How has this season been awful?

[Josephine]

I didn’t like how much they pushed Regina’s redemption on us. I feel empathy for Rumple, but I just don’t feel it for Regina. I just can’t get over her sending kids to their death in “True North”. I’d love to see Regina redeemed, but I can’t believe it until she starts to want to turn a corner for herself and just not Henry. She needs to remember that girl she was long ago and stop blaming everyone else for her troubles. There comes a time in your life when you’ve just got to suck it up and face the music.

I dislike the beginning of the season, also, and I fear they’re making the same mistake for Season 3. Snow and Emma spent too much time in the Enchanted Forest, when it could have been done in two or three episodes. The splitting up the gang between worlds really turned a lot of people off for season two and they’re doing it again. I agree with PriceOfMagic, Mulan, Aurora and Phillip were not needed this season. It was filler that took away from the characters we’ve grown to love.

I’m also not a fan of Hook. Yes, he’s attractive, but I wish they would have casted someone older and more of a contemporary of Robert Carlyle. Colin would have been a better fit for Robin Hood, imo. I feel like they’re trying to draw the Jack Sparrow fans into the show.

Finally, while I’m not a huge fan of Ruby, I hate what they did to her character. She’s the strongest, fastest, and has the keenest senses of them all and she was demoted constantly to babysitter. Even Henry at one point moaned, “I know, go with Ruby”. No wonder Meghan decided to take on another show.

I will say I love the casting of Neal. I really think they did a bang up job of matching Dylan and MRJ. Look at the two side by side and it’s not a stretch to imagine teen Bae grew into Neal, unlike with August and Pinocchio.

[Phee]

@PriceofMagic wrote:

I also think part of the reason this season isn’t as liked as the first is that the introduced MAP separately from the main characters and everyone cared more about Storybrooke and what was happening there than what was happening with MAP. MAP hung around for half a season before completely disappearing for the rest of the season save one scene in the finale. MAP could have been taken out and replaced with other characters for the present day FTL sections that would have served the purpose of getting Snow and Emma back to Storybrooke.

If they’re interchangeable with any other present day FTL characters, then what was the problem with them being who they are?

I don’t disagree that their portion of the story felt a bit disjointed, particularly when we saw Mulan and Aurora run off and then we didn’t see them together again in present day until that 30 second clip in the finale where suddenly Phillip was back with them. But I think it’s all gonna connect up nicely in the first part of S3, (they’ll have to deal with these characters early on, before the actresses have commitments to shoot other shows).

They couldn’t have dumped Nealfire in FTL at season’s end without having previously established the state of the place, so I can see the reasons that they drew out Snow and Emma’s time there. We had to know that it was a place that was almost impossible to get out of in present day, otherwise there isn’t as much concern for Nealfire being stuck there.

And they needed to establish some characters for Nealfire to run into while he’s there, so they made them specific characters that the audience had knowledge of prior to OUAT. And in the middle of the season, they threw in that Belle has a connection to MAP. So now Rumple’s son is stuck in FTL with people who know his father’s girlfriend, as well as knowing Emma, which is far more interesting than just having him stuck in a desolate land with a few randoms wandering here and there.

Did it feel weird to see Phillip up and about in that brief clip and not have any idea what happened with that chunk of the story where they saved him? Yeah, definitely. Would it have been more satisfying to have had MAP wrapped up properly and concisely within the one season? Yeah, probably. But knowing that K&H had this situation in mind to set up the transition between seasons, I can see why they dealt with MAP the way they did.

[fairy dust]

For the first half of Season Two I was really frustrated. I got sooooo tired of the pink sweater…of whining Aurora…on an on. I simply did not enjoy it as much as Season One. However, now that I am re-watching Season Two, knowing where the story is going and what it is building towards I am enjoying it so much more.

In many ways it is like Season One was a specific Lego Kit. The set is great, complete, and the scene that can be built from it is delightful. Season Two was (to me) like an expander kit. Not as special…not as complete….a vast jumble of specialty bricks and regular bricks. But now that I know where they are going with the story I am excited. I think Season Three is going to be as delightful as Season One and all the specialty bricks are there to build a vast array of scenes.

[PriceofMagic]

Season 2 introduced a lot of new characters then killed the majority of them within one episode.

New season 2 characters

Mulan
Aurora
Philip- Appeared and kind of killed off in episode 1, appeared in Belle’s flashback in episode 11 and returned for one scene in the finale.
Lancelot- Appeared in episode 3, killed off in the same episode when it was revealed Lancelot was Cora all along.
Hook
Smee
Milah- First appeared in episode 4, killed off in the same episode, appeared in Rumple’s flashback in episode 14.
Whale’s assistant
Neal (Before he was revealed to be Bae)
Anton/Tiny
Red’s Mother- First appeared in episode 7, killed off the same episode.
Quinn (I think that’s his name)- First appeared episode 7, killed off the same episode.
Greg
Whale’s father- First appeared episode 12, killed off same episode.
Gerhardt (Whale’s brother)- First appeared episode 12,.
Tiny’s brothers- First appeared episode 13, killed off same episode.
Jack- First appeared episode 13, killed off same episode.
The Seer, First appeared episode 14, killed off same episode.
Eva (Snow’s mother)- First appeared episode 15, killed off same episode.
Johanna- First appeared episode 15, killed off same episode.
Tamara
Henry Sr’s father- Appeared episode 16.
Kurt Flynn (Greg’s father)- First appeared episode 17, later revealed to have been killed off same episode.
The Dragon- First appeared episode 18, killed off same episode.
Robin Hood- First appeared episode 19.
Marian- First appeared episode 19.
Sheriff of Nottingham- First appeared episode 19, probably hospitalised or dead.
Wendy- First appeared episode 21.
John and Michael (Wendy’s brothers)- First appeared episode 21.
The Shadow- First appeared episode 21.
Felix and the Lost Ones- First appeared episode 22

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[LisaFromOH]

Re: PriceofMagic‘s last post, yes they did introduce a lot of new characters and kill off many of them, but that doesn’t mean that we’ll never see them again in flashbacks. That’s actually one of the things I like speculating about most; will we ever see (character) again and if so, why? For example, the Lancelot that we were introduced to in episode 3 wasn’t really Lancelot, but the real Lancelot appeared in a later episode (sorry, forget the name of it, the one where King George “cursed” Snow White with infertility). Also, with Lancelot specifically, we don’t actually know if he’s dead since the only evidence we have of that is Cora saying so.
But I’m sure that things about the show that I don’t like might be other people’s favorite things.

[orza]

Most of those characters appeared in one or a few episodes in a supporting role. That is no different that any other show that has guest stars who never come back after their episode or story arc is done. I’m not seeing a problem there.

[gypsy]

I didn’t think it as awful at all. I loved it and S1 🙂

[Author]

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