Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11464223-20160522134756/@comment-4636650-20160723210006

I think I'd probably go 1, 4B, 4A, 2, 3A, 3B, 5B, 5A.

It seems to be basically unanimous that Season 1 was the best, the balance between main plot and   world building was great, the characters were interesting and far more balanced personality wise than a lot of them are now.

My favourite character has always been Maleficent so I absolutely loved 4B and contrary to a lot of people I liked how self-contained 4A was, I thought it was fun to see those characters for a short while and then send them on their way with no loose ends or forgotten characters still hanging around. The only thing I didn't really like about season 4 was the Robin/Regina plotline; the way that Robin kept changing his mind about who he wanted to be with, the fact that we were somehow supposed to buy that Zelena was able to impersonate Marion well enough that Robin didn't immediately realise that something was seriously wrong and the whole tattoo thing.

Season 2 was good but by the end of the main arc I was getting fed up with the stuff with Cora, I just find that the character works better only making occasional appearances than being front and center, if nothing else I found that the same beats in regards to her relationship with Regina were getting repeated over and over. The Greg and Tamara plot was just plain awful.

With 3B I kind of liked the whole idea of Regina having a long lost sister but Zelena's constant whining was so annoying that it pretty much put me off the entire arc (tbh the first ep where I haven't minded Zelena is 'Sisters'). I also felt that there was a fair amount of missed potential in regards to Emma and exploring how she really felt about everything that was going on with her parents, Hook etc.

Like with some of the Cora stuff in season 2 I found a fair amount of the Neverland plot repetitive, I don't think that I would've minded it so much if they hadn't spent 6 eps straight just focusing on the same handful of characters walking through the same jungle. I wasn't particularly fond of Peter Pan himself or the twist with him being Rumple's father, it just seemed contrived to ensure that there was some familial connection to the characters in Neverland. I did like Tink though.

Season 5 in general was horrendous imho. 5B was marginally better because we did get some resolution in regards to some of the characters that had been killed off and especially because Cruella was back. However, 5B's attempt at doing Greek Mythology just made me cringe. 5A was so bad it wasn't even laughable; it didn't even resemble the Arthurian legends that it was attempting, and failing, to use well. I'd also been hoping that we would at least see Morgan le Fay and Mordred. The finale and the plots it's set up for Season 6 don't honestly give me much hope that Season 6 will be much better, just hoping that the presence of The Evil Queen will make up for the rest of it.