Here’s a good essay on Emma and her “attitude”. Maybe we’ve got to stop looking at Emma thru shipper goggles and remember that she is who she’s always been and that’s why Hook loves her. http://buttercupsandhooks.tumblr.com/post/82002105547/heres-the-thing Here’s the thing A lot of you just straight up don’t deserve Emma Swan. I don’t care if I get hate, I don’t care if I get bitched at, I am simply FED UP with the attitude I’m seeing. It’s the same attitude I have hated about this fandom from DAY ONE. Emma’s feelings don’t matter as much as ~insert love interest here~’s feelings. She’s expected to change and magically be the perfect sparkly unicorn baby that never ever hurts anyone, regardless of her own feelings. It’s really very simple. Emma is NEVER — repeat after me, N E V E R — going to turn into some fluffy lovebunny for the sake of a ship. Never ever gonna happen. If you expect ANYTHING different out of her, after everything she’s been through, you simply haven’t been paying attention. Yeah. Hook is doing and saying all the right things. He’s there and he’s perfect for her and we all know it. I say this all as a Killian Jones stan, as well as an Emma stan. And the thing is, she knows it too. She knows it and it terrifies her. You know why it terrifies her? Neal. Walsh. Both these guys all said the right things to her too. They both made her promises and seemed to be perfect on the outset. And she got her heart broken. Both damn times. And yet she’s just supposed to JUMP HEADLONG into the next thing, when she’s still freshly off the sting of the Walsh/false memory incident, AND losing Neal? Are you kidding me right now? You want her to be flinging herself at him, giggling and making moon eyes and basically being everything Emma Swan is not? If that’s what you expect, then you don’t want CS. You want some weird AU bastardization of it. Because, like it or not, this is CS. And Emma is Emma. She is not going to make some big declaration, and you’re going to be waiting a long damn time if you think she will. It’s not gonna slowly build up. She’ll be Emma and keep her walls up until the moment she doesn’t. Anyone remember Good Form? She was pretty damn grumpy with him in that episode and then BOOM. THAT is Emma Swan. She’ll be guarded until the second her guard drops. She won’t make the decision slowly, it’ll come to her all at once. Everyone keeps saying they expect her to warm up to him, but the thing is that she already IS. In EMMA’S way. Trusting him with her son is no matter to be taken lightly. The fact that she backs off just when things get too intense is no coincidence. There won’t BE a declaration, because actions speak louder than words. Emma doesn’t make the big declarations unless she thinks it’s her last chance to do so. She’s not gonna just randomly say she’s falling for Hook, she’s going to show it in other ways — ways that are OBVIOUS, if you pay attention and if you know her at all. Regina, in this episode, entrusted Robin with her heart. Likewise, Emma entrusted Killian with her son. It’s the same thing. Emma needs and wants Killian around, and you can bet your ass if he was gone, she’d feel that loss acutely. Yeah, she keeps her walls up, and she makes her quips and uses sarcasm as a weapon. But the second she realizes that Killian’s serious about wanting to talk to Henry, about wanting to help, you’ll note that all that went away, and it was fluttery lashes and breath catching and heavy swallowing and an awed “You’d really do that?” What the hell else do you want from her at this point? Honestly, it’s a good damn thing that Killian sees her for what she is and understands her better than some of you people do. He wouldn’t be half so enamored of her if she was anything less than the tough lass that she is, the one who bested him from moment one. He’s in it for the long-haul, remember? He doesn’t need or expect anything from her, but he’s still there for her, which is exactly what she needs. Anyone who thinks she doesn’t care about him is fooling themselves. Anyone who expects her to behave any differently hasn’t been paying attention. This is the ship. Take it or leave it, but this is exactly what I signed up for when CS took hold. And I wouldn’t have it — or her — any other way.
I agree with most of this 😉