Warren_Paul
Banishment this world!
TRYING NOT TO ADD SPOILERS, BUT BE WARNED.
Expanding on Sunny's comments, which are on the right track. It is my understanding that their memories were still being tampered with at least on an annual basis for the entire 28 years. Consider it a kind of Groundhog Day effect. Also remember that Storybrooke is a fictional town. I'm not even sure if the rest of the world even know it exists. For instance, remember Harry's adoption was handled by Mr Gold, likely involving the "writer" and was done under the table. Legally, no connection between the outside world and Storybrooke was made with the adoption, I believe.
Nobody noticed Harry was growing, because their memories were twisted by the curse to make them forget, or form another explanation in their mind for his growth. Just the same that nobody noticed they themselves hadn't grown for 28 years. Every kid except for Harry was still the same age they were 28 years ago. The only person in the town that was still growing was Harry, because he isn't suffering from the curse. What better reason to believe the stories from the book Snow gave him? He'd noticed that he grew while nobody else did, so when Snow gave him the book, it explained a lot of things to him. But of course, the curse's tampering with the victims minds ensured they didn't believe him. If the curse didn't continue to tamper with their minds, they would have noticed that something wasn't right as well.
It is my understanding that the curse relapses, and it happens every time on Emma's birthday. But when she arrived in Storybrooke, the curse didn't relapse because her presence there stopped it. So time was forced to start again the day after her birthday.
It is also important to point out there are two parts to the curse. The first is frozen time, which Emma's presence alone breaks. The second is memories, which have an effect on who even remembers the town exists. I believe they were trying to make it out that the town is self-sufficent, that the curse moulded every fairytale character into a role that would help contain the secret of the curse, but I also suspect that the curse has an effect on people coming and going from the town as well.
We can see this with Emma crashing her car in the first episode, when clearly, she isn't suffering from the curse. Somehow a part of the curse had an effect on her. It didn't wipe her memory, or stop time for her, but it stopped her from leaving the town. It wouldn't be hard to assume that outsiders who venture into Storybrooke would also come under the effects of the curse as it worked to protect its secret from being revealed. I guess in a way you can consider the curse as having a kind of intelligence. A delivery person could come, drop off their supplies, then hightail it out of Storybrooke and forget the place ever existed, or at least the curse can tamper with their minds to ensure they didn't notice the people hadn't aged in 28 years. But of course, that's only an issue if the town isn't self-reliant, and really, it's only been 28 years, so it wouldn't be impossible to be self-reliant for so short a period of time.
Of course, I'm probably way overthinking this more than what the original writers intended, but you never know...
Expanding on Sunny's comments, which are on the right track. It is my understanding that their memories were still being tampered with at least on an annual basis for the entire 28 years. Consider it a kind of Groundhog Day effect. Also remember that Storybrooke is a fictional town. I'm not even sure if the rest of the world even know it exists. For instance, remember Harry's adoption was handled by Mr Gold, likely involving the "writer" and was done under the table. Legally, no connection between the outside world and Storybrooke was made with the adoption, I believe.
Nobody noticed Harry was growing, because their memories were twisted by the curse to make them forget, or form another explanation in their mind for his growth. Just the same that nobody noticed they themselves hadn't grown for 28 years. Every kid except for Harry was still the same age they were 28 years ago. The only person in the town that was still growing was Harry, because he isn't suffering from the curse. What better reason to believe the stories from the book Snow gave him? He'd noticed that he grew while nobody else did, so when Snow gave him the book, it explained a lot of things to him. But of course, the curse's tampering with the victims minds ensured they didn't believe him. If the curse didn't continue to tamper with their minds, they would have noticed that something wasn't right as well.
It is my understanding that the curse relapses, and it happens every time on Emma's birthday. But when she arrived in Storybrooke, the curse didn't relapse because her presence there stopped it. So time was forced to start again the day after her birthday.
It is also important to point out there are two parts to the curse. The first is frozen time, which Emma's presence alone breaks. The second is memories, which have an effect on who even remembers the town exists. I believe they were trying to make it out that the town is self-sufficent, that the curse moulded every fairytale character into a role that would help contain the secret of the curse, but I also suspect that the curse has an effect on people coming and going from the town as well.
We can see this with Emma crashing her car in the first episode, when clearly, she isn't suffering from the curse. Somehow a part of the curse had an effect on her. It didn't wipe her memory, or stop time for her, but it stopped her from leaving the town. It wouldn't be hard to assume that outsiders who venture into Storybrooke would also come under the effects of the curse as it worked to protect its secret from being revealed. I guess in a way you can consider the curse as having a kind of intelligence. A delivery person could come, drop off their supplies, then hightail it out of Storybrooke and forget the place ever existed, or at least the curse can tamper with their minds to ensure they didn't notice the people hadn't aged in 28 years. But of course, that's only an issue if the town isn't self-reliant, and really, it's only been 28 years, so it wouldn't be impossible to be self-reliant for so short a period of time.
Of course, I'm probably way overthinking this more than what the original writers intended, but you never know...
Last edited:
