Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-34657163-20180311191124/@comment-1581533-20180311223349

Personally, I would have handled things in a completely different manner.

New iterations First of all, I would drop all this "new versions of same characters" nonsense. There are so many stories which could be covered, whereas many have been barely touched upon, there's no need to have the same characters again. If anything I would have Alice be younger and be the daughter of Will and Anastasia (this way we could also know why Will was in Storybrooke in season 4 and how he ended back to Anastasia). No Cinderella and no new Enchanted Forest. Admittedly I've no idea who Lucy's mother should be; I remember reading a few theories that Lucy's mom might be evil; it would be really cool if they revealed that Lucy's mom was a witch from the coven of the eight. I would set season 7 in the old Enchanted Forest. Gothel would be related to the tower seen in 3x14 (but the girl in the tower would no longer be Rapunzel/Tremaine but someone else. It could still be Alice, but as I said she would be Will and Anastasia's daughter).

Emma Last summer someone suggested on another thread that Emma had been transformed into a swan so to explain Morrison's absence. IMO that's genius. Have the characters say "oh no, Dr. Facilier transformed Emma into a swan" and have them look for a solution the whole season. Then in 7x22 they find a spell or something and Emma becomes a human again and happy ending (they could have filmed Emma's whenever Morrison was available; after all the season finale for HIMYM was shot nine years earlier, surely they could film three-four scenes with Emma and the others in Storybrooke a few months earlier). This would also mean no Wish Hook and no more mentions of the wish realm, which, as JennaMae said, was a bad idea to begin with.

Princess and the Frog As Leroiblanc said, Tiana's backstory should have been better established. I think the season should have focused way more on Tiana, Naveen and Facilier, give all of them backstories (it really bothers me that we most likely won't see Facilier and Regina's first meeting) and make them more similar to their movie counterparts (with Tiana being a waitress, not a princess). Also, I would have Tiana and Naveen come from New Orleans, with Facilier somehow ending in the Land Without Magic but still having a few magic potions/items. Facilier would also be one of the main villains, along with Gothel and the Coven, and his main motivation would be to pay his debts with his friends from the otherside (we'd have flashbacks in the Underworld and Hades would guest star). Facilier also crossed his paths with the Voodoo Lady from the Monkey Island series, who is a member of the Coven of the Eight.

Timelines As several users already said, I think more care should have been taken to the timelines. There should have been no "time goes faster in other realms" nonsense and Robin should be around 13 in present time.

Zelena and Belle I would have Zelena as a main and Belle as recurring/main (as Lola987 said there still was lot to explore about her) and would set a couple of flashbacks in Oz so to explain why Zelena's first time travel attempt failed (possibly because of Mombi, so to have her as one of the coven of the eight). I'd also reveal that Gothel and Zelena know each other because they worked together in the 3x14 flashback.

Dark Curse I think the Dark Curse should have been cast around 2018 when Henry left Storybrooke, so to explain why Regina, Hook, Zelena, Belle and Emma did not age. The ending of 6x22 should have been different too, with Henry actually recognising Lucy, so he would not be part of the curse. I've no idea whose heart they would have used, just introduce a new character and say that's the person Gothel/Facilier/someone else in the coven loves the most.

The Dragon Because Henry would still have his memories, he'd go to New York and seek for the Dragon's help. We would also get flashbacks about the Dragon and find out that his daughter is either Mulan or Susan Long (meaning the Dragon is Lao Shi from the American Dragon tv show).