Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4911992-20140522151443/@comment-24674051-20140701174446

Foreshadowing is not anything new to OUaT. Oz was forshadowed, as was Neverland. (Obviously with Hook, but there were other more subtle hints as well, including one deleted scene with Neal and Henry that should never have been deleted, imo). We were introduced to Cora as Regina's mom several episodes prior to her actually being involved as the major bad.

Also, giving nods to the other fairy tales is not uncommon (such as Archie having a dalmation named Pongo as a nod to 101 Dalmations).

If you watch seasons 1-3 carefully, you will see both. The question is, which of the 2 is it. And, did it start out as a nod, and then later become a potential plot arc?

I think OZ has been in the works since day 1. And there have been enough foreshadowing events to lead up to a full on take on Sleeping Beauty (Which is my prediction for 4B).

Other possible foreshadowing: Vault of the Dark One (Not sure where that one will go), Black Fairy wand (part of the lead in to Sleeping Beauty, imo), Lancelot and Excalibur (possible Camelot/sword in the stone), Genie & Agrabah (Alladin, though with Jafar in OUaTiW, they may not go with that one, but who knows?). There are probably others that I don't recognize, as I don't know a lot of fairy tales.