Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20161024005929/@comment-24674051-20161024140931

Well, I'm coping with my perception of the failure of the writers regarding Jafar with my own head canon. But suffice it to say that i agree with all of the posts regarding the comparison of Once Jafar to Wonderland Jafar. The writers have, at least so far, completely failed to bring any reconciliation to the 2 characters. If all a person wanted was glorified Live-action disney with a small twist of plot, Then this probably satisfied (though it fell short even in this department).

The saddest thing is is that the episode appears to have failed in regards to moving any of the active story lines forward. Current active storylines, as I see them are:

1. Regina v. EQ : Sure the EQ did some major meddling (and poor Archie once again a victim of shapechanging Mills woman), but nothing really advanced.

2. Rumple and Belle and the Spawn of the Dark One - Not even present

3. Daddy Charming Murder - Not even mentioned.

4. Saviorology - Introduction of Aladdin as Savior (for real this time, not just the mention we saw in the premiere) and confirmation of the linkage between Aladdin and Emma. this was the most movement of any story line (and it wasn't much). Oh, and the introduction of the shears (McGuffin of the week, which I feel confident will turn up again, since Killian lied about disposing of them.)

Now, in defense of the broken magic (and yes, there are major cracks in the magic system). You are right, Jafar did not poof in Wonderland. Neither did Ana. And as I recall, we never saw Cora poof either during her stay in Wonderland. I would not use that as a guage of anything other than the writers chose not to have people teleporting in Wonderland. I mean, Cyrus, once he was out of the magic inhibiting cage, should have been able to poof to Alice, but he didn't. So put the blame on for that on Wonderland, not Once.

As for showing the hypnotic powers, yes, that was pulled straight from Disney, but I think that Rumple and the others are capable of such, just have not had the need nor the desire to use that power. I think that a certain amount of lattitude is taken to match the personalities of the individual characters. Regina (and to a lesser extent all the Mills women) have an affinity for hearts. Rumple is a master of manipulation. From a personality perspective, the Hypno powers fit well with Jafar, and I don't see his use (even if straight from Disney) as a break in magic as much as just a definition of his own personality and style.

And as far as the "Meta-Knowledge" is concerned, there is a bigger problem with that this season. Rumple has always been somewhat afflicted by "Meta-Knowledge" but given his powers as the Dark One combined with the seer abilities he stole, we can excuse that (to a point). but this season it's not Rumple, but the EQ, and now Jafar, that seem to be the all-knowings. That is a huge problem that the writers need to address.