I think that the writers used to know how to write a cohesive story, but they just don’t anymore. I think they are so worried about the show ending that they are thinking what gimmick can we use to try to get people to watch, what new princess or new twist or new trick, that they have completely lost sight of the fact that a show needs to have a story. They haven’t written character arcs with beginnings, middles, and ends since 3A and the character arcs should be the story.
They introduced Aladdin, Jasmine, and Jafar and they had nothing to do with what was going on with the characters except for a couple scenes where Aladdin talked to Emma about her saviorness. Even the savior problems and Emma supposedly meeting the villain that will kill her never happened. The land of untold stories was nothing. The special sword that could destroy Emma’s nemesis was just broken and gone. The sheers were used in a side plot with Regina’s double, but they didn’t even do a character arc with that double This being the final battle where Emma goes against her true villain never happened; Rumpel just killed the black fairy and Gideon became a baby. Regina not being in Emma’s vision and what that might mean was not a thing. The vision itself being completely different then what happened in real life makes no sense.
Pretty much the beginning had nothing at all to do with the end and that has been happening for seasons, so i am not convinced that they can do it again. At least not til they take a break and step away and actually realize what they are doing wrong. It is like they are just too far in and can’t even see what the problem is and there is just no excuse for it.
It has gotten so bad that it is just inexcusable.