Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26159109-20150926225531/@comment-3010035-20150928111350

1. Season 1

2. Season 2A (Cora's Arc)

3. Season 3B

4. Season 4A

5.  Wonderland

6. Season 2B (Greg and Tamara Arc)

7. Season 4B

8. Season 3A

So basically my rankings go by how dissappointed I was (if at all) with episodes in that arc.

Season One:

So this was flawless. I love season one in all aspects. One flowing plot, one great villain, one recurring villain, and several episodic villains. Even the "useless" episodes (True North, Dreamy & What Happened to Frederick) are amazing, and give character developement to our cast. The flashbacks were all so carefully planned out and it was a delight to watch.

Season 2A:

So my idea of 2A is Broken to the Miller's Daughter, however my idea of 2B is from In the Name of the Brother to And Straight on Till Morning, so they kinda overlap. 2A for me was beautiful, the flashbacks were well planned and thought out, they ties up 95% of their loose threads and the simultaenous plotlines in Storybrooke and the Forest was done very well, and Cora was entrancing to watch, especially in her backstory episodes.

Season 3B:

3B was entrancing, but mainly because of Zelena and her amazing character. This season has showcased some of the strongest episodes of the series: Snow Drifts, There's No Place Like Home, It's Not Easy Being Green, and Bleeding Through. It was exciting, and the Year in the Enchanted Forest was a breath of fresh air. My only criticisms are the way the handled Rapunzel, and the way the handled Walsh. Neither of them got the backstory they deserved. If they had done Rapunzel well then she could have become a recurring character like Ariel and Aurora, but sadly not :(

Season 4A:

Now the backstory here, although not very centric to the main characters was very well thought out, and tied together nicely. E.g. Anna being Charming's swordfighting teacher, and Belle getting the recommendation for Rumple via Anna who got it via Ruth. Now they set up some very nice threads for 4B, like the Will Scarlett plotline with him digging in the woods, and Lily and the Apprentice, all of which were completely butchered in 4B. They did very well with what they had for Frozen. The memory loss arc was a bit tedious, but other than that it was great.

Wonderland:

Wonderland was alright, however I found quite a few flaws with several plots. For instance why did Will become a genie, when Leopold didn't in Season One? and why would he say "end alice's suffering"? That just sounds like a death sentence. Also Ana dying and not coming back to life, but then actually coming back because of well water was a bit much, considering Cyrus died... However I did like the compact little plot, with the reformation of Ana's character and the introduction of the Jabberwocky. If we had only gotten Mad Hatter, more Cora, White Rabbit flashbacks, and an ANA AND CINDERELLA CONFORMATION, then I would like it more.

Season 2B:

Season 2, is actually my second favourite season as a whole, however 2B was a bit lackluster. I count 2B as the Greg plot from In the Name of the Brother, and then the entire plot from Welcome to Storybrooke. The problem with 2B, is that since season one they had planned for characters like Ariel and Aladdin to be in Season Two. But since they couldn't get Sidney for season two, they had to scrap Aladdin, and subsequently scrapped Ariel. I'm almost 100% sure that if they had been able to introduce Ariel the way they wanted to, the "Certain Mermaid" in Skin Deep, would have made sense to us. Instead they expanded on characters like Dr. Whale and Anton, and whilst I definenetely enjoyed that, it was slightly tedious. Another annoying thing was Tamara and the Home Office's lack of backstory. We had no idea why Tamara was doing what she was doing. I mean they could have just hinted it in Selfless, Brave and True or Second Star to the Right. In addition to that, there were too many filler backstories (In the Name of the Brother, Tiny, Lacey, The Evil Queen, And Straight on 'Till Morning).

Season 4B:

I had such high hopes for this part of the season, because it was the first one in a long time without a theme like Neverland, Oz or Frozen. I was sorely dissappointed. 95% of all the backstories were irrelevant and horrible. Darkness on the Edge of Town barely made sense, as Rumple just walks away from the Queens of Darkness, and they just leave the Chernabog in a cave without defeating it. Unforgiven and Best Laid Plans could have been condensed into one episode, in either episode slot, with Maleficent just mentioning her child in the present instead of the past. Enter the Dragon was a HUUUUUUGE dissapointment. It started off like 99% of Regina flashbacks do, with her being annoyed at Rumple and not being able to learn magic. We did not get to see the Dark and Sleeping Curse tradeoff, nor did we get to see Maleficent and Briar Rose backstory. King Stefan was there for one second, and so was Aurora, and Aurora's appearance basically contradicted all that had been said about the sleeping curse and her character in the past. The Zelena twist was horrible, and not forshadowed at all. If they had at least forshadowed it (Like Marian's heart being dark, or her giving horrible evil looks), I would be okay with it, but they didn't even do that. Lily was written so horribly that I wanted to cry. I wish we could have seen flashbacks to throughout Lily's life with one or two scenes with Emma that took place within Breaking Glass, but instead we got the worst backstory of all time. Mother was just a filler, and their only redeemable quality, explaining how Cora kidnapped Henry, wasn't even used. The Author barely got a backstory/ motive and I am still puzzled as to why he did everything he did. We didn't get to see half of what we could have seen with his backstory as the author, and his history of bad bosses, and history with the Apprentice. Will Scarlett was completely thrown away, and all that character building that had happened in 4A was thrown away completely. WE DIDN'T SEE MALEFICENT INTERACT WITH AURORA OR PHILLIP!!!!!!!!! Belle was thrown away, and Rumple had the worst character developement in history. With his motives flipping and flopping from episode to episode, and out of nowhere his heart dying. Sorry I really don't like 4B haha.

Season 3A:

Well, well, well. I can not stand 3A. No plot development, and TONS AND TONS OF HOLES. The backstory was shit with it either being one scene: The Heart of the Truest Believer, and Dark Hollow. Completely irrelevant Snow and Charming bullshit that added nothing to anything: Lost Girl and the New Neverland. Cool, relevant flashbacks that weren't necesarily relevant to Neverland: Ariel and Save Henry. Then some relevent Neverland flashbacks, that could have been executed better: Good Form and Nasty Habits. Good Form could have continued from the point of Hook's Father abandoning him, as had been hinted previously, and Nasty Habits could have shown us Bae's time as a Lost Boy and escape from Neverland, instead of the Pied Pieper bs. The two flashbacks that were alright were: Quite a Common Fairy, and Think Lovely Thoughts. But Going Home was also a waste of an episode with just a mob of flashbacks being shown. It would have been okay for a Series finale, but not for an arc finale that had so many unanswered questions.