Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26159109-20160201202653/@comment-25926288-20160207160924

Farerb wrote: Not to start a shipping war, but I think the decline in writing is an outcome of changing their story midway and they had to force their characters into a situation they weren't originally supposed to be in, I think that if Neal stayed then the character development would have been much more natural then what it is now. Hook and Neal entered the story at the same time in terms of relationship creation.

The decline of the story can't be putting characters in spots they want to put them into. Can't tell a writer that their character is in the wrong spot! Hook could work as well as Neal in any given case and Neal had an extra faucet to him in being Rumple's son and Hook being Rumple's rival.

If Neal would have stayed, yes the story would be better, but it doesn't mean that Neal and Emma would be better writng-wise than Hook and Emma.