Once Upon a Time was a unique series when it first aired on ABC in 2011, and it continued to bring us happy moments, sad ones, and plot twists we didn't see coming. The show was around for seven seasons, coming to an end in May 2018. It's crazy to think it's already been seven years since the fairytale drama closed that final chapter.
OUAT is one of my favorite shows, even to this day, and I think of it fondly overall. Though even if there's a series that's your favorite, you have to be willing to admit when the writers are at fault. And unfortunately, nothing is absolutely perfect. There's always going to be something you don't agree with as a viewer.
I mean, I think the general consensus is that season 7 was just one big mistake and definitely should not have happened. It was a mess and introduced things that didn't make sense. Like how Belle and Rumple went to a different realm where time apparently moves differently and she grows old and passes away, playing an Up version of the characters.
Then everyone else in Storybrooke is in the "present time," while characters of the Wish Realm are from the future but cursed in the past. It makes my head hurt and got too complicated. It was the only way the writers could figure out how to keep everyone's happy endings that they got by the end of season 6 without effecting that. Which is why, again, season 7 should not have happened.
Once Upon a Time season 7 and the series finale still annoy me
That includes the Once Upon a Time series finale which I'm still annoyed at. First of all, it doesn't' make sense that when Rumple/Gold/Weaver gave up his heart for Wish Hook that his Wish Realm counterpart also died. No one else's did that, so that just leaves us scratching our heads.
I honestly didn't have an emotiona attachment to any of the new characters, except maybe Alice and Robin. But even the goodbye and sacrifice between Rumple and Wish Hook didn't feel satsisfying as a fan because those two don't have the same history that our Killian and Rumple had for the first six seasons.
There's also the whole uniting the realms thing and Regina being crowned the Good Queen. Look, she went on a great redemption arc and it was nice to see that come full circle. But, how do you all know that the realms want to be united? Plus are the Wish Realm counterparts from the future just staying in what's their past? I don't know. It just felt silly and unnecessary. And after everything, maybe it would have been better just to have no queen or ruler at all. I don't know. I just think about it and it still annoys me.
For me, OUAT stops at the end of season 6 when all the characters are sitting at Granny's having dinner together. They've won the Final Battle against the Black Fairy, are all at peace together, and the story still had some sense to it. Not completely, but good enough. Season 7 just made things more complicated and proved that the writers were trying to push this story too much. And the series finale just ended up mostly meh to me which is disappointing.
All seven seasons of Once Upon a Time are streaming on Hulu and Disney+.