Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

CrownedWithLaurels wrote:Even though I still get bothered by everything, even though I still get sad… I choose to remind myself of the things I’ve seen and the things that are certain and the things that I DO know. That’s how we stay sane in the midst of this craziness.

You’re right! Having hope doesn’t mean being blind or not having any fear. It means seeing beyond our fears to believe the future could get better. Insofar as Emma’s story is one about hope, and happy endings always start with hope (especially as they relate to Neal’s survival in the context of 3×6), I have hope even in the darkest night. Emma and Neal love each other, and love casts out fear. And the antidote to fear is hope.

Also, the fact that the writers have known since at least last summer which character would die also suggests the characters’ development has been consistently built up: Hook wants to change and is trying but doesn’t really know how while Neal has been working really hard to get another go. Here is what Eddy said last summer about the “triangle of doom” in an interview:

EDDY: “Obviously, they think Neal is dead. Obviously, Hook is a man that likes ladies, and as we saw last year when they climbed the bean stalk, Emma certainly has captured his heart a little bit. But at the same respect, Neal is fighting like hell to get a second chance with her. And right now Emma is focused on getting Henry. She’s not somebody who likes to let her walls down. Her heart has been broken too many times to be worried about dating right now.”

It’s clear that at the end of S2 and going into S3, the co-creators were writing Neal’s story arc as believing in second chances. They also knew which character would be killed off. It doesn’t make sense on the one hand to build up his character arc to “believe in second chances” and then turn right around and have him die. The writers also knew that Hook’s S3 theme would be “believe a pirate can become a hero” at the same time they knew which character would die. Having Hook be the one to go out in a blaze of glory would actually fit the hows, whens, whys. He’s the one who’s been called “dead guy of the year.” Eddy has called Hook the “eye candy” of the show who’d be fun in Vegas but that Emma wouldn’t look at him as a good father figure to her son. I think A&E are going to stay consistent with the themes they’ve already laid out in S3, and that is why I think Hook is ultimately going to be the one to go while Neal will survive.