Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26033121-20160211071708/@comment-1916997-20160216190520

Hmcooper4 wrote: Going back to the original topic, I don't necessarily think the series should have ended at 3A. 3B was not bad, but just felt incomplete. Frozen was not totally terrible, but did sorta feel like a long filler that got in the way of moving the rest of the show along.

But I think for this show to really make the transition to a long running show, it needs to look at 2 important changes. The first is phasing out some of the current mains (Snowing, and possibly even Rumpbelle) and introducing (or reintroducing) new central characters. The second is to get out of Storybrooke. Open the borders to the LWM, add a few permanent portals (which Regina appears capable of doing now that she has full control of the apprentice's wand), bring Oz and Wonderland as options for some stories.

But most importantly, get some cohesive plots and spend time developing the characters. If they go back to Sleeping beauty, see about getting Philip and Aurora to be actually main characters for one or 2 seasons and really grow them. If they go to do the Frog Prince (or the princess and the Frog), bring in those characters as CENTRAL, not just recurring or guest. and let them grow a couple of seasons.

Just my thoughts. I think the show could have been structured in more of an anthology way (like each season focuses on mostly different characters while still continuing to move the overall plot forward), but I think at this point it is too late to do that. The show has already established who are the most important characters, and so everyone else are just guests to these characters. Honestly, I wish instead of Wonderland, they just put that story in a show called Once Upon A Time: Untold Tales, and then we could have the anthology idea, with different characters each season, and yet those seasons could have overlapping characters, and the show could have crossovers with Once proper.