Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

HELLO GIANT PARALLEL X

Yup! Both Charming and Rumple probably have the same fear at their core: that they failed their children, Emma and Neal, respectively. Their actions had long-lasting consequences on their children. Both Emma and Neal have severe abandonment issues as a result of traveling through a portal to A Land Without Magic. Emma was too young to remember actually being put in the enchanted wardrobe, but she has always felt like an orphan, a lost girl without a home. At 14, Baelfire was old enough to remember his father letting go of his hand, and he has had recurring nightmare ever since. He’s a lost boy who had to live on his own in a cave in Neverland for over a century because of his father.

No wonder both Emma and Neal have had such a hard time letting down their guards. When Neal  let Emma go so that she could break the first curse, it ate away at him, and he tried to lose himself. He did eventually get his act together, got a real job and a place in NYC. He even found himself a fiancée, (but who turned out to be evil). He tried to move past his guilt, his feelings of unworthiness of Emma’s forgiveness, and so he settled for the love Tamara seemed to be giving him. Likewise, Emma managed to get her life in order, too, after she got out of jail. Her abandonment issues were strong as ever, yet she still spent two years in Tallahassee after she got out of the system.  Interestingly enough her cursed memories told Emma that she ended up in NYC, too, because of a fire.  You could say that a fire was lit under her to find a home in Neal’s hometown. I’m sure that is a hidden clue that Emma’s idea of home has been and always will be wherever Neal’s home is.