Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-13475854-20140330141810/@comment-25137591-20140704032313

Once upon a time, crossing between the Lands was easy and Earth had magic like any other. The Land of Olympus interacted with Ancient Greece so much that they were essentially one and the same, until an Ancient Evil arose. Unable to destroy Chernabog, they were succesful in imprisoning him, but the act of doing so drained all the magic from the Land, Atlantis was lost and travel between Lands was made more difficult.

Fast forward to Storybrooke. Ursula has been causing problems for whatever reason and, as she's a genuine God, the heroes have been unable to find a way to deal with her. They travel to Olympus, home of the Gods, in the hope of finding some way of defeating her. This part of the story would be a relatively small arc as opposed to the half-a-series of Neverland, but while there they ally with Heracles and others to defeat Ursula. How are they still alive after thousands of years? Easily explained, time is different in Olympus, some characters are descended from the immortal Gods, etc. Although they succeed in their quest, whatever they did annoyed the Gods. The last scene of the series would be the Olympians who helped them appearing in Storybrooke, having been banished there by the Gods.

The following series focuses on the town and how it deals with all these new "immigrants," leading up to a mayoral election or some such. Not every season has to have some Big Bad destroying/taking over stuff. The arc would be the town and how it's changing. You've got nobility living side by side with the peasants and such, but people have just been accepting things because that's how it's always been in Storybrooke. "I work as a mechanic because that's what I do here." Now you dump in a bunch of new people who never went through the "false memory" part of things and I can see clashes. Why should Jason, of Argonauts fame, have to stack shelves in the supermarket? Why should a baron be reduced to a car salesman? And why is the Evil Queen still telling people what to do instead of in jail for her crimes? There's plenty of fodder for stories, including a return of some "x of the week" stuff while still focusing on an arc. Potential for flashbacks to Ancient Greece/Olympus showing us the OUAT version of some of the myths. Midas could be brought back. Who could be running for mayor? Basically anyone. Maybe the series ends with Snow or someone else more random (Grumpy? then mayoral duties won't interfere with the Snow Show) winning as a write-in candidate and Regina surrendering herself to the law to stand trial as a show of good faith.

People have mentioned Judge Frollo a fair bit. He could be involved in Regina's trial/sentencing whatever. If genre-savvy citizens question his own villany, he can state that the stories aren't accurate, pointing to other differences in people's lives compared to the well-known fairy tales (such as Rumplestiltskin being the Beast etc), though for that to work he'd probably have to be from the Land Without Color or something originally and so no one really knows him. Alternatively he could be the opposing candidate for mayor.

The last series would focus on Chernabog. Basically, since magic was brought to Earth by Storybrooke his imprisonment has been getting weaker. He would've been vaguely hinted at for a while, a line here, a picture in a book there. Doctor Facilier would be a minion of his (Chernabog being his "friend from the other side" or whatever). He slinks into town and does what he does, with people assuming he's the Big Bad until the truth is revealed. At that point everyone scrambles to find a way to stop him, maybe visiting Atlantis in the process and maybe not, until the last episode. During the last episode, we see flashbacks of people we've never met doing stuff in Storybrooke. Keen-eyed viewers may note some oddities, such as a lack of cars or mobile phones. As the episode goes on, there's a bit more stuff, such as people coming and going into Storybrooke whenever they want. Near the end of the episode, we find out the truth - the only way to stop Chernabog is to reseal his prison, which means once again draining Earth of all the magic that's been introduced. That includes all of Storybrooke. As a result of whatever spell or ritual or whatever it is that's performed, the town itself is transported into the Enchanted Forest. The "flashbacks" are actually of the descendents of the main characters, revealed when we meet Henry, now an old man, living happily ever after.

Other possible angles.

Arthurian stuff combined with Black Cauldren stuff if it doesn't breach any copyright of the books the film was based on. Far enough away that the original curse never affected them, life carried on for them in the years. At some point, Guinevere died. Arthur found this hard to take and sought out the Holy Grail in the hopes it could bring her back. The Holy Grail and Black Cauldren would be one and the same, and Arthur's efforts to use it to somehow resurrect Guinevere would result in shenanigans and zombies, becoming the Horned King in the process.

There's plenty of Arabian Nights stuff to delve into, not just Aladdin. Ali Baba or Sinbad (I won't debate whether or not they're a part of Arabian Nights, they're famous to Westerners) and such. I've got a headache now and can't be arsed to come up with a way to naturally integrate all that stuff into Storybrooke.

Tron/Wreck-It Ralph stuff, although they could be integrated somehow, shouldn't be. It seems more like it'd be better suited to fan fiction, or perhaps a spin-off, but the recent-ness/non-fairy tale-ness of them are rather off putting to me.

Mowgli is some kid who got sucked into another Land from Earth somehow years ago and grew up to be Tarzan? Yes, I know, they're different continents, no one cares. If it's a whole new Land of talking animals that's the only way you could get Lion King etc. Wonderland's White Rabbit could be from there. Cruella de Ville is involved somehow. But I don't really like the idea of Talking Animal Land for a bunch of reasons.

Headless Horseman seems more like "x of the week" fodder to me.