Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-25703308-20150417091913/@comment-25926288-20150419225215

This is Emma's story. They said so themselves. To move on to a different set of characters would end the show as we know it and hit reboot or spinoff. That's why there are spinoffs. Imagine if Wonderland was season 2.5 before they went to Neverland. That would disrupt the natural flow of the show.

Now let me say this, plenty of shows have the same core cast as they did in earlier seasons. Charmed, for example, after Prue died, Paige stepped up and the core three sisters and Leo were their. They tagged along with new love interest or villain or child of the future in the following seasons. That's how they are doing it with Once and many other shows. Once isn't in it's tenth season and those shows don't replace the core cast without drastic results. You can't take the title as if their is creative liberty in the name and apply it to the show. They named it that because it's a famous line and fairytales in our world aka Emma's story, not follow character #485748585 around in their life and toss them in an episode with Emma because they lost their shoe or something.

Core cast comes first, then secondary cast. More people = less time on average, so everyone suffers or certain characters suffer. By other logic, you'd just get rid of Belle and Will to make room for more and just replace them every season. You can't crowd up the main character slot with loads of characters or they become less effective. Introducing new main character =/= new interesting plot. Ex: Will, no explanation necessary as to why this is proof.