Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-32664989-20170723205831/@comment-25926288-20170723212447

Well, to address it by section:

1. Dropped Plotlines

Will and Ana's relationship didn't fall apart, they just built up something and never really made anything off it. Lily's plot was dropped due to bad timing and other plots. Now, I'll say dropped plots are terrible and they drop them like a hot frying pan, but that's marginally bad to the poor execution and payoff.

2. Retcon

Retcon is a bit misused here. Every new thing is technically a retcon when it does even a slight adjustment to what was presented before. What is better to discuss are the large retcons that lead to plot holes and discontinuity.

3. Overused plot devices

Memory curses are used too much, but that doesn't deal with writing. It's the flashback--vs--present structure that leads to some things like that. Nothing to do with consistency as they are consistently being used much to our chagrin. XD

4. The character-cycles

It's not inconsistent traits, so much as they are trapped in cycles and are moved as the plot demands (which makes the show extemely plot-driven). If the show had a three season run, it would not be noticed. If it had a five season run, then it would be iffy. If the show continued with all the same cast, we'd be looping into oblivion.

5. Secondary characters

A show like this tends to build up secondary characters in quantity, thus the quality is sure to suffer. Ingoring the townsfolk, look at Aladdin and Jasmine. I couldn't care a thing about their plot because it was so tangential to the important ones. Were they relevant to the Evil Queen? Nope. Were they relevant to the Black Fairy? Nope. Did they help resolve Emma's Savior issues? Not at all. That's the issue with secondary characters, even those that are given time.