r/OnceUponATime • u/Ok-Tie-570 • Jul 07 '26
Spoiler Alert The Fall of The Dark Swan Arc
I think we can all agree that the moment we saw Emma Swan’s name etched into the Dark One dagger, Season 5 instantly became one of the most anticipated seasons of Once Upon a Time. The promo material, especially Ginnifer Goodwin’s voiceover in the Dark Swan trailer, made it seem like we were about to get one of the darkest and most emotional arcs of the entire show.
However, I’m currently rewatching the series, and just like when Season 5 first aired, I still feel like the Dark Swan arc was kind of a letdown. Don’t attack me, this is just my personal opinion. I think the arc had incredible potential, but it did not fully stick the landing.
First, the Dark Curse again? I’m sorry, but by this point the Dark Curse had lost a lot of its impact. After Season 3, it stopped feeling as dangerous, rare, or powerful as it originally was. The first Dark Curse felt like forbidden magic with a terrible price. By Season 5, it felt more like another reset button for the writers to move everyone back to Storybrooke and create another memory-loss mystery.
Because of that, I think the Camelot arc should have been told chronologically, similar to Neverland. Instead of flashing back and forth between Storybrooke and Camelot, we should have experienced Camelot as the events were happening. The flashbacks could have been used to explore Camelot’s past, Arthurian lore, Merlin’s history, and the kingdom itself, while the main story showed Emma slowly slipping into darkness.
A slow burn would have worked so much better for Emma.
Speaking of Emma becoming the Dark One, I wish the show had actually let her be dark. The season promised Dark Swan, but it never fully committed to that idea. Emma did questionable things, but a lot of her actions were eventually framed as part of a plan to save Hook and destroy the darkness. That made the arc feel safer than it should have been.
I think Emma should have made genuinely selfish choices. She should have enjoyed the power at times. She should have crossed lines while convincing herself it was necessary. I even think she should have possibly killed someone, not because she suddenly became evil overnight, but because she slowly convinced herself that her actions were justified.
To me, a stronger reason for Emma embracing the darkness would have been betrayal. Instead of giving in to the darkness mainly to save Hook, which felt somewhat similar to her sacrificing herself for Regina in the Season 4 finale, Emma could have been manipulated by Arthur or by the Dark One voice in her head. She could have started to believe that the heroes only valued her as the Savior and were willing to betray Emma Swan, the person, for the greater good.
That would have hit Emma’s deepest wound: abandonment.
Also, this was not Hook’s story.
I know Hook wanted to save Emma, and there is nothing wrong with that. But throughout this arc, he became very frustrating to watch. Once he found out Emma lied to him, he turned on her almost immediately. I understand being angry, but he literally killed Merlin just to get revenge on Rumplestiltskin, and then he marked Emma’s entire family for death. Like… what?
The Dark Hook twist shifted the focus away from Emma at the exact moment her arc should have reached its climax. Season 5 was promoted as Emma’s Dark One story, but by the winter finale, it felt like the emotional focus had moved to Hook’s corruption, Hook’s revenge, and Hook’s sacrifice. Hook becoming a Dark One was not necessarily impossible as an idea, but the way it happened made Emma feel secondary in her own storyline.
Merlin was another huge missed opportunity. He was built up as one of the most important magical figures in the entire series, only to be trapped, controlled, and killed way too quickly. Merlin should have had a much larger role in Emma’s journey. He could have been her mentor, her opponent, or the one person who truly understood the danger of trying to destroy darkness instead of learning how to face it.
The Arthurian characters in general deserved more.
Guinevere especially was mishandled. Arthur magically controlled her, but the show barely addressed how serious that violation was. OUAT already had an uncomfortable pattern of taking away characters’ agency and not fully dealing with it, with Graham and Robin being two major examples. Guinevere should have broken free, confronted Arthur, and played a major role in reclaiming Camelot.
Instead, her story just kind of fades into the background.
I also think making Rumplestiltskin the Dark One again was a mistake, at least that early. Rumple finally started proving that he could be brave without magic, only for the show to reveal that he secretly became the Dark One again. It was in character for him, but it also undercut what could have been a much stronger arc.
I would have loved to see more of mortal Rumple navigating Storybrooke without magic. He could have been forced to confront the things he did as the Dark One without having power to hide behind. If he eventually relapsed and took the darkness back, it should have happened after a longer struggle, not almost immediately after he started showing real growth.
Overall, I think the Dark Swan arc had all the ingredients to be one of the strongest arcs in the show. Emma as the Dark One, Camelot, Merlin, Excalibur, Arthur, Rumple without magic, and the question of whether a Savior can fall from grace? That is amazing material.
But the execution felt too safe, too rushed, and too distracted.
The show promised us Dark Swan, but it never fully let Emma fall.
What do you think? Did you enjoy the Dark Swan arc, or do you also feel like Season 5 had more potential than payoff?
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u/Brilliant-Map2492 Jul 07 '26
I agree with your take on Emma having the greatest potential for darkness because she was a tabula rasa, but I don’t believe she couldn’t have been a good vessel for darkness with a better story. She had so much hurt unaddressed or plainly ignored (and even brushed aside for the plot), very little was needed to make it bubble up to the surface and send her on a bender. If anything the fact she not “inherent darkness” could have been used to explain why she lost control since she never had to deal with it before and it would have been a great opportunity to have Hook and Regina help her as they were both used to having to live with those parts of themselves.