Once Upon a Fangirl...: The Broken Kingdom

In this episode, we see the origins of Arthur's descent into evil as he grows obsessed with finding the ark One's dagger to make Excalibur whole again. Guinevere, after having enough of putting his quest before her, decides to take action herself with Lancelot by finding the dagger, but ends up making a deal with Rumple for the Sands of Avalon, which can fix anything that's 'broken' to use on the sword in exchange for Merlin's gauntlet that she used to find the Dark One's Vault. And after Arthur learns she & Lancelot shared a kiss on their quest, he ends up banishing Lancelot & using the sands to control Guinevere & restore Camelot to it's glory while still searching for the dagger. Meanwhile, in the future Camelot scenes, David & Mary Margaret argue over whether or not they can trust Arthur & she ends up deciding to deceive Arthur with the help of Lancelot by giving him a fake dagger after they agree to put their differences aside & help Emma to stop him from making the sword whole. However, this leads to Lancelot getting arrested & Guinevere using the Sands of Avalon to control David & Mary Margaret to make them trust Arthur. Oh yeah, and there's a pointless subplot with Hook trying to help Emma get rid of Mind!Rumple in her head just by riding her off into a field of primroses which somehow works (pretty obvious that didn't last). And in Storybrooke, it's revealed Emma has taken Merida captive & wants to use her to make Rumple the hero destined to pull Excalibur out of the stone.
The best way to describe this episode is...what the hell just happened? Seriously, this episode was so hard to follow from start to finish. The story is so nonsensically put together that I struggle to form an opinion. Well, I may as well start with the flashbacks because, by God they were so underwhelming & confusing! Different timelines (including titlecards every 5 minutes), too many plots cobbled together vying for attention & the whole 'affair' which lead Lancelot to being banished from Camelot was nothing more than a kiss between him & Guinevere, even if it was clear right from the start that he genuinely cared about her compared to Arthur. Not only that, but the execution of some of the scenes really made it suffer for me, rather it be the inconsistent acting from the Camelot characters, th previously mentioned nonsensical structure & the poor CGI. The other flashbacks were a tad better as we got to see more of David & Mary Margaret's conflicted point of view over what's been going on and I liked seeing them come together to take Arthur down despite the loophole at the end involving the Sands of Avalon. However, obviously the scenes involving Emma & Hook brought them down for me. Not only because of the obvious conclusion, but because it had so much potential to see more of how Mind!Rumple really is affecting her psyche, . But nope! The writers decide to make it look like everything's all better after she goes into the forest in a nauseously obnoxious love scene because it's not like her parents are actually doing more to try & save her!
However, not EVERYTHING was bad. OK, I will say that it was interesting to see how Rumple got the dreaded gauntlet from the season 4 midseason finale, seeing more mythology with the Dark One's vault & Sands of Avalon and I admittedly liked that Arthur's backstory had nothing to do with family like past villains despite his plans still being cliched & comes across as a mad-man most of the time. And while the Guinevere/Lancelot romance wasn't really as developed as I had expected, I liked seeing her be more of her own character rather than Arthur's doting wife as we saw how she felt over his obsession with Excalibur & her conflict of chosing duty over her love for Lancelot And the cliffhanger involving Emma, Merida & Rumple was also interesting and I can't wait to see exactly what he has to do before he can pull Excalibur out of the stone
This is without a doubt one of the weakest episodes I've seen so far. While learning a tiny bit more about the mythology of the Dark One/Camelot, seeing Guinevere become her own character and David & Mary Margaret taking more action to save Emma were pretty interesting to see, with VERY obnoxiously annoying CaptainSwan, nonsensically confusing flashbacks & structure, Arthur's weak motivations & anticlimactic, it's most likely that this will go on the worst list

Aww, Guin & Arthur look cute as kids!.

Must say, the Middlemist flower looks very pretty!

So Sir Kay was just a schoolyard bully to Arthur...?

Wait, so he claims Camelot has no king one minute & the next he lies to the people?

Why does Guinevere have Milah's dress from 2x14...?

OK...he's definitely onto something now that he's asking David for help over finding the dagger!

Why is Emma making dreamcatchers...?

Well, at least Regina was prepared if Emma attempted to get the dagger!

*Sighs* Why didn't that hit him...?

Nice to see everyone looking out for Emma!

So David is choosing to trust Arthur over his own wife...? And she's got a point that being a knight is more for benefiting his self worth than helping Emma!

Wait, she's now wearing Rapunzel's dress?!

Interesting code over the location of the other half of the sword...

Well, he must feel like a giant arsehole putting the sword over his own wife's birthday! At least she has Lancelot!

Aww! Very sweet gesture for Lancelot to do that! Seriously, Arthur doesn't deserve her now!

Yeah, I don't really need reminding this is 5 years later given that David is clearly there!

Not so sure if telling Arthur the truth about Emma was the wisest choice, David...

Yeah, not really necessary to show me the titlecards! My eyes work just fine knowing when each scene takes place!

Nice to see Guinevere not put up with Arthur's crap! And at least the writers remembered about the magic gauntlet!

OK, is Guinevere a kleptomaniac?! Seriously, she's now Jack's outfit (remember her? The one dimensional villain from Tiny who got killed off after one episode?)!

Well, that was quick!

Wait, fire can repel the freaking Dark One entity?! That'd be like Darth Vadar being defeated by a bucket of water!

So this whole 'affair' was just a kiss between them (even if he was undoubtedly the better suitor for her)?!

STOP WITH THE TITLECARDS!

Bit weird of Guinevere to side with Arthur over Lancelot returning...

Uh...where's the dagger?!

Oh, good thinking Mary Margaret!

OK, I'll admit, that was pretty funny!

Aww! Sweet seeing more of Henry & Violet!

Yeah, there's a massive difference between your 'personal demons' & Emma's: SHE'S THE FREAKING DARK ONE!

Aww! 'Do you still love her?' 'Yes. I'll always love Guinevere.' Seriously, she should just leave Arthur for him! He's not the one who obsessed over a bloody sword for years putting his loved ones before it!

Interesting place to keep the dagger...

So they can just forge the sword being completed with that sand...? And he's got a point over being torn from duty & desire never ending well given his liason with Cora...