–How does “many years ago” even make sense for the Wish Realm??? It didn’t exist until last year! (yes, I will continue to find this befuddling!)
This is the only way I can make sense of this in my head: The Wish Realm wasn’t actually created by The EQ’s wish, it was just accessed by the wish. It already existed prior to the wish, and our Emma replaced the Emma in Wish Realm when the wish was made. Perhaps, as someone on here said, there are many, many realms that exist where a different choice was made in the timeline – for example ranging from a realm where Rumple never became the Dark One to a realm where young Snow didn’t tell Cora Regina’s secret. It’s really messy, and I wish Regina, Henry, or Rumple would question all of this to provide us an explanation, but that’s the best I can come up with.
This makes the most sense. Dont forget, the Evil Queen’s actual wish was to grant Emma’s wish of never becoming the savior. It was Regina who claimed it was just a Wish Realm and not real. I wonder what happened to the real Emma in their world though if it was a real place.