Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

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.

I agree. I would’ve expected Emma to show emotion over losing Neal in s3 after his wake. Instead, it’s like she submerged her real feelings for 10 episodes since then to make out with Hook. I dunno. It just seems like weak writing to me. While I’m glad Neal was remembered, it seems out of place now. The impact of his death should’ve been dealt with in episodes 3×16-3×22, not s4. It’s as odd and haphazardly done as sweeping the old rivalvry betwene Hook and Rumple under the rug for all of s3 only to resurrect it in s4. As glad as I was to see the old Hook-Rumple dynamic, it did feel like it came way too late to be believeable anymore.

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.

Well, I see your point. Here’s the thing though. I doubt that new viewers would jump into S4 without first binge watching the first three seasons. I don’t think people would have a clue what is going on if they seriously had never watched an episode prior to 4×1. They’d be like, who is Regina? What is her relationship to Emma? Why did Regina want to kill Marian? How come Rumple and Hook seem to hate each other? Also, my guess is that for every new viewer who did watch 4×1 without having seen the first 3 seasons, they’ve either caught up or stopped watching. But you may be right that they may have caught up since owing to these mysteries like “who is that guy in the picture that Emma kept?”