Emma Swan(Jennifer Morrison) - I mean Cameron - I mean daughter of Snow White
Mary Margaret Blanchard (Ginnifer Goodwin) - Snow White - Emma Swan's mother and accomplice
The hardest thing to get past (for me) in ONCE UPON A TIME is believing that Jennifer Morrison is not Cameron anymore, but instead is Emma Swan, who chases deadbeat dads and repos cars for a living, and, more than that, is from another dimension or an alternate universe or something in which she is no less than the daughter of Snow White.
I will suspend my disbelief in this incarnation of Morrison, and proceed to analyze the show a bit.
The names are kind of appropriate. Emma Swan translates as “universal swineherd”, more or less. Regina Mills is, obviously, the “queen grinder”. However, Mary Margaret Blanchard translates as “bitter shining pearl”. She doesn’t seem bitter, but the name conjures thoughts of strict and neurotic nuns. Since these character names come from this reality, one assumes that their meanings came along with them. So a generic herder of pigs is fighting with the grinding queen over the well-being of Henry (home ruler) and is being aided in her efforts by a bitter shining pearl (who also happens to be Snow White, her mother in the alternate reality).
The evil queen (Lana Parilla) who disguises herself as the evil mayor.
Since New England is the only part of the United States with any lengthy history, these fugitives from fairy tales naturally are stuck in a town in that corner of the country. The tale of Snow White was first written down in Europe in the mid 19th century, and if the townspeople brought the stories with them, and they cannot leave the town, did the Brothers Grimm pay Storybrooke a visit?
It is a nice touch that Emma Swan drives a VW, the Grimm Bros. being from Germany.