2007?? What is the basis of this and is it still true?

Okay, this is the reasoning for it being 2007.

In Desperate Souls, Henry is reading a newspaper about being born in jail. Link
https://oncepodcast.com/emma-swan-committed-a-juvenile-crime-on-june-16-1996/

In this newspaper, the text is as follows.

“Ex-jailbird Emma Swan birthed babe behind bars
Sidney Glass, Editor

Storybrooke, Maine—The race for the position of local sheriff has just gone into overdrive. The Storybrooke Daily Mirror has recently come into possession of a number of controversial documents that purport to shed an entirely new light onto the character of Storybrooke’s prospective new law enforcement official, Emma Swan.

Records show that when she was merely a girl of seventeen, Emma Swan found herself, ironically, on the wrong side of the law. She was visiting friends of her foster parents in the town of Worcester, Massachusetts, it would prove to be a trip that would earn her a juvenile criminal record.

On the evening of June 16th, 1996, Swan—”

This would suggest that the incident for which Emma was arrested happened on June, 16, 1996. Emma was already pregnant with Henry at the time, but she didn’t know it. Emma was 16 years old. She had just either ran away from foster care or was emancipated, we don’t really know. Regardless, she was 16 in June of 1996. Emma’s birthday is some time in the fall based on when the show began and that would mean she was born in the fall of 1979. This would mean Emma turns 17 in fall of 1996, gives birth to Henry in March of 97. That would mean the show started in 2007 and it is now March of 2008 at the end of the season.

That is why i think it is 2008, but it is also possible that the prop is just wrong.

Oh goodness, yes i meant 2007 meaning it is now 2008. Someone started talking at me and i became distracted. It is now fixed in my original post.

I don’t really buy the Henry and Emma have the same birthday theory. The idea that that would be true and that it would not be mentioned by Emma because Emma would know that piece of information is too far of a stretch for me.

So the facts are that Henry is 10 years old in the fall of 2007 on Emma’s birthday and that Emma turns 28 the night of the pilot. So Henry has already had his birthday in 2007. Emma was arrested in June, of 1996 and she was pregnant, but didn’t know it, so probably very newly pregnant. She finds out shortly thereafter that she is pregnant. So nine months from June 1996, is March of 1997.

As i said before, Emma’s birthday is in the fall, so she was 16 when she was arrested in 1996, turned 17 in the fall of 1996 and give birth to Henry in March of 1997. I do know that one thing is true. Emma was not 18 when she had Henry. It is impossible for Emma to be 18 when she gave birth to Henry and for him to have already turned 10 before her 28th birthday. That is just impossible. Emma had Henry when she was 17.

And later on in True North, Emma tells Mary that she was in the system for 16 years, and she told Henry that she had just gotten out of the system when she got pregnant with him. I know that this article says she was 17 when she was arrested, but i just think it is wrong, and am well aware that calls into question the truthfulness of the entire article and therefore all of the dates may be wrong as well and then we have nothing.

I do think though just based on character. That Emma is much more likely to lie to Ashley trying to make herself sound older and not underage when she gave birth then to lie to Mary about how long she had been in the system. And i do think that Emma was partially telling Henry the truth about his father, but lied at the end.

We will see. A lot of times i just think the writers are not careful with their props. It is sort of like the pages in the storybook always being the same story. And this article i think either someone cannot add or they were really careless because they must know that people are going to try and read the article. It is also possible that the article is just wrong in some of the details because it was written by Sydney and he didn’t properly verify the facts. I actually think it is more likely the date is right and Emma’s age is wrong then the other way around.

Either way, right now with what little information we have, i say Emma was 16 when she got pregnant, 17 when she gave birth and that her birthday was in the fall of 1979, she gave birth in 1997 and she came to Storybrooke in the fall of 2007 on her birthday, has been there for around 6 months making it now 2008.

PS. Sorry for writing so much, i really try not to do this, but this issue sort of makes me crazy.

All of this information may be wrong, but i think it is much more likely that a sticker on a bike is wrong then the dates in the article. And honestly i don’t think it matters whether or not it is 2008 or 2011.

Like Gypsy said, the sentence of June 16 1996 may not relate to Emma’s crime. Also Emma could have been on the run before she was arrested so although she may have committed the crime in 1996, she may not have been arrested until a year or so later.

We know Emma was 18 when she gave birth to Henry, but she could have been 18 years and 7 months old, making her close to 19 but still 18 when she gave birth or she could have just turned 18.

If we base the show as starting in Fall 2011. 28 years ago would have Emma arriving in 1983. Add 18 years would have Henry born around late 2000/ early 2001.

Also the article was written by Sidney as a smear campaign so some details may be exaggerated.