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Hi everyone! This is my first post but have been a fan here since season 1. I’m not a social media person. Have no twitter, tumblr, Facebook nor am I familiar with forums such as these (coding etc) but I am a HUGE OUAT fan. Or was. I will finish this season with the hope that Neal is alive. If he is not I cannot imagine continuing to watch next season. This forum has been so wonderful to come to since “Quiet Minds”. I have found anger when I needed to be angry. Sadness when I wanted to be sad. And hope when that’s all I had left. So thank you!
I ship Emma and Neal. Not because it’s all head canon but because it’s how the writers WERE writing the show. They are/were obviously TL’s. But regardless of my ship, Neal dying not only destroys Emma’s happy ending but the entire crazy rumple/charming/evil queen family. How can rumple and belle truly have their happy ending if Bae is gone? How can the charmings have theirs if their daughter, the savior, who has sacrificed everything, does not get her happy ending? How can Henry have his happy ending if he doesn’t have his father? How can Regina have hers if the most important person in her life (Henry) can’t have his? Neal is so much at the center of this story, of these characters that for him to be dead changes everything we have been shown and told. It changes every arc, every character and the entire story to something unrecognizable.
I do not need Neal and Emma to end up together to be a satisfied fan. But I do need Neal to live. There are so many great theories out there about why he isn’t really dead or ways to bring him back. However poorly I think it reflects on the writers of the show to fake his death AGAIN, I’ll admit I hope it happens. I am not as creative as others on this forum nor am I as familiar with fairy tales, folklore etc but I have my instincts and certain facts that along with all the theories out there allow me to remain hopeful. MRJ has said he wasn’t fired nor did he quit and to stay tuned. No “good lucks” or “nice working with you” from cast mates. It just makes no sense. He is friends with them all. I think this is all a big fake out!
From my limited research it appears the only BTS pics we saw of Neal was way back in November when they had just returned to the EF. And then a spotting on Feb 28th where he filmed in studio. The only thing in between those times are pics he and JMo posted on their twitter accounts of them individually crouching in front of a space heater. Both pics match the outfits they wore in his death scene. Sorry I don’t know how to embed them but pics are still on their accounts posted from Jan 8th which I assume must have been the first thing they shot after the new year break. So from Jan 8th until Feb 28th no MRJ. Now this makes sense if he really is dead cause there would be nothing to film. However if he is alive and this is a fake out they wouldn’t want MRJ sitings. They would want it to appear that he was not filming. I’m hoping he was needed more in studio than on location.
A&E have said dead is dead. Neal is dead. But that doesn’t mean Baelfire is dead. And I’m not hoping for a Pinocchio type situation. Just a “his name is actually Baelfire, not Neal” kind of situation. We know A&E choose their words carefully. We have all been robbed of Nealfire’s back story and his current story. There are too many kitchen table conversations that haven’t happened. Too many situations about his life that have not been explained. My hope is that he is alive, with or without complications and next seasons story lines are about Baelfire. Considering his importance to every aspect of the story and characters it would be nice to focus on him for a while.
Okay so that’s my long winded chaotic HOPEFUL rant.