Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160414154159/@comment-25926288-20160429122803

Being near the penulitmate of the season, I feel that 5b has revealed its mid-arc sluggishness, but moreso the problem that comes more frequently, inactive protagonists.

The thing is, the characters seem to have no drive, just react to the plot tossed in front of them. In 3a, the heroes pretty much walked in circles, but there was some coherency to it because they did establish plans, etc. In 3b, the heroes pretty much walked around, but there was a small time mystery and Zelena's plan unfolding/ aka setting up the chessboard. Now fast forward to season 5, 5a had a decently paced flashback, but the present day was pretty much:

501 Snowing: "We are going to fight for our daughter."

503 Snowing: "Yeah, sure, but at the end of the arc in a trivial way."

502 Regina: "I'm going to be the Savior of this town........but I won't try much until the end of this arc."

And that pretty much sums up 5a and the present day of practically nothing much. Hearing those guys talk so much about Emma and not doing much is hilarious.

But now, getting to the season at hand, 5b, I feel that the characters have it worse than inactivity, but basically incoherent thoughts.

512: Find Hook.

513: Save souls.

514: Found Hook. Trapped.

515: Defeat Hades. Find his secrets.

516: Found his secrets. Do nothing with it.

517: Erase names of tombstones. Forget about it by the end of the episode. Saving souls hurt Hades.

518: Partial escape of only one person although there's several others that could be saved.

519: Everyone trapped (um....) Yeah, saving souls was dropped episodes ago, even some condemned souls along the way.

520 appears to be "Hey, Hades is just going to let us go" because reasons.

So far I can sum it up to someone who hasn't watched:

Q: How does this Underworld arc start?

A: Heroes have to find and save Hook, but end up getting trapped, trying to save souls.

Q: Where is it now?

A: Our heroes found Hook, probably set free by Hades, have condemned many souls.

Yeah....