The biggest factor to consider is how getting rid of the Split-Seasons will effect this Season. A big criticism with the Split-Seasons was that the pacing was rapid-fire to cram everything into 11-12 episodes. That didn’t allow enough room to breath, and potential plot and character developments were neglected. Maybe there won’t be as many plotholes, and even more quiet character moments that we miss from the earlier Seasons. It should be noted that while Season 1 is still commonly heralded as the best Season by the majority of fans, Season 2’s reception was a lot more divided. There were fans who thought Season 2 was almost or just as good as Season 1, while there were a ton who thought that Season 2 was a huge disappointment. Nonetheless, that was where the show faced its first notable decline in popularity and viewership, and the trend continued with each following Season. Season 4A was the exception thanks to the Frozen hype. Only time will tell how Season 6 fares.
I have never understood this. For me, the split season has done the opposite. The show drags and drags and drags and is boring for it. The split season has immediately created this problem each season. You know exactly what is going to happen, maybe not how, but you know the end. Henry will be saved and Pan will be gotten rid of, the wicked witch will be defeated, the Snow Queen will be defeated and the sisters reunited, the author gotten rid of and the queen’s of darkness taken care of, to rid Emma of the dark one curse, to save everyone from the Underworld and defeat Hades. There are these very obvious plot points that you know are going to happen.
There is no doubt that the villain of the half will be defeated and will hang around til they are defeated near the end of the half. That makes the entire arc, in my opinion, slow and boring because you are just waiting for an inevitable defeat and so i don’t care about anything that happens to the character or their sad backstory because they are a dead man walking. A dead man walking who isn’t going to ever kill anyone of consequence. It just doesn’t work. That is why i think they need to get rid of Hyde almost immediately. I would do it in the first episode, which i know they aren’t, or by episode 3, but i could see episode 7 if they wanted to wait. He needs to go because it is obvious that he will eventually be defeated, so i don’t care one bit about him or his character development. It is just a waste of space and is not something they should waste screen time on.
Though still there are the things we know. Hyde will be defeated and Regina will get her evil back. At least the one thing has to do with a main character. Hyde doesn’t have anything to do with anything, but foreshadow what may happen to Regina. So he just needs to go and quickly.