Hades, Pluto, Lord of the Underworld. Keeper of Souls, Guardian of the Dead . . . all are titles this often divinely wicked god goes by. Along with his raucous reputation, there is often a ton of confusion that comes along with his tale. With Hades descending upon Storybrooke soon, I thought this would be a great time to clear up some misconceptions about both Hades and his domain, so lets hop a boat across the River Styx, shall we?
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    The detail people most often get wrong is in calling Hades the Devil, and the Underworld Hell. Hades is NOT the devil. He is overseer of the Underworld, brother to Zeus and Poseidon. The realms were divided among the brothers, and sure, with Zeus getting the heavens and Poseidon getting the golden blue seas, Hades seemed to pull the short end of the stick. His domain is a dark and not very fun kinda place where all souls go when they die, according to mythology. Not just the bad people . . . everyone goes to the Underworld. Its like a giant purgatory stew/rave, if you will. 
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    This fact is the reason that we will be able to see characters on Once who may have died, but we wouldn't expect them to be in Hell. As the Underworld is for all souls, this leaves us open to encounter ANYONE who has passed on, good or evil. 

​     The latest creature of lore to visit Storybrooke was the Fury, a winged creature who came to take Robin as payment for the price of Regina's request that Dark Magic be used to save him. We have heard for seasons about the "price of magic", and based on the mythology of these creatures, it was a perfect choice for exacting that price.

     The Furies figure into both Greek and Roman Mythology. They are also known as the Erinyes, or "Angry Ones". In the episode of Once Upon A Time  titled "The Price". the Fury was there to take Robin to the Underworld, which was in fact, one of the jobs they held in the myths. There is much more to these fascinating creatures, in fact, I expect we may even see them again.

Alice
Alice is a young, creative dreamer with a strong curious streak. She originally finds Wonderland after falling down a rabbit hole. In the second of Lewis Carroll’s tales, she is on a quest to make it to the final square of the chess board, where she will become a queen. In the beginning of her story, Alice wishes for a world of nonsense, but finds it is not the carefree place she imagined.

By Amy Hood - @amylia403

 Fate versus free will. It’s an argument as old as the most ancient storybooks. Can people change or escape their fate? This is a scenario we have seen repeated in Once Upon A Time. Characters that are “born” to do something, whose destinies and fates were told years before…could they change it? Was there any way they could have avoided who and what they were destined to be?

     The first and oldest example of a character fated to have a certain destiny is Rumplestiltskin. When we see him early in his life, he has a lovely wife, a home and dreams of starting a family. He is called to fight in the Ogre Wars, where he meets a seer. The Seer tells him that his actions the following day would cause his son to grow up without a father. Rumple assumes she means he will die, so he wounds himself in order to be sent home. This act ends up being the catalyst for future events. Milah no longer wants to be with him because he is a coward. She leaves him, pushing him to total desperation to keep the one person he has left: his son. All of these events play like dominos, one leading to the other, and ultimately lead to Rumple’s son being lost and growing up without his father, just as the Seer foretold.