Once upon a time, there was a show whose concept was basically “Fairytale AU crossover fanfiction” and oh, how the world rejoiced. We continued to rejoice as the show provided us with badass female characters at every turn, and rejoiced the very most when the two lead women had chemistry that could make the sun shiver. So we, lovers of queerytales, waited to see ourselves reflected in this magical society. We waited through villains getting redeemed and families reuniting and hearts being ripped out and stomped on (literally and figuratively). There were werewolves and warlocks and giants and dragons, but still, no LGBTQ+ character to be found. Plenty of suspects, but none confirmed.

One day, a warrior arrived. We wondered if she was one of us, but after wondering about so many others and having no confirmation, we tried not to get our hopes up. But then a glorious thing occurred! The warrior examined her own feelings and went to tell the woman she loved the truth about her feelings! The day had arrived, she truly was our warrior! But alas, her confession came too late, and her lady’s heart already belonged to another. So, off she went, into the abyss, lost for what felt like an eternity.

Still, we waited for another hero to come along. We waited for old friends to become more, we waited for new friends like us to join the ragtag bunch of magical misfits. We waited through Wonderland, and Oz, and Neverland—oh, how we waited through Neverland), we waited through trips to New York City and an Ice Age to be remembered, we waited through character after character coming and going, without a one coming out to us.

But now, gentlereaders, the time has come. Our warrior returns.

via ABC

As you probably have heard (or just gleaned from that story), Jamie Chung is returning as Mulan on Once Upon A Time for it’s fifth season. And let me tell you, not a moment too soon. I was very close to not doing weekly recaps of this show, but instead doing roundup recaps every few episodes—there are way too many television shows on TV right now with canon/out queer women to justify writing full-length recaps of a show whose only queer element is that the fans see a beautiful love between Emma and Regina that the writers don’t (or don’t want to acknowledge). Especially because the creators of the show seemed to like to pat themselves on the back for Mulan’s queerness, despite her coming out and disappearing in the same five minute scene.

Despite the fact that the entire fourth season came and went with so much focus on Robin Hood and his Merry Men, without so much as a mention of Mulan, who supposedly joined their ranks. There are more queer women on TV than ever before—we don’t need femslash the way we used to. We still want it, of course, and I have a feeling the SwanQueen fandom is one that will be going strong and creating really fantastic things long after this show goes off the air, but it’s not our only option for representation anymore.

So, while it’s coming a lot later in the game than we would have liked, Once Upon A Time is finally adding an LGBTQ+ character for more than 30 seconds. In fact, executive producer Adam Horowitz said she’ll be back for 5a AND 5b! So, that’s good news.

Of course, since Aurora found her One True Love, the chances of the Sleeping Warrior ship setting sail seem slim. But, though I spent the three days after the announcement that Mulan was returning trying to prepare myself for the fact that even though she was back they probably wouldn’t acknowledge her queerness at all, Horowitz spoke out again this weekend and said they’re definitely going to explore an LGBT relationship this season. He wouldn’t, however, say whether it would be with an existing character (like Aurora, or even Ruby, who is also returning this season, much to my delight) or a new one (like Merida from Brave, who is being portrayed by Amy Manson). He wants it to be a surprise, and quite frankly, I’m okay with that, as long as it really happens.

via ABC

I know some of you are disappointed that the news of an LGBTQ+ character in Once Upon A Time isn’t that Henry’s two mommies are finally getting married and being a big happy family, but I hope you can see how exciting and important this could be, if they do it right. Mulan is a classic Disney character, on a show being run under Mickey’s watchful eye, so it’s a huge step forward that they not only had her come out as queer—a queer woman of color, at that—but also will be featuring her more heavily in the upcoming season.

I’m choosing to go into this season with a clean slate, cautiously optimistic about Mulan’s future and what will hopefully be her finding a girl worth fighting for.

I’ll be recapping this season of Once Upon A Time right here on AfterEllen, and livetweeting the episodes on Twitter (@PunkyStarshine) with the hashtag #queerytales. Season 5 premieres Sunday, September 27th on ABC at 9pm EST. I hope you’ll come along for the ride with me!