Yeah, I got the feeling FTL was dying or loosing it’s magic somehow- maybe it’s like fresh water in that the amount of fresh water in our world is finite & very small (less than 1/2 of 1 percent of all the total world’s water stock is fresh). Not only is it the same amount of water that was here at the creation of the planet, it’s the exact same water ie. The next time you walk in a rain, remember some of that rain was in the blood of dinosaurs.
It’s a very precious resource & if we take care of it, it recycles through the hydrologic cycle; but if we do not take care of it, we destroy it-much as we are finding out now with at least 8 of our major rivers no longer reaching the ocean & a full 1 billion people with little to no access to it.
So maybe it was in deed because many FTL folk went all out on using the magical resources until they simply started to run out or tap them dry so to speak.
I have posted a number of times about what form the ‘final battle’ will take, since it no longer makes sense it will be Charmings Vs Regina any more- one of my thoughts was it could be for magic or EF/FTL’s very existence…. It seems more a battle that Rumple would have something to do with, rather than just plain old Regina vs Charmings.
I don’t see the Blue Fairy as a villain (contrary to popular belief 😉 ) & have posted many, many times that I feel she is working for FTL/Magic’s best interests rather than any given person or group of people. She did after all want Snow & Charming to go through before the curse hit- Gep put that to an end himself even though the Blue Fairy told him up front things had changed & for the sake of them all Snow & Emma needed to go through- she didn’t want Regina winning any more than Rumple did.
I do think she has a larger role to play- but I cant see it being evil, she’s the one who’s gone around making the EF folk wishes true. Not even Grumpy thinks she’s evil & if anyone was going to feel she was- it’d be him.