The way I see it…Emma and Neal absolutely loved each other. You are allowed to love more than one person and they declared their love on numerous occasions. And it was also their first love. Which is why in the caves, Emma tells Neal that she probably will always love him. That makes so much sense to me.
However, Emma and Hook also love each other. You don’t need some wonky curse-breaking kiss or some plot macguffin thing in the show to prove that they have true love. Both characters stated it was true love. Other characters on the show stated it was true love, and the way Emma and Hook feel about each other on such a strong emotional level shows it’s true love.
I honestly feel that if anyone on either ship says either SF or CS isn’t true love, they are massively bitter. And I would get why a SF fan might be bitter and say that CS was not true love (despite how wrong that is). But I do not understand why a CS fan would say that about SF. You won. She ended up with Killian. She married him and they each exchanged beautiful vows and the show has basically said multiple times that it’s true love. So what’s the issue? Why is it that Emma can only have found true love with one person? Does it make her relationship with Hook less symbolic and not as powerful if she shared something similar with Neal?
For me, Neal was first love. Very powerful, very real. She still loves him today. How could she not after all they shared? Hook and Emma’s relationship is unique and very different from Emma and Neal’s. But just bc both were different from each other, doesn’t mean they both weren’t true love. Their relationship is also very powerful and very real.
As far as the next season regarding Hook, they need to find some motivation for this character that has nothing to do with Emma, or getting back to Emma, or his revenge on Rumple. Something else. Hook is a really cool character and I’d love to find out who his mother is someday as he’s pretty much the only main member of the cast who still hasn’t had both parents revealed. I wanna see the Hook I fell in love with before it was ALL about Emma.
Oh, and yes, Hook was a lost boy. To deny that is pretty ridiculous. However, Neal was also a lost boy, in a different way. Both were “abandoned” by their fathers. And potentially both were abandoned by their mothers as well. Milah walked out on Neal (ironically no thanks to Killian) and since Killian’s mom hasn’t been in the picture, one could assume she abandoned him too. For me, it is way more interesting to see the parallels between Hook and Neal than to pin point their differences. I honestly would have liked to see Neal and Hook on screen more (and not just fighting over Emma).