Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-24593235-20171007225142

I feel awkward starting this thread because I didn't even think it was a bad episode, but I didn't wanna clutter the main thread with what negative opinions I do have. -- While the episode was not bad, I felt a sense of emptiness throughout the whole thing. I miss the old characters a lot, even those I wasn't fond of by the end like Emma/JMo. It just isn't the same without them, and Belle and Zelena, who are my two favorite characters, both being demoted is very upsetting. Also have trouble accepting Andrew J. West as Henry. Just feels incorrect to me.

As for the new characters, let's start with Lucy. I can't stand her. Find her even more grating than S1 Henry. However, this didn't come as much of a surprise to me. I tend to never enjoy child characters. What did surprise me is how much I did not enjoy Lady Tremaine. I have nothing against Gabrielle Anwar, but... I cannot stand her voice as Victoria/Tremaine. It just annoys me, honestly, and I find the character very uncharismatic. Also, I took issue with the line about how magic is not power considering how that was a huge thing in the earlier seasons, magic being power. It just felt like a contrived way of the writers trying to make Season 7 different. I don't have much to say about Drizella other than being confused as to what she is to Tremaine in Hyperion Heights. Is Victoria still Ivy's mother? It seemed like Ivy was just her assistant, but that makes no sense. Why keep Jacinda as her stepdaughter but not Ivy as her daughter? I don't know, hopefully they clear that up. So far I'm not a fan of Alice. We didn't see enough Tiana for me to make a proper judgment, but I do hope to like her because I've waited years for them to write in The Princess and the Frog.

As for the returning characters, I wasn't into Henry. Emma in the pilot is what made me fall for Once Upon a Time, but I felt nothing for this Henry. Then it seems Roni is popular among everyone, but I think it's gonna take me a while to get used to Lana in this new role. Wasn't necessarily bad, just... different. I feel absolutely nothing for Officer Rogers and don't really care about Emma right now. I'm just looking forward to 7x04 and then whatever episodes Zelena is meant to be in. I guess Weaver was the best part about the returning characters, and he did the least.

My only other complaints, really, are when Jacinda went to kill the Prince and then just changed her mind. Felt weird and rushed, but I love the swordfight so that saves it. I didn't care for Tremaine killing the Fairy Godmother either. That was fine when Rumple did it in Season 1, but since they're redoing Cinderella I wish they made her an actual character this time. I'm also confused as to why Victoria holds so much power over Jacinda and Lucy. Why is she able to just take Lucy away? Does she have some sort of custody? I was confused.

Anyways, yeah, I wrote a lot, but I wanna make it clear that I didn't think the episode was bad. Honestly, it was probably one of Adam and Eddy's better written episodes in the later seasons. I'm just not sold on the idea of this "requel", and I probably never will be, but I guess I'm gonna keep watching. Didn't love the episode, but I didn't hate it. A lot happened, but there's a lot I just don't care about yet. I do hope it grows on me, but right now I do feel this sense of emptiness. 