Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[dontstopbelievin]

Okay, to follow up on my last post. I had a few other random thoughts about the scene/epi/whatever.

RG –

I agree. I wasn’t horrendously nauseated by them like I normally am, but it’s because the emotional loadstone was coming from just Emma and from her box-o-happiness, the big tipping point of which was Neal.

Yeah… like I said in my letter above, they traded on a genuine emotional touchstone to get there. And honestly, I don’t know how I feel about it, I feel like I should want to rant and rage and whatever but I just… can’t get angry. I don’t have any anger in me today (letter of this morning excepted,) I just have no fight left I guess.

This scene, though, is what I expected starting in 316 or 317. It’s what I anticipated; kill off Neal and then allow CS to bond as Emma grieved to have them in a logical place to get together by 322. If they had put this scene in 317/318, had him be a sensitive friend, THEN I could see her falling for him by 322. I wouldn’t have loved it, but it would have made sense, so much more sense than continuing to emphasize his villainy. I don’t understand why they persist on shoving CS down our throats while undermining their rooting power. Believe it or not, I am not an unreasonable viewer; I can accept a ship that’s not mine (not love it, but accept it,) if you tell the story well and logically. This scene – or a similar scene – placed AFTER his death and BEFORE you shove these two characters together makes a logical bridge. Now, it just smacks of too little, too late.

Another thought I had is that presumably, that photo is the first time Hook – or anyone, really – has seen evidence of SF’s happiness. If we go out on a limb and assume no important conversations happened offscreen, all anyone knows is that Emma loved Neal a lot, they had a relationship serious enough to have Henry and he broke her heart. Every present-day discussion SF had about Tallahassee/we were happy once/etc were private conversations – their conversation on the beach, their conversation in the woods, etc. So Emma’s friends and family don’t know about their time together, the importance of certain things to them – like, with the exception of Rumple (if he even remembers) does the word “Tallahassee” mean anything to anyone else? – or presumably even the watches. One would assume that if she loved him that much there were good times in the past, but no one has actually SEEN it, it’s not like Emma’s one to tell stories where anyone would have seen her light up like a kid at Christmas (or that she would) or that there are lots of old photos or whatever.

If they wrote Hook with a brain – which they won’t – they would connect the moment where he was all, “A smile?” after 2.0 was born and the smile she has in this photo, which is that bright, true grin she ONLY has ever gotten when Neal was around (from their time together in Tallahassee through the walk in the woods in 315.) Because there is a marked difference in her being content – which she has been at times since Hook has known her – and her being HAPPY, which is an Emma Swan rarity. He’s never seen her with true, unbridled happiness, and that should present a conundrum. It won’t. But it should.

And lastly, we’ve talked about so much of this season being geared toward the new viewer… what does the new viewer DO with that? A photo of Emma and a guy, she clearly adores him and is broken up about the photo, no dialogue, if I knew nothing about the show I’d be, “Who is that and what’s THAT story?!” Not sure if I’d be curious enough to go digging, but… I’d be curious, for sure. So it was an interesting choice on that front.