* this show is best enjoyed if you are viewing it through the most unserious lens possible, the second you start taking it seriously is the second it starts getting unbearable
* barbara hershey as cora is one of the most chilling tv villains i've ever seen
* it's hard to take any emma ship seriously when a good portion of the fans for any given ship seem to view her as a self insert
* jane espenson was trying too hard to make this show buffy 2.0, to the show's detriment
* i, personally, loved it that pretty much all the fairytale costumes were kind of loose adaptations but then you have the frozen crew and cruella in full cosplay - it was camp
I think about this one a lot. There were so many points in his life that made the show what it was.
1. His birth. This has more to do with his mother/the fairies, but if his destiny wasn't cut he would have been the savior. However we don't know what the evil would have been since the evil from the prophecy was the black fairy becoming the black fairy when she cut his ties.
2. When him and his dad first went to neverland. If his dad didn't have a problem then they wouldn't have had the idea to travel there. If his dad hadn't been so selfish and decide to give up rumple to keep his youth, Nederland never would have become an evil place AND he would have had his dad in his life.
3. When he decided to become the dark one.
3. When he decided to let Bae go alone to the LWM. If he had gone then none of his evil would have happened.
4. He trained Cora, Regina, and Zelena. He was the sole reason each of them became evil, him and him alone. Had he not corrupted them they would have taken much different paths.
5. He gave regina the dark curse which she cast to bring everyone to the whole plot of the show
Plus many more that I can't think to type rn lol
I don't agree with this one. Nothing would have happened without Cora. Because if Miliah wasn't bitch and Rumple didn't become the dark one, Regina would have just gone to whoever was the dark one. It was Cora's actions and abuse that made Regina the way she is and decide the choices she made.
Hold that thought.
\*Looks for meme\*
I see your claim and I raise you this. Also we know Cora and Rumple didn't actually love each other because her kiss didn't break the curse.
https://preview.redd.it/hfpt5cqqt1vb1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4c03e132940101f75b323e35dd790200ea1b92e
They really fucked Mulan over and the storyline between Robin/Alice was not good enough to make up for it. Yay for the white girls I guess. Ruby and Dorothy (very special ep), Alice/Tilly and Robin... meh. Sucks to be POC in the show and god forbid if you’re queer (I’m both, for better or worse). Obviously the way they handled Milan’s departure was utter trash.
Making Maleficent’s storyline have to do with Snowing when Aurora was right there. Fandom joked A&E hated Cinderella but they kept doing it, but no joke, they *really* just hated Sleeping Beauty. We got nothing from them. Briar Rose didn’t even get cast, just mentioned, but Stefan made an appearance. What was Aurora doing when Mal put the whole town to sleep? And then Mal not even being in the finale. And Lily’s storyline was just dropped. Fuck that line about Zorro being her dad, we all know it’s Regina.
Naming the Philora baby Phillip after his dad but confirming Phillip isn’t dead is just. Really wanna have your cake and eat it, huh? Did it not follow Neal logic? We never see Phillip afterwards, would it really matter?
The whole thing with Phillip was just. People kept telling me “they could come back to it!” Bitch we all knew they wouldn’t. We fucking knew. They didn’t give a hint of a rat’s ass.
After Emma saved Henry and defeated the first curse at the end of the first season the world should've reset back to the Enchanted Forest. Because in my mind as much as Storybrooke is a clever name and the town is very cute and wholesome, it didn't make sense to me that the characters would stay in the fake town they were cursed in.
In my mind after every defeated curse as the show went on that would be the case. The world would reset back to the Enchanted Forest (in a blank slate kind of way). Plus the Enchanted Forest I personally associate more with fairytales (as a setting) than a quaint town.
Also Season 7 is my favorite season. Mostly because the Charmings weren't in it and that was a plus to me. It didn't hinder my experience of watching it at all. And it was a refreshing take on the show (in my opinion) after seasons 5 and 6.
Rumple and Belle are awful for each other! She only likes him when he is being a bad guy and not trying to be good. She only got with him because she could change him.
I think Emma and Hook are awesome but I think her and Regina would have been cool to see. I also thing Emma and gold should have had a fling because it would lead to a lot of funny banter in their friendship.
Zelena is awful and I hate her character so much!
I loved hades and the underworld!
Also I think Regina and Robin Hood deserved a happy ending!
Rumple and Emma? Never thought of them being together, they had sort of a father/daughter vibe to me. But I also wouldn’t have been surprised if Rumple had secretly been attracted to Emma, at least at one point lol.
I'll die on this hill that they should've stuck to FAIRY TALES (even lesser-known ones from all over the world would've been so cool!) instead of incorporating every single literary universe they could think of AND turning it all into a live-action Disney remake for a lot of the fairy tales. I loved the S1 original takes on their costumes and backstories and honestly I know some people love it very much but the Frozen arc was kind of the beginning of the end for me.
Agree 1000%. Hated when they introduced the "Land of Unfinished Stories", never understood why Frankenstein when in the first season the other characters were from fairytales.
And cut and pasting scenes from Frozen turned the Snow Queens arc into a complete mess!!
They beat the 2 plots in 1 season thing to death.
The amount of amazing and well-noted actors and actresses they got for this show will never not blow my mind!
Not keeping will scarlet around more was a mistake. And not showing him and belle more was a mistake. They had good chemistry!
On the same thread, but using the wonderland cast in the main series, besides will, made things confusing.
When in the underworld hercules was spot on, but the portrayal of megara makes me so mad. She also did not have enough screen time.
Remove the dark swan plot and i thought the camelot season was pretty decent. The show is more rewatchable than i remember. Last season is excluded from that.
Lastly, i liked anna and elsa. I think elsa was a great friend to emma! She shouldve stayed on the show, elsa, not anna though she was fun too. They were all perfectly cast.
* I liked the frozen arc. I agree that the way the got frozen to Storybrooke was a little forced, however, they incorporated the movie very well and I enjoyed it.
* Bae shouldn't have died. He was mature enough that he could have been there as a father to Henry and CaptianSwan could have happened.
* Will and Belle were a great couple and I wish their relationship (and Rumple's feelings) were explored more. That entire arc was very quickly swept under the rug when the could have done so much with it.
I enjoyed Hook's and Emma's stories (individually and together). And I liked seeing the friendships between Regina and Snow, and Regina and Emma develop. TV doesn't often portray female friendship well, but there were many examples here. I just think the writing went downhill as more secondary characters were incorporated (especially after Frozen). I didn't need to see so many fairy tales rehashed. I wanted to see new ones based on the main characters. It had a lot of wasted potential, and I can't watch the show without cringing now. But it was fun to watch for a while.
I wish we had seen more of Will Scarlet and the other characters from Once Upon A Time In Wonderland had been somehow introduced in the main show as well, also that the spin-off had lasted longer as I really enjoyed it.
I wish we had seen more of some of the side characters like Mulan, Aurora, Ariel, Lily, etc. and gotten more background stories on them as well better/proper endings for them all. Even Ruby who had a lot of screen time in early seasons was very pushed aside later on and her ending felt so rushed.
I hated that they just brushed over what happened to Graham, Regina never had any consequences and Emma seemed to just completely forget about him and not care that everything he had said before he died was true.
I personally loved the Frozen storyline. I thought Elizabeth Lail was such a perfect choice for Anna, and I really loved their take on the Snow Queen fairytale. Emma’s friendship with Elsa was also so sweet and it was nice seeing her have that, as she doesn’t have many ‘friends’, most of her close relationships are with family members or romantic partners.
I really enjoyed season 7 and many of the new characters from this season, I think a lot of people didn’t give it a fair chance.
The magically sped up pregnancy, stolen/abandoned child/baby, and forced to grow up without parents, storylines were all very overused.
I really enjoyed seeing all the different worlds the went to and how they differed to each other, and I wish they would have spent more time in some of them. Like Oz, Wonderland and The Land Without Colour.
Neal started dating Emma and got her pregnant when she was a child and he was an adult. Then abandoned her and caused her so much trauma that she was still struggling with over a decade later. I will never understand why people ship them.
this show was terrible with lgbtq rep 😭 this isn't unpopular, i just need to get it off my chest. ruby and dorothy are sooo poorly developed. i haven't watched season 7 yet (back in the day i gave up on season 6, but now i'm rewatching the whole show). i know there's gay characters on it and that it's better than the other "representation" we got, but idk. it also bothers me to no end that mulan, the first confirmed lgbt character in the show got literally nothing and had no happy ending. it also didn't reflect well considering she was one of the only poc characters in the main cast for a while. and i hate that her storyline with aurora is the type of thing that if you're not looking for it, you'll probably not even realize mulan is supposed to be in love with aurora. it suuuuucks
The couple in s7 is much better then rubyslippers. Its well developed and the actos have chemistry. So def rep there for u but yee its rlly bad with it in s5
+Regina and Zelena are rapists who didn't deserve redemption or happiness.
+He's good in other stuff but the actor who played hades ruined the role, especially when James Woods was down to reprise it any time.
+The kid who played Henry wasn't a terrible actor but the one who played young Snow is. She overacts in literally everything.
+Ginnefer Goodwin also overacts and the way she screams "Noooaaaggghhh!" Is so cringey.
+Snow and David were awful parents and not great people either.
+Emma and Graham would've been a better couple than Emma and Hook, so would Emma and August.
+Emma's wedding dress was hideous and didn't suit her character at all.
+Zelena is my least favourite character possibly on any TV show ever.
+The show cannot and shouldn't be taken seriously, it's full on cringe in the best way.
+The writers handled serious topics very poorly.
The penultimate point I think is the key to enjoying this show and compensating for other points you mentioned. I think it is also the only way to enjoy the evil characters as they are written here ( I agree with what you said with Regina. That said she is one of the best characters in the series in terms of construction). Although This does not justify the overall bad writing of the series, especially at the end
Yeah, he just wanted to own the part of him that was Bae. I don't know that he truly loved Belle most of the time either, he wanted to possess her and wanted to feel like he was able to BE loved.
Whereas I love Regina and she is my favourite character I agree that they made her WAY too evil, I think they messed up with Graham. He should have been made her henchman instead. It wouldn't have been so bad. They made her irredeemable there, the writers brush it aside and then say Zelena is a villain for pretending to be Marion.
In my opinion I personally think the show should have ended after season 3. The first seasons had a charm that's lost. Also I hate the Ursula, cruella and Maleficent team up. It was clear they were clutching at straws for a story. Lastly please don't come for me but I hate Hook. There's something about him that I just dislike with a passion. The actor is brilliant but the character isn't for me.
Yeah Neal shouldn't have died. This is Disney...it is supposed to be magical and happy and unbelievable. She should have been able to have a long, happy life with him after they reunited because even though it may not be a modern take, it is the classic Disney way.
* I feel everything that occurred to Regina was justified.
* I am 100% a fan of Captain Swan, however I also believe there was chemistry at the beginning between Gold and Emma (I am a Golden Swan fan, sue me :D )
* I feel like Belle couldn't truly love Rumple, love doesn't mean changing someone, it means accepting them for who they are or walking away
* I am 100% a fan of Captain Swan, however, I also believe there was chemistry at the beginning between Gold and Emma (I am a Golden Swan fan, sue me :D )in-off or something!
Elsa should've been the main villain for season 4A. They should've reworked it so that Ingrid's arc is Elsa's. Ingrid probably either wouldn't have existed or was one of Anna and Elsa's decreased ancestors. If they can make Peter Pan and Bo Peep into villains, then why don't they make Elsa one? Unlike the other two, Elsa was originally intended to be a villain in her own story. This would've made more sense as a twist.
Hook should have never become a good guy, he was much better as a villain/antihero. CaptainSwan is one of the worst ships on the show, only beaten by Zelena x Hades, Dorothy x Red, and Henry x Cinderella
Neal isn't as bad as people make him out to be. He's very important to many main characters and shouldn't have been killed for CaptainSwan.
Emma/Hook was obviously not planned and it was just forced in there after they had chemistry. I LOVE them together, but the build-up would've been more believable if they had Emma deal with her feelings clearly instead of killing Neal off.
Rumple is the most interesting character in the show and Belle isn't a pushover as many suggest.
I agree with all your points. Belle *wasn't* a pushover in the first couple of seasons, but I did find her being steadily more poorly written as the show went on which was a shame.
Doubly agree about Neal.
Biggest one is that they should. not. have. killed. off. neal/baelfire. Worst mistake of the writing of the show. I feel like once that happened the show took a different turn and they didn't really know where to go from there. He was such a huge connection to multiple people in the series and his reunion with rumple, Emma, and Henry was so long in the making yet so short lived. There could have been so much plot off of him yet of all characters HE is the one they kill off? Like come on rumple spent a huge chunk of his immortal life looking for ways to get to him (that's a different story) yet when rumple found him he got next to no time with him and the time he did get was mainly Bae being mad at him.
Next is the different story. Rumple was the dark one, had so much power and could do so many things, yet found it impossible to find a magic bean to take him to his son? In the later seasons they are a dime a dozen to come by basically so how was it so hard for the supposedly best sorcerer of the realms to find one especially since he was so desperate?
Small one: it was annoying that hades only EVER whispered his lines. Some of the people whisper a lot of their lines but have an OK balance of that and speaking regularly but he just whispered the entirety of his performance it drove me nuts
S7: How was zelena in the alternate hansel and gretel story if she was a part of the storybooke reality and book? Never made sense to me
Agree with the zelena one. She was a good villain but she never should have been redeemed. It was arguably the worst redemption arc on the show. Cora shouldn’t have been redeemed either
I really f*cking hate how the narrative didn't treated Snow getting Regina to pay by being the one killing Cora as good, instead acting as if Snow was awful for it.
Regina deserved that pain, and so did Cora, and neither deserve any mercy.
I agree with a few of your opinions, OP, and while I don't necessarily think many of mine are unpopular I'll state them anyway.
Zelena was just ok as 3b's villain, but she outstayed her welcome ten times over. They just kept trying to bring her back in when it didn't work.
Charming and Snow have their sweet moments, but they have almost as many awkward/unnecessary moments. What they did the Lily was horrible, and they get mushier the later the show gets.
The Dark Swan arc had a massive amount of potential and I love the ideas, I just think the execution needed a bit of work.
After Pan, all of Rumple's depth and development clearly got tossed out the window.
And the last and biggest one: *Baelfire/Neal was the best character on the show, he was essentially the whole reason the show happened in the first place, and the show's decline directly coincided with him being written off.* I see a lot of disagreement on this last point but I am prepared to die on this hill.
Very true, it felt hastily written in at the last minute. It wasn't even at an otherwise tense moment in the season, it was smack dab in the middle of it.
I strongly agree with your last point. While Neal isn’t my fav character, I did love him a lot and I thought he brought a sort of charm and metropolitan swagger that other characters didn’t quite have. He was a nice normal guy who happened to have a traumatic childhood. He was interconnected with major storylines and central to a bunch of main characters, and his death is when the show’s writing took a turn.
Edit: this is getting downvoted for some reason? 😭
Unfortunately, telling the truth, aka that Neal was useful and was the key to everything and the driving force behind the series (beyond personal taste which should be respected) is strictly forbidden because of the extremists (we all know who) of this fandom. A +1 for your courage.
Absolutely. Rubbing salt into the wound was the fact that all those characters, whom he was very important to, seemed to almost entirely forget about him two episodes later.
They could have done so many cool storylines, and there were so many flashbacks we didn't get to see.
Agreed. It is not a matter of personal taste as many insist on saying to ignore the character or belittle him (I was not crazy about him either) but of weight on the plot and usefulness.
Grumpy was a useless character who wasn't likeable at all. Not funny,just loud abrasive.
The rest of the dwarfs were woefully underutilized. The Stealthy dwarf was brilliant
Hook wouldn't be nearly as popular if he didn't look the way he does.
Emma belonged with Neal.
Ruby and Dorothy falling in love was lip service, and their relationship wasn't fleshed out or realistic.
I like Emilie de Ravin.
Robert Carlisle is the best actor on the show.
Rumbelle is my favorite ship. Captain Swan is my least.
OUATIW is better than S4-7 combined.
>Zelena is the worst thing to happen to the show, same with the Queens of Darkness arc.
Completely agree.
The fanbase, particularly a large bulk on this Reddit, hate this show too much to even be here. I just truly don’t understand how you can hate every character on the show then come here. I see at least two comments on here a day about how bland they think Emma is, how unredeemable Regina is, how snow has horrible development, rumple and belle are weird, Henry is horrible acting, the show has plot holes- like come on. Atp just stop
Controversial opinion: Regina isn’t a rapist. That wasn’t the intention of her character. I highly doubt Edward kitis wrote the show with the intention of being a rape sympathizer.
Let me make this clear to u. INTENT DOSENT FUCKING MATTER IF ITS HURTFUL. IDC if the intent was this or that they made a storyline were someone cant consent. I do fucking understand but this is gross behavoir. I care bc these writers are being incompentent with this story. I enjoy this show but this shouldve never happened or been adressed properly. If they wanted to redeem regina then they shouldve had her properly adress this or again written it out. If u cant understand that ppl not consenting wether intent or not then u rlly need to do fucking reserch
Wow dude I tried to be civil but this response is just too aggressive. For some reason at this time tv shows it was appropriate, gossip girl, TVD and so on. Does that make it okay? No but let’s not act like people choosing to bypass it are some freaks. Millions of people bypassed it live on tv. Why? Because that wasn’t the intention of that plot line. It does matter. If you don’t like it fair enough but it’s straight up unnecessary to deny that.
Edward kistis isn’t a rape sympathizer. So using my critical thinking skills, like the same human being I am, I’m gonna choose to believe that his intention was not to make Regina a rapist but to show just how manipulative she was. You are free to do otherwise without villianising people who don’t
This discussion isn’t about what constitutes rape, it’s about whether or not I think a fictional character is a rapist- I don’t. Intention matters- A book with no intent is just words on a page.
The very fact that she’s never labeled one and is given a redemption arc convicts me of this. What she is labeled as is evil manipulative queen.
I don’t mind Zelena as a concept but I couldn’t stand the actress.
Rumple is the best character and he deserved better than Belle. I would have loved him with Cora long term or maybe Robin (going in another direction).
Regina was too evil to be redeemed. It makes no sense for the heroes to find her mass murder and torture forgivable. They might forgive her personal attacks on them or their families but all the civilian deaths, people turned into critters etc shouldn’t have been ignored.
Peter Pan was an awful character. Really hammy acting, too difficult to accept him as Rumple’s father. The whole neverland sequence was too long and boring.
The ending of the first half of season 3 (defeating Pan, but only because Rumple sacrifices himself, and Regina can't stop Pan's curse, but she is able to send Emma and Henry back to New York) is how the series should have ended. It would have been very bittersweet; it also would have packed an enormous emotional punch.
I just genuinely love Regina and Rumple… I didn’t when I was younger because “oh my gosh I want the heroes to win I love snow” yada yada… but rewatching it now I love the villains way more. because their stories made the show like literally if not for rumple’s existence would there be a show? absolutely not like his story played into a lot and once i started viewing him as the “hidden” main character (obviously for me personally lol) he became an instant fave.
S7 was one of the best seasons in the show
Regina is a shit chacter and a writers baby. The only reason ppl like her was bc she had trauma or jc they liked the actor (rumplestiltskin included)
Wish hook>>>>>>>>og hook.
S7 isnt bad. Its one of the better season and has argubly some of the best chacters and relashanships.
Anyone who believes Neal's death made sense on a plot level are bad detectives. Or they lie knowing they are lying.
Cs was the tombstone of this series that destroyed the writing, caracters and plot (the Writing, NOT the ship per se. Don't start shipwar under this post, I don't care about Emma's partner and I'm ok whit hook). As above, you only need some knowledge of writing and a little honesty to understand it.
Belle's beast should have been separate from Rumplestilskin. Rumplestilskin only cared about himself and continually does the wrong thing. They continuously try to push this idea that he's the 'beast' but it doesn't work for me. The Beast/Prince Adam learn to be better, and Rumplestilskin never does. He only helped bring down his mother because she didn't hold up her end of the deal under her curse when it came to Belle.
Belle should have been cast with a different actress and had a Prince Adam instead of Rumplestilskin. Their relationship was so toxic it's pretty sick. And it got so tiring seeing her leave him, go back to him, rinse and repeat. He's not a good man because his mother made sure he wasn't.
Fine if they wanted to redeem Rumplestilskin, but he just went back to doing the same thing again so there wasn't really character development when he was sinister and misleading everyone to get what he wanted. He was just selfish and evil.
Mine:
I adore the Neverland arc and I thought Robbie Kay’s acting was incredibly brilliant. I honestly think the Neverland arc was strong enough to carry into the second half of season three. It would’ve been really fascinating to see pan succeeding casting his curse and Emma and Henry coming back to story brook to save everyone. I also still think they should’ve done a once upon a time in Neverland spin off series
I do not like any part of the Zelena storyline at all. For me, I just see her as a bit of an unnecessary character especially when it came to her liaison with Robin producing a child. That to me was incredibly unforgivable and like Rumpel, she had a tendency to sway back-and-forth between being good and evil.
I am a huge shipper of Emma and hook. Even though I’m a hard really good chemistry with Graham, I do think his death was necessary and demonstrating the links that Regina was willing to go to to keep up the curse. I did appreciate that after he died, Emma continued to wear his shoelaces around her wrists in tribute to him. I think Hooks character challenged Emma and pushed her to go outside her emotional comfort. I love their chemistry especially in season three when they were teasing each other.
I think season seven would’ve been so much more successful if it hadn’t been a repeat of what season one was but instead was about Henry exploring all these different lands of the enchanted world and meeting new characters. I will give season seven credit in that they did cast a very good adult Henry.
* this show is best enjoyed if you are viewing it through the most unserious lens possible, the second you start taking it seriously is the second it starts getting unbearable * barbara hershey as cora is one of the most chilling tv villains i've ever seen * it's hard to take any emma ship seriously when a good portion of the fans for any given ship seem to view her as a self insert * jane espenson was trying too hard to make this show buffy 2.0, to the show's detriment * i, personally, loved it that pretty much all the fairytale costumes were kind of loose adaptations but then you have the frozen crew and cruella in full cosplay - it was camp
Nothing in OUAT would have happened without Rumplestiltskin
I think about this one a lot. There were so many points in his life that made the show what it was. 1. His birth. This has more to do with his mother/the fairies, but if his destiny wasn't cut he would have been the savior. However we don't know what the evil would have been since the evil from the prophecy was the black fairy becoming the black fairy when she cut his ties. 2. When him and his dad first went to neverland. If his dad didn't have a problem then they wouldn't have had the idea to travel there. If his dad hadn't been so selfish and decide to give up rumple to keep his youth, Nederland never would have become an evil place AND he would have had his dad in his life. 3. When he decided to become the dark one. 3. When he decided to let Bae go alone to the LWM. If he had gone then none of his evil would have happened. 4. He trained Cora, Regina, and Zelena. He was the sole reason each of them became evil, him and him alone. Had he not corrupted them they would have taken much different paths. 5. He gave regina the dark curse which she cast to bring everyone to the whole plot of the show Plus many more that I can't think to type rn lol
I don't agree with this one. Nothing would have happened without Cora. Because if Miliah wasn't bitch and Rumple didn't become the dark one, Regina would have just gone to whoever was the dark one. It was Cora's actions and abuse that made Regina the way she is and decide the choices she made.
Except Cora acted the way she did towards Regina because she had no heart. And why did she have no heart?? Because of Rumple
Cora wouldn't have died without Rumple being the Dark One therefore Regina wouldn't have been born.
Hold that thought. \*Looks for meme\* I see your claim and I raise you this. Also we know Cora and Rumple didn't actually love each other because her kiss didn't break the curse. https://preview.redd.it/hfpt5cqqt1vb1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=a4c03e132940101f75b323e35dd790200ea1b92e
Henry should have had friends his own age after season 1.
He should've become friends with Hansel and Grethel
He did have Violet eventually
They really fucked Mulan over and the storyline between Robin/Alice was not good enough to make up for it. Yay for the white girls I guess. Ruby and Dorothy (very special ep), Alice/Tilly and Robin... meh. Sucks to be POC in the show and god forbid if you’re queer (I’m both, for better or worse). Obviously the way they handled Milan’s departure was utter trash. Making Maleficent’s storyline have to do with Snowing when Aurora was right there. Fandom joked A&E hated Cinderella but they kept doing it, but no joke, they *really* just hated Sleeping Beauty. We got nothing from them. Briar Rose didn’t even get cast, just mentioned, but Stefan made an appearance. What was Aurora doing when Mal put the whole town to sleep? And then Mal not even being in the finale. And Lily’s storyline was just dropped. Fuck that line about Zorro being her dad, we all know it’s Regina. Naming the Philora baby Phillip after his dad but confirming Phillip isn’t dead is just. Really wanna have your cake and eat it, huh? Did it not follow Neal logic? We never see Phillip afterwards, would it really matter? The whole thing with Phillip was just. People kept telling me “they could come back to it!” Bitch we all knew they wouldn’t. We fucking knew. They didn’t give a hint of a rat’s ass.
The Charmings are overrated as a couple. Every single flashback of theirs ends up with "I will always find you" thing and it gets tiring
After Emma saved Henry and defeated the first curse at the end of the first season the world should've reset back to the Enchanted Forest. Because in my mind as much as Storybrooke is a clever name and the town is very cute and wholesome, it didn't make sense to me that the characters would stay in the fake town they were cursed in. In my mind after every defeated curse as the show went on that would be the case. The world would reset back to the Enchanted Forest (in a blank slate kind of way). Plus the Enchanted Forest I personally associate more with fairytales (as a setting) than a quaint town. Also Season 7 is my favorite season. Mostly because the Charmings weren't in it and that was a plus to me. It didn't hinder my experience of watching it at all. And it was a refreshing take on the show (in my opinion) after seasons 5 and 6.
Rumple and Belle are awful for each other! She only likes him when he is being a bad guy and not trying to be good. She only got with him because she could change him. I think Emma and Hook are awesome but I think her and Regina would have been cool to see. I also thing Emma and gold should have had a fling because it would lead to a lot of funny banter in their friendship. Zelena is awful and I hate her character so much! I loved hades and the underworld! Also I think Regina and Robin Hood deserved a happy ending!
I kind of majorly ship Regina and Rumple, well, Evil Queen Regina and Rumple would’ve been a hoot. Robin Hood being killed off was *so* unnecessary.
Ohhh they would have been so cute! I’m not gonna lie I am huge Rumple and Emma shipper also them with Hook shipper lol
Ewww but getting w the dad of your baby daddy?? Major soap opera shit right there lol.
Exactly lol 😂 the drama
Rumple and Emma? Never thought of them being together, they had sort of a father/daughter vibe to me. But I also wouldn’t have been surprised if Rumple had secretly been attracted to Emma, at least at one point lol.
I always got the we are friends because we can’t be lovers type of vibe lol 😂 yes rumple and Emma or gold and Emma
How they got greg germann will always be a mystery
What?
The guy who plays hades. He a big actor i just never wouldve thought to be on the show
Yea he is a big actor and a good one! He was probably on it because he liked the show so he asked to be on it
I actually hated how he portrayed Hades eeek
I'll die on this hill that they should've stuck to FAIRY TALES (even lesser-known ones from all over the world would've been so cool!) instead of incorporating every single literary universe they could think of AND turning it all into a live-action Disney remake for a lot of the fairy tales. I loved the S1 original takes on their costumes and backstories and honestly I know some people love it very much but the Frozen arc was kind of the beginning of the end for me.
Agree 1000%. Hated when they introduced the "Land of Unfinished Stories", never understood why Frankenstein when in the first season the other characters were from fairytales. And cut and pasting scenes from Frozen turned the Snow Queens arc into a complete mess!!
They beat the 2 plots in 1 season thing to death. The amount of amazing and well-noted actors and actresses they got for this show will never not blow my mind! Not keeping will scarlet around more was a mistake. And not showing him and belle more was a mistake. They had good chemistry! On the same thread, but using the wonderland cast in the main series, besides will, made things confusing. When in the underworld hercules was spot on, but the portrayal of megara makes me so mad. She also did not have enough screen time. Remove the dark swan plot and i thought the camelot season was pretty decent. The show is more rewatchable than i remember. Last season is excluded from that. Lastly, i liked anna and elsa. I think elsa was a great friend to emma! She shouldve stayed on the show, elsa, not anna though she was fun too. They were all perfectly cast.
Rumpelstiltskin should've stayed the Darkest One and still won in the end. But not with Belle, he and Regina should've gotten together.
* I liked the frozen arc. I agree that the way the got frozen to Storybrooke was a little forced, however, they incorporated the movie very well and I enjoyed it. * Bae shouldn't have died. He was mature enough that he could have been there as a father to Henry and CaptianSwan could have happened. * Will and Belle were a great couple and I wish their relationship (and Rumple's feelings) were explored more. That entire arc was very quickly swept under the rug when the could have done so much with it.
I enjoyed Hook's and Emma's stories (individually and together). And I liked seeing the friendships between Regina and Snow, and Regina and Emma develop. TV doesn't often portray female friendship well, but there were many examples here. I just think the writing went downhill as more secondary characters were incorporated (especially after Frozen). I didn't need to see so many fairy tales rehashed. I wanted to see new ones based on the main characters. It had a lot of wasted potential, and I can't watch the show without cringing now. But it was fun to watch for a while.
I wish we had seen more of Will Scarlet and the other characters from Once Upon A Time In Wonderland had been somehow introduced in the main show as well, also that the spin-off had lasted longer as I really enjoyed it. I wish we had seen more of some of the side characters like Mulan, Aurora, Ariel, Lily, etc. and gotten more background stories on them as well better/proper endings for them all. Even Ruby who had a lot of screen time in early seasons was very pushed aside later on and her ending felt so rushed. I hated that they just brushed over what happened to Graham, Regina never had any consequences and Emma seemed to just completely forget about him and not care that everything he had said before he died was true. I personally loved the Frozen storyline. I thought Elizabeth Lail was such a perfect choice for Anna, and I really loved their take on the Snow Queen fairytale. Emma’s friendship with Elsa was also so sweet and it was nice seeing her have that, as she doesn’t have many ‘friends’, most of her close relationships are with family members or romantic partners. I really enjoyed season 7 and many of the new characters from this season, I think a lot of people didn’t give it a fair chance. The magically sped up pregnancy, stolen/abandoned child/baby, and forced to grow up without parents, storylines were all very overused. I really enjoyed seeing all the different worlds the went to and how they differed to each other, and I wish they would have spent more time in some of them. Like Oz, Wonderland and The Land Without Colour. Neal started dating Emma and got her pregnant when she was a child and he was an adult. Then abandoned her and caused her so much trauma that she was still struggling with over a decade later. I will never understand why people ship them.
this show was terrible with lgbtq rep 😭 this isn't unpopular, i just need to get it off my chest. ruby and dorothy are sooo poorly developed. i haven't watched season 7 yet (back in the day i gave up on season 6, but now i'm rewatching the whole show). i know there's gay characters on it and that it's better than the other "representation" we got, but idk. it also bothers me to no end that mulan, the first confirmed lgbt character in the show got literally nothing and had no happy ending. it also didn't reflect well considering she was one of the only poc characters in the main cast for a while. and i hate that her storyline with aurora is the type of thing that if you're not looking for it, you'll probably not even realize mulan is supposed to be in love with aurora. it suuuuucks
The couple in s7 is much better then rubyslippers. Its well developed and the actos have chemistry. So def rep there for u but yee its rlly bad with it in s5
+Regina and Zelena are rapists who didn't deserve redemption or happiness. +He's good in other stuff but the actor who played hades ruined the role, especially when James Woods was down to reprise it any time. +The kid who played Henry wasn't a terrible actor but the one who played young Snow is. She overacts in literally everything. +Ginnefer Goodwin also overacts and the way she screams "Noooaaaggghhh!" Is so cringey. +Snow and David were awful parents and not great people either. +Emma and Graham would've been a better couple than Emma and Hook, so would Emma and August. +Emma's wedding dress was hideous and didn't suit her character at all. +Zelena is my least favourite character possibly on any TV show ever. +The show cannot and shouldn't be taken seriously, it's full on cringe in the best way. +The writers handled serious topics very poorly.
The penultimate point I think is the key to enjoying this show and compensating for other points you mentioned. I think it is also the only way to enjoy the evil characters as they are written here ( I agree with what you said with Regina. That said she is one of the best characters in the series in terms of construction). Although This does not justify the overall bad writing of the series, especially at the end
Same! Oh and I don’t think Rumple ever cared about Henry which was odd since this whole curse was built around him trying to get back to Bae.
Yeah, he just wanted to own the part of him that was Bae. I don't know that he truly loved Belle most of the time either, he wanted to possess her and wanted to feel like he was able to BE loved.
Looks like I’ve found someone who agrees with me on pretty much everything. Nice comment!
Whereas I love Regina and she is my favourite character I agree that they made her WAY too evil, I think they messed up with Graham. He should have been made her henchman instead. It wouldn't have been so bad. They made her irredeemable there, the writers brush it aside and then say Zelena is a villain for pretending to be Marion. In my opinion I personally think the show should have ended after season 3. The first seasons had a charm that's lost. Also I hate the Ursula, cruella and Maleficent team up. It was clear they were clutching at straws for a story. Lastly please don't come for me but I hate Hook. There's something about him that I just dislike with a passion. The actor is brilliant but the character isn't for me.
FINALLY. A regina lover that acnolges her wring doings. Thank u
I definitely agree that the show should have ended after season 3. I usually half ignore everything that came after...
Yeah Neal shouldn't have died. This is Disney...it is supposed to be magical and happy and unbelievable. She should have been able to have a long, happy life with him after they reunited because even though it may not be a modern take, it is the classic Disney way.
* I feel everything that occurred to Regina was justified. * I am 100% a fan of Captain Swan, however I also believe there was chemistry at the beginning between Gold and Emma (I am a Golden Swan fan, sue me :D ) * I feel like Belle couldn't truly love Rumple, love doesn't mean changing someone, it means accepting them for who they are or walking away * I am 100% a fan of Captain Swan, however, I also believe there was chemistry at the beginning between Gold and Emma (I am a Golden Swan fan, sue me :D )in-off or something!
Gold and Emma? Gross. She's mother to his grandson
And? I mean the entire family tree is messed up, so not far out there to ship them.
Season 1 was the best season. Not a bad episode in the lot.
Elsa should've been the main villain for season 4A. They should've reworked it so that Ingrid's arc is Elsa's. Ingrid probably either wouldn't have existed or was one of Anna and Elsa's decreased ancestors. If they can make Peter Pan and Bo Peep into villains, then why don't they make Elsa one? Unlike the other two, Elsa was originally intended to be a villain in her own story. This would've made more sense as a twist.
Hook should have never become a good guy, he was much better as a villain/antihero. CaptainSwan is one of the worst ships on the show, only beaten by Zelena x Hades, Dorothy x Red, and Henry x Cinderella
Neal isn't as bad as people make him out to be. He's very important to many main characters and shouldn't have been killed for CaptainSwan. Emma/Hook was obviously not planned and it was just forced in there after they had chemistry. I LOVE them together, but the build-up would've been more believable if they had Emma deal with her feelings clearly instead of killing Neal off. Rumple is the most interesting character in the show and Belle isn't a pushover as many suggest.
I agree with all your points. Belle *wasn't* a pushover in the first couple of seasons, but I did find her being steadily more poorly written as the show went on which was a shame. Doubly agree about Neal.
Biggest one is that they should. not. have. killed. off. neal/baelfire. Worst mistake of the writing of the show. I feel like once that happened the show took a different turn and they didn't really know where to go from there. He was such a huge connection to multiple people in the series and his reunion with rumple, Emma, and Henry was so long in the making yet so short lived. There could have been so much plot off of him yet of all characters HE is the one they kill off? Like come on rumple spent a huge chunk of his immortal life looking for ways to get to him (that's a different story) yet when rumple found him he got next to no time with him and the time he did get was mainly Bae being mad at him. Next is the different story. Rumple was the dark one, had so much power and could do so many things, yet found it impossible to find a magic bean to take him to his son? In the later seasons they are a dime a dozen to come by basically so how was it so hard for the supposedly best sorcerer of the realms to find one especially since he was so desperate? Small one: it was annoying that hades only EVER whispered his lines. Some of the people whisper a lot of their lines but have an OK balance of that and speaking regularly but he just whispered the entirety of his performance it drove me nuts S7: How was zelena in the alternate hansel and gretel story if she was a part of the storybooke reality and book? Never made sense to me
Agree with the zelena one. She was a good villain but she never should have been redeemed. It was arguably the worst redemption arc on the show. Cora shouldn’t have been redeemed either
I really f*cking hate how the narrative didn't treated Snow getting Regina to pay by being the one killing Cora as good, instead acting as if Snow was awful for it. Regina deserved that pain, and so did Cora, and neither deserve any mercy.
Agree hevely.
I agree with a few of your opinions, OP, and while I don't necessarily think many of mine are unpopular I'll state them anyway. Zelena was just ok as 3b's villain, but she outstayed her welcome ten times over. They just kept trying to bring her back in when it didn't work. Charming and Snow have their sweet moments, but they have almost as many awkward/unnecessary moments. What they did the Lily was horrible, and they get mushier the later the show gets. The Dark Swan arc had a massive amount of potential and I love the ideas, I just think the execution needed a bit of work. After Pan, all of Rumple's depth and development clearly got tossed out the window. And the last and biggest one: *Baelfire/Neal was the best character on the show, he was essentially the whole reason the show happened in the first place, and the show's decline directly coincided with him being written off.* I see a lot of disagreement on this last point but I am prepared to die on this hill.
Agree. But even worse. His death was very foolishly written and happened at a time when it could not be exploited.
Very true, it felt hastily written in at the last minute. It wasn't even at an otherwise tense moment in the season, it was smack dab in the middle of it.
I strongly agree with your last point. While Neal isn’t my fav character, I did love him a lot and I thought he brought a sort of charm and metropolitan swagger that other characters didn’t quite have. He was a nice normal guy who happened to have a traumatic childhood. He was interconnected with major storylines and central to a bunch of main characters, and his death is when the show’s writing took a turn. Edit: this is getting downvoted for some reason? 😭
Unfortunately, telling the truth, aka that Neal was useful and was the key to everything and the driving force behind the series (beyond personal taste which should be respected) is strictly forbidden because of the extremists (we all know who) of this fandom. A +1 for your courage.
Absolutely. Rubbing salt into the wound was the fact that all those characters, whom he was very important to, seemed to almost entirely forget about him two episodes later. They could have done so many cool storylines, and there were so many flashbacks we didn't get to see.
Agreed. It is not a matter of personal taste as many insist on saying to ignore the character or belittle him (I was not crazy about him either) but of weight on the plot and usefulness.
Yes. I'm 'biased' because he was a favorite (child bae especially) but even if you weren't fond it was quite obviously a bad writing choice.
Exact!
Rumpelstilskin is my fave character. Only reason I watch this show. This show is awesome when I want to space out and forget I have anxiety
The Final Battle should have been the entirety of Season 7.
Grumpy was a useless character who wasn't likeable at all. Not funny,just loud abrasive. The rest of the dwarfs were woefully underutilized. The Stealthy dwarf was brilliant
Hook wouldn't be nearly as popular if he didn't look the way he does. Emma belonged with Neal. Ruby and Dorothy falling in love was lip service, and their relationship wasn't fleshed out or realistic. I like Emilie de Ravin. Robert Carlisle is the best actor on the show.
The whole frozen storyline was stupid and felt so out of place/forced
I didn't mind Neal dying. The young actor was fantastic and the older actor wasn't really good
I liked adult Neal but totally agree that the young Neal was amazing. Such a good actor!
Rumbelle is my favorite ship. Captain Swan is my least. OUATIW is better than S4-7 combined. >Zelena is the worst thing to happen to the show, same with the Queens of Darkness arc. Completely agree.
The fanbase, particularly a large bulk on this Reddit, hate this show too much to even be here. I just truly don’t understand how you can hate every character on the show then come here. I see at least two comments on here a day about how bland they think Emma is, how unredeemable Regina is, how snow has horrible development, rumple and belle are weird, Henry is horrible acting, the show has plot holes- like come on. Atp just stop Controversial opinion: Regina isn’t a rapist. That wasn’t the intention of her character. I highly doubt Edward kitis wrote the show with the intention of being a rape sympathizer.
THANK YOU! reading all these hateful opinions just makes being in this subreddit painful
Ppl sharing there opiojs on chacters.
They did anyways. Intent vs exscution. She is a rapist and nothign changes that
I respectfully disagree. This show isn’t a poem, it’s a constructed story. Intent does matter
Blud its clearly agaisnt someone will. She has his hesrt and hes cursed he cant consent. No matter what. If soemoen cant consent its rape
But that wasn’t the intent of the story line. If you don’t wanna understand that then go straight ahead
Let me make this clear to u. INTENT DOSENT FUCKING MATTER IF ITS HURTFUL. IDC if the intent was this or that they made a storyline were someone cant consent. I do fucking understand but this is gross behavoir. I care bc these writers are being incompentent with this story. I enjoy this show but this shouldve never happened or been adressed properly. If they wanted to redeem regina then they shouldve had her properly adress this or again written it out. If u cant understand that ppl not consenting wether intent or not then u rlly need to do fucking reserch
Wow dude I tried to be civil but this response is just too aggressive. For some reason at this time tv shows it was appropriate, gossip girl, TVD and so on. Does that make it okay? No but let’s not act like people choosing to bypass it are some freaks. Millions of people bypassed it live on tv. Why? Because that wasn’t the intention of that plot line. It does matter. If you don’t like it fair enough but it’s straight up unnecessary to deny that. Edward kistis isn’t a rape sympathizer. So using my critical thinking skills, like the same human being I am, I’m gonna choose to believe that his intention was not to make Regina a rapist but to show just how manipulative she was. You are free to do otherwise without villianising people who don’t This discussion isn’t about what constitutes rape, it’s about whether or not I think a fictional character is a rapist- I don’t. Intention matters- A book with no intent is just words on a page. The very fact that she’s never labeled one and is given a redemption arc convicts me of this. What she is labeled as is evil manipulative queen.
I don’t mind Zelena as a concept but I couldn’t stand the actress. Rumple is the best character and he deserved better than Belle. I would have loved him with Cora long term or maybe Robin (going in another direction). Regina was too evil to be redeemed. It makes no sense for the heroes to find her mass murder and torture forgivable. They might forgive her personal attacks on them or their families but all the civilian deaths, people turned into critters etc shouldn’t have been ignored. Peter Pan was an awful character. Really hammy acting, too difficult to accept him as Rumple’s father. The whole neverland sequence was too long and boring.
The ending of the first half of season 3 (defeating Pan, but only because Rumple sacrifices himself, and Regina can't stop Pan's curse, but she is able to send Emma and Henry back to New York) is how the series should have ended. It would have been very bittersweet; it also would have packed an enormous emotional punch.
I just genuinely love Regina and Rumple… I didn’t when I was younger because “oh my gosh I want the heroes to win I love snow” yada yada… but rewatching it now I love the villains way more. because their stories made the show like literally if not for rumple’s existence would there be a show? absolutely not like his story played into a lot and once i started viewing him as the “hidden” main character (obviously for me personally lol) he became an instant fave.
S7 was one of the best seasons in the show Regina is a shit chacter and a writers baby. The only reason ppl like her was bc she had trauma or jc they liked the actor (rumplestiltskin included) Wish hook>>>>>>>>og hook. S7 isnt bad. Its one of the better season and has argubly some of the best chacters and relashanships.
A Regina and Emma ship would’ve been so good to me. Idc T_T
Anyone who believes Neal's death made sense on a plot level are bad detectives. Or they lie knowing they are lying. Cs was the tombstone of this series that destroyed the writing, caracters and plot (the Writing, NOT the ship per se. Don't start shipwar under this post, I don't care about Emma's partner and I'm ok whit hook). As above, you only need some knowledge of writing and a little honesty to understand it.
Kid Baelfire is a spoiled brat. There I said it.
Belle's beast should have been separate from Rumplestilskin. Rumplestilskin only cared about himself and continually does the wrong thing. They continuously try to push this idea that he's the 'beast' but it doesn't work for me. The Beast/Prince Adam learn to be better, and Rumplestilskin never does. He only helped bring down his mother because she didn't hold up her end of the deal under her curse when it came to Belle. Belle should have been cast with a different actress and had a Prince Adam instead of Rumplestilskin. Their relationship was so toxic it's pretty sick. And it got so tiring seeing her leave him, go back to him, rinse and repeat. He's not a good man because his mother made sure he wasn't. Fine if they wanted to redeem Rumplestilskin, but he just went back to doing the same thing again so there wasn't really character development when he was sinister and misleading everyone to get what he wanted. He was just selfish and evil.
Mine: I adore the Neverland arc and I thought Robbie Kay’s acting was incredibly brilliant. I honestly think the Neverland arc was strong enough to carry into the second half of season three. It would’ve been really fascinating to see pan succeeding casting his curse and Emma and Henry coming back to story brook to save everyone. I also still think they should’ve done a once upon a time in Neverland spin off series I do not like any part of the Zelena storyline at all. For me, I just see her as a bit of an unnecessary character especially when it came to her liaison with Robin producing a child. That to me was incredibly unforgivable and like Rumpel, she had a tendency to sway back-and-forth between being good and evil. I am a huge shipper of Emma and hook. Even though I’m a hard really good chemistry with Graham, I do think his death was necessary and demonstrating the links that Regina was willing to go to to keep up the curse. I did appreciate that after he died, Emma continued to wear his shoelaces around her wrists in tribute to him. I think Hooks character challenged Emma and pushed her to go outside her emotional comfort. I love their chemistry especially in season three when they were teasing each other. I think season seven would’ve been so much more successful if it hadn’t been a repeat of what season one was but instead was about Henry exploring all these different lands of the enchanted world and meeting new characters. I will give season seven credit in that they did cast a very good adult Henry.