Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-35206895-20180823151924/@comment-31231929-20180825022910

Eskaver wrote: The Final Battle (which was a bit retread and shaky) will always feel like a series finale due to it being the end of the story.

7 was a soft reboot which is quasi-sequel, quasi-not. So it was in itself a beginning and an end.

I would dare say 7’s finale is arguably the worst. It’s a good episode with lots of good stuff, but (I exaggerated) it is a separate two parter of a partially separate season.

So, not actually the worst, but the concept was not a good decision. With a soft reboot, they created distance from the first six seasons. The finale was an attempt to bring it back, but it sort of gets stuck in that wide middle gap. The season 7 newbies are essentially trashed (Tiana, Naveen, Ella and Lucy) and the Season 6 oldies get small cameos. So, none get full justice and the three standing pillars (Hook, Regina, and Rumple) consume the remains of the show.

In other words, Emma was the Golden pillar while H2R were silver pillars. Henry was a bronze pillar.

As for the finales in terms of content, 6 had plot hiccups with intense suspense and pace. 7 had character moments and a steady, dull flow. Both good in their own right. I agree with this a lot. Even though I enjoyed it, leaving Storybrooke is also my least favorite season finale. It's not fully connected with either season 7 or the first 6 and it just wasn't as entertaining as it should have been. There are some really great moments in there, but while watching the first time around, I kept wondering when Emma was going to show up. Of course, I knew that she was most likely only going to be in the final scene, but she's my favorite and I hadn't seen her since episode 2, so I was a bit ( very) impatient. Which greatly impacted my enjoyment of it. It does, however, get better up rewatching.

I think the finale would have worked better if it was the end of the main season 7 story and not a new one. I don't think there would have been a way for the series finale to feel like a series finale unless the former mains and the newbies who were sidelined were significant to the episode (along with the characters who were significant). However, I think the biggest problem with the finale (and the season as a whole) is that it was lacking it's, as you put it, golden pillar. You could argue that Henry was season 7's golden pillar since he's the main character, but since the season isn't a spinoff and it was the final season, he doesn't reach that point. Maybe he would be a golden pillar if the season was a spinoff or if there was a season 8. But since he's the main of only one season that serves as both a beginning (reboot) and an end (final season), he's not.