Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1916997-20160229060949/@comment-24674051-20160229181703

And just for the record, the character change does not necessarily need a lot a build up, but it does need some.

For example, in 4x11, when Belle showed Rumple to the Town Line, Some might have considered that exposition of bravado as OOC for our otherwise sweet-tempered and often naive librarian. But there were hints tossed out along the way (such as Belle's encoutner with herself in Ingrid's mirror) that reflected (see what I did there) what was going on inside, and the story in 4x11 regarding the gauntlet served well to help us (as viewers) realize that Belle had finally come to her senses regarding Rumple's nature. Her response was not OOC, but actually a natural response to the situation. (BTW, Noone ever said that Belle was OOC during that encoutner, I just use it as an example of where character was radically changed).

Snow Killing Cora might have seemed out of character at the time, but I think with what we realize about the relationship between Snow and Cora, combined with what we know about Snow, Snow was acting to protect not only Gold, but everyone, by preventing Cora from obtaining the DO powers in what she saw as the only way available. And we know that Snow is capable of killing when necessary, she just prefers alternatives. And her spiral into depression afterwords confirms that she herself interpreted her actions as OOC, or at least out of the norm. I personally did not find that situation to be OOC in the least.

The scene in 5x11, with Snow and David both just "rolling over and giving up", seemed so completely out of character that there is no explanation. Even going back to earlier in the season, when Snow and David were arguing about whether or not to reveal to Arthur about the Dagger, their resolution to the situation was NOT either one of them giving up, but instead working together to find a solution. (Add further that, once Emma sacrificed Hook and then found out that it was unnecessary they both immediatly jump back to the more predictable action mode of helping their daughter, and you have a real mess of a merry-go-round).

Ok, that's all just my opinion, feel free to disagree. But back to the original question, which is "Why do people find it so hard to accept what the creators do?", I agree with others in that those of us that actually care about the show want it to be the best it can be (something that we share with Adam and Eddy, btw), and so are sometimes critical when the show takes shortcuts and liberties that we think are unnecessary. I think that's why we not only critique their writing of the characters, but also their use (and overuse) of the one-time plot device to drive a story.