Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-31937823-20180102211252/@comment-24593235-20180102231118

Lady Junky wrote: Without changing too much like you, I'd say:
 * 1) Scrap the entire dumb Dark Hook plot, and make the Dark Swan the REAL villain from A to Z. That's the main problem of this 5A. Dark Swan had SO MUCH potential by the end of S4, and they ruined it when they made Hook the co-DO and Emma just pretending to be evil. Emma should have been a real villain with a real evil motive. Would have been a great continuation of her 4B storyline.
 * 2) Have Emma sacrificing herself at the end of 511. She'd ask Hook to kill her and they all go to the Underworld to save her, rather than Hook. It would have been more believable, and a stronger cliffhanger.

Just these two points would have made the entire 5A much better than it is. I agree with pretty much all of this. My complaints about Season 5 are more about 5A than 5B, the latter of which is definitely my favorite of the half season arcs they've done. Emma should've been the actual villain, not Hook, which I found to be a complete cop-out and what really turned the show into Once Upon a Captain Swan. Everyone going to the Underworld to save Emma is far more believable, and it would connect the two arcs better with the ensemble spending the whole season trying to save the Savior.

I also wish they tied in the stuff from S4 better, what with Emma's potential for darkness and all of the stuff we got on the Sorcerer. There's still a lot of unanswered questions like why Merlin had a mansion in Storybrooke and the whole thing with the hat. In addition to that, give Guinevere and Lancelot the closure they deserve - Guinevere ruling Camelot as Queen with Lancelot by her side.