Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26159109-20150314072422/@comment-1916997-20150315143108

Farerb wrote: CoolDudeAl wrote: Farerb wrote: Eskaver wrote: To most fans (to which I can agree), the series was season one pilot to season 3a finale. The plot was most cohesive and the finale was a great ending with the desire for so much more left in the viewers' head. Then 3b-present is disconnected, like a reboot/sequel which is mostly worse than its original. I like Regina and even Zelena, but that plot was like a reboot to the 3a finale since there was a conclusive end. Like they say, the show must go on! Then time-travel adventures and Disney-ratings grab..ahem Frozen (which I liked how decent they did) ahoy! Now this tries to connect back to season one, but it's become like a parody of it's former self. Or at least it cycles 2 and 3a over in 3b and 4a and now 4b. I think that Cora should have stayed till 2x22. Greg and Tamara should have been the Little Bads in season 3 leading to Pan - the Big Bad later that season, and ending season 3 with "Going Home" with removing that stupid "cliffhanger" at the end.

The arc with Zelena and the missing year should have been entire season 4. Maybe if it had been, we wouldn't have felt it was rushed. There is always a cliffhanger (Gold bringing magic to Storybrooke in Season 1, Main cast going to Neverland to save Henry in Season 2, Hook telling Emma her family is in trouble in 3A, Elsa coming out of the urn in 3B, Gold finding Ursula in New York in 4A), so changing the pacing of the show plot would not have removed a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger in 3x11 is redundant. Cliffhangers suppose to give you bits of new information that you want to know more about or leave you in shock. The cliffhanger in 3x11 only showed Hook telling Emma her parents are in trouble (What a SHOCK!!). People don't realize that because immediately afterwards, the promo with the Wicked Witch (which idiotic by itself since it ruined the suspense of 3x12) aired and this is what left people wondering what is going to happen next. Yes, they teased Zelena, even though 312 was made to be a big reveal of her, but that was more because they had promised to tell us who she was. And look at it this way, if I'm someone who just starts watching Once now on Netflix, her reveal in 312 will be a surprise.