Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11464223-20151206080320/@comment-25926288-20151206164351

It's quite complex, but it's on Netflix. It's the standard episode bad guy to defeat with perhaps one major bad guy in an arc. The three sisters have preset powers and they use that in general to save the day, with some spells every now and again.

The problem with Once and then later episodes of Charmed and so on is that everyone becomes terrible overpowered.

We may not see it, but as one of Sanderson's laws says (and he isn't flawless) that people are more interested in what they can't do or the limitations. That's what creates the suspense and tension.

We have witches doing all sorts of magic by waving their hands indiscriminately. Why is a potion of portectionm spell better than waving your hand to do one? Well, it could be an easy explanation, but Once never addresses that. It's likewise with power levels in Once.

It's apparently based on statements ratehr than feats. Rumple was powerful, yet he never did anything than made him barely stronger looking than Regina. The DO as a whole seems dwarfed by Merlin even thoguh their magic is from the same source.

The problem though with Once is retroactive writing than the magic usage. I rather magic beans over another additional way to travel realms.