screenbadger:
I find it entertaining but disappointing that most of the responses to my Henry Mills confession bear meme are so protective of the character within the context of the show, pointing out the virtues of his character and his role within the plot.
See there’s the thing. It’s a show.
My real gripe with Henry Mills lies beyond the text; it’s poor writing. It’s Henry Mills serving nothing more than a plot device, to prevent or to encourage other characters to further the plot in an asinine direction.
He is strictly one-dimensional; you may attribute this to the fact that he’s 11, but other child characters on other shows have more of a personality than he does. Henry Mills is meant to be purely idealistic, and comes with a whininess and feeling of entitlement, some of which I would blame on the actor’s acting ability, coupled with some terrible lines.
Regina is one of those few characters that has been fully explored and developed, even if her motivations have regressed these past few episodes. For these reasons, I find her likable and defendable, as the series has moved her beyond being the Evil Queen and has been able to depict someone real.
Henry has not grown up at all. I’ll make arguments within the context of the show now since you all love doing that. He clings to his fairy tale book, is spoiled by every one of his guardians, gets his way by simply screaming and manipulating people’s emotions, steals credit cards and dynamite, lies to everyone, bitches that because he’s Emma’s offspring he’s entitled to be over in the enchanted forest as a knight fighting dragons, and prevents people from getting shit done. His presence is grating, and I’m sure his annoyance would not be tolerated if he were someone in real life.
Alright, let’s attribute this to the fact he’s traumatized and ‘been through soooo much, you just don’t understand!!!’. Alright. But my empathy for that ran out when season 2 started.
And “oh my god how could you wish Henry had died, you monster! HE’S THE SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE TOWN” IT’S A SHOW. ABOUT FAIRYTALES. He was WRITTEN that way. And what difference does AGE make, as you’ve seen with this show… I would’ve written “I hoped Henry Mills… had fallen back under the sleeping curse and never woke up” but I felt ‘died’ was more succinct.
To the 15 year old fangirls out there, take a chill pill. These are characters and as empathetic as we all can get about them, you’re taking things way too seriously and applying real world sense and morality to a textual space that operates under a different set of rules. It’s frightening how violent you try to place your retorts into words, and I don’t think you’re trying to be ironic.
I find it entertaining but disappointing that someone who is calling other people ‘15 year old fangirls’ can’t grasp the concept of respect and not tagging hate. is it really that difficult to understand that there’s no reason to put hate in a tag? Do you really want people to tag hate when it comes to your favorite characters? I for one think it would be rude if I made a post about Regina being a rapist and a murderer and put it in the Regina Mills tag.
For the record I am 34 and have a degree in psychology. I can tell you that Henry is actually a very realistically written character for an eleven year old who is emotionally abused and the child of someone with narcissistic personality disorder. The way he bounces from acting like an adult to clinging to his stories and acting younger than his age is very realistic for child trauma. As for being manipulative and stealing, where do you think he learned it? Look at how Regina treats him and other people; of course he mimics her behavior.
There is nothing wrong with disliking Henry. You have your point of view. That does not make it fact, but it makes it how you see things. Personally I find crimes against children do be as bad as it gets, and can’t understand liking a character who has killed children and abused her own. I also can’t like Regina because of the rape. But that’s me. You seeing things different is fine.
You talk about maturity and not taking the show too seriously, and yet you are the one being disrespectful to real people because of the hate of one character and the love of another.
Yes, it’s a show. But there’s are reasons fiction, be it books or shows or other forms, is such an integral part of our culture. One is that it gives people an archetype to identify with. There are real people who were emotionally abused by their parents, and that’s not something that’s shown often. It’s something that’s rarely talked about in this society, so Henry is someone they can identify with, and so it hurts them when people comes along and call Henry a little shit and wish him dead. Regina is his abuser and yet people are more willing to blame a child for acting like a child then they are to blame Regina for the way she treats him.
Again, I repeat the same question I did on your other post; can you please show a little respect and not post Henry hate on the Henry Mills and Henry Swan tags?
One of these days I’m going to get a “What Lost said” gif that I can use for awesomeness like this.
Dislike/hate whatever characters you want all you want. Just don’t tag that hate in places so fans of those characters can see it. It’s not cool and it doesn’t make you cool. It makes you look like a douche. If you want to revel in your character hate with your fellow character haters, make up your own damn tags.
