Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

Henry’s heart cannot be taken willingly It is very possible that this is simply because he has the heart of the truest believer, but you WHY him: becuase of his parents. Henry would not be who he is without being the son of Emma and Neal. So maybe, just maybe, his heart is the heart of the truest believe BECAUSE he is also the product of true love. The most powerful magic in the world. Capable of breaking any curse (like say time running out or magic dying?)

Interesting points you make. So, Henry having a heart of gold is symbolic of him being the truest believer, which results from being the product of both dark and light magic, as well as being a believer in Emma’s ability to break the curse. I like your thinking that Henry having a golden heart is also because he’s the product of Emma and Neal’s true love. His heart is enough for PP to channel the powers of NL to become immortal and to make PP fly simply by believing. I think belief and love go hand-in-hand, since Emma first had to believe in order for her to break the curse with true love’s kiss in S1. Emma, who embodies true love, first had to believe that love is strength, which sent out magic shock-waves, repelling Cora. Likewise, Emma had to believe that her true love magic, combined with Regina’s, could save the entire town and her family from the fail-safe.

As we all know, belief has been a key theme in S3, particularly belief in love. Part of the difficulty Snow and Charming faced in 3×7 was that Charming didn’t believe in the power of their love enough to overcome his fear of condemning his wife staying in NL. In 3×1, Mulan said Neal’s belief in love hadn’t been enough to overcome his fear of rejection.

Neal probably still struggles with his own fears, but he’s finally choosing to believe in love, to face the possibility of rejection, in an effort to get his family back home. He’d do anything to help Emma to save their child, purely because he loves them both to the point of being willing to sacrifice himself for them. As Belle said, do the brave thing and bravery will follow. Neal is actively trying to make up for his previous shortcoming  by now choosing to let his belief in love overcome fear.

Part of what has been holding Emma back from her happy ending has been her own fears of abandonment. Yet, I saw a glimmer of growth for Emma in 3×9 when she adopted her mother’s hope that there must be a way to get Charming off of the island. Emma said, “Family means being together, all of us…Maybe this is just you rubbing off on me, but I don’t believe that. There’s always a way.”  Emma doesn’t want to experience being separated from her parents again, so she’s choosing to let belief that there must be another way off of the island overcome her fears of being without them again. And, guess who’s helping provide that way? Rumple and Neal, who just wants what is best for Emma and her family, by making sure his dad doesn’t name a price for an elixir to heal Charming. This is similar to when Neal let Emma go so she could find her parents and break the curse which had separated them. While Neal not being there for her before might’ve added to her abandonment issues, he’s trying so hard now to help Emma in her belief of letting her family be together.

Just finished my rewatch. The light that shoots out when Henry puts his heart into Pan was the TL rainbow, was it? The same one when Charming woke Snow, or when Emma used her own heart to repel Cora back in 209? (Am I reading too much into this….)

Yes, I noticed that too, and I think it’s a deliberate parallel. The sock-wave that resulted from Henry putting his own heart into PP is very reminiscent to when Emma awoke Henry from the sleeping curse in 1×22 and when Emma’s belief in love sent Cora rippling backward with true love beams shooting out from her chest. The heart of the product of true love, Emma,  helped produce the heart of the truest believer. Love and belief go together.