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Its yet another end to a half Season of OUAT, and you know what that means? We get to review 5A as a whole! Go on and contribute to this discussion, as we wait for 5B to premiere on March 6th! P.S. Borrowed the structure from your previous “In Review” threads, RG.
1) What was your favorite episode of 5A?
2) What was your least favorite episode of 5A?
3) Overall thoughts on the Dark Swan/Camelot arc?
4) Who was your favorite new character?
5) What was your favorite moment?
6) What was your favorite plot twist?
7) What was your least favorite plot twist?
8) Overall grade for 5A and final thoughts?
[adrotate group="5"]1) What was your favorite episode of 5A?
Eh. Probably “Dreamcatcher” or “Nimue.”
2) What was your least favorite episode of 5A?
Bear King but only because it felt so tacked on. I honestly can’t decide my least favorite episode. They were all pretty unmemorable for me this season.
3) Overall thoughts on the Dark Swan/Camelot arc?
Horribly executed, not what I wanted or expected. Go back to the drawing board, do It again.
4) Who was your favorite new character?
Close call between Merlin and Nimue.
5) What was your favorite moment?
Nimue and the dark ones watching as Emma reforges Excalibur. That was really creepy and magical. Ooooh, also the brave witch’s scenes. Loved her.
6) What was your favorite plot twist?
Everyone walking into Camelot, only to arrive back in SB 6 weeks later with Evil Emma hamming it up. It was very captivating. Even though we all suspected it.
7) What was your least favorite plot twist?
Rumpel being deceptive. AGAIN! Sheesh! Can this man EVER change?
8) Overall grade for S5A and final thoughts?
C. Frozen arc was my least favorite arc…and I think I enjoyed this arc even less than that one. It was just… bad. Hook as the dark one is fine but there were too many problems with it. And yeah, I’m no CS shipper and this season made me even less of one because of how badly (as I perceived it) these two people are together, so having to watch this arc go from “Emma is the dark one and causing havoc” to “Emma and Killian love story, bro!” was really an eyeroll for me. I could have standed it if it were interesting. It wasn’t. Seriously. Evil Emma would have been a far better story. But this was just another ship sailing thing. What else did I hate? Merlin died. Camelot arc was a waste of my time. I have so many unanswered questions from LAST season that I was hoping to get answers to (WHO THE HECK IS LILY’S FATHER?!?!?!?!!) And I honestly can’t even.
This season was bad. Will possibly not rewatch.
"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGICI am also bothered by the fact that Hook left a young brother without a father and OUAT will possibly never reveal to us what happened to the young lad.
"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGIC1) What was your favorite episode of 5A? – “Dreamcatcher.” Out of all the episodes, I enjoyed this episode the most and had the least issues with it. It started out great with that flashback of Nimue turning Merlin into a tree, and finally meeting Merlin was rather nice. The Henry and Violet stuff was actually very cute, and it was heartbreaking to see what Emma did to them just to get Henry’s tear. This episode planted the seeds of what could have been Emma truly gradually transitioning into the Dark Swan, but sadly that wasn’t what we got. The main reason I liked this episode is that it felt the most organic and heartfelt out of the bunch.
2) What was your least favorite episode of 5A? – “The Bear King.” This episode is the definition of filler, and added nothing to the overall plot of this half of the Season. We had Zelena and Arthur off to find King Fergus’ enchanted helm, only for them to fail and return to Camelot completely empty handed. Aside from Snow appearing in a brief flashback, Zelena was the only series regular to star in this episode at all, which also hurt the episode. We find out that Arthur killed King Fergus, and that Merida wants revenge. But guess what? Her scene bringing back a captured Arthur through a portal back to Camelot ended up being cut from “Swan Song”, making this episode even more pointless. Mulan and Ruby are just there, and were apparently supposed to setup an LGBT relationship. However, the episode itself continued to act vaguely about Mulan’s sexuality. They still didn’t outright confirm that it was Aurora that Mulan had feelings for. They explained why Ruby has been absent since the end of Season 3, but I found it odd that it was due to Ruby feeling like she was an outcast back in Storybrooke.
3) Overall thoughts on the Dark Swan/Camelot arc? – It started out with a lot of promise, but it definitely fell apart around “The Bear and the Bow.” It really felt like they changed their original plans for this arc halfway through. What happened to King Arthur’s plan to turn Storybrooke into the New Camelot? Why did Merlin say that finding Nimue would be able to help them defeat the Dark One? Why wasn’t there like any foreshadowing for Hook becoming a Dark One? Did the writers get cold feet making Dark Swan go too dark, out of fear that it would be too out of character, so they changed things up?
Arthur became too pathetic of a villain, and I disliked the way they handled his backstory. Lancelot was wasted and contributed very little to the plot. Merida and the other Brave stuff was completely pointless and felt so disconnected from the Camelot stuff. As much as people complained about the Frozen characters last year, at least they were much more connected to the arc and I found them much more enjoyable to watch. With Brave, it just all felt empty to me, and it doesn’t help that I found the original movie to be rather meh to begin with.
I enjoyed some aspects of Dark Hook. It was cool to see Hook as a villain again, and Colin was totally having fun with the part. His sword fight with Rumple was great entertainment in itself. However, I felt that Hook went dark way too quickly, and that they went too far with his dark side. Plenty of CSers and Non CSers have been critical about the Dark Hook plotline. It’s confusing, because haven’t the writers been catering to CSers since Season 3? Why do all this damage to that relationship, when they knew Dark Hook wasn’t going to last and Emma was going to journey to the Underworld to get him back anyway? They should have either had Hook go evil with a bang, or not have him go evil again at all.
Did they really have to make Rumple the Dark One AGAIN? I thought the whole point of his character arc this Season was to transition from a coward hiding behind magic to a brave hero learning to live as a mortal man. Wasn’t the entire point of 5A to destroy the Dark One once and for all, or so it seemed like that was the intended direction? Rumple becoming the Dark One again just resets so much, and brings him right back to where we left him at the end of Season 4. I am tired of these villains flip flopping. I was sick of when back when Regina was still going back and forth, and I’m at my limit with Rumple. Rumple has to have the record number of times for any character to flip flop. Make up your mind, writers!
As I mentioned above, they completely cut Merida, Arthur, and Guinevere from the finale. We know they filmed a scene with Merida taking a captured Arthur back to Camelot through a portal. Their scene in question was supposed to tie up those loose ends. Thanks to cutting that scene, we’re left under the impression that Arthur remains locked up at the sheriff’s station, and that Merida is still in Storybrooke away from her family back at DunBroch. I’m not even a fan of those characters, but cmon’ that stuff needs to be resolved. They were still heavily featured recurring characters of this storyarc. That would be like if they had cut Anna and Elsa returning to Arendelle in “Heroes and Villains.”
4) Who was your favorite new character? – Merlin by far. Elliot Knight did a great job bringing in an entirely new and original take on the character. It’s a huge shame that they had to kill him off.
5) What was your favorite moment? – My favorite moment was when Emma first reveals herself as the Dark Swan at the end of the premiere. She gave such a chilling entrance, and Jennifer Morrison did a splendid job. It was a great look at the potential this storyarc could have been, though sadly failed to deliver.
6) What was your favorite plot twist? – The reveal that the Dark One dagger was a missing piece of Excalibur. It just made a lot of sense, and felt very organic to the show’s mythology. We always knew that the dagger was a very powerful weapon, and that Merlin had fashioned it. We also knew that Merlin fashioned Excalibur, thanks to what Charming mentioned in “Lost Girl.” It totally adds up that the two weapons were connected.
7) What was your least favorite plot twist? – Rumple becoming the Dark One again. See my rant above for the details.
8) Overall grade for 5A and final thoughts? – I would honestly have to give it a C+. I did start out really enjoying this Season and there was a ton of potential, but so much of the faults ruined this storyarc for me.
1. To be honest…I don’t know if I have a favorite out of this half, but if I had to pick one that was the most bearable and entertaining….I’d say 5×02 The Price.
2. The Bear King (Just….this episode…all over the place and complete filler with no real direction of the core story at hand.)
3. Not very well thought out….I don’t think Adam and Eddy and the rest of the writing crew had a clear idea of where to take this half of the story, beginning part you’d imagine the CharMillsStilskins sacrificing Hook to Hades the way Emma was all “You all failed and must now suffer” but then we learned the real reason was because they were willing to allow Hook die the death he wished, rather than signing themselves up for imminent doom. And Camelot wasn’t as…exciting as it was hyped up to be.
4. Merlin was perfect…I really enjoyed his character!
5. The Ball Scene in episode 2 was my favorite moment….the few seconds of peace we had on the show before it all went to Hell.
6. Ummm…I don’t know really….maybe my favorite plot twist is the fact that Baby Hood isn’t green.
7. Merlin dying was my absolute least favorite plot twist…I’m still flipping tables over this.
8. Overall Grade: 7.0/10 C-
This Half was…..it was just…hmmm….it wasn’t what we all probably anticipated, is the best I can put into words. But it wasn’t simply God-awful either. It could have been a bit better…I’d much better have seen Emma conquer her own darkness and end the Dark One Lineage for good rather than seeing all it, plus her power, transfer back to Gold, thus ruining his little character development. And don’t even get me started on Baby Hood Situation. The hype of Dark Swan was overhyped for what we received in the end…literally the worst thing Emma did was have someone break Henry’s heart, which is very terrible, but I expected Emma to have raised a little more Hell and kill a few people like the Comic Con Promo teased, but as I said…the writers were more than likely confused as to which way Dark Swan should go. But it is what is….let’s enjoy this two month break we have before we dive into 5B, Underworld which I’m crossing my fingers is far better than this half.
Bonus Question:
9. What was your number one favorite quote from this season half?
Swan Song
Zelena: You will see me again!
Regina: Somewhere over the rainbow! Enjoy Oz, Witch!
"If you go as far as you can see...you will then see enough to go even further." - Finn Balor
1. Dreamcatcher.
2. Swan Song.
3. The worst arc on the show, poorly executed and seems rewritten.
4. Nimue.
5. Emma – Nimue conflict in 507.
6. End scene of 501.
7. Hook is a second dark one – didn’t make any sense and took the focus from Emma.
8. 2 – It’s just pointless."All your questions are pointless"
P.S. Borrowed the structure from your previous “In Review” threads, RG.
I see that…. lol.
1) What was your favorite episode of 5A?
1) My favorite episode was “The Dark Swan” (501). The season opener had a lot of promise; it really focused on Emma and her heroes journey (something I’m such a sucker for). I loved her interaction with DO Clippy Rumple. The Camelot gang wasn’t fleshed out but what I saw, I liked. While the romance was still present, it was not predominate, which I appreciate. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it was a return to form, but it was as close as the show can get now in S5. It had a strong idea about how dark and light interact and work apart and together that I thought was intriguing.
Runner up: Dreamcatcher (505) Family focused, Neal references, Henry centric, with some surprising twists.
2) What was your least favorite episode of 5A?
2) My least favorite episode was “The Broken Kingdom” (504). Three words: Magical. Rape. Sand. This episode was offensively bad. Not only was the Magical Mcguffin truly horrible but the writers took Arthurian legend and watered it down to be insipid and dull. Lancelot and Guinevere were in love for “reasons” but their love never felt natural or real. Merely something that the writers threw in because they knew they had to. While Arthur was shady all along, the level of villainy he displayed in forcing Guinevere to stay and alter his entire kingdom was ludicrous. Also, shocking! He was poor and an orphan before going evil! Meanwhile, the plot in SB came to an utter halt and everyone stood around talking about the plot instead of doing anything. Really, a very poor episode.
Runner up: Swan Song (5×11) I really have nothing good to say about this one. At all. I rank it as about offensively bad as “The Broken Kingdom” but I do give it some credit for Colin’s great acting, Zelena’s off-kilter vile humor, and some nice moments between Emma and Snow.
3) Overall thoughts on the Dark Swan/Camelot arc?
3) I think Jennifer Morrison did a mostly good job. She has a tendency to get nasally and talk out of her nose which makes her sound mumble-y but there were times when she was quite powerful (most of these times were with Regina, funny enough). I thought the character herself was underwhelming in the end. They could have really pushed the Dark Swan and her villainy but they chose to ultimately make her “mostly good if doing problematic things.” She took a kids heart and manipulated her own son and threatened to kill another villain but all in the guise of ending the Darkness and she never felt truly malevolent. She spent way too much time in her Secret!Basement staring at a sword. And in Camelot, when she was not kissing Hook, she was moping around and laying down because of how overwhelming it all was.
Camelot was a total waste. The characters didn’t matter, the CGI was painful, the plot was even more painful.
4) Who was your favorite new character?
I guess Merlin? Apart from Merlin, the Camelot gang was either totally forgettable (Guinevere), easily dismissed (Lancelot) or horribly repugnant and villainous (Arthur). What the writers did to King Arthur is almost insulting. Merlin is really the standout Camelot character but like so much in OUAT, the story they neglected to tell is more interesting than the story we got. I really want to know more about Merlin pre-Magical Cup. Why was he running and from whom? What was his early life like? The writers really underestimate the amount of interest the audience has in the world they’ve created. Instead they keep giving us more and more watered characters instead of fleshing out the backstory and back-world. I’m not asking for a history book of the Enchanted Forest since the dawn of time, but they build these interesting tidbits and then neglect to do anything with it.
As an aside, I have some issues with Merida. Merida, Merida, Merida. Totally didn’t need her insertion this arc. I feel like the writers came up with Merida on a whim when they realized they wanted to make Rumple “brave.” So naturally bring in the girl who’s movie is called Brave. She didn’t fit, didn’t add anything, and was totally forgettable in the end. Well, for me at least. Also, if I never hear those bagpipes ever again…..
5) What was your favorite moment?
Ummmmmmm. I guess Emma and DO! Clippy Rumple? Maybe some of Zelena’s snark?
6) What was your favorite plot twist?
The Dagger and Excalibur being one and the same. That was a reveal that actually had me gasp out loud. That was a *great* season one worthy twist. It was also totally applicable to the thesis of the show that light and dark are two sides of the same coin. Wish that thesis had remained for the rest of the season, but the reveal itself was great.
7) What was your least favorite plot twist?
It was going to be Dark One Hook, but the worst plot twist has to be Rumple as the Dark One again. Not only does it not make sense from a mechanics perspective, but from a character perspective it’s disrespectful and just down right tedious and sloppy. There is no motivation this time around except that the writers want to make Rumple the most evil so that he can be contrasted to other characters (Hook, mostly, and also Regina). It’s just…so disappointing.
Runner up least favorite plot twist: The Holy Grail is in the EF. *twitch* *twitch* and Dark One Hook for casually throwing all the mythology out the window and hoping I wouldn’t notice.
8) Overall grade for 5A and final thoughts?
s5A had potential and I was prepared to see it out and accept it had it stuck to its original intent to be Emma focused and all about her hero journey. Sadly, this did not happen. It turned on its head about 7 episodes in and became all about Hook. Sure, he’s a character and a leading one but so much of this season and arc was supposed to be focused on Emma’s self actualization. This is to say nothing of all the horrible Magical McGuffins, the continued disregard for the LGBT community, the ongoing racial and class problems, MORE rape and wonky consent story telling, clunky dialogue in which the character stood around rationalizing and explaining the plot, horrible timing in which the story either slowed down to a crawl or sped up so fast as to be confusing, and the disregard for previous established mythology. It was sloppy and ill conceived. It feels very much like the writers got bored halfway through and began planning for 5B instead of focusing on 5A. Also, I have never denied that romance is an important part of OUAT (and fairy tales in general) but there is a point when you need to put the brakes on all the romance! And s5A really needed to learn that. Emma had next to no important or significant conversation with her parents but heaven forbid she be separated from Hook (or Regina) for more than an episode. Remember when this show was actually about the power of familial love?
Final Grade: C- / D+
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Oy! Humans of the forums: how about some more responses here plz.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Oy! Humans of the forums: how about some more responses here plz.</p>
<p style=”text-align: left;”>
Your wish is my command, lol. I don’t have much explanation though because everyone else has said what I’m feelin.
1) The Dark Swan. Loved seeing DO Rumple as Emma’s voice in her head.
2) Bear King. Why was this a thing we needed to see?
3) The farther it went along, the less I liked it. I watched one of the episodes with my dad, who is a big English Lit guy, and when he saw how the show treated Arthur’s character, he said That’s an embarrasing interpretation of a great story.
4) Merlin. He had a very calming manner.
5) Hmm…I quite liked Charming teaching Regina to dance
6) The dagger being a part of Excaliber…so cool
7) Rumple being evil all along…so remind me the reason for purifying his heart again? And was him sacrificing himself for his family in season 3A part of a bigger plan? I was really touched when he called Emma brave in the finale, but then they had to ruin it.
8) C- One of my friends who is behind on the show asked if it was worth watching again, and I told her sure, if plot doesn’t matter to you. Oh! And in the finale, they must have said ‘the kind of man you/I want to be’ twenty times. So. Much. Repetition.
I really miss seasons 1 and 21) What was your favorite episode of 5A?
The one with Regina and everyone else at the ball in Camelot.
2) What was your least favorite episode of 5A?
The rest due to plot holes and inconsistencies.
3) Overall thoughts on the Dark Swan/Camelot arc
Disappointing. I wanted Emma to be dark…but I suppose it wouldn’t make sense for her to be dark given that she was previously the weilder of the strongest light magic. Much, much more could have been made out of Camelot, though. There was no need for Merida.
4) Who was your favorite new character?
Even though there was no need for her, my favourite new character was Merida because the actress was so good. I just would have liked to have seen her at a different point in Once, if at all.
I would have put ”Merlin” seeing as he is one of my favourite mythological characters, but although the actor was fun to watch, I don’t think he and the character had enough omnipotency and omnipresence to make me believe that I was watching Merlin.
5) What was your favorite moment?
Regina dancing at the ball.
6) What was your favorite plot twist?
TBH, I can’t think of one. Most of the plot twists were based off of inconsistencies.
Perhaps Emma and Regina using Henry’s tears for the spell to release Merlin, but I saw this coming a mile off, and Henry didn’t know Violet long enough to make this believable.
7) What was your least favorite plot twist?
All the rest. Special credits go to
-Dark Hook, due to lack of DO symptoms prior to him knowing he was a DO.
-Dark magic coming out of Merlin.
-Rumple being the DO again…which is fine but it is for reasons that make no sense. It is true that he was addicted to power and magic while he was the DO, but he had all the darkness sucked out of him and was left with a pure heart, thus there should have been no temptation to become the DO again. There should have been no motivation.
8) Overall grade for 5A and final thoughts?
C-
I wonder whether Adam and Eddy bother to read this fansite, Lily Spark’s blog and all the other most popular fan pages? Since 2B, Once has been getting steadily worse and worse so I can only assume not.
I’d much better have seen Emma conquer her own darkness and end the Dark One Lineage for good rather than seeing all it, plus her power, transfer back to Gold, thus ruining his little character development.Quote
Yes! No sucking the darkness out! Just Emma and her struggle, and her light magic overcoming the darkness would have been enough! Don’t they trust their actors to act?
Keeper of Regina's bravery
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