Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

Remember always to look for the good moments.

And you think having lunch with Neal would be a good moment? x

This story is so incomplete that it could not be resolved in just a few episodes. Emma and Neal have so much love for one another, yet have so many insecurities. They were on their way finally to sit down and just talk, but got interrupted. There is so much lack of resolution, which is why I’m almost certain their story is FAR from being over. Their story is most definitely a slow burn. As Schmacky said, if it weren’t going to happen, then it wouldn’t be happening in the present. From a narrative perspective, you don’t reintroduce an ex-lover just as part of a triangle only for the new guy to get the girl; you do it in order to show the first lovers’ journey home. The new love interest is usually the distraction, not the goal, of the story.

Also, in Emma and Neal’s case, their repeatedly declaring love for one another (to the point of excess some might say) is like hitting home that love is enough to overcome pain, especially in cases where the pain they both feel is from not being together. The only resolution to that kind of hurt in a story about happy endings is to face that pain head-on, not to run from it or to burry it in the sand. Emma must learn to face her fear of abandonment, just as Neal has been facing his fear of rejection. That is why Emma and Neal being together equals CHARACTER GROWTH for both of them. They’re better off together than they could ever be alone. Also, as Emma said, love is strength, and Emma and Neal love one another. They never ceased loving another and never will. Emma loves Neal, and she draws strength from that fact, just as she does her love for her son.

That is why any other contender ultimately doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things to the journey of Emma and Neal finding a way home again to each other. Every time I focus on just the narrative and stop worrying about the outside noise, that is when I see most clearly the story A&E are telling. I’m not phased anymore by rumors or popularity contests. All narrative signs point towards Emma and Neal rediscovering what family, belonging and home mean. Henry’s family always finds each other, and Henry’s family includes his biological parents, (obviously). In a story about second chances, too, it makes the most sense that our core heroine and her beloved would get another go at love together. *believe in second chances* *believe in home*

OMG Slurpeez vey well put. I am marrying your post.