People found Neal wanting another chance with Emma offputting due to the recent nature of his engagement? Do these same people have no problem with Hook taunting Emma into kissing him and and imagining he’s in love with Emma 4 – 5 days after leaving her for dead?
Exactly! CS fans are quick to criticize Neal for pursuing Emma after Tamara tried to kill him, but they are blind to the fact that Hook tried to pursue Emma the day after she thinks Neal died and having nearly gotten Emma and her family all killed by partnering with Tamara and Greg. Jeez Louise!
Did Hook know that everyone in Storybrook would die since the fail safe had been activated? Yes. He left to save his own life. Did he know that Emma would also die? Yes. Did he leave anyway? Yes. In college I had to take an Introduction to Philosophy class and the professor once said that love is not a feeling, it’s an action. His example was that if a man is hitting you with a 2×4, it’s not love, no matter what he says. Hook left Emma for dead at the end of last season and returned after she (and Regina) had already saved the town.
That is a really good point and why I feel uncomfortable when people point at Hook and say, “Look, he really loves Emma.” But does he really? He twice left Emma for dead! First in “The Queen of Hearts” Hook intended to leave Emma and her fellow princesses for dead in a magically-fortified jail cell. A human can only survive without water for 3 days! At least when Neal let Emma go to prison, she had provisions, a minimum sentence, and a chance of parole after 11 months. When Hook left her behind bars, Emma would surely have perished if it hadn’t been for Rumple’s foresight. CS fans try to skirt this hard fact by saying Hook was just getting back at Emma for leaving him atop the beanstalk, even though Emma made sure Anton would release him after 12 hours! They also blame all of Emma’s trust issues on Neal, even though Emma always had felt abandoned by her parents. They also say that Emma wouldn’t really have died because it was a winter finale, but Hook didn’t know that. His intention was to let Emma rot in the cell, despite her pleas to return to her son. As you observed, the second time Hook was going to leave Emma and the entire town of SB to perish from the fail-safe being triggered. If it hadn’t been for Emma being magical and helping Regina stop the black diamond, she’d be dead!
From Tumblr
What ‘True Love’ apparently looks like.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy