Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-25926288-20170523135043

What can I say? Once is a show twisting our favorite Disney fairytale, legend, and mythical characters and bringing them to life with real-world issues. After all, as the creators said, it sort of started there. But what will come next? How might it hold up?

Each season, we get new fairytale characters, some more Once-flavored, some more Disney-flavored. It has no downsides, right?

Positive: Publicity- Once gains a lot of publicity with the new, exciting fairytale inclusions it adds to the shows growing roster. More buzz, more people knows about the product. ABC sees it as a plus, no doubt. They've got a great deal going with Netflix and Hulu that shows Once's a solid show to keep around, given the show's renewal. Once brings in new fans in waves with intriguing inclusions. No one can argue that Frozen didn't breath new energy into the show (positive or negative).

Frozen has been a solid benefit for the show. Fans seem to like the arc, despite the occasional complaint. The ratings were inflated in comparison to the previous season. However, that didn't translate well into the following arc, despite new routes to explore (aka Maleficent, Ursula, and Cruella, which were a Once/Disney mash-up). Frozen may have had static, cyclic characters in Elsa and Anna, but it remains a starting point or revival for many fans.

Seemingly each arc has DDI, the "copy+paste" Disney, with the others having slightly more original origins. Nonetheless, how do the other DDI, like Brave and Aladdin and Jasmine perform?

Onscreen, I believe that Brave was a good transition from its Disney origin. We had new storylines to explore with Merida, who was casted wonderfully as were many other Brave characters. Let's explore:

Ratingswise: The two Merida centric/ish episodes seemed to be a small indent or at best neutral to the demo and overall viewership within the show's audience. Note: Ratings have a number of variables, but I'm testing them as constants.)

Fandom reaction: I think of the core online fandom. Merida was...okay. Not used too much, a little too on the nose at times, but she was...there. Some were annoyed, some were delighted, and that's generally it.

So, Brave may be the inclusion of Merida and her Scottish Disney tale, but it didn't create the impact that Frozen did, so while clever usage aside, was it really beneficial?

Aladdin and Jasmine were more a nice drift towards originality. But it wasn't met without some eagerness. Al and Jazzy were amongst many stories requested year in and year out (along with Cruella). How did they do? Let's see:

Season 6's ratings: http://onceuponatime.wikia.com/wiki/Thread:296870

Ratingswise: Street Rats simply was a normal episode apart of a normal seasonal downward trend. Likewise, A Wondrous Place stood no different. Though I wouldn't hold Street Rats to this fully, however, the episode that followed "Dark Waters" was the lowest overall viewed episode of the first half. So, under a generous eye, the Agrabahn storyline has held its own along with much of the rest. A cool aside: The Other Shoe was seemingly an anomaly in the downward trend, increasing the demo a tad, while breaking the 4 million view mark. One would think that with the million Cinderella variants, it wouldn't hold so much attention.

Fandom reaction: Across the web I watched and read, most views on Aladdin and Jasmine were a tad less so than that of Merida. Aladdin and Jasmien seemed to be in a pickle as there was so many storylines that beeged for greater attention that perhaps it didn't get the service that it deserved. As on the wiki, it seems to slide down the scale when many ranked their favorite episodes.

Once approaches season 7. Where will we journey next? Talks about Moana surfaced, as well as Princess and the Frog theories. How do you think some key Disney usage (Frozen, Brave, Aladdin) have been taken? How do you think it could have been better? Which was your favorite and Why?  