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Of course, that isn’t the only relationship that will be rocked next season. With Emma now the Dark Swan (which is the best name ever), it will be interesting to see how Rumple deals with the loss of both his magic and power and what it means for his relationship with Belle. The creators also told us that we’d be learning more about what happened to Rumple at the end of season 4, and what it means for the newly purified dark one. She’ll be coming into the picture in some fashion to help the heroes deal with the fact that Emma is the new dark one.
![merida brave once upon a time merida brave once upon a time](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ee/65/9d/ee659dbaa7b148b6d54faf469efdab71.jpg)
While showrunners Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis weren’t able to reveal much about her appearance in the show, they did tell me that she was going to show up in the first episode of Season 5.
![merida brave once upon a time merida brave once upon a time](https://pics.me.me/thumb_man-once-upon-a-time-there-was-a-lovely-princess-62027460.png)
One of the things I was most excited to ask was how Merida (from Brave) was going to fit into Once Upon at Time next season. Luckily, we had interviews with the cast after the show’s official SDCC panel, so I had a lot to draw from after the panel. Concluding, very well done.During my time at Comic-Con, I got a chance to hit the Once Upon a Time press room and sit down with the likes of Jennifer Morrison (Emma), Colin O’Donoghue (Hook), Lana Parilla (Regina), Robert Carlyle (Rumple), Emilie de Ravin (Belle), Rebecca Mader (Zelena), Sean Maguire (Robin), Josh Dallas (David/Charming), Ginnifer Goodwin (Mary Margaret/Snow), and creators Adam Horowitz and Eddie Kitsis about the upcoming season.
![merida brave once upon a time merida brave once upon a time](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/79rFsya8nEA/maxresdefault.jpg)
Writing has the right balance of humour, pathos, mystery and intrigue. The music is haunting, ethereal and cleverly used with a memorable main theme. Only wooden Pinocchio's look disappoints. Furthermore, "Selfless, Brave and True" is a very handsomely mounted episode visually, the settings and costumes are both colourful and atmospheric, not too dark or garish and never cookie-cutter. All the acting is good to great, Eion Bailey and Ginnifer Goodwin are standouts. While other episodes are more successful at advancing its story elements and having a more seamless structure, things are balanced well, make sense and there is emotional impact (Mary Margaret's guilt is especially well done). The characters are still very interesting with ever clearer motivations, and the episode does a great allowing one to empathise with August. It is let down though by a few overly convenient plot points and especially the distractingly terrible look of the wooden Pinocchio (some may consider this a nit-pick, for me though it was far too amateurishly distracting to ignore). By all means, "Selfless, Brave and True" does continue the show's growth in character development and plot progression. On the other hand, after 'Once Upon a Time' was taking major strides in the right direction, with "The Queen is Dead", "The Miller's Daughter" (especially good) and "Welcome to Storybrooke" after the disappointing "In the Name of the Brother" and "Tiny", it also feels somewhat of a let-down. "Selfless, Brave and True" is a very well done episode on the whole with a lot done right. Which was why it was sad when it ran out of ideas and lost its magic in the later seasons. Watched it without fail every time it came on and it was often a highlight of the week. Really loved the idea of turning familiar fairy tales on their heads and putting own interpretations on them and the show early on clearly had clearly had a ball. When 'Once Upon a Time' first started it was highly addictive and made the most of a truly great and creative premise.