The Once Upon A Fan staff are heading out on the trip of a lifetime. From the 1-5 October 2015, we will be reporting live from the heart of Once Upon A Time: Steveston, Vancouver!

We will be exploring the sets, chatting with fans and bringing you some exclusives that will make you feel a part of the magic wherever you are in the world.

We are aiming to hold a fan meet-up on one of the days we are in Steveston so stay tuned for further information and venue details.

You can join our Facebook Events Page

#OperationStorybrooke is on!  


Please Note:

Some filming may be taking place while we are there which people can watch but this is not a con event involving actors. 

This event is purely a fan meet up to socialize with fellow Oncers. We are looking at having drinks and a party in a local venue. This event is more for people who have been a part of the fan site over the past 5 years and who want to meet up with other people from the site.

We hope to do some interviews with the actors while we are there but it all depends on permission from ABC.

By Teresa Martin - @Teresa__Martin

Once Upon a Time a rich family falls on hard times. Of all the children, only Belle stands out as a character of dignity. Noble though she is, she resolves to make the best of her situation and is not too proud to reduce herself to manual labor, seeking out the needy in her new “little town.” Belle is also a great scholar whose great learning and love of books keeps her from melancholy. When she finds herself in a situation wherein she becomes enslaved to a Beast, she is called by her sisters a “victim of beauty.”

In the service of the Beast she is constantly in danger of succumbing to a deeper melancholy and continues to look within and her books to survive. But she has another consolation. When she sleeps she is visited by a comely Prince, who loves her madly, and she falls in love with him as they converse. He also serves as her conscience, advising her of the truth in her heart. 

In Belle’s waking hours, she visits with the Beast nightly and he always asks her to marry him, something from which she shrinks. Yet she pities the Beast in his misery.


Finally, so missing her old life, the Beast releases her to visit her home. She pledges to him that she will return.

But she doesn’t.

Surrounded by a comforting, non-complex environment, she finds solace. This leads her to break her vow and stay with those who make her happy.

Make her smile.

Yet this proves to be shallow as she finds that she is losing herself.

The Prince still comes to her in dreams, but he is in great pain since he is dying. His heart is shattered and he is all alone in his misery. The Prince shows her that it was the breaking of her vow that caused this.

Finally, Belle can take it no longer.

She goes back to the Beast and finds the dying Prince as she saw him in her dreams, yet it is not the man she knows, but the Beast.

At this moment she realizes that her Prince was the Beast all along and when she broke with him she broke with her True Love.

In soul-destroying tears she begs him to live. To come back to her.

She declares her love.

At that the Beast’s curse breaks. They are married and live “Happily Ever After.”

This is “Beauty and the Beast.”

Or as I like to call it, Season Four Rumbelle.

Following on from the success of Marvel's first Once Upon A Time graphic novel, 'Shadow of the Queen', comes 'Out of The Past', a collection of 4 short stories featuring long established fan favorite characters. Written by OUAT writer and co-executive producer Kalinda Vasquez and Corinna Bechko, all the stories are considered canonical and tie into official show continuity. Though with a show as sprawling in scope as Once, deciphering where in the timeline the stories fit is sometimes like cracking the Enigma Code!

Chapter One: "Dead In The Water"

Art by Pascal Campion

The first chapter focuses on a young Killian Jones and is set prior to his fateful encounter with the Dark One. Killian and his crew are caught in a dangerous storm surge that threatens to tear apart the Jolly Roger. Faced with the destruction of the ship, Killian has no choice but to steer the Jolly Roger into a cursed stretch of water known as the Leviathan Shoals.

Leviathan is a sea monster referenced in the Tanakh, or the Old Testament. The word has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature. In this version of the tale, the water surrounding the monsters lair is reputed to drive men into madness with horrific visions.

The resulting effects of the water bring a familiar face back into Killian's life, tying into plot strands from season three of the show. Killian's actions during the story once again hint at the hero beneath the pirate, as well as revealing more about how the grief and tragedy of events in his life have impacted him. The outcome of the story is left ambiguous, leaving doubt in both Killian and the readers mind as to whether what he experienced was real or not.

Chapter Two: "Truth & Daggers"

Art by Betsy Peterschmidt

The second story focuses on Belle and Rumple and is set during the early stages of Belle's tenure as a servant within the Dark Castle. The story touches on the sacrifice that Belle made by giving up her freedom to serve at the castle, one aspect being how Belle is now perceived by people within the local village. Many of the villagers are fearful and distrustful of her due to her involvement with Rumple. This plot thread highlights just how isolated Belle is and just how much she has given up. These small moments of realisation to her situation add layers to Belle's character that are sometimes missing from the TV show.

The main thrust of the plot involves her reunion with an old childhood friend, Samuel, who has been gravely injured in the Ogres War. Turning to Rumple for help in nursing her friend back to health, Belle soon discovers that all is not what it seems with Samuel.

"Truth and Daggers" is a playful, fun little story which also explains how Rumplestiltskin came to be in possession of Pandora's Box, once again tying into season three continuity.