History Series / OnceUponATimeInWonderland

* YearOutsideHourInside: It's implied at the beginning that Wonderland's time is faster than Alice's homeworld since she had been out of sight for a long time.
** This was more or less confirmed by "Who's Alice?", where [[spoiler:Alice returns to London after Cyrus's apparent death only to find she's been gone long enough to have a stepmother and a half-sister]].

** [[spoiler: He does this to Amara and turns her into her staff]]

** He eventually [[spoiler:does this to Anastasia after all. He uses her to make her wishes and give him the genie then uses her as a bait to get Will to tell him where his heart is. Once both tasks are complete he decides he has no use for her and stabs her]].
** He does it again to the Jabberwocky immediately after achieveing his goal.

* AntiVillain: In "Home" (though this is hinted earlier), [[spoiler: the Red Queen approaches Type II territory when her true motives are revealed. She is depicted consistently as the lesser of the two evils in the series and by midseason exits villain territory completely, and becomes a hero]].

* AdaptationalVillainy: Since most of the fairytale characters are based on Disney's interpretation more than their original source material this happens a lot, most obvious with [[GrandVizierJafar Jafar]]. Though the Cheshire Cat is notably more aggressive towards Alice here than both the original and the Disney movie.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: Alice gets one in "Heart Of Stone": [[spoiler: The Red Queen is put before her, temporarily BroughtDownToNormal. Alice is told that she can get Cyrus' location simply by killing the Red Queen right then and there. She refuses to do so on moral grounds and so passes the test, granting her the magical dust that ultimately reveals Cyrus' location to her]].

** "Home" is a big one, with moments occurring from beginning to end. [[spoiler: Jafar and the Red Queen end their alliance - she takes Cyrus' bottle for herself, and Jafar ''blows up her castle''. She captures Cyrus and realizes that everyone who's against Jafar is in danger as long as they're in Wonderland, so the two try to get Alice and Will to come with them with the White Rabbit to protect themselves. Anastasia declares that she still loves Will, and wants to change the rules of magic so that she can undo what she's done and they can be together again. Alice and Will don't believe her, meaning Jafar's curse to kill them all arrives in time. Will is hit and both he and Alice start dying due to her previous wish, but uses LoopholeAbuse in order to get the last wish for himself and save her. It results in Cyrus becoming human, and Will taking his place as the genie]]. Yeesh.

** At the end of "Home", where we see [[spoiler: Will trapped in the bottle, taking Cyrus' place as the third genie]].
** Cyrus' and his brothers' mother is revealed to be [[spoiler:Amara, Jafar's mentor/lover/walking stick]].

** This was more or less confirmed by "Who's Alice?", where [[spoiler:Alice returns to London after Cyrus' death only to find she's been gone long enough to have a stepmother and a half-sister]].

* AGlassInTheHand: Alice breaks a glass after her step-mother suggests to marry her with a young man.

** It is strongly suggested in Episode 8 that [[spoiler: the Red Queen's schemes have been aimed at reuniting her with Will. Later episodes confirm this. They do eventually reunite; however, she can't get him to love her back due to having lost his heart]].

** According to Cyrus, all genies were once regular people, including him [[spoiler: and by the end of the episode, Will]].

* CerebusSyndrome: In the Fall of 2013, this show was LighterAndSofter than ''Once Upon a Time'', with only Jafar and everything connected to him standing out as particularly dark. When the show returned in the Spring of 2014, however, things got ''intense.''

* [[spoiler: HeelFaceTurn]]: [[spoiler: The Red Queen at the end of "Home", and solidified in "Nothing to Fear", both in her genuinely sad reaction to Lizard's death and her deciding to fight Jafar, though she suffers a brief reversion in the next episode due to a major BreakTheCutie moment, and again in the finale due to be put under a spell. Ultimately, though, her turn is permanent]].

* InterspeciesRomance: Between Alice the human and Cyrus the genie. [[spoiler: Subverted by the fact that Cyrus was once human; indeed, the original OUAT already established that genies are humans. And once they are finally reunited in "Home", Cyrus is now human again, subverting the trope]].

** In the first episode of the series Emma, the protagonist of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', nearly runs over the Knave of Hearts on his way to [[Literature/LittleRedRidingHood Granny's]] diner. In order to get in, he pickpockets the key from Literature/{{Cinderella}} who is being escorted home by [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs Grumpy]].

** Cinderella’s appearance in the pilot given the fact that [[spoiler: the Red Queen is one of her stepsisters]].

* VictorianBritain: As usual, Alice is from this time period. However, [[WordOfGod according]] to [[http://tvline.com/2013/08/04/once-upon-a-time-in-wonderland-pilot-details-scheduling/ the producers]] this version is located in a separate universe and is a “land of story” removed from time (similar to Dr. Frankenstein's world from the parent show), thus handling the issue of ''Alice in Wonderland'' being a fictional story in its parent show. Demonstrated by the fact that the Rabbit and Knave travel from modern day Storybrooke to Alice's London ([[spoiler: and Alice, Cyrus and the Rabbit briefly return there]]) without actual TimeTravel.

A SpinOff of [[Creator/{{ABC}} ABC's]] ''Series/OnceUponATime'', which aired for one season in 2013-2014 as a self-contained storyline. This series focuses on Alice, who apparently traveled to Wonderland and back, but nobody believed the fantastic stories she told. Just before an attempted procedure (implied to be a lobotomy) that would have her forget it all, the White Rabbit rescues her and says that they can help her reunite with a genie she rescued and fell in love with.

** Tweedledee [[spoiler: who works for Jafar]] is last seen two episodes before the finale.

* EnemyMine: The Red Queen confesses to Alice that both of them are in trouble with Jafar and that's why she expects her help.

** [[spoiler: The Jabberwocky performs something along these lines near the end, not actually turning good so much as working with the heroes to ensure her own freedom, mainly because she realizes Jafar is not a trustworthy partner. It doesn't work out very well for her.]]

** [[spoiler: Lizard's]] wish for the one they love to feel ''something'' for them, which results in [[spoiler: the Knave being forced to watch her die in front of him to [[ExactWords make him feel]] remorse and helpless, since as the genie granting the wish (against his will) he is the one responsible for her death]].

** The Storybrooke scenes ''Down the Rabbit Hole'' occur at the same time as the original show's season 2 premiere ''Broken'': the Knave is out on the streets during the storm caused by the Wraith's arrival.

** Although depicted as being evil earlier in the series, when [[spoiler: Amara is resurrected, no mention is made of this and she spends her remaining time fighting to save not only her sons, but Wonderland.]]

* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: [[spoiler: The Red Queen in "Heart of the matter" wishes that Will will be able to have feelings again even if it's not for her.]]

* PleaseKillMeIfItSatisfiesYou: The old prisoner incites Jafar to kill him but the latter refuses[[spoiler: because he wants to keep him until he calls him "son"]].
--> '''[[spoiler:Sultan]]:''' He is as much my captive as I am his.

* MoralDissonance: Amara, even ''prior'' to meeting Jafar, gained a reputation as a powerful and deadly sorceress, so feared by the public that her mere presence in the bazaar was enough to make everyone there hide for fear they'd be seen by here. ''After'' meeting Jafar, she poisoned a man for his liver after he had rescued her goat, turned another man to stone, and is directly responsible for taking Jafar's justified hatred and twisting him into the monster he is now.
** [[spoiler: Subverted in the finale. She later regrets her actions and[[RedemptionEqualsDeath sacrifices her life]] to stop him.]]

* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: Pretty much sums up [[spoiler: the Red Queen, who was initially set up as the villain, until the story reveals Jafar to be the actual villain, while Red Queen's backstory reveals her to be more misunderstood than anything. Ultimately, in "Nothing to Fear," after giving signs in this direction over numerous episodes, she performs an official HeelFaceTurn and can no longer be considered evil after that]].

* RedHerring: When the Jabberwocky [[spoiler: temporarily sides with Alice against Jafar]], she brings up how she wasn't born a monster and that evil is made, not born. This point is never brought up again in the plot.

** There are three laws of magic -- three prohibitions, to be more specific. Magic cannot: bring back the dead, make somebody fall in love, change the past. [[spoiler:Only two of the three are demonstrated in the finale, though]].

** "Heart of the Matter": [[spoiler: Anastasia/The RedRed Queen appears to be die after being stabbed in front of a no-longer-heartless Will]].

** The finale does not indicate the ultimate fate of [[spoiler:the Jabberwocky, even though she switched sides near the end.]]

** "Heart of the Matter": [[spoiler: Anastasia/The Red Queen appears to be die after being stabbed in front of a no-longer-heartless Will]].

** Whatever they did with [[spoiler: Jafar's bottle]] is not adressed.

** [[spoiler:The third is being attempted in the current plot of the main show.]]