Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160514103955/@comment-27885419-20160514173937

Imo season 5 was better. Season 4 just didn't do it for me.

4A was good enough. I liked the introduction of Arendelle characters, especially Ingrid. Had some great Captain Swan scenes. What I didn't like, Rumple going from a grey character I loved to a villain for the sake of being a villain. Rumbelle became less and less appealing to me. I was glad Belle threw him out of town. Also, Hook being forced to do yet another villain's bidding wasn't to my likes.

4B, well, I don't know what to say. I didn't like much of anything about it, except Cruella. Rumple falling yet another notch, the entire queens of darkness thing, and especially Zelena's return. To me, Zelena having killed Marian and posing as her was more of a short cut than anything else. This way, Robin doesn't have to choose, just like killing of Neal so Emma didn't have to choose. That, plus the entire pregnancy part. The thing that really made me totally disconnected with the plot was all the clichéd "Hero" and "Villain" stuff. This is a show full of grey characters who are neither entirely black nor entirely white. It's something I liked about it, and this Hero/Villain stuff was a put off for me. The Snowing and QoD back story and the explanation that it was due to Isaac's meddling was also something that I found hard to stomach. I liked Maleficent's story and relationship with Lily, though. On the romantic front, Captain Swan went overly cheesy, Regina was downright desperate for a shortcut to her situation and Robin was doing nothing but play helpless.

Overall, the season was a disappointment. The problems I found throughout the season. On the Regina-Robin front, I didn't like the whole indecision on Robin's part, and Regina's darker efforts to manipulate the situation in order to restore her happiness. CS was good in 4A, but in 4B it felt like they were forcing themselves to stay fine and not have a falling out. Problems were solved too easily and it was overall too cheesy. And most of all, I didn't like the way Henry was sidelined. There was nothing on his front, just showing support to both his moms. There was a lack of good mother-son scenes with either of them. He had prominence only in the finale.

Coming to season 5. In 5A the Dark Swan build-up was great, but it was disappointing when the entire mystery gave way to suddenly-evil-for-two-episodes Dark Hook. It was full of loopholes. I liked the Camelot sequence, the new characters, and the history of Light and Dark magic and Dark One's curse. The ending was sudden and not the best executed. Rumple, as usual, was disappointing.

5B took us to the underworld to visit some old faces. Most of it was good, but some one-episode tracks were too rushed. I failed to understand James. I liked Hades. 5B's notable mention would be Zelena, coz I loved her character arc. The 'sending Hook back' thing could have been done better, but I'm glad he's back. Robin's death was unnecessary and I'm hating it more bcoz of the blame game and inter-fangroup hate it has started. I liked the Captain Swan feels in 5x20 and 5x21. I liked the ending given to Arthur.

All in all, imo s5 though wasn't as good as the first three seasons, was better than s4, which was a total disappointment for me.