Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26261400-20161005224646/@comment-24674051-20161006135108

A reasonable time skip is in order, just to catch Henry up with Jared's age (and with the current format going back to more season 1 style, they could conceiveably build in some short 2-3 week jumps between episodes, and have more than one day pass within an episode). However, to get the babies involved (we actually have 4 known in Storybrooke with Neal, Robyn, Alexandra, Philip, and now Belle's baby on the way) we'd need a large jump to get the kids to at least their teen years, and while the adult actors could adjust (heck, they don't seem to age that much anyway), that would clearly take Jared out of the role of Henry, as I don't see him able to portray a person in his mid to late 20's.

I could actually see a sequel to the show at some point where we pick up with the babies as adults, and see a whole new set of adventures. But that is a different topic for another day.

As for Season 7 shifting focus to Henry, not sure that is the best way to do it, but the argument that the show is centered around Emma does not hold much water at this point. Yes, they have been using her as the cornerstone from which to base the stories. But with proper writing and plot, you could easily shift the focus to a new main character, or even a new set of main characters. There have been multiple ensemble casts over the years that have, over the course of the show, managed to introduce new cast members, and have original cast members (even ones that were considered core) slip into the background or otherwise depart.

Don't take this as a wish to see JMo depart. I'm just saying that it is not that hard to switch focus to new characters seamlessly, if that is a direction the writers want to go.