Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-1916997-20150912032554/@comment-1916997-20150913045047

Eskaver wrote: I love the supporting characters, but not everyone shares the same views on what they want to see. But also, it sort of detracts or just stagnates the story, imo.

It worked in season 1 and 2, because you had a big mystery and a slow plot. Once now has a pretty fast pace that they work at and it would be weird to go from premiere to finale (9 episodes inbetween) and have one be totally about Mulan during the Frozen arc. I mean, it would be more interesting then seeing Anna and David trapezing through the EF, but it would be totally on the random level.

IF Once slows down and has a slower paced story, then I could see it. Otherwise, I can want more, but I wouldn't want it to interfere with the story.

You gave wonderful examples and a great explanation, but as you said "so we can understand the characters that interact with Emma in the present day plot better". Unless they are used for the present day, it won't fulfill that purpose. Mulan's story will be great to see, but if we don't see her with the main cast in the present storyline, it'll just be weird.

But on my topic five list:

-Zelena, Mulan (maybe), Severe Nurse, The Blue Fairy, and the Apprentice Well, yes, I don't want to see Mulan's flashback in an episode that doesn't have Mulan in present day (unless they were setting up her coming in the next episode or end of the episode, like they did with Ariel in 3x06.) Unless, alternativly, it uses her interaction in flashback with, let's say, Mushu, and the present day characters meet Mushu, something like that. At the end of the day the flashback has to have some reason for being shown with the present day plot, and I think it always has (admitedly some reasons were better than others). The other reason I think they should often cover supporting characters in flashback, is because you know what's really painful to watch, and doesn't add anything to the story, 1001 Days in the Life of Snow White. We have very few (at least given what we know) interesting things we have yet to see with Snow White (off the top of my head I can only think of one, Snow getting the dark fairy dust from presumably the Black Fairy). At this point, I think very few people want many more Snow flashbacks, because we've seen almost everything we need to see (and some would argue things we didn't need to see). Snow will always be one of the main characters on the show (along with Emma, Regina, and Rumple as you stated), so we will always have her in present day plot, and I'm sure we will see her in more flashbacks as well, but I think what would be more interesting to almost everyone would be to see some of the other lesser characters backstories. Overall, Once strikes a pretty good balance, although sometimes they are a bit too main character heavy, and the Frozen arc had the opposite problem, they were too guest character heavy. Finally, I like all five of your character choices.