Jefferson; the Mad Hatter

NOTE: This entire post it about the tv show OUAT (Once Upon a Time) and does contain mild spoilers for both the tv show and the graphic novels.  So if you're not familiar with this show or don't watch it, I would suggest you skip this one.

Meet Jefferson.  Jefferson here is one of my favorite characters from one of my favorite shows; Once Upon a Time (we'll call it OUAT for short).  He may have only been in 4 episodes of the show, but he managed to steal the show.  He first appeared in the episode "Hat Trick" which aired around the beginning of 2012, so I would have just turned 11.  I was OBSESSED with Jefferson! I thought it was really cool that he was Jefferson and the Mad Hatter at the same time!  I also liked how his character starts as a selfish thief, then develops into a kind-hearted, loving father.  I was also very impressed at how the actor who portrayed him added more depth and emotion to such a classic character from such a classic book.  To my eleven-year-old self, he was just the coolest thing ever!  Then, in one of his last appearances, I found out that Jefferson had a daughter named Grace (in the real world she was called Paige).  So eleven-year-old me thought, 'how could he have a daughter without a wife?'.  Immediately, my little brain thought of Rapunzel.  You see, the Disney movie 'Tangled' had come out in December of the previous year and Rapunzel had become my  favorite Disney princess.  And as of then, Rapunzel had not yet been featured in OUAT.  So, naturally, I wanted my two favorite characters, Jefferson and Rapunzel to be a couple.

I had decided that it was a good idea to write a story featuring them together explaining how they met, how Rapunzel, Jefferson's wife, died, and how Grace, their daughter, handled growing up with only one parent.  I will admit, I was not the best writer at age 11, so this story was very poorly written.  I cringe every time I think of it.  But eventually, I had forgotten about my story, Jefferson, and my favorite fictional couple.

Earlier this year I had gotten interested in the Marvel cinematic universe.  One of my favorite characters was Bucky Barnes, who was played by Sebastian Stan.  Gradually, I had grown very fond of Sebastian Stan and his phenomenal acting ability!  So, I was looking up some Sebastian Stan stuff on social media when I come across this GIF set with the caption "does anyone remember when Seb played Jefferson/Mad Hatter on Once Upon a Time?  That was great!".  I was awestruck.  My favorite actor played one of my former favorite characters?!  Almost instantly, I remembered my old story idea and immediately started slaving over my keyboard, rewriting my old story.

Now, since it had been more than 5 years since I had watched Jefferson's episodes, I had to do a lot of research to make my story aligned properly with the plot of the show.  As I was reading about Jefferson on the OUAT wiki, I discovered that OUAT graphic novels were published in 2015.  One of them being "Out of the Past".  I got really excited and looked up the plot of the novel.  I found out that this book gave Jefferson some much-needed backstory about him and his wife!

Fast-forward to the first week of September.  This really nice librarian named Rebecca told me that our library had this book plus another OUAT graphic novel about a different minor character that I was/am very fond of.  So I checked them out and began reading.  The Sunday after I had checked the books out, I had read "Out of the Past".  I was quite enjoying it!  Jefferson's real wife, Priscilla, was a really awesome character that I ADOREh, even though she's not my beloved Rapunzel.  But, what surprised me was that the book almost completely ruined the, seemingly, kind, selfless, semi-respectable Jefferson for me.


"What happened?" you ask, well, in the one Jefferson-centric episode in the tv series, Jefferson says that the reason he doesn't go to Wonderland anymore is that his wife died during a thieving mission while they were there.  Now, in this episode, Jefferson hesitantly goes back to Wonderland on a mission with the Evil Queen after she offers him a great reward that he can support his daughter with if he helps her.  Jefferson does get stuck in Wonderland, unintentionally leaving his young daughter alone in the Enchanted forest.  In the show, this is depicted as a kind, selfless, strong, character being caught during a weak moment in which he makes a mistake.  But, in the book, he does almost the same exact thing!

In the book, Jefferson goes to Wonderland behind his wife and daughter's back to retrieve a rare and valuable object so he can sell it for a great price and support his family with the profit. While Jefferson is in Wonderland, he gets captured and Priscilla has to rescue him.  Priscilla dies before they can get back home to Grace, but before she dies she asks Jefferson to give up dangerous missions and stealing for good.  When Jefferson gets home he promises himself and his deceased wife that he'll never go on another mission and leave Grace alone ever again  Now this is all well and good but that book takes place before the tv show episode!  This means that Jefferson went back on his word and left Grace alone for a chance at great riches for the second time!

This was so heartbreakingly frustrating to me!  Jefferson was so beautifully depicted as a strong, loving, and selfless father who happened to make a mistake with the purpose of good intentions during a weak moment in his life.  But with the events of the book taken into mind, it's really Jefferson being swayed by his bad habit of valuing riches and objects over his own family and their wellbeing thus making the same mistake twice.  If anything, it seems he has the same problem as Rumpelstiltskin but a little tamer.  I feel that the writers of the book went against Jefferson's character and made him more like a foolish and selfish villain rather than the caring, slightly naive father he was meant to be.  Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (creators of Once Upon a Time), if you're reading this, please tell me that this was a mistake and that Jefferson is still the wonderful and strong character that I fell in love with as a little kid.

Have a magical week!
<3 Ary

PS. Okay, I'm sorry that this was so long and pointless, but I just had to get this off my chest!  Anyway, thanks for sticking around and tolerating me and my long winded rant about a character that no one else cares about.  Hopefully, I'll see you next week with another, much more interesting, post!