Reply To: Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

Neal is going to fight for her, but I think we will also see her fight for him. She’s no passive princess (not that Snow or Belle or the others are either!). We have already seen her fight for him, actually. In the scene with Tamara, he gets her back but she’s the one who rushes forward to kick Tamara and body slam her into the ground. The writers chose to have such a big dramatic moment precede the dialog at the portal. They were building up to it. 

Good point! Emma is no damsel in distress. She parallels Prince Charming while Neal parallels Snow White. Obviously, that’s not to say Neal will always be in need of rescuing or that he won’t fight for Emma in return, since Snow White has saved Prince Charming as often as he has saved her. It’s just to say that Snow had to leave Charming when King George threatened to kill him in a similar way to how Neal had to leave Emma when August told him about her destiny. Also, both Charming and Emma have had some epic fight scenes when it comes to saving Snow and Neal, respectively. Emma is also a lot like Charming in that both are excellent at finding the people they love (Neal and Snow respectively). I like that Emma doesn’t necessarily fit the stereotypical passive female role in the relationship; she is an active participant and in many ways the pursuer in the relationship. She was the first to say, “I love you” to Neal both times and he fully reciprocated. While some non-SF fans have been quick to say this is because Emma is more invested than Neal, I have to disagree as a woman. I like that Emma takes a lead role in things and doesn’t just wait for them to come her way. At the same time, I predict we’ll see Neal “fighting like he!!” to get to Emma in S3 (since MRJ said as much at CC). Like Snow also fought for Charming, so Neal will actively fight for Emma.

Obviously, Emma was not going to let the father of her son die, or anyone because that is who she is. The body slam though suggested a degree of emotion in it that played into her words to Neal. She doesn’t “need” him to take care of business. She doesn’t need him to take care of Henry. She doesn’t need him to have love in her life in general. She needs him because she wants to be with him, and I think it had to be in a romantic way. I don’t think it was just old emotions resurfacing.

Emma has never relied a man, and yet, both Neal and Emma were supposed to take care of each other (as Neal said to August). That scene of Emma fighting Tamara for her man is a wonderful demonstration of how Emma will always love Neal. It is not a weakness to need someone because you love him or her. As Emma said, “Love is strength.” Clearly, Emma had a lot of strength when fighting Tamara. While her emotions were resurfacing in that scene (the second declaration of love came from Emma first), I think Emma’s love for Neal has never ceased and vice-versa. She became guarded after Neal left her the first time, but she never gave up looking for him either. She lived in Tallahassee waiting for him, drove the yellow bug for 11 years, and wore Neal’s swan pendant. That shows Emma’s love for Neal has carried her through all of these years, and that her love was just beneath the surface,  which gushed up like a geyser when the pressure mounted. Emma, who is True Love, fought for her love, Neal. I believe Neal already is Emma’s great love, always has been and always will be.

She learned so much about Neal that forced her to reevaluate who he was. He was a man capable of giving up everything for the ones he loves. He stepped up to fatherhood immediately. He would die for a father he had moments before been too angry to even look in the eye. He wanted to include her in his life without demanding she resume the relationship they had before. These things showed a maturity and quiet strength in him that despite the sass they exchanged back and forth, she noticed. Yet she also saw his need, and his pain more clearly. He didn’t just grow up without parents, as she did. Her parents sent her away for her best chance. We didn’t see him open up about everything, but Emma’s met Mr. Gold and heard bits about Rumplestilskin. I think she realizes that while none of his background makes her own pain any less, that in some ways, he suffered even more than she did.

I agree! Not only has Emma heard bits and pieces about Rumplestiltskin, but Neal confirmed to Tamara that his story is in Henry’s book. That means that Henry must’ve read about his father, Baelfire, and how Rumplestiltskin lost him. That means Emma has possibly read Baelfire’s backstory as well so that she now realizes better than ever exactly what he went though. Emma had to live with the uncertainty of her parentage and where she came from for entire life until her 28th year. Neal has had to live with the knowledge that his father abandoned him for over 200 years because of an addition to dark magic. Both suck, but Bae has had to relive that moment over and over again in his nightmare. At least Emma was far too young to remember being put in that wardrobe, and at least her parents did it to save her so she could eventually save them all. Both situations stink, and both Emma and Neal carry a lot of emotional scars over their parents’ actions, but that pain actually allows them to better understand each other and where the other comes from.

Her experiences with Henry prepared her to understand how he must feel about Rumple, because he isn’t just being a coward afraid of his father any more than that is true of Henry and Regina. The writers gave Emma such a unique set of experiences that explain how she would have the perspective to understand and sympathize with Neal’s point of view. She met August who first made Neal aware of the curse so she knew what he was like. She heard her parents story. She herself had to give up Henry. She lied to Henry to give him hope and faced the backlash of his hurt. She knew how it feels to have someone you love be angry at you because you made a choice that hurt them, but you did it with initially good intentions. Parallels are fun, but when they occur out of context to the emotional progress of the character they are more likely to be meaningless. Everything the writers do for Neal and Emma seems to me to be about building situations that keep them apart but enable them to understand each other better. That is the set-up for a great love story.

I agree wholeheartedly! Emma and Neal carry the same type of emotional baggage from having felt abandoned by their parents. And yet, remarkably, both have turned out incredibly well despite it all. They’re both from the same world and both understand the effects of magic. Both Emma and Neal are survivors, both have stolen to survive, and both have reformed to become upstanding citizens. Both Emma and Neal are trying their best to be wonderful parents to Henry, despite having grown up without parents themselves. By the time they do get together (as I believe they will) and after they work out their issues, they’re going to make a great couple and a great set of parents to Henry. While I don’t think it’s sufficient to stay together just because of a child, I do think that Henry offers a sense of deeper connectivity between Emma and Neal that no one else could share. They are a family already, regardless of whether Emma and Neal are romantic partners at the moment. Emma and Neal’s very DNA is enmeshed together in the form of their son, and if Henry goes on to have children, their lineage will continue for generations to come. In that sense, Emma and Neal already are past, present, and future just as I believe their love has been, is and always will exist.