Once Upon a Fangirl...

After Mr Hyde takes over the town & brings everyone from the Land of Untold Stories with him, Emma begins to have visions of her death. After (easily) defeating Hyde, he tells her to follow a red bird in the forest where she meets an Oracle who tells her that every fate of every Savior (including Aladdin as revealed in the opening) is revealed: no happy ending. Meanwhile, Regina & Zelena have become roommates, but the former still has reservations as she blames the latter for Robin's death (triggered by the feather bracelet Roland had made which Zelena had misplaced). But after talking to Snow over it, Zelena decides to move out as she hates Regina for ripping out her evil side AKA the only part that was like her. But once she gets back to her house, she finds The Evil Queen there waiting to bond. And after being informed by Hyde in the last episode, Rumple goes to the Temple of Morpheus, using the sands to enter Belle's dreams as he meets the almighty god himself (played by Giles Matthey). But as Belle still believes he's a monster in her dreams & he only has an hour to wake her until she's sent to the Netherworld, Rumple decides to make her fall in love with him by pretending to be his Dark One self & recreating how they fell for each other. But as their attempt of True Love's Kiss doesn't work with her painful memories flooding back, in a massive twist it's actually revealed that 'Morpheus' was in fact Belle & Rumple's unborn child, who had planned it all along so he could kiss his mother awake instead & stop her from believing his father's lies. With that, Belle & Rumple head home on a sour note as she breaks off their relationship to protect their child from him.
After the rather lackluster season 5 finale, this thankfully makes up for it with a more promising set-up & character arcs. Like season 5 with learning more about the mythology of the Dark One, this season sheds more light on the role of the Savior & their inevitable fate.. The conflict inside of Emma feels natural as she believes anybody could be her undoing & now has to keep her distance from the people she loves (although I'm getting a weird sense of deja vu...), but it does beg the question on my part, how does this make Emma interesting? Just because we learn more about a role she plays, it doesn't mean that the character herself is more interesting as a result. At this point, I just don't like her as a main character because of how different she is (in a bad way) to the person I first knew & this new plot point felt like it came out of nowhere after the Underworld arc.
I would be lying though if I didn't say that Regina's arc was the more interesting one given how much has changed for her in comparison to not much from Emma. I am glad that not everything is all happy sunshine & rainbows with her & Zelena given that she still has to come to terms with such a massive loss partly thanks to her sister while on the other side, Zelena feels that she's lost the only thing she has in common with Regina (while still a pretty bratty argument in comparison). Her scenes with Snow were so heartwarming to watch thanks to both the writing & acting from Lana & Ginnifer because it shows just how far they've come after years of bad blood between them.
The Rumbelle subplot was without a doubt the most interesting one out of all of them. Not only was the dream world interesting & well executed in concept (along with such an adorable dance scene that beats the honeymoon dance by a landslide), but the twist over Morpheus' identity (while a tad predictable from my side) makes the Rumbelle angst this season feel much more natural compared to the other times when conflict has ensued (need I mention the awful flanderization of Rumple 2 years ago?). It was genuinely heartbreaking to see Rumple pretty much be rejected by their own son before he's even been born & while it has become incredibly tedious at this point with the break-up/make-up scenario with them, I really think Belle's also in the wrong as she really doesn't consider how much Rumple has actually done to save their family. Oh yeah, and she chooses to trust their equally as manipulative unborn son (who she's JUST MET) over him while not even thinking that their child is his second chance at preventing what happened to Baelfire. But my optimistic side is still intact, so let's just pray that they make up soon for each other's sake & Belle grows out of her immature pregnancy brain!
Anyway, one problem I had to be honest was the minimal screen-time with both Aladdin & the Evil Queen. After all the build-up with them coming in & shaking things up, it just felt pretty redundant that the former only appeared in the opening while the latter appeared at the very end. I am very intrigued with their roles, don't get me wrong, but it would have been nice (and more epic) to see their roles expanded & Aladdin's role explained a bit more other than being another Saviour. Oh yeah, and more CraptainSwan bullcrap, but after 3 years, that really shouldn't come as a surprise by now!
So it is a big step up from the finale, but it just didn't feel as...epic as I was expecting after that cliffhanger. But still, with more interesting introductions to new subplots & character development (while not really having as much payoff as they could have), this season is looking more promising!

About bloody time that Aladdin was in the show! Certainly didn't expect him to look so rough though...

Nice to see you again Jafar not played by Naveen Andrews this time round! And interesting that Saviors never get happy endings...

...Eww. Thank God Hyde cockblocked them!

Thank you for the team-up we actually care about!

'Word of advice: do be careful. There is nothing more dangerous than an untold story. And people don't want them told.' Uh...why?

Eek...bit surprised how quickly they all escaped, though!

What the hell was that?!

Hmm, pretty good idea walking into Belle's dreams to wake her! Gonna be a bit of a challenge in the bloody netherworld!

About bloody time she was out of the box! And why did they decide to shove a dead rat on Robert's head?! Before you ask, he had his hair cut for Trainspotting 2!

Hmm, Morpehus is pretty good looking! Although there's something about him that seems...familiar.

Wait, wait-w-w-w-w-wait! Zelena & baby Robin are moving into her house?! Bit fast if you ask me!

What a great sister immediately losing the only memento Regina can have of Robin & Roland!

'And how are you dealing with that? The whole destroying your evil half thing? out?' 'I'm fine! Better than fine! It's-did I mention I'm fine?' You know, Regina, the more times you say 'you're fine', it means you're not fine!

So nice to see more Snow/Regina bonding!

Seriously, why are all these visions suddenly plaguing her?!

Well, that was VERY easy after the huge deal of Hyde taking over the town was!

What a coincidence he knows what's wrong with her!

Nice to see you again Archie!

Interesting information over the red bird...

Bit sad she sees the place they fell in love as a hell-hole! And rather sad she sees her own husband as the man he used to be!

How does Morpheus expect Rumple to make Belle fall in love with him within one hour?!

N'aww!

Woah-woah-woah-woah-woah! Is he doing what I think he's doing...?

AWWWWW!!!! God, they're so freaking precious!

'What has come of you?' 'Maybe I'm tired of being a beast.' AWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

I'm sorry, but this is more than I could wish for!

'Shouldn't we be helping each other?' 'No.' 'Why not?' 'Because, I blame you. Every time I look at you, I blame you for what happened!' 'Me?! Well, what about Emma? She dragged you to hell!' 'I CHOSE TO GO! But you- I TRUSTED YOU! And because of that, Robin's soul was OBLITERATED!' 'Do you want to talk about trust? OK, Let's talk about trust! You make the biggest decision of your life. RIPPING out the evil half of you and you went to Snow White before coming to your own flesh and blood!' 'Why do you even care?!' 'Because you ripped out the part of yourself that was most like me!' Zelena, she just lost her second chance of love, didn't even get to say goodbye to his son and ripped her other half out to let go of the bad karma she's bottled up for years. I don't think that's a good enough argument here!

Makes sense for the people from the Land of Untold Stories to be frightened of being in a whole new world, let alone vice versa!

Oh, fuck you Hook & your skewed priorities! 'You can lie to everyone else Emma, but not to me.' Gee, doesn't THAT sound familiar?!

Who is she...?

'Villains say whatever they can to hurt people. But what I choose to believe in is faith. Hope that when a hero's story is over, there's a special place for them.' Is this literally Henry's only role now? Spouting out hopeful proverbs to get everyone to believe?

AWWWWWWWW!!!!!

'If you could change now, would you?' 'For you, I would be the best man I could be.' AWW!!!

Thank you writers for making up for how short the honeymoon dance was!

AWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!

Please work, please work, please work this time!

Come on, I want to savor that this is the second time DarkOne!Rumple & Belle have kissed!

''All those broken promises. Rumple, I do love you and I believe you love me, but us being together would only causes more heartbreak.' 'But, the baby!' 'Our child would be better off with me than in debt to you.' Wait a minute...what?! This is NOT the Belle I know!

'Now I can wake you.' 'How?' 'With True Love's Kiss, of course.' 'But I don't love you!' I don't even know you.' 'Oh, you know me. You've known me since the day I was conceived.' 'Wait, what's going on?!' 'I think you do. Mother.' 'You're our son.' 'I will be.' I KNEW IT!!!!!!!!!

'This isn't just Belle's dream world. It's mine and I'm here to warn you. Do not let him destroy us like he did his last family.' 'Don't listen to him, Belle. He can't be our son. It's not possible!' He doesn't have our shortness! And...bit sad he's already having daddy issues before he's even been born!

Rather bittersweet take on family love being as strong as romantic love...

OK...very awkward reunion although why the hell is she trusting the son she's just met over her husband?!

Hmm, nice reference to Iago!

'What you saw was a small piece of the end of your story, Savior.' 'There has to be another way!.' 'You can change the path to the destination, but the destination is the same. On the day you saw. The battle you saw. You will die.' Isn't death EVERYONE'S fate at the end of it all though...?

I really don't give a flying fuck now!

'I was an awful stepmother.' 'Regina, come on, that was in the past!' 'I know it was. How did you maintain hope in these terrible times?' 'Well, when my mother died, and my father, I had nothing. And then I realized while, well, the Evil Queen was trying to kill me, that the only way I could stay alive was to never give up. You taught me how to have faith. You were the one who taught me that hope was a choice.' AWW!