As has been pointed out, she’s the savior, so it’s what she does. Since she actually is TL incarnate, it’s still not clear to me whether it was Emma’s true love for Hook that let her pass so much as it was her heart being made of her parents’ true love that let her pass.
Alas, even though one of these explanations actually makes sense, I do believe they intended the other one. I didn’t even watch the CS scenes properly because I knew they’d make me wanna puke. Played a game on my phone during every one of their scenes to distract me.
Oh they intended the CS one, to be sure. It was done in a clunky and silly way that doesn’t make any logical sense and really does a number on Emma’s mythology…but once again the writers get around canonizing it with TLK which just feels so strangely deliberate. I mean, if there was a moment for CS TLK it was the final goodbye scene at the elevator but *still* no rainbows.
They’ve been canonized but in the most watered down, absurd, underwhelming way possible.