User blog:Rena Charming/Necessary Flashbacks

Once Upon a Time is currently a half-season-arc-driven series. While it is surely commendable that a show can remain story-driven and have such stories last for shorter periods of time, so as to make sure they don't drag out for long, this of course means that the flashback stories are nowadays solely distributed between the contract actors (who necessarily have to be given focus because they're regulars) and the MVP guests (typically the Big Bads, like the Snow Queen and the Wicked Witch, to explain their motivations). But this leads the supporting characters we are also invested in and want to see more of to be sidelined, and unfortunately the regulars themselves seem to be continually featured in forced stories that don't add much to what we already know about them (like Snow and Charming taking on Medusa, or even, to a lesser extent, Rumple's run-in with Pan as the Pied Piper). Therefore, I think it is pertinent to come up with a list of the flashback stories we want/need to see on the show and, once it is complete, we should ALL tweet it to Adam Horowitz, Jane Espenson and anyone else of importance in the writing staff, to make sure they get first-hand knowledge of what the fans need clearing up on.

So let's do this by steps, starting with the characters that need flashbacks the most AND the order by which such flashbacks are needed. First and foremost, the series regulars:

Emma Swan

 * Her time spent with the Snow Queen as her foster mom
 * Her life and experience with the Swan family
 * Her time in jail, anything on a "prison wife" would be awesome

Snow White

 * Taking back the kingdom
 * Growing up with Regina as her stepmother (bring back Bailee Madison for this!)

Evil Queen

 * Her falling out with Rumple
 * Her deal with Maleficent - trading the curses - and why the Blind Witch had the apple, and why that specific apple was important
 * Potentially learning that Franskentein botched bringing back Daniel, which is why she cursed him and Jefferson, despite being in different lands
 * Her father being taken to Wonderland - doesn't need to be the focus of any episode, just maybe a tie-in at the end of some other flashback story, like the aforementioned one

Rumplestiltskin

 * Creating the curse, the measures it took

Henry Mills

 * Growing up in Storybrooke and realizing that everyone failed to age except for him and that they did the same basic things day after day after day - a younger actor would be required

Prince Charming

 * Defeating King George and sparing his life (presumably in the same episode as taking back the kingdom)

Captain Hook

 * How he and Maleficent met
 * The deal he made with Peter Pan

Will Scarlet

 * How he ended up in Storybrooke both times

Belle

 * I got nothing, kill this bitch

Now, the upcoming MVP guests:

Maleficent

 * Origin story, featuring her motivations and Aurora's mother
 * Maybe learning she's the Dark Fairy/Black Fairy

Cruella de Vil

 * Origin story, motivations, why she's presumably in Storybrooke

Now for the supporting characters of whom we want to see more:

The Blue Fairy

 * Anything on her! How (and why) fairies operate

Red Riding Hood and Granny

 * How they got the cloak, how the two of them patched things up after Anita died
 * Why does Granny have a bad history with Rumple? Is the cloak involved?

Dr. Frankenstein

 * Follow-up to his story; where's his brother? And the torch-wielding villagers? How was he swept up in the curse?

Aurora

 * Phillip getting his soul back
 * Story of her cursing, with Phillip being turned into a Yaoguai as well

Jiminy Cricket and Pongo

 * How did Pongo become a thing, and only in Storybrooke?

Mulan

 * Origin story, maybe a connection to The Dragon

Robin Hood and Maid Marian

 * Origin story, maybe Marian's original demise that was retconned

Cinderella

 * Anything on the original tale, featuring Gus the mouse (voiced by Jarod Joseph) and a pre-Red Queen Anastasia as her stepsister, with Drizella and Sarah-Jane Redmond as Lady Tremaine
 * How Thomas disappeared exactly

Anastasia

 * What happened to the Red King

White Rabbit

 * Origin story, or any sort of flashback story

Tinker Bell

 * How she ended up in Neverland, and what she did there

Grumpy

 * Where the hell is Nova? More of a present-day thing than a flashback necessity I guess...

Add whatever you feel is necessary. We should treat this seriously and then clean it up and send it to the writers. Aren't we all tired of contrived flashback stories and wasted Storybrookers? Belle spent an episode on a quest to find out something obvious, for Christ's sake. I guess some fans did wonder what happened to her mother (I personally didn't), but the answer we got was stupid, despite the nice tie-in with 1.12 at the end.