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I’m not trying to give false hope to anyone nor give A&E too much credit. At the same time, I’m analyzing it the way I’ve been trying to all along. I go back to something Eddy said in season two:
I understand that and I knew you’d bring up Eddy’s quote (it’s your go-to one, even 4 years later). But the problem is that was S2. That was before Neal died. That was before ABC pushed the living daylights out of CS and Hook because they think that’s where their profit lies.That was before A and E had to run a show that wasn’t based off ten years worth of planning and work. I don’t believe A and E remember even half of what they said prior to the reset button of 3×11, nor do I think they care to remember.
Should Eddy’s sentiment come back up in the show and play out, I think it far more likely that they’ll say “Emma chooses herself. The heroes journey ends with self actualization and knowledge of the internal, and Emma is choosing herself with Hook, and with Henry and with her whole family. The orphan found her place in the world and was happy.” I mean, it’s the same thing they would have said had Neal not died. Hook’s just standing in for what should have been (the Lost Boy and the Lost Girl coming home). Hence why in interviews, they speak about Hook’s story as if it was the same as Nealfire’s–the lost kid, the sad family, the hope of finding your place in the world someday. The difference is that Neal/SF isn’t/wasn’t the epitomization of rape culture, but A and E don’t get this (again, see my above and the fact that they can’t be super enlightened in this one regard when they continue to be so traditional and by-the-book about all other areas of cultural/socitial changes/movements and the “others” of said society). A and E simply think they can substitute in one character for another still have the same story.
A lot of it goes back to the heterosexual male privledged gaze–they could never convince of the fact that they did something wrong, and that their product (their creative work) is flawed and not even remotely the same as it once was. That’s why it’s like pulling teeth to get them to admit that they mess up! It’s always “keep watching!” or “no it wasn’t an error, we know the timeline!” or “it’s something we hope to explain one day” when they have no such intentions, they just literally can’t say “yeah, we have no idea what we’re doing.” For example, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when we want to look at Emma’s internal struggle and emotional journey,a lot of the quotes come from JMo–not A and E–a person who, at the end of the day, has no knowledge of where the show is headed nor has any contribution to her character’s story (Sean’s exit interviews speak about this, and JMo’s Nerd Con panel at SDCC speaks LOADS about how she might really feel about Emma’s character/OUAT…but it’s not something she can control or influence)
ETA: and I’m not trying to dismiss your analysis (they are extremely good, always have been) and I’m not trying to rob anyone of their hope that Emma might break with the pirate once and for all but if we’re going to have these kinds of conversations I think it’s important that someone play the other side of argument–the “never gonna happen” argument. And to be hyperbolic, I think there’s a greater chance of me sprouting wings and flying than there is of A and E breaking up CS at show’s end.