PREACH, Heather! Sometimes you’ve just gotta let it out.
Neal’s intention wasn’t evil at all
This is what really gets to me, that people who don’t like Neal so often seem to demonise him. There are plenty of characters on this show who have hurt people multiple times for selfish reasons, (Hook is one such character). Neal hurt Emma one time, and yes it hurt bad, but his motivation was selfless.
As a child, he left the only world he’d known in an attempt to save his father’s soul = selfless.
He gave himself up to the Shadow, going to another world he had no idea about, so neither of the Darling boys would get taken = selfless.
He finally got a taste of the happy ending he’d gone for centuries thinking was never gonna happen for him, and he gave it up so that she could find her family and save thousands of people in the process = selfless.
He has a pattern of self sacrifice that lands himself in a whole world of pain, and he knows it’s gonna hurt, but he does it anyway because he cares about the people involved, yet people think he’s worthy of hating. And meanwhile, the characters who have hurt people for selfish reasons get all sorts of sympathy and understanding and hope of redemption. I just…it does not compute in my head why people hate Neal, while still being able to see the good in other characters who have done things far worse than he has.