Once Turns 100: Once Upon a Time Season 3 Retrospective

[thedarkonedearie]

One of the most disappointing aspects of 3A was the fact that we never saw Tink and Peter in a scene together. We get the impression that Tink and Peter are friends and that he trusts her, but given no indication as to how that happened. The characters from NVL, in the end, felt like their story counterparts in name only. While it was fine (even great) to make Peter the villain, the writers pretty much robbed the story of anything resembling Barrie’s original–even the deep and unyeilding animosity between Hook and Peter. That’s probably the biggest problem with 3A–they spent almost too much time in Neverland, but not enough of it was fleshing out the world and the characters. Like why is it dark all the time? Who told Peter about Henry and gave him that drawing? Is Greg still alive since the Shadow was vanquished in SB? If the Peter and the Lost Boys could imagine what they wanted into existence–like food–then why was Peter sending Hook out on missions in the EF? Why did Hook even come back? And why was Hook searching for a way out of NVL in his final NVL flashback if Pan had been sending him out all along?

Yup, all valid points.  Tink was a really frustrating character for me.  I didn’t feel like the actress did a great job with it, nor did I like that she never interacted with Pan at all.  Her backstory was boring, her character felt boring.  Idk, did not really care for her.  And I do really wish we got more information on the makeup and the characters of neverland.  As you say, how Pan got the picture of Henry, more of Hook’s relationship with Pan, the shadow’s backstory, etc.  I honestly think if done well, they could have spent the whole season in Neverland.  It was weird.  Some episodes dragged when they didn’t have to.  They gave us this whole new realm that I found very compelling, and didn’t really delve into it as deep as they could have.  They could have done that and avoided the slow episodes of wandering through the woods.

[thedarkonedearie]

No and here’s why:there are no common threads. Nothing that extends over the entire season. That’s a big difference with season 4 and that’s why S4 split works a bit more, you had one story that was told over an entire season (the search for the Author) instead of two totally separate seasonal stories.

Yeah you are actually right.  The split worked way better in season 4 because of the overaching themes. Which is why I hope there actually is one in season 5.

[Author]

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