Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6252544-20160213233306/@comment-25926288-20160214045158

CoolDudeAl wrote: Magic is mostly a device for plot, as it is in all stories that have magic users. Let's not pretend this is a problem only Once has. As far as canon explanations, you could argue that magic is a mix of talent, emotion, mental focus, etc. so that explains how sometimes people do things, and sometimes they do other things. Well, yeah, we know. It's simply that toning down on inocnsistencies and the inorganic progression of power levels will only help Once.

I'll give an example. Supernatural is a show I watched and recently binge-watched and they fall somewhat into the power leveling trap that fantasy shows tend to have. They had the ghouls, then demons, then angels, but then they went even higher to leviathans and back to demons and then to the Darkness. You could tell that they sort of had issues introducing another level after 3. One thing I'll give credit to Once over SPN is that (spoilers) they kill off every minor character, while Once simply sidelines them.

The same has occured with Once. A witch, a better witch, a demigod fairydust boy, a mega witch, a force of nature, a coven of witches, the most powerful of witches (The DO), and now to the Gods. The problem that both shows have is that soon they make the previous threat trivial. Regina is no longer the threat she was in season 1 and 2. Neither is Zelena. Zelena is told to be stronger than Cora who rips hearts from entire villages and defeats Regina and got away from Rumple, but recently she's been punked by a girl in a red cloak and an obvious trap.

The thing is Once doesn't have to do the power trip. You like many want Aladdin and I only refute that occuring is because of this power leveling scheme. It can only go up. We can have Jafar and Aladdin, but they are powerscaling so high that it would boggle the general audience's mind. They will go "Yeah, they kicked Hades' butt" to "What the---Jafar stands no chance!" I would like to see the show continue, but you can't go from gods to anything lesser without some backlash.

SPN did something similar where they made demons the villains again in season 8 or 9, but the issue was that demons weren't relevantly strong sense season 4. Some fans think the show is starting to draga nd they are falling into fanservice (which you see many people here point out about Once).

I've totally gone tangential, lol