Once Upon A Time -- Prince Phillip Loves Who?
Anyone who likes a couple is slapped with the label shipper, but not all people who like couples are shippers. Shippers are a breed unto themselves that at time cease to make any logical sense. If you only like couples that are actual couples then you’re not a shipper. If you only like couples that have actually appeared in scenes together then you’re not a shipper. If you can’t ignore things that happen that make it ridiculous for two people to be a couple then you’re not a shipper. And if you think its sick wanting two characters that are siblings to become a romantic couple then you’re not a shipper.
In the second season premiere of Once Upon A Time they told the story of Prince Phillip and Aurora, but as far as shippers were concerned it was really the story of Prince Phillip and Mulan and Aurora didn’t even exist in it. Prince Phillip kept kissing Aurora and telling her he loved her, but when he looked over his shoulder and said, “I love you,” before the wraith sucked his soul from his body, he wasn’t saying it to Aurora but to Mulan his true love. And apparently the reason they’re shipping it is because Mulan is a bad @ss character and Aurora isn’t.
So let’s pick this particular insanity apart.
If Prince Phillip was in love with Mulan, then why would he have spent years trying to find Aurora and reunite with her? And if he was in love with Mulan wouldn’t he have felt conflicted about kissing Aurora in front of her? He repeatedly kissed Aurora passionately in front of Mulan and didn’t give Mulan another thought. And the only private moment Phillip had with Mulan was about Aurora not being told that FairyTaleLand had been destroyed. Even his private moment with Mulan was about Aurora. So how does that equal Prince Phillip being in love with Mulan and only thinking he loves Aurora?
It only gets better. Phillip got marked by the wraith and he spent some alone time saying his final goodbye to Aurora. He kept kissing her and telling her he loved her. Then he made an excuse to leave so he could go face-off with the wraith and keep Aurora and Mulan safe. But guess what? Mulan didn’t even rate a goodbye. He was going off to die and the one he wanted to spend his last moments with was Aurora not Mulan. As Phillip walked off to his death, leaving his beloved Aurora behind, he had tears in his eyes, but I’m sure shippers would claim those tears were for Mulan because he couldn’t’ say goodbye to her.
When Aurora and Mulan finally caught up with Phillip as he prepared to face the wraith, Mulan offered to die for Phillip and he wouldn’t let her and that seems to be the biggest foundation the Pulan shippers are building their fantasy ship on. Phillip is a Fairy Tale Land prince. What kind of prince would he be if he allowed another to die for him? He wouldn’t have taken up the offer from some bum off the streets, so that’s hardly any kind of proof of his love for Mulan. Letting others die for them is not what Fairy Tale prince’s are made of.
Of course, the big moment of controversy is when Phillip faced the wraith and looked over his shoulder and said, “I love you.” Of course, shippers are convinced he was saying it to Mulan. Even though he kept telling Aurora he loved her. Even though the direction he looked in was where Aurora was standing, not Mulan. He was declaring his love to Mulan who he barely gave a thought to from the moment his kiss woke-up Aurora.
That’s another thing. The Pulan shippers are trying to rewrite the true love’s kiss mythology to fit their fantasies that Phillip loves Mulan and not Aurora. They’re claiming that because Emma’s kiss woke Henry that it means nothing because Phillip’s kiss awoke Aurora. It doesn’t mean that Aurora is Phillip’s true love. They’re even making things up that there was no evidence in the episode; that Phillip only thinks he loves Aurora and that Mulan is his true love. Sorry, but Sleeping Beauty is the love story of Phillip and Aurora not Phillip and Mulan.
Unfortunately, Phillip and Aurora aren’t the first couple shippers have rejected for some fantasy ship they’ve made up. They reject Rump and Belle as the story of Beauty and the Beast because Belle’s kiss won’t turn him into a young and pretty hunk. The last fantasy pairing shippers came up with was Belle and Jefferson. Well, at least they shared a scene together, but the scene wasn’t romantic. The only one Jefferson loves is his daughter Grace. Grace is his true love.
Shippers mantra when someone complains about them shipping stuff that makes no sense is they can ship what they want. For me, I don’t understand why you’d want to ship something that’s only real in your fantasies and has no basis in reality. It just doesn’t seem healthy to me. You’re reject reality for a fantasy you build in your mind that you act like is reality.
One of the show runners for Once Upon A Time basically said if the whole Phillip/Aurora/Mulan thing can be even called a triangle, then the triangle is done. He described Mulan as a friend helping Phillip find his true love, Aurora. Of course, since reality is not a concept shippers ascribe to, it may not even dent the Pulan shippers fantasy ship.
