Stuff like the posts by Sean Maguire (Robin Hood) today just make me happy. With the fan wars going full bore in this summer hiatus of the show, due to the whole Neal's dead and CaptainSwan is happening now, it can get very frustrating to be a fan and read the hate. A lot of it is typical back and forth between what ship is better (SwanFire, CaptainSwan... SwanQueen... blah), and others are just maddening (rumors of a certain actor being "mistreated" by cast and creators, rumors of same actor causing issues on set which resulted in getting fired, and of course the whole "Captain Hook's character is the poster child for Rape Culture" crap).
I've been wanting to rant about the whole Captain Hook/Colin O'Dognahue hate for a while... but I won't be getting into that fully tonight. This is more the whole "Michael Raymond-James deserved better from his castmates" posts that I've read ever since Quiet Minds. Granted, the actors that are most referred to in those rants are the ones who have only referred to MRJ's character when talking about the scene and haven't come out and said much if anything at all about MRJ except to say they'd miss him. Colin O'Donaghue being the exception when he replied to a tweet early on in the aftermath to something Michael had tweeted about working with Colin.
However, that somewhat changed tonight with Sean and Michael's tweets today. Sean obviously does not fit the mold that folks are trying to force the OUAT cast into. As being these hateful, high schoolesque people who don't care about each other and have cliques. I'm sure any set has their share of cliqueish manners, but the OUAT cast seems to genuinely enjoy each other's company and friendship. And if we're going to take our favorite(s) at their word then who's to say it isn't true?
Sean and Michael obviously had a friendship on and off set. Sean, of course, playing Robin Hood who befriends Neal in the Season 3 premier and ultimately helps Neal get back to Neverland to help save Henry. They had a small scene in Season 3B (basically Hood is glad to see Neal survived the Neverland thing, but is sad to hear that Neal and Emma and Henry were once again separated). Interestingly enough I don't recall watching a lot of interaction between the two on twitter, but I was fairly unaware until very recently of the entertainment to be had watching this cast on Social Media. LOL
Sean is, in a way, replacing Michael on Once come next season (this is more an assumption on my part, but he definitely got MRJ's screen time for 3B). His character is going to find himself in a love triangle similar (if not even more tragic) to what Nealfire-Emma-Hook had. And I've seen a little bit of flareup from the Swanfire side... which is understandable. I've even felt that twinge of... jealousy? against the men who get to keep going on the show... It's me being selfish of course, but I do feel that Neal/MRJ had more to give the show... but it just couldn't happen with the direction the story was going. Rightly, or wrongly (time will tell on that).
But here's the thing. After it all happened fans started making up a lot of crap to somehow justify hating on certain people. The Once Cast was vilified for not "protecting/standing up for" a fellow cast member who was "forced off" the show. Ignoring for now that the actor supposedly "abused" by the powers that be came out and said his peace about it (he understood the decision, was okay with it, and has nothing but love for cast, crew, and creators), fans have basically started seeing conspiracy upon conspiracy as to how awful life was on set for this guy.
Yet we're seeing time and again on social media the cast continue on as they had before Quiet Minds. For someone so "disliked" for whatever reason, he certainly gets a lot of love from the people who supposedly "betrayed" him.
So why is that? Perhaps it's because what happened with the character of Neal and the development of his story happened exactly - or nearly so - as what the actor and creators have said. Perhaps, instead of freaking out on the people who worked with MRJ, fans should just realize that these things happen on television shows. And, let's face it, if you're a fan of MRJ you KNOW it's bound to happen. He either plays a very unlikeable guy, has a tragic storyline (that typically lands him in jail lol), or he dies... or there's a combo of those things.
Hopefully when the new season of Once is upon us, and the miniseries of Sons of Liberty (Michael's new project) airs the emotions of this past season will have passed or at least died down. I keep telling myself that all it will take is Michael getting a new something on TV for me to get over Neal not being on OUAT. I'm less angry about it than most, but I'm no less bummed about his death... and wishing/hoping that he will somehow not be dead ha ha. But, ultimately, I don't vilify anyone for the decision. It's their story and without it I'd never know about some of the awesome actors on there (MRJ being the main one I'm thankful for OUAT for).
I'm rambling so I'll stop ranting for now. I have VBS brain. Hopefully I can get my brain back so I can be more coherent.
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