For me, when I first watched Tallahassee, I wasn’t impressed much with Neal. I never disliked him or hated him. I understood love is sacrifice and that’s what he was doing the first time. But it just didn’t speak to me.My second watch all the way through, the second time I saw Tallahassee about a month later, I got it. It clicked for me. Their chemistry, and MRJ’s portrayal of Neal. I saw the subtlety of his face portraying different emotions. When I finally got sucked in to the emotion of the entire series, I was able to see the depth of Tallahassee. The depth of Neal. The depth of the emotions. It’s still amazing to me, to this day, how much MRJ can portray just through the variations in his FACE alone.
And during that second watch, I realized there had to be more to his character than setting us up just to dislike him for leaving Emma. It was so so so clear to me in that moment. So, while I understand the initial flatness some people talk about seeing, I know how quick it changed for me once I really watched it through different eyes.
Also, Baelfire was probably my biggest tearjerker the first time I watched the series back in Nov/Dec of last year. I realized this whole series has been basically “about” him and Rumple’s search for him has effected everyone. When the hunches came that Neal was Bae, I couldn’t have been happier. I think his character has been right along the lines of Bae. In fact, Nealfire went through 309849048900494804930895089 times worse things for 300 years than anyone on this show yet that’s not an excuse. He’s still pure. He’s still full of love. We hear “evil isn’t born, it’s made”, well most of that “made” is a choice because Bae has still chosen light and not darkness. Evil has tried to make him since day one, and it hasn’t won. He’s still as sacrificial as ever and we’ve seen that play out with the series finale and in S3. Sacrifice is an unwavering proof of true, pure love. You’re not going to sacrifice your entire life, everything you know, even unto death if there is no love in your heart. Why do it at all?
While lack of sacrifice doesn’t equal lack of love, sacrifice most definitely proves pure love.
And that is where and how I connected. It did have a lot to do with Baelfire from the beginning. I feel like it’s depth in a non-flashy way. Humility and internal resolve. He’s had to have it over the years otherwise, he never would have made it. *sigh*
* weeeeps in the corner for hours*
P.S. a link to a new Swanfire chatroom has been going around tumblr. I haven’t spent much time in there yet, so we’ll see how it goes but I’ll give it a shot.
Keeper Nealfire's/Bae's scarf, Henry and Neal's bribery ice cream sundae, Baelfire's sword, the coconut map, and more.