Really, really sad to see Ruby/Red being downgraded since she and Granny are by far my favorite characters. I reckon there was a ton of potential for the character, both in terms of her personal development and relationships but also as a part of the overall plot.
There are so many places where they could have used her in season 2, eg when defending rumple from Cora and Regina. Logically, it never made any sense to me at all that they didnt ask one of only two people in the whole town who actually might be a match for them power wise to assist (the other being the blue fairy) to assist. Even out of wolf form shes stronger, much faster and has sharper senses than the others.
Plus, if it was rumple or zoso who designed the wolf curse, who knew what else they put in there, or for that matter why he did it in the first place since Rumple usually has some scheme in play. Maybe he wanted his own private army.
It would have been a great to chance to show that team charming isn’t by default helpless without the help of rumple/regina/blue.
In terms of FTL flashbacks, theres still a ton of potential there, like forgiving Granny for lying to her about the wolf and her mom, the inevitable dad reveal, how she and Snow got safety/asylum (when she was bringing Snow food in the woods they weren’t on the run anymore), but they were clearly seperated by the time Snow met Charming (where was she? captured, lost, in another land etcetera??)
Not to mention how Granny got the cloak, where the wolf curse came from, Rumples connection to Granny (alluded to several times this season) what happened to the other werewolves (the ones who got away in Children of the moon), her part in the war with Regina and KG and how Red knew Rumple in FTL.
As for SB plots, what about her relationship with Whale, moving past her guilt, maybe helping belle find herself again and in general being the major plot and character asset that she was. Even things like investigating the nature of “both” (like the clash between Reds rather innocent outlook and conservative dress sense vs Ruby’s flirtyness and skimpy clothing), and the nature of true love (could she find another true love after Peter? that kind of thing).
Its a moot point, but it would have been cool if she’d stayed for Season 3 and they did a lost-esque time difference with Neverland. They rescue Henry for the first nine to ten episodes, and come back to find time has moved faster, with Red and/or Belle having been defacto leaders for a couple of years and the Home Office trying to get in (they knew what the diamond was, knew how to kill magical beings and get help from a magical being, so I doubt a cloaking spell will hold them back for too long). That would have give a ton of plot opportunites and it would have the Neal/Emma statutory rape thing slightly less disgusting.
Instead of evenly developing the plot and characters, season 2 was loaded up with a lot of wasted time. Really, how much Regina and Snow backstory do we really need in one season? We get it already.
Don’t get me wrong, Its still my favourite show and cant wait for season 3. I just cant help but feel they took a lot of mis-steps this season and they’re only making them worse (although I probably only feel that way because I hated the original peter pan and neverland stories. literally couldnt stomach them).
Huge congrats to Meghan though, and Intelligence looks great. I just hope she can find the time for some appearances on Once, and maybe one Ruby/Red centric episode a year.
I do think it was a bit shabby of E and A to promote her and then chop her scenes though. That she had to ask them if everything was alright after a few weeks is bad, surely if they knew plots were being changed they could have told her earlier and saved her some time?
Anyway. Sorry for the long post, I’ll just really miss her and the other disappearing characters like Blue, Katherine, Sidney and apparently Whale.