Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[dontstopbelievin]

Corbin – with regard to the Rogue Bison – Backread the thread, it’s all in here 🙂

Alright, I must ask everyone: if Neal was resurrected, how would you all feel?

I think the key to the answer to this question is what does “resurrected” mean. If we are getting Daniel ala The Doctor – no thank you. Please just let him rest in peace. But if we are getting MO322 – preservation spell/body swap/flying monkeygate/TLK resurrection, then yeah. If they do it right – really really right – then I won’t go so far as to say ALL is forgiven, but I will hold far less grudge. I mean, 315 is still OOC, unless they want to say the curse (or anti-curse and then subsequent curse… whatever has happened to these folks in and since 311) has altered personalities like the original curse. But if they want to give me back my show – because right now what is appearing on my screen is just not something I am enjoying – then I will take it. But, I think if they’re going to do it right, bringing him back NEEDS to have Emma freaking embrace him as important in her life – “holy cow, I have lost you THREE times, don’t ever do that to me again, I need you,” with her willing to SAY those things to him when not under threat of death or truth-required uncaging. And are they willing to do that? I don’t know. I hope so.

When we speak of MO322, I think about how JMo said that “the best is yet to come” for Emma, with 321/322. If that means the return of her TL in Nealfire, and her actually WILLING TO BE HAPPY for a minute, then I’ll concede that perhaps the death was necessary for the story – because EMMA needed that push of losing him *yet again* and living without him for a while to realize what she was TRULY missing. But… since she appears to be completely unaffected by his death… I am not holding out for that. It’s what would be gratifying to me, as a viewer, to see progression in the story that was 2.5 seasons in the making, but if it’s not what they choose to do? It wouldn’t surprise me, as I watch each episode this season sink further and further into “WTF am I watching.”

I don’t ship SF because I want them bam happy ending together. I want to SEE their story, I want to see them deal with the stuff that A&E so carefully set up. They SHOULD have conversations about the hurt. They SHOULD have conversations about how to move past that. How can Emma deal with the fact that she still loves the person who hurt her so badly? How can Neal deal with his self-hatred over the situation? What about her reacting to the fact that she sort of wished him dead in Neverland – and that she had a hand in his death in the woods? WHERE IS THIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT. How about the fact that we NEVER saw Neal react to the fact that his kid was given up for adoption and just recently located? And, most stuck in my craw at the moment, I would reallllly like to see him fulfill his promise to see his kid again. He was supposed to break the cycle of abandonment… that doesn’t mean “go die in the EF to resurrect your Dad,” that means BE AROUND TO BE A PARENT to your son.

But oh, wait. His story was done. (There is no emoticon in the world that makes an angry enough face to put here.)

If they resurrect Neal, I want it to be for that. Let’s actually DEAL with some of the plot, instead of just villain after villain. And let it resolve the triangle. Because if Emma is still conflicted (although IMO she’s not and never really has been conflicted) after losing a corner of the triangle TWICE, then clearly it’s not that important to her.