Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-25926288-20150331013024/@comment-1916997-20150331050730

WhatTheEvenBelle wrote: The flashbacks for 3.02, 3.04, 3.06, and 3.10 were completely irrelevant and unnecessary in my opinion. They could have used the flashback portion of those episodes for much for relevant stories such as Tink getting to Neverland, Neal as a Lost Boy, the origins of the Shadow, or Hook gaining his freedom. As much as I love "Ariel", it wasn't really that important of a story. It woulda made better filler sometime later on in the series. As for 3.04, I see absolutely no point in that whatsoever. 302 was to parellel Emma with Snow, 304 was to show more about Pan, Rumple, Bae, and the Lost Boys, 306 was because they were bringing Ariel into the present day plot (and they had promised her since season 1), and 310 you might have a bit of a point on, I forget what the point of showing Snow and Charming and Medusa had on our present day plot. But overall I want to remind you that flashbacks are to give us insight into characters, but with a focus on our main cast. So seeing Snow and Charming in the grand sceme of the show is more important than something like the origins of The Shadow. An arc's flashbacks should not totally revolve around things only in that arc, because then after that arc, we won't have gained any info that actually adds anything to future arcs. This can be seen well in the Frozen arc. We got all those flashbacks with Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Hans, and Ingrid, but they more or less confirmed they are done with these characters, so we got a whole half season of flashback that isn't really going to add anything to the show going forward. The few things that are actually being used (The Apprentice and Lily) had really nothing to do with the Frozen arc, but they wound up being the most important flashback elements because we are now able to see how they are going to move our present day plot forward.