I am in complete agreement about the consternation regarding a lack of discernible motive on the Black Fairy’s part. Even Rumple as a Dark One always had a specific motive. He didn’t just do evil just for the heck of it.
And this is a Final Battle that is “final” because? What are the stakes? Emma wasn’t ever presented as the embodiment of light magic, so why should her possible demise be the “final” anything? And in the scale of evil that we’ve seen throughout OUAT, the Black Fairy is kind of middling at best. I mean, Regina was right to dismiss her as not even reaching the EQ’s level. And Zelena is even more powerful. It makes no sense, and the BF is one of the weakest–if not the weakest–villains we’ve seen on the show. Ironically, Pan was much more formidable.
Is it uncharitable to say that the podcast is really what keeps me watching? Because the writing has become increasingly careless on the macro story level–it’s almost as if ABC is using OUAT to train new writers. Bothers me as one who has watched from the first season.
/rantoff