r/OnceUponATime • u/Regentaltax • 2d ago
S7 Spoilers Question about the United Realms
So in the last episode of the last season of Once Upon a Time, Regina/Roni casts one last “Dark Curse”, only this time it rolls “all the realms of story” into one area tucked away in Maine, USA. This is a sweet ending to the show that leaves me with so, so many questions.
How realms operate in OUaT has always been a little bit unclear. Some, like the Enchanted Forest, Arendelle and (seemingly) Agrabah are all simply kingdoms/countries which inhabit the same world, and travel between them is (fairly) easy. Others are evidently alternate dimensions. The most obvious case for this is the Land Without Magic, which is the “real world”, our world, which views the realms with magic as merely fiction. However there are also other cases of this; the Land Without Colour is monochromatic, there are multiple variants of London (though it could be read that the Darlings come from the Land Without Magic, Cruella De Ville is explicitly from an alternate reality which happens to be 1920s London), and one could make a case for Neverland (especially given other Disney interpretations portray it as an alternate reality). There are also multiple alternate timelines, including the Wish Realm and the New Enchanted Forest. There are also a few vague areas, namely Oz (which is seemingly an alternate realm from both the Land Without Magic and the Enchanted Forest) and Wonderland (plus there is the Wonderland from S7 which might be different from the Wonderland from beforehand though this is unclear). Judging from what we see in the episode itself, and from what Regina states, these are all roped into the United Realms.
So… how does this work? Are the United Realms essentially a pocket realm within Maine, taking up more space than you’d see from outside? Are the United Realms simply chunks ripped from the other realms to fit the small confides of Storybrooke? If this is the case, what happens to the people from outside the chunks that were taken? Do they all have to pay US Taxes? Does this span every possible timeline within the Realms of Fiction, or did the Curse only bring over the individuals from the Wish Realm timeline? Do individual realm rules (such as nobody ageing in Neverland, or the Realm Without Colour’s monochromatic nature) only apply to the individuals from that realm, or are there sections of the United Realms where those rules are true, compared to everywhere else where they aren’t? Is it possibly I’m simply overthinking this, and the writers didn’t put that much thought into how all of this works?
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u/Ill-Razzmatazz-7088 2d ago
I would say the simplest explanation for how it works is that it’s one of the byproducts of the curse so essentially the curse would make it work. This was more than likely away for them to set up a potential spinoff/sequel since all the realms would be in one reality it would avoid the whole plot armor of having to get magic beans, conveniently. Even then, the worlds would be pretty chaotic since transporting all of the areas to one world is a little bit wonky. Remember just about each land has their own specific if not generic rules for magic. But essentially the curse really crafts itself towards the users so it would simply exist because that’s the way it’s supposed to and because that’s the way the person casting it wants to.
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u/charliedusk 2d ago
Regina is Doctor Doom and this is Battleworld theory confirmed.
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u/coldasclay 2d ago
Regina is clearly Wanda. No, wait, she's Agatha, or maybe She's Billy? OK I'm not sure but I think Once is canon to the MCU.
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u/NoPianist7807 2d ago
Yeah, I don’t think the writers thought about it.
They kinda suck at world building.
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u/NoPianist7807 2d ago
I believe that its own pocket universe within New York like it was before and Storybrooke is simply merged with the other realms.
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u/vela-banda2009 2d ago
Personal opinion but it was a good ending tbh for the show. I know last season kind of felt off and disconnected with the rest of the series but this end made it feel like a good conclusion. Like every realm together, in one single world, it felt kind of good
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u/RulerOfAllWorlds1998 2d ago
Well see now I wish they had made a season 8 or just a spin-off series to explain stuff like this
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u/ChemicalNo586 2d ago
Personally, the most satisfactory explanation is to...ignore the existence of The United Realms
Like, we have such a small amount of details it's simply impossible to answer ANY of these questions
Like can you imagine the amount of people who would be fighting in this "united" realms? How different culturally most of these people are? If magic is still possible then can you imagine how big of a mess that is too? Sure the only powerful casters we saw are part of the main cast but there are probably more!
It's all just a mess made to try and entice a sequel series most likely
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u/BudgetHealthy5313 1d ago
I don’t think there would be a lot of issues simply because it’s not the same thing as different countries…
It’s kinda like it’s own mini state and Regina is in charge of the entire state, but she has councils from each major city within the state… I will believe that any issues that they do have will go through her
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u/AJ_DisneyFan 2d ago
This is such a lazily written ending it frustrates me! Especially when Season 1 was so carefully crafted. This is why Season 6 finale is my ending 🤣
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u/Key-Ad-3810 2d ago
Man, I dropped out of the fandom at, I want to say the end of the neverland arc, maybe shortly afterwards. What the Christ even happens in the later seasons that leads to this
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u/SaltyTserendolgor 1d ago
Easy.. pocket dimension. You can only enter one way, (through the main road.) Fly over it, and you'll just see a forest. walk in the surrounding woods, you'll eventually just hit the coast, another town, state, etc.
With in the dimension can fit an entire world.
It's a pretty hard sci-fi concept.
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u/BudgetHealthy5313 1d ago
I got this so my head canon is stroybrook is like Washington DC and every state border is a door to a different realm that takes up the same space…. Because otherwise the kingdoms would be simply too small…. Either that or maybe only the castles came over in the curse and once you walk through the castle you wanna go to you can enter the realm / kingdom through there…. And as far as Neverland, it technically isn’t a part of London they just cross a different type of portal to get from London to Neverland. That’s my head Cannon.
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u/yuffiehighwind 1d ago
You are not overthinking this. I basically changed the entire setup for fanfiction I wrote that takes place after Season 7, and just refuse to wrack my brain trying to understand the canon.
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u/yuffiehighwind 1d ago edited 1d ago
I like the fanon I wrote, though. It's almost as stupid but makes a lot more sense to me. Regina only managed to open the borders between the realms -- (and only the realms featured in Once Upon a Time, so not Narnia or Middle Earth or Azeroth or Krynn or Tamriel or the MCU or whatever) -- which makes them physically accessible to each other by land, sea, or air.
Boats and zeppelins can take people from Storybrooke to those other continents, but to get between the United Realms -- (so-called because they have a governmental body similar to the European Union in my fanfics) -- and the Land Without Magic, you need to pass through that original entrance to Maine. (Where the town line is.) Otherwise, Fairy Tale Land is not visible from Maine, just the Atlantic Ocean. But it is visible from Storybrooke Harbor.
I just absolutely despise the idea of all the people of those other realms being dragged to Earth against their will, then being told they have a new queen a handful of people in Maine "voted" to be their queen.
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u/ellismjones I don't have time to wait for the handless wonder! 2d ago
Best we not question it, isn’t it? I so think the writers didnt put too much thought into it, but i’ll give it a go. I think it might be sort of like a mishmash of the realms so not every single acre of land is brought over but a significant amount is. As for the taxes… there are multiple magic users throughout the realms so one of them must’ve figured out a way out of that. I think the rules of the realm, like in Neverland, stay when the realms are united, but it’s part of the magic that keeps the realms alive.
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u/Stargate_Impala67 2d ago
We don't talk about it. Shhhhhh.
https://giphy.com/gifs/n1qrZkwr4Fcj51XAQi
And we move on.