Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-2153169-20150428063638/@comment-24674051-20150507212405

Eskaver wrote: CoolDudeAl wrote: Eskaver wrote: CoolDudeAl wrote: You guys, every show (and almost every story regardless of medium for that matter) has relationships. Love/lust/baby-making/romance/etc. is one of the core themes that run through anything featuring human interaction (or really any species real or fictional that has binary reproduction). The ships are not ruining the show, they are just a byproduct of it being a human story featuring humans. Wonderful post as always, but romance doesn;t have to run forefront in the show. Not saying it does, but looking at the main characters, you see their character growth which used to be individual now be together in a ship. This is not saying you don't grow together with your partner, it's just you can also grow without your partner always being the leech to your arm.

David is a non-entity to Snow (All the focus was put on Snow)

Hook is vaguely a non-entity (He has some moments, but most a glorified pep coach)

Robin (Regina's whole focus in order for her to come to the character growing moment and cheerleader)

Belle is still somehow the conscience for Rumple and (poor Rumple, loving Belle, non-existent Will)

Ruining is subjective, I take it. So, it can be. If we had a way to prove it besides ratings and media buzz (which pretty much speak to the ship runing stuff, somehwat)

Oh, yeah. Emma is going to be dark at least for a portion of the finale. (Lol, had to keep it on topic) I get what your saying, the less interesting characters are made more interesting by being the partners to the more interesting characters. I think this is just what happens with alot of serialized stories (especially on tv shows). On the plus side, unlike other tv shows, we don't constantly switch who's romantically involved with who, just to create drama. Obviously, they have done a few little things like this on the show (lookng at you Will and Belle), but for the most part the ships are pretty stable. Snow loves Charming; Emma loves Neal, Neal dies, and then Emma loves Hook; Regina loves Daniel, Daniel dies, and then Regina loves Robin; etc. Haha, just beacuse others do it doesn't mean it isn't a bad thing. This show is a story with three things: Plot, Conflict, and Characters.

When half of the mains are just love interests and they grow dependent on ships, it's okay (as you said others do it), but they don't have a main that isn't in a ship (except Henry).

The Conflict is okay: There is conflict between the external forces and villains and romantic problmes.

The Plot involves these characters finding happines and hope and Henry, while also finding each other in the twisted ways of the writing.

Common theme here: Romance, which means ships......and the advertisement is ship-based, ship-baiting, etc (which isn't out of the ordinary), but here is too much of the romance/ship-based stuff. Romance is okay with each character getting significant developmentThe show acts as if everyone can't be a compelling and deep character that exhibits character growth outside of their centric episode. Ex: Regina learns in her centric, but all is revolves around Robin, but then she learns her lesson. All her growth in season four was Robin Hood related, until in one episode, My happiness is not in a man....which she learned 150 years ago.

Emma will be the dark swan and I hope Killian has nothing to do with saving her, or if he tries he dies....I mean fail. Actually, the ships can come in different flavors. Aside from the ones you mentioned, there is also SwanQueen, which I know some people try to ship as a romantic relationship, but I prefer to think of them as BFF's. I've also heard other variations such as OutlawPrince (Robin/Charming), OutlawPirate (Robin/Hook), PiratePrince (Hook/Charming), HookFire (Hook and Neal before Neal's death.) I think you get the picture.

And in some cases, the character growth comes from the interactions of the 2 characters. While much of Hooks growth has come due to his relationship with Emma (Basically, his desire to become a better person), some of his growth has come from his interaction with David (particularly during the Neverland arc), and some even from his interactions with Regina, and even Gold (when Gold isn't being a total Jerk). As a point of that, if you watch where Emma and Snow reconcile in the last episode, there is one shot of David and Killian exchanging glances (a look of relief), and there was a story in just the glance.

Where the problem comes is if one of the people's entire existance is based on the relationship. Hook being as Open as he is, and as encouraging, has helped Emma. But Hook has had his relapses (see the Frozen Arc, Hook definitly was having his own growing pains). And it is hard to have David without Snow (Let's face it, they are the epitomal Fairy Tale couple, that ship ain't gonna be sinking any time soon). But the writers do need to put more effort into growing the other mains (Will, Henry, Belle, Emma, Hook, and I'll add Zelena and Robin) outside of their main relationship.