Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-34924658-20161031211322/@comment-25375217-20161031215950


 * 1) Season 1. Easily the most thought-out season, and did the best of retelling classic fairytales by far.
 * 2) Season 5B. Hades was a bit of a letdown but it definitely took us back to how Season 1 was. If it had been a full season instead of a half-season arc it might have been better, but I still think they did this very well. Lots of closure, and I actually liked Rumbelle again. Cruella also got her much-deserved time to shine.
 * 3) Season 3B. Zelena was an amazingly fun villain, especially compared to the previous arc villains (who were all just morbid killers for no good reason. If you're gonna kill for no reason, have fun with it. Not to say that Regina, Cora, and Peter Pan weren't fun, but Zelena was a nice breath of fresh air.) Wish we could have seen more Oz, but it was still cool.
 * 4) Season 2. It was a nice continuation out of Season 1. It answered several questions that Season 1 left open, and to have Cora as a constantly present threat as opposed to Regina and Rumple's threatening passive-aggression really added to the action. But then we got Tamara and Greg, who had an interesting setup but were killed before they could finish up their plot for the sake of Neverland.
 * 5) Season 4A. Ingrid was an amazing villain. Plus, for the amount of propaganda this arc was, I feel like they tied the Frozen characters in pretty well. They gave us good set-up for a continuation on Belle, though it doesn't seem like they intend on pursuing it any time soon. It set up Season 4B much better than 3A did for 3B, and rewatching it with the knowledge of Nimue's existence reveals a lot of small, interesting things in Rumple's plot that didn't make sense the first time through.
 * 6) Season 4B. I honestly enjoyed this arc much more than the general fanbase. I fail to see the lack of coherency in Rumple's plot, and the Author was done pretty well. However, the Queens of Darkness should have been saved for a later plot, because the chance to have three amazing villains work together was overshadowed by the much more important need to see the Author play out and set up the exploration of the Dark One's history.
 * 7) Season 5A. The only arc where the characters drove the plot instead of vice versa. The reveal of Nimue definitely fit in with what we've seen from Rumple in the past and explained a lot of things. But Emma going dark was a letdown, Hook going dark happened too quickly, and Regina as the savior went nowhere. What could have been a chance for Belle to get a serious role was wasted. I did quite enjoy Rumple's plot. I'm not sure why, but I seem to understand his plot direction pretty well compared to everyone else.
 * 8) Season 3A. Honestly, you'd think that with half-season arcs we wouldn't have this problem, but this season was sooooo dragggggged ouuuuuuuut... It didn't make a lot of sense and its "twists" were super predictable. Rumple's plot was a great resolution to the character, but of course they undid that in Season 3B so it was completely pointless (although, I do still enjoy his plot after Season 3B, it undermined his Season 3A plot.) The Emma love triangle situation was annoying. The best part was Regina's redemption, which really happened in this season, and the chance to see all of the heroes become a team for the first time. (except, of course, Belle.)