Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

It’s a slow warm up but it’s happening.  They are so on the same page.

And Emma will realize what a heroic brother figure/family man Neal really is when she hears from Wendy what he did for the Darling children, even though he was only 14 himself.  Emma is going to notice patterns of Neal’s behavior which demonstrate he’s actually a self-sacrificing, long-suffering man who puts others ahead of himself. She is going to realize her own views of him were really just misconceptions as she realizes Neal has a history of risking his own well-being and doing the brave thing:

• Being willing to fight in the Ogre War
• Trying to save Rumple from himself by going to A Land Without Magic
• Sacrificing himself for the Darling family
• Fighting not to become acclimated as a Lost Boy in NL
• Making a personal sacrifice for Emma to get home to SB to save her family
• Returning to face his demons with his father to save Emma in Manhattan
• Risking his life against Cora/Regina to save his father’s life
• Sacrificing himself by falling through the portal so that Henry wouldn’t have to grow up without Emma

Hook, by contrast, has a history of doing the selfish thing:

• seducing another man’s wife and then challenging a cripple to a duel
• leaving a little boy without a mother,
• general pirating,
• using Baelfire to learn how to kill his father,
• not fighting harder to keep Bae aboard his ship, b
• being an employee of Peter Pan,
• trying to repeatedly kill/wound Belle to get revenge on Rumple
• working for Regina in an effort to get revenge on Rumple
• working for Cora in an effort to get revenge on Rumple
• leaving Emma, Snow, Mulan and Aurora for dead to get revenge on Rumple
• erasing Belle’s memories to get revenge on Rumple
• nearly killing Neal’s dad to enact revenge on him for killing Milha
• nearly getting the town blown up, along with Emma and her family, which resulted in Henry getting kidnapped
• Helping to save Charming, Neal and Henry, but really just so that he can coerce kisses from Emma
• Making a play for the love of Neal’s life, despite Neal supposedly being a “good friend” and son-figure

While people can change their patterns, I’m hoping that Emma will figure out for herself which man has the better track record of putting others first and would  lay down his life for Henry without question. Even if Hook is reforming from his swashbuckling ways, Neal is the true hero of our tale,