Reply To: Oncers who don't ship……….

[kfchimera]

Golden key hit the nail on the head.  The mysteries to tease out no longer seem  important, because the answers are generally “it was magic” or ” it does not matter, because the characters involved will never appear again”   So Phillip and the wraith? Who cares.  There are many more things like that.  Then character moments that wind up offscreen, like Belle and Mo.  So what does take up time? Ships, and new characters iconic enough to lure us in to see the display live action but I know no real depth will follow.   We glimpse Dorothy and Rapunzel, the Wizard but unlike S1 side characters who are part of the town, partially scenery, partial recurring players, these are all meant to vanish.  I doubt we will see Ariel or Eric, Tiny or others again, and if we did it will not connect at all to their earlier stories in a consistent way, but just not inconsistent like Cora apparently almost marrying Leo.    That we see Archie also seems meaningless, or Grumpy as they never get stories to change them ( outside of a DVD extra maybe).    Henry is a side character or object now, no longer feels like the heart of the show.    It feels very check the box of fan demands to me.   Like that Mirror VoiceOver cameo,  hardly the follow up to Glass and his storyline, or a quick moment with Red.    It does not feel like a tapestry any more, with the old lady Spinsters being some significant detail that plays  out later.  It was just a random thing, like Pan being a blacksmith.  Details that will not be important continue to mount, with new story elements just dropped in from nowhere out of convenience ( hello black fairy wand, blood magic locks ( why would rumple not have locked the dagger with blood magic? When Cora was after it? ).    We used to speculate answers with the hope that it would connect all the dots later, that  future episodes would make previous ones clearer, but instead it kind of muddies or retcons certain things,  to the extent things are not just ignored of course.

Maybe a new show will come along for it was interesting to discuss with you folks, once upon a time but this show seems more enjoyable if I think way, way “turn off your brain less” like Dark shadows or something.