Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26159109-20161205084124/@comment-25926288-20161205130546

I will probably have to make mutliple posts, after I rewatch the season half. But I guess I'll break it down.

Setting: Storybrooke was a good setting as it hasn't been at least this active in a while. Nothing too special, but it was decent.

Grade: N/A (or B+)

Conflict: Queenie was the villain of the hour. But I'll start with Hyde. Hyde was solid in the brief arc he was in. Wonderful acting, solid backstory, wasn't predictable in terms of plot. Now, Queenie on the other hand suffers from PLOT-itis that Hades and Rumple (4B), but slightly different.

Queenie's goal was (1) tear themselves apart, (2) get revenge on Snow, and (3)??????.

As I did aside, I think Queenie although given some victory was the villain with the most failure. Cora, Pan, and Zelena, and toss-in Ingrid were mostly successes. Rumple of 4b was tripping over himself into lucky scenarioes, but that at least counts for something? We knew what he wanted. Hades although seemingly aimless had some method to his madness.

Queenie apparently wants to fill a void in her "heart", but that is far too vague to be a conflict. She wasn't as bad as Rumple of 4B which was OOC tumbling into things. But this is a reason why EQ stays in flashbacks where we already know she fails a lot. I guess she had some big victories towards the end. Being shelved for later is okay, but I think she's pretty much done.

Grade: B-

The all too important....PLOT: Let's break it down:

1. The Untold Stories. I could tell it was going to be dropped or at best, delayed. Without Hyde, the stories are weirdly meta. While cool to see, their future was clear to see.

Grade: C

2. Jekyll and Hyde. Simple, too the point. Full of surprises and wasn't predictable. If this arc wasn't slightly tied to another it would be great.

Grade: A (still can't fault this arc though)

3. David's father: TBD. Like it was gone in like episode 2 and never brought up again.

4. Queenie's back! Went over most of it in conflict, so I'll give it the same grade.

Grade: B

5. Gideon. Will discuss more in character, but Adam and Eddy need to gather the writers together and remind them to write Rumple sympathetic. There's no reason why Adam and Eddy wrote Rumple sympathetic in 2/3rds of their episodes, and Jane and Goodman (slightly) as well. Everyone else  made him the evilest, abusove thing so far. Belle and Gideon were great.

Grade: C

6. Savior-ology: TBD. It really hasn't gone anywhere so I'll give it while.

7. Agrabah in turmoil: Five words: I don't care at all. Will go in details for the characters, but they were so peripheral they might as well not have been there. They were worse than Merida. Merida tried to sideline the main and she was totally unlikeable to start with, but disdain is a lot better than indifference. Started with a little intrigue and then, nothing.

Grade: F

Overall Grade: C

Characters (briefly)

1. Emma. Grade: B: Besides her cyclical arc, her times with Archie were cool. Later on she was pretty content with what was going on.

2. Regina. Grade: C: She has rebounded to 5A, with dashes of 5B. She really wasn't given much, especially when she's the main villain of the arc as well.

3. Evil Queen. Grade: B: It's something when the personality gets more development. However, it felt as though they were trying to redeem her, which is not only cyclical, but nonsensical.

4. Rumple. Grade: C: If I ingore every episode except the premiere, Heartless, Changelings, and the finale, he'd get a nice B or higher. But the horrendous levels of abuse and delusion by the writers makes it bad. I think they are wonderful people, but Adam and Eddy seriously can't have it written that Rumple will never hurt Belle. Do they not know what emotional abuse is?

5. Snow. Grade: C-: Sad to see how the mighty have fallen. Gien new avenues with Belle and Jasmine. But she didn't do much special.

6. David: Grade: C+: Finale alone would make it a B, but his arc was sort of TBD and it hurts his growth slightly.

7. Belle: Grade: B: She grew a backbone, but then she also was wishy washy and slightly victim-blaming. Basically if you do what happen to Rumple but slightly reverse it as she had more consistent episodes of growth.

8. Al and Jazzy: Grade: D: For didn't care about. Jasmine seemed so one-tracked and selfish. Karen David played her well, but she wasn't given much more than to spout "But Agrabah!" Aladdin is pretty much just Will-lite. Except, he's a terrible thief and awfully smug. He had some shining moments like Jasmine had, but they were off in "I don't care" Land. Their motives are not at all related to the core cast.

9. Everyone else. Nothing there to talk about.

Characters Overall Grade: C (but not too shabby)

Overall 6A grade: B-/C+, I say it's better put together than the worse of Once, but nothing top-tier.