Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-25703308-20150417091913/@comment-5106672-20150419185309

Eskaver wrote: I will assume we see it in different ways. Once Upon a Time is built on the feud between Snow White and the Evil Queen, which was instigated by Rumplestiltskin search for his son, which leads to Emma's story of fairytale characters cursed into our world. That is the core story of this show. This is the focus of the show and what all stories gravitate towards.

Tell me who are the main characters. Then, that's what the show is about. Emma's story runs into many fairytale characters, but the significant part of her story is how it relates to her family, not peasant #5324 who happens to have encountered another fairytale character. Snow White and Regina runs into many fairytale characters in their feud filled with longing and hatred. Rumplestiltskin runs into the biggest treasure trove of fairytale characters in his phlight to find and make amends with his son.

This isn't Charlotte and her web of friends and Wilbur's journey. It's Wilbur is a friend of Belle that was cursed by Regina when he went to save her and Charlotte claimed she was a better spinner than Rumple, like Arachne vs Athena, and she was turned into a spider for her pride. That is what the show is about and will always be.

Care to give an example how you would effectively extend to recurring cast in a meaningful and realistic way? There is an underlying problem with this, though: this storyline is pretty much over now. At least the Charmings', Emma's is still ongoing. S1 was pretty much Snow White retold in a present day, real world setting, with some hints of magic and flashbacks which provided a background for the present day narration. Present-day Snow White and present-day Prince Charming got their happy ending by the end of the season, and S2 was mostly the aftermath of that. This is why there is a general tendency in the fandom (as far as I've noticed, at least) to consider the Charming couple boring lately, when they don't do something downright despicable: we were invested in their arc in S1 because that was a twist on the story we grew up with. Now, whatever conflict they go throw, it kind of feels thrown in their way just to keep them in the narration (because no conflict = no narration).

The writers are probably aware of this, which is why they've been focussing on Rumple, Regina and Emma more and more as the series progresses, while MM and David are progressively pushed to the sidelines. Emma still has to find her place in the freaky world she found out she belongs to. Regina is in search for redemption and a happy ending and isn't after Snow White anymore. Rumple is a constant wild card and still needs to figure out what is it exactly that he's after. MM and David, on the other hand… will always found each other, yeah? Great, but seriously, we've been there multiple times, so what more is there to say?

And this is why, in the Neverland Arc, the focus was on Emma and on the dynamics between Pan & Herny, Pan & Rumple and Rumple & Neal: the Charmings were kinda tagging along (and this is probably why so many people felt the Snow vs Regina flashbacks were so misplaced: the narration was totally elsewhere). In the Oz Arc, raise your hands if you were interested in the "wiced sorceress is after Snow's baby" plotline more than the feud between Regina and Zelena. The Frozen Arc was mostly about Emma, and the Charmings didn't do much. Now they've been given new juice with the Maleficent Incident plotline, but it seems people kind of can't stand them for that. XD

So, at least personally, I wouldn't mind having the old plotlines pushed further to the side and more space given to other characters… after all, the Snow vs Regina feud has been covered for four seasons now.