Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20160414154159

or Hype. Note: This isn't about Killain Jones or ye old, Captain Hook, but the storytelling device called a hook.

Season 5b is already halfway through and our own personal evaluations are underway. How's everyone liking it so far? Episode ranking so far? What about any standout characters or even hairpulling plotfalls?

With such a juicy hook of encountering their pasts, how do the characters come out in the end? Do these revisits of the past (although we do that all the time) add towards their chracter growth? Is it working better than the arc cast of guest stars that take up varying degrees of screentime and quality?

Has there been any payoffs within these "revisisting their past" centrics? What do you predict that's being hyped up from these past episodes? A showdown? The time travel spell? Our heroes roaming the orange streets of Underbrooke and then along comes Zeus, "he hurls.....and the rest is in song?

In past arcs, there has been a tendency to hype things up (like the Spell of Shattered Sight) with it coming off with lacklsuter comedy and affecting less than half the cast (no Dwarves or Granny or Rbin in sight, Hook, Rumple, Emma, and Belle unaffected) or just being a touch too brief to be taken fully in all its awesomeness.

What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave your comments and continue the discussion here throughout the remainder of the season. 