KFChimera – agreed on all counts (and I love your name! not sure if I’ve mentioned that!)
As I just posted in another thread, I think the writers enjoy putting parallels into both the SwanFire & CaptainSwan relationships to Snowing especially and people see what they want to see which is why some only see the parallels in one pairing and some see it in both.
I think they do this for 2 reasons:
1. It gives everybody something to like (the shippers are VERY divided over this clearly but it gives us all moments to hold onto)
and more importantly…
2. It needs to evolve organically: we need to be able to BELIEVE that Emma would fall for whoever, or might legitimately be torn between the two. I firmly believe before they throw her with anybody, even if it’s just a brief fling, that we’ll be shown something specific / direct that makes us understand because Emma is the least likely person to forgive and believe in somebody right away (part of what scared her so much with Hook and why she tied him up saying she wanted to trust him but couldn’t take a chance she was wrong about him). She’s also much more strong-willed than MM was with the Dr. Whale thing so I don’t see her going down that path either.
Emma’s love life isn’t her primary focus and it’s gonna take a lot to move her in that direction when so many other things are going on. I’m sure we’ll get many adventures involving various people along the way because it’s just not the most important thing going on right now. She makes a great team with both of them and I can’t wait to see more of that so we have more to go on.
Jane Espenson said in her interview yesterday (it’s posted around here somewhere) that she gets the same amount of feedback from the audience loving Neal & hating Hook as she does loving Hook & hating Neal. The audience truly is very split on this (which I totally understand as I am torn occasionally) which means that for everybody out there who hates something with a passion, there is someone else who loves it. It’s a good way to get people invested in the show and trust me I know what it’s like to be on the losing half of that, but I do love the journey we’re on and the chance to see it play out, whichever way they go with it.
Right now we don’t have all the information. We haven’t seen the entire story play out. There’s more to EVERY character on the show than we’ve seen already and some of the things we learn along the way may drastically change how we feel about various people. The thing I loved most about Lost (and now Once) is the characters who CHANGED MY MIND. There were many I didn’t care for at first I ended up loving and vice versa. I’m curious to look back someday and see what we were all saying about various characters along the way and where we ended up.
For now let’s enjoy the ride and just agree:
we all want the best for Emma, whatever that may be.
Keeper of Hook's Trenchcoat.