, Lizard” has to be the single greatest line in all of cinema

[@karsonbollinger8412]

“They found someone who refuses to hold her mouth in a comfortable position” is the craziest but most accurate description of the actress

[@cheyennebarton]

i already watched this on patreon and will be watching it again and will continued to be astounded by the lack of Wonderland characters in this WONDERLAND SPINOFF SHOW

[@haleywhipjack]

you're a real one, we just have to make do with the fact that it allegedly takes place in wonderland, though honestly i feel like i could argue against that too if i really tried

[@Theology.101]

i did the same and reposted the exact same comment lmao

[@theunigamer194]

Is Allegedly Wonderland the homeland of Allegedly Evan Afton? ​@@haleywhipjack

[@jungtothehuimang]

No for real, what in the absolute world were they thinking? I just wonder what the writers room even looked like.

[@RoweClementine]

I’m only 30 minutes in and I’m already astounded

[@lindseyjennings121]

The criteria for the best outfits list: be a pretty lady in pants and a cloak who might stab you OR a tragic handsome man in much too fancy casual day wear.

[@emma-janeulmer438]

Having never watched OUATIW I am SO GLAD to finally have an explanation for Will Scarlet's presence 😂

[@haleywhipjack]

i promise you this actually just makes it more confusing

[@emma-janeulmer438]

​@@haleywhipjack I have finished the video and you are so right this just made the whole things SO much weirder 😂

[@madnessarcade7447]

@@emma-janeulmer438go watch it this isn’t a substitute

[@JadeReloaded]

Love it when a man who drowned his own son gives lectures about morale and being worthy.

[@mel-burnes]

yeah that one's bizarre for sure. ik ideally jafar needed therapy but his method was actually good and fun and correct because wtf man

[@MsFeyCreature]

The standard Bad Show lack of nuance: if x is the bad guy, everyone opposing them must be the good guy.

[@JDM-is-my-name]

​@@MsFeyCreatureit's so funny to me though, because in OUAT proper, they have bad people who don't like each other in Regina/Cora/Selena and Rumblestillskin, but with the added aspect that for reasons unbeknownst to any one ever, the lady involved WILL at least want to smooch on Rumble's scaled face. And yet, and yet, it's clear that Regina and Rumble both end up more morally grey than completely evil (as far as the show cares), just like how Anastasia also is set up for redemption, kinda. It's just fun how the spin off does this so much worse than the main show. Like, yeah, Regina sexually assaulted a man for 28+ years and we will never acknowledge it but at least it wasn't her sudo-adopted son. And yet, because miss shake lady who groomed Jafar for 10+ years (assumed) is against Jafar and the mother of genie 1, 2 and 3, we have to forgive her??? This is absolutely the worst OUAT media, imo

[@madnessarcade7447]

I’m pretty sure the point of the scene was him self reflecting and seeing himself in jafar and it shows how much he’s grown since He was saying it to jafar but he was also implying it about himself Y’all need to pay more attention

[@madnessarcade7447]

@@JDM-is-my-namehiccups aside the a show in general was pretty good

[@madisonwise9990]

Your cat being so incredibly cuddly and a handful the entire opening has me cackling

[@haleywhipjack]

he's obsessed with being on camera, he's my perfect little angel and my worst enemy

[@GrapefruitPizza]

@@haleywhipjack He's so cute, thank you for sharing some of your spotlight with him!

[@turnipcrazy4602]

​@@haleywhipjacksounds like my cat

[@annana6098]

KZbinrs lovingly petting their cats while continuing with business as usual is one of my favorite KZbin tropes. I hope it only gets more common.

[@cartoongrl0706]

I could hear his purring and I was so happy 😭

[@VanshikaGulati]

Wishing for the genie's freedom "has been tried" and it "didn't end well." I think we're meant to assume that the story of Sidney Glass, aka the Evil Queen's magic mirror, aka ex-genie is well known in genie circles.

[@balsasjekloca9308]

"Have you ever heard the tragedy of Sidney the Simp?" -Cyrus, probably

[@simonsonian8977]

The Red Queen and the Queen Of Hearts being different characters is actually one of the only accurate things to the original book! That and Alice's craving for violence.

[@DUELISTKlNGDOM]

victorian london being its own dimension does kinda make sense but GOD is it still so funny

[@majtravien4381]

now this makes me wonder if it's the same victorian england as where the darlings live

[@cakt1991]

@@majtravien4381 it’s very much not. The Darlings (and Baelfire for a time) all lived in the “real” Victorian England, which becomes the present Land Without Magic. Any other characters you see in Victorian-ish settings, like Alice or later Jekyll and Hyde (one of Jekyll’s colleagues is actually the same doctor from the hospital where Alice is institutionalized), and Cruella, that’s a dimension in and of itself within the Fairytale Realms.

[@arielsteinsaltz1956]

@@cakt1991 Cruella is in permanent 1920s world. Very different from Victorian England.

[@cakt1991]

@@arielsteinsaltz1956 oh, that’s right. But I did figure she was also in some kind of alternate world too. There seem to be a lot of those. The Darlings really are the only peek we get at true “Land Without Magic” history.

[@alexiabeatriz00]

i thought they'd go the steampunk retrofuturism where it's similar but whimsical enough to be it's own world but NO. nope.

[@tracymartel]

The lost once upon a time cast cross over is crazy , how did I never realize JAFAR IS SAYID ?????

[@TrentR42]

It makes sense. I came to the realization that OUAT is LOST when Whipjack was ranting about Neverland and Rumple's Dad/Peter Pan.

[@tatumsoward6117]

@@TrentR42 a lot of cross over with the main creative team bts, i think? heard from billiam's channel that they tried to market it as LOST 2. the only thing that annoys me fr abt the LOST/OUAT connection is that OUAT has the same casting credits as LOST. like it's the same font as LOST when the cast's names appear on screen after the main credits of OUAT. like that is just lazy 🙄

[@iwouldgiveyouthemoon_]

every hours long “unhinged recap” video is somehow connected to the mmcu (mike’s mic cinematic universe) and this lost/ouat crossover just proves that

[@chosendragonstask]

The Victorian era seems like a place that would be so so bad to be, imagining a dimension that's victorian FOREVER????? Hell.

[@madnessarcade7447]

I don’t think it’s forever

[@rafaelaamaral7820]

@@madnessarcade7447dude why are u in everyone's reply's???,?

[@magix6782]

"Will kinda can't do anything" me: and i love him for it "and i think thats a very admirable quality in a man" EXACTLY

[@neivilde.1242]

i saw the title in the notificaltion and was like oh, surely it wont be as long as the others, it only has 13 episodes lmao.i should know better by now

[@noel6282]

Haley calling Will and Alice brother and sister minutes after I watched that hug and called them brother and sister. LET THE SIBLINGS BE HAPPY AND NEAR EACH OTHER! Siblings don't get to be happy in this dang series!

[@mijiah]

mother has returned with a meal for us to feast upon.

[@renamation8098]

You are so right about everything, except one thing: Alices father thinking Wonderland was just a strange vivid dream is a GREAT price. Alice, technically, doesn't know, but her father has just returned to a reality where he still believes Alice to be insane and also makes it her fault that his life is a shithole. ALSO also, I think this hits so much harder after Alice literally telling him, that she always went back to Wonderland, just to bring something back so that he would believe her. As a child of shitty parents, an honest and heartfelt apology and owning up and changing their behaiviour in the future is the greatest gift you could give her and Jafar has just taken that from her. Sooo yeah, in this actual world, its probably not that terrible of a punishment, because once she saves her man she can just go back and bring proof with her and everythings gonna be fine probably, but the CONCEPT ? The concept is killing me.

[@everyonesfavoritesidechara3816]

Exactly

[@nathanwaters8586]

Amaranth being cyrus's mum at first was an incredible plot twist to me. The idea of bringing someone back from the dead not knowing that that person will go onto to do horrible things because you brought then back when they were supposed to be dead. Incredible! I loved that! But were supposed to sympathise with her which completely ruins my take on it😭

[@fragmentedghost5391]

"You can change into a black coat and black vest to represent how sad you are....but you gotta keep your green striped pants to remind yourself to never abandon whimsy" Is genuinely one of the best things I've ever heard

[@RainbowNomja13]

Single handily has put the word whimsy back into my vocabulary on a regular basis

[@riqrimoli]

"no one watched it" yeah i was obssessed with ouat as an 11 year old and i had no idea this existed

[@Isabelle-hv6ny]

What I was also obsessed an watched it when it Aired. 😂😂

[@lightworthy]

that’s so funny, this is the only one i DID watch bc i could jump into it without having to figure out how to binge the first 3 seasons as i missed them before😂

[@wildheartrazorfang6]

The fact that they so firmly state that Once Upon A Time in Wonderland takes place between Seasons 3 and 4 and then Season 4 just kinda resets things as if Wonderland never happened and/or potentially straight up undoes the side character stories is straight up baffling.

[@lilchaos9212]

The relationship between the two shows is so weird because Jafar makes an appearance later on in the main show and directly references Wonderland, Will Scarlet makes an appearance and vaguely references the show but we can't tell if it's set before or after Wonderland, and yet Wonderland literally opens up with Will Scarlet in Storybrooke at the start of Season 2 when the Wraith attacked? So Season 2 happens at the same time as Wonderland, but Will Scarlet being IN OUAT contradicts that.

[@border_line.]

@@lilchaos9212wait please explain like I get wym somewhat but the pieces arent all clicking, why is it contradictory? sorry its sm to read about how the directors of these shows fucked it up SOO bad esp bc i didnt watch ouatiw

[@lilchaos9212]

@@border_line. Will is meant to be having his happily ever after with Anastasia by the end of OUATIW, which takes place parallel to OUAT S2, but when we see Will Scarlet in OUAT S4 he is acting as though the story is set BEFORE OUATIW. He is angsty over Anastasia and gives no indication that he is King of Wonderland and ran away or something.

[@risipieces]

when you brought up cyrus being visibly a different ethnicity than his family and also the rest of the aladdinverse characters, it distracted me into looking through a bunch of the actors wikipedia and imdb pages, and yeah, cyrus (peter gadiot) is half dutch and half mexican and is indeed the only significant agrabah character whose ethnicity is not partially from west asia and/or south asia also oh my god amara and jafar became *so much worse* because i learned that when naveen andrews (jafar) was a teenager he "started a relationship with" (wikipedia’s words) his 30 YEAR OLD TEACHER. his parents were abusive and, to escape them, he moved in with her when he was 16 and they were together for about 6 years and they have a son. and just. oh no? no no no? oh my god?

[@iwouldgiveyouthemoon_]

oh my gosh that’s crazy

[@kinkanalchemist]

I'm not sure if it would be weirder for the writers to have plagiarized this man's trauma or for the casting directors to have accidentally and completely by chance made someone relive part of their life but fantasy-flavored

[@madnessarcade7447]

Crazy that he went along with it and didn’t get angry or demand they change it

[@risipieces]

@@madnessarcade7447 it would not be the first time i’ve heard a guy describe experiencing something horrifying like that as a teenager and having never been told that it was inappropriate on the adult woman’s behalf - even guys who would know it’s predatory if it happened to anyone else, they just don’t always connect the idea of being preyed on to their own experiences i’m pretty sure it was seen as even more normal in the 1980s, which is when it happened to andrews. i don’t know him and can’t speak to his thoughts, but it’s very possible he’s never processed the situation or thought about what it really meant for an adult to act that way with him at the time in fact he gave a quote to esquire magazine in 2007 about how he prefers older women because they "know who they are” - at the time he was in a relationship with barbara hershey, who is 21 years older than him (and also cora’s actress? they started dating when he was 30, and i have no reason to believe it was an unhealthy relationship or anything so like, sure, funny coincidence (they broke up before ouatiw was made), good for both of them)… but i saw it in the context of what happened to him as a kid so it was just pretty saddening

[@mente3810]

Oh my god?!

[@Theology.101]

The rage I have about this show, set in *Wonderland* that does not follow ANY of the SEVERAL Wonder Land Characters we have already met - including Sebastian Stan’s Mad Hatter… And then they just make it a *new guy?*

[@nicolehapgood6277]

To be fair, Sebastian Stan was meant to have a bigger role in once upon a time, but he got hired by marvel and then didn't have time to come back. But it's still pretty upsetting lol

[@Jordan-iq8pu]

i remember there being a theory that the will scarlet character was supposed to jefferson/the mad hatter but since sebstan had to leave ouat they made it be the knave of hearts

[@madnessarcade7447]

It’s understandable

[@madnessarcade7447]

I think the lack of wonderland characters was a budget thing

[@marah.7528]

Astronomically early, this will be especially fun because I haven’t seen OUAT in wonderland

[@roseevans4101]

No one has

[@GrapefruitPizza]

@@roseevans4101 I have! :D

[@moronic_mouse]

SAME

[@bertoandon9681]

I'd never heard of it

[@Chrishope2001]

I watched it. But I have no memory of it.

[@Forty2Times]

I remember seeing it live and wondering "did they forget to finish the CGI?? At all??" 😂😂😂

[@madnessarcade7447]

let’s not judge a show for what they had access to with their budget they did their best

[@madnessarcade7447]

It’s not inexcusable though they had a small budget and you could only do so much on network television this isn’t the game of thrones dude stop acting like it should be a 100 million dollar show let’s not judge a show for what they had access to with their budget they did their best

[@Forty2Times]

​@@madnessarcade7447ok, calm down toddler. You're filling in so many blanks to the point of writing a novel. There were places they didn't need CGI but chose to do it. And then didn't even clean it to the point it wasn't pixilated. Of course they don't have a huge budget. However if they have a pull out shot where they show an over view of Wonderland and it looks like a 4th grader made it with paint bucket, then maybe they needed to have a different shot. And better creative choices.

[@gimmickgotbored7157]

Always a big fan of the linguistic trend of "and they do a [noun] about it"

[@roajules351]

Anyone else got frightened and had to rub their eyeballs to make sure they had actually seen young millie b brown in OUAT in wonderland OF ALL PLACES

[@roajules351]

Also..who checked the final horrific backgrounds and thought.. and it was good.. heelp😭

[@roajules351]

@@hyalina7098 that is wiild ..i feel like everyone must learn of this!

[@AntiCensorshipProKindness]

As someone who is half Iranian (and never watched this spin-off) I wondered if I was being crazy for being mad that the main Good Guy Middle Eastern character was the one ME character NOT played by an actual Middle Eastren actor. Drove me nuts. Thank you for validating that lol.

[@mrlagoonslawyer]

Nah ouat writers do the weirdest casting

[@madnessarcade7447]

I didn’t pay attention to it as a middle eastern myself I was too entertained by the world

[@mollymcdade4031]

Haley being very Climb The Walls about Jafar is making me want to recommend her LOST - but I’m also afraid it’d end up as a 10-hour video recap

[@mollymcdade4031]

Fun fact: his character is one of the good guys (although morally complex), and has the biggest kill count of the series, way more than the main villains of the show 😂

[@meggomyeggo431]

No one tell Mike’s Mic about OUAT then lol

[@gabbylevanzin5340]

@@meggomyeggo431i can just imagine mikes mic saying “and belle is…. CLAIRE????” 😭😭😭😭

[@PikaChu-sp2qo]

I'd explode if Haley covered Lost. I think she'd have so much fun with how deranged that show gets.

[@mxhemlock]

I'm not afraid. Give it to me. I'd listen to the whole thing happily. My job is so boring.

[@MelioraBliss]

As someone currently rewatching season 4, this explains Will’s character SO MUCH. I was always confused by him breaking into the library for the Alice in Wonderland book and the comment of him missing his friends in regards to it. I thought it was just to mislead the audience from knowing he was a Robin Hood character 😭

[@annalisehoyer8509]

Haley some of these sentences are KILLING ME. “Tweedledum’s betrayal was revealed” “Whoopi Godlberg rabbit and all her rabbit babies are safe.” I could watch this for 12 hours

[@austinleach1307]

The actress who played the Jabberwocky also plays the main villain, Nxyly, in the final season of Supergirl, which speaks to how broken my brain is that I recognized her from that role specifically.

[@rue...whenwasthis]

I watched this before and recognized her in supergirl from being the jabberwocky

[@madnessarcade7447]

What’s wrong with that? It was a good role

[@rowenoake]

*slaps title* this wonderland show can fit so many non-wonderland characters in it (i'm still not over the fact that SILVERMIST was a part of this, which i will be thinking about for the next 5-6 business days)

[@madnessarcade7447]

I think the lack of wonderland characters was a budget thing

[@jungtothehuimang]

Not them doing Keith David so dirty, he's literally and icon and loves voicing surly cat boys! What the hell ABC family 😭😭😭

[@jungtothehuimang]

@@anarose5632 god forbid you do a little hyperbole on the Internet for fun

[@demetriam2408]

Like he was literally the cat in Coraline, he would be a PERFECT CHESHIRE CAT BUT THEY RUINED MY BOY

[@jungtothehuimang]

@@demetriam2408 how do you get someone as talented as Keith freaking David and then mess with the sound of his voice like??? What did they do to my boy!?

[@mariabrolonn282]

coming back after having watched this it really did capture just how amusing this spinoff was regardless of any attachment to actual OUAT, they really did just do that with Anastasia and Will, the best true love's kiss this series has had since the s1 finale

[@jadedragon1406]

I'm sorry- the *GRENDEL* ??? THEY BROUGHT IN *BEOWOLF* ??!??

[@LJSohma]

RIGHT!? But didn't add Beowulf?! It makes me wonder so much about what that writers' room was like lmao

[@cakt1991]

@@LJSohma Beowulf is in an episode season 6 of OUAT. He kind of gets the villain treatment, as he’s working against Rumplestiltskin. Grendel is referenced there, but for reasons relevant to the plot of the episode, he doesn’t appear.

[@LJSohma]

@@cakt1991 I completely forgot about that, thank you

[@dudleygirl1124]

the fact that a show called "once upon a time in WONDERLAND" is really mostly aladdin (without even at least having aladdin in the show at that point to just fully commit to the bit) sends me every time i think about it. like, was there truly not enough material to pull from for an actual wonderland story? i highly doubt it.

[@madnessarcade7447]

I think the lack of wonderland characters was a budget thing not a material thing

[@mente3810]

Its because they made a deal with the real ouat. They wanted to keep jasmine and aladdin for the og show. They appear in season… 6? Idk actually

[@valeroseholiday]

the Tweedles' eye makeup is a reference to the David Bowie album "Aladdin Sane" :3

[@valeroseholiday]

as if the show needed more Aladdin

[@triciaorgana9254]

I wonder if the inspo is because Aladdin Sane is intentionally meant to sound like "a lad insane" which ties into a lot wonderland aesthetic

[@fraserking4747]

Having never seen the show, I’m blown away that this got a spin-off. Oh my lord the ride never ends.

[@madnessarcade7447]

Go watch jt

[@emilyglass6625]

All I remember about this show is how cute I thought Cyrus was. I assume this was like 60% Cyrus being a cute person and 40% his magical bottle house tapping into my lifelong preoccupation with tiny fully furnished spaces. Perfect man + perfect real estate

[@Hal-ny3ur]

God, the “girlfriend decides to shack up with the king because she’s tired of being poor” thing is so much better in Galavant

[@madnessarcade7447]

Or you know they can both be good it’s not a competition

[@noagoldstein2071]

Every time you post the birds outside my window sing and I get up and do a little dance

[@didntevenchoosethisfont141]

I truly think this was the OUAT's response to the Alice in Wonderland movies that were out at this time. And as someone who's hyperfixation was OUAT seeing this live was wild. I also think that it is a mixture of Tangled as well but in the setting of Wonderland

[@JadeReloaded]

Part that, part was probably fans going wild for the Hatter and misinterpreted the reaction.

[@TheNitpickChick]

2:23:41 “Cora, I’m in your WAAALLLLSSSS!!!!” 🤣

[@januarysimpson9772]

I literally texted my fiancé in all caps “MY HUSBAND HAS RETURNED FROM WAR” and a a screenshot of this video

[@blueskiesandstarrynights]

SILVERMIST?? MY GIRLIE???? MY FAVORITE PIXIE HOLLOW FAIRY???? holy crap what the hell is going on, why is she here but also I'm so happy she is rip girlie you should've been a lesbian and may I just say haley you are 1000% correct about vidia as well

[@livliveart]

I was simultaneously so happy and so horrified to see her here... I really didn't wanna know about her bits 😭 (Fun fact, I was in a production of Peter Pan Jr, and that script actually incorporated the Pixie Hollow girlies, as well as Fly to Your Heart! I wish I could have played a fairy, but they all thought I was a boy back then... oh well 🥲)

[@aleeysaurasrex]

All totally normal length videos with vital information for your every day life

[@kimberleesi]

Naveen Andrews (Jafar) also had these gorgeous gorgeous curls for the 1st three seasons of Lost but then once he was back in society he changed it and it was soooo disappointing. The curls return in even later seasons when he's back on the deserted island sans hair care products. Also for anyone who doesn't know check out the connections between Lost and Once Upon a Time. It was co created by a Lost writer and there is a lot of the same actors (here Naveen Andrews but also the actress who plays Amara) and the storytelling aspect of current day and flashbacks mixes together also is Lost's structure. If you like one you might like the other!

[@iwouldgiveyouthemoon_]

this makes soooo much sense to me omg. i’ve never seen lost but i have seen the mike’s mic recap videos, and i was having strange deja vu about the way haley was describing the flashbacks, and then i realized it reminded me of mike’s lost videos. and then i see this comment 😭

[@AgentSteffi]

Oh shit you're right, I was thinking why she looks so familiar! I think it's so cute they got LOST actors in both shows. Belle was Claire, the Giant was Hurley, the green/wicked witch was Charlotte, king George was Charles widmore. Even Regina was a lady from LOST that appeared in like 2 episodes. So excited to see even more flash sideways!

[@superspiffychef1923]

You might say that Will, rather than being a Merry Man, is a Married Man...

[@sofcarolq]

Hermes just laying in your arms and purring is killing me, man 😭🥹

[@losticarus]

i just realized how crazy the reveal is that alice's father *always* says grace before food in 1:34:11 . cause he's not from regular earth. he's from victorian england. which means there's a Victorian England Jesus who died for their Victorian England sins like. child labor or something

[@ellabartal4652]

You know, the CGI on this show is genuinely inexcusable. You could think this show is from 2001 by the looks of it but, no no no, its from 2014.

[@madnessarcade7447]

It’s not inexcusable though they had a small budget and you could only do so much on network television this isn’t the game of thrones dude stop acting like it should be a 100 million dollar show let’s not judge a show for what they had access to with their budget they did their best

[@ellabartal4652]

@@madnessarcade7447 OUAT came around the same time as GoT. GoT had a budget of 5-6 mil per episode, and OUAT had about 4.5 mil. That's pretty darn similar. And plenty for at least half good CG. I don't know what the production did with the money, genuinely cannot see where 4.5 mil went to.

[@rafaelaamaral7820]

@@ellabartal4652to be fair this show probably had a lower budget than ouat, but if it didn't have the budget for decent cgi, it shouldn't have used so much of it,, like having s fully cgi h vc arcarem is insane actually they could've just not done that

[@littiescorp4197]

You ABSOLUTELY sold me on Anastasia and Will's relationship. I was actually scared for a minute that she was really dead. It almost made me want to watch the show, and I have to preface this with the fact I have NEVER really truthfully watched OUAT lmao

[@LathosZan]

0:00 Haley. Haley. Missus Whipjack..... this makeup? This lipstick and eyeshadow? This look? Amazing. I love it. You look so good with that look!

[@ThePigKnight]

The OUAT spin off was constantly bouncing it’s time slot so it was also impossible to actually watch even if you wanted to.

[@haleywhipjack]

i wish this was surprising, but it makes perfect sense

[@Adriana-bx2si]

Omg you just unlocked a deep memory of people in the ouat tumblr fandom complaining about the changing time slot. It's very clear that ABC really didn't care about this show at all which is sad at the time of release a good portion of the fandom was excited about it.

[@tyraoqvist350]

I feel like the "no wishing 4 genie's freedom" rule could make sense considering the boys are cursed to be genies. Like maybe normal genies can get out but they can't since it woukd literally be a get-out-of-jail-free-card.

[@BiziCutherell]

Remember back in season 1 when Snow White's father wished for Sydney Glass's freedom? Love the writers completely changing an already established premise in their universe

[@madnessarcade7447]

Wonderland has different rules

[@border_line.]

yeah but ouatiw said that wishing for the genie’s freedom has been tried didnt end well, which im assuming is a call back to the fact that sydney glass ended up killing snow’s dad after snow’s dad freed him ykwim

[@stuffingtonjfluffypantsiii]

Once Upon A Time In Wonderland drinking game. Do a shot every time a character says "Bloody Hell"

[@stuffingtonjfluffypantsiii]

Haley: "Why is Slivermist in Wonderland?" Me: "Because the script told her to be. Makes as much sense as anything else in this show."

[@Redbrover]

I didnt know you were a person like a month ago, and now I am dropping everything to watch your uploads. Please tell me everything about a show I had no idea existed. 😭

[@GrapefruitPizza]

So real

[@Asummersdaydreamer14]

I have been on a similar journey mainly because it reminded me of a past devotion to OUAT & Haley has a good explainer presentation style that fits the way I enjoy media

[@madnessarcade7447]

Go watch it

[@bellad9569]

I remember this show. I watched this show. I liked this show. I remember almost nothing.

[@sunny1923gy]

weird fact: the actor who played Will grew up in Derby which is about 15 miles from Nottingham, whereas the actor playing Robin Hood grew up in London. So Wills accent is actually closure to what Robin Hood's would have been if he existed today Also will's actor was in being human and anastasia's actress was in the spin off of that show becoming human

[@jaysnep7224]

As much as the lack of wonderland characterss in the show does annoy me, I really enjoy the comittment to what it is presumed Lewis Carrol based Alice in Wonderland off of. That being the poem Jabberwocky which he wrote to prove that you do not need to use actual words for a poem to make sense and includes such things as: The tulgey woods, the vorpal blade, the mome wraths, the borogoves, the bandersnatch and, of course, The Jabberwocky.

[@AgentSteffi]

Sadly they weren't the first to think of it IIRC. The Tim Burtons Alice movie definitely had the bandersnatch and/or the jabberwocky (it's been too long I can't remember it exactly. But I heard both before so I assume it's from that movie - I haven't seen the through the looking glass movie)

[@stampede274]

2:04:30 the insanity of shows like OUAT is because they were made before the binge model was a thing. People might go a week or more without watching it, they might miss episodes, etc, and the only way to watch it at once was the box set. So even in heavily serialized shows, it was assumed that the emotional impact would've somewhat dulled by the next week. You didn't get the cumulative effect you do binging these shows, where each episode adds to this ever-growing snowball of madness.

[@ianmoore2351]

oh boy another several hour long video essay on a show I've never watched nor heard of until this very moment? Yippie! Edit: What a roller coaster ride that was. What a strange idea to combine Alice in Wonderland and Aladdin, of all things. I await with bated breath for the next recap!

[@cowboylikemorgan]

i was absolutely insane with my obsession with OUAT in Wonderland in middle school, thank god for this video

[@alexnunez8134]

what amara did to jafar was horrific but the word “turbo-groomed” caught me SO off guard i laughed 😭😭

[@mattlombardi7358]

I’m Lizard. Lizard is me. I’m in this video and I wasn’t expecting it, but thanks for the shout out lol

[@iwouldgiveyouthemoon_]

oh my gosh??? that’s so cool

[@madnessarcade7447]

Cool I assume based on ur photo ur trans now or were u back then too

[@bornana269]

I don’t think they mean that they’re the actress playing lizard yall

[@oliviamartin6130]

The way Hayley says “But it exists to ME” made me die laughing. The unhinged energy is 10/10

[@audreyhatch7115]

there is nothing i love more than a show with insane potential that goes unexplored

[@pickl-o5312]

The Anastasia and Will would have been like a nice counter to Robin and Reginas in the main show

[@TangentialTif]

I was the one person who watched this show while it aired. I definitely remembered it happened but it was so fun to have it comeback to me as you were explaining it. Great recap, great costumes, great whiteboard! I need all of the seasons!

[@turnipcrazy4602]

I remember really enjoying the spin-off when it aired. I wish that we could have kept Anastasia in the original show. I really just wanted Will and her to get their happy ending. Instead because of low ratings they decided to pretend it didn't exist and change Will's character.

[@RedhindEvans]

I'm going to consider it a crime that I had no clue there was a spin off after fangirling for way too long😭

[@Letsflux]

I felt like the only person who watched this show and it still feels like a fever dream

[@ClementineRiver]

Your cat is so sweet and cuddly! I love that we can hear the purring!!! Also I remember this show I watched this spin off, I'm so glad you are talking about it and also loving the red queens accent!

[@gloomygloomstalker3878]

I love the OUAT franchise and watching someone tear it apart and dissect it is so much fun. Also, your outfits are really immaculate!

[@VanshikaGulati]

I wish the ending you want was canon. It's absolutely brilliant.

[@GeorgiaSteadman]

I absolutely ADORE Once and the way that they did Aladdin in a spinoff and chose Frozen as the main show is atrocious.

[@madnessarcade7447]

Frozen is awesome though it was very good what’s wrong with frozen

[@madnessarcade7447]

Also they main series has Aladdin stuff

[@libraryofrabbitxandria9642]

If you think Naveen Andrews is hot as Jafar here, you’ve gotta see him in the Bingley role in Bride and Prejudice (which has a little of the OUAT adaptation chaos, now that I think about it) I adore these videos! Bless you, Haley (and Hermes), you’re making the world a better, more joyful, better-outfitted place

[@5050clown]

‘she slaps her Tweedle for underestimating her’- been there sis. been there.

[@GeekMasterGames]

Oh dear god that Jabberwocky looks like a bad closet cosplay

[@madnessarcade7447]

They did their best with what they had let’s not use budget as a criticism that isnt fair. Its charming

[@madnessarcade7447]

They did their best with what they had let’s not use budget as a criticism that isnt fair. Its charming and whimsical

[@rafaelaamaral7820]

@@madnessarcade7447how did you have the time to reply to everyone????? i want to study you