Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160926013536/@comment-5106672-20160926031720

8Rob wrote: Eskaver wrote:

Season 3 was sort of an ending, but I'm sure it was never the ending they had for their show. Yes but alfter season 3, every half season came and went to nowhere. It's like... there are not real consequences. Season 3B was the last one to actually have an impact on the main story of the show. But after that....

4A. Frozen characters? Gone. C onsequences? Already undone (Gold being  banished, Emma losing control over her powers)

4B. Queen of Darkness? Gone. C onsequences? Already undone (Emma going to the dark side)

5A. Camelot people? Gone. C onsequences? A lready undone (Emma being the Dark One. Rumple trying to be a hero. Hook's death)

5B. Underworld people? Gone. C onsequences? Robin's death. And he wasn't even that important.

The show is pretty much where it was at the end of 3x22.

So, yeah I do believe this is the final season because these characters are just stuck in the same place (especially Rumple). I've had the same, exact impression: many of the story arcs since Season 3 felt more like digressions, with the overall story only occasionally going forward. I think S3A already concluded the main narrative arc (the Dark Curse as a means for Rumple to find his son), with S3B rebooting the narrative to get to resolve a few pending threads. But then they got distracted by Frozen and the show kind of became a way to capitalise on whatever was popular at the moment, regardles whether it fit the main narrative (as you pointed out, it mostly didn't, as the arcs came and went with no lasting consequences). S5B looked like a return to form of sort, but I think the show has lost most of its juices and by now the audience is either new folks expecting more and more Disney live action crossovers, or old folks disillusioned and constantly complaining (like myself). So it's entirely possible they'll try to go out with a bang with whatever is left of the old once magic.