Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[kfchimera]

Slurpeez, your idea of a freaky friday swap would be hilarious from a shipping perspective.

It  would make “Hook” biologically Henry’s father now, and Neal wouldn’t be in a biologically related body.   I don’t know, it’s just all kinds of wacky whacked weird, would force people who insist on a ship for shallow reasons to think and I love it for that.

I think most of us feel about the “bio dad” thing the way CSers (ok most of us) do about Colin’s looks–it is not the most important part of the ship but it is a part of the appeal all the same.  If Hook were also shown as a guy eager for fatherhood, with an instant connection and affection for Henry, that would help CS out in my view, because to me it was not the blood bond but Neal’s attitude that sold him as Henry’s father.  I also felt sympathy as Neal did not leave because he fell out of love, cruelty or was selfishly protecting himself–even if it looked that way for a long time to Emma as she did not know about the curse.

Hook may be written many ways with Henry when they meet.  We all can make guesses from how he approached Bae but the situations were different.  He was using him for self-preservation until Bae charmed him.  It was not enough to know he was Milah’s son intellectually.  He saw his own loss and loneliness in Bae, that was when he wanted to take him in, forget about trading him to Pan.

 

This is very parallel to Owen and Regina.  At first she wanted to get rid of him and his father, but he charmed her when he showed her consideration. Hook too was completely genuine as was  Regina–but it did not change their attitude in general to the rest of the world.  Regina reacted horribly to Owen’s rejection even if she did not want to harm him (even years later she did not, until he tortured her).  She did not feel guilt though or that she owed him much consideration or apologies for what she did to his father.  Hard to tell with Hook and Neal but outwardly Hook says he was a “friend”.  Neal’s father also directly harmed Hook unlike Kurt, so there are differences in the situation too.  Ultimately though, while Regina and Greg ended with no love lost, it would see that Neal is not seeking revenge in the least for the things Hook has done.

So Neal is not Greg, anymore than Hook is exactly like Regina. There are some things in common but how meaningful the parallels are?  That’s hard to say as these writers love to repeat certain themes and so there’s always comparisons we can draw, symbolic or moral in nature to the extremely superficial.

So on spoiler gate It should be good to gauge how the writers portray Henry with Hook.  Will he be in cute polite kid mode as with Tamara? Or in angry sulky mood, as he was after the lie reveal?  If SF is going to work, I feel the writers have to make it clear that Emma won’t bend to what Henry wants, just because he wants it.  At the same time, she shouldn’t be written as choosing someone who doesn’t have concern and care for her son–please don’t Milah her!  It would not be a good character development for her to say “I’m putting myself first and choosing this man, so sorry son, you have another mother and a father, and I’m done.  I’ve suffered so much in my life, I deserve devastating, earth-shaking, pirate….happiness.”  I’m paraphrasing some things I’ve seen around Tumblr there.    Emma should be happy but her son’s happiness also is a factor.  Yet children often don’t understand adult relationships.  There was a bit on How I Met Your Mother on this, where immature, pernnenial childish man Barney wants his mother to break up his bio dad’s marriage to get his bio-parents back together.  It’s that kind of thing I don’t want to see, where Henry forces Neal and Emma despite what would make Emma happy.  If they’re going to do SF, it has to be clear in the storytelling that it is NEAL she wants, not just “Henry’s father”.  Well…a body swap would definitely muddle all of it up and would be one way to top the messed up shock of Pan being Malcom!

 

 

I know they’d never do it, but I think Adam and Eddie probably are the way I am about all the fan stuff.   Or would be if it were my show.   They need to make money.  They need to keep fans happy.  Yet they wrote something and some people are pushing them so hard to turn it upside down and backwards.  I don’t even know how half-joking people are when they say they don’t have sympathy for Mal but do for PP (because Robbie is so cute).   Seriously?

I mean, I do not want my show written by these girls:

Source