Hello!
I’ve been lurking in this thread a little while and just wanted to tell you all thank you for posting such pretty Swanfire things and thoughts!
Honestly, I didn’t know what a ship was until a few weeks ago and just came on this site to see thoughts about Neal and Emma after I found myself a little unhappy with the little screen time between Neal and Emma in the midseason finale.
I’m just a loyal OUAT viewer- Don’t normally look at spoilers (until now!) and been seeing a few comments in this thread about what a casual viewer might think about the CSF love triangle. Just wanted to let you all know that until episode 5 (the CS kiss), I didn’t realize there was a love triangle- just thought that Emma and Neal NEEDED to find each other in Neverland and how tragic it was that she thought he was still dead. To me, I always thought Emma and Neal were endgame but can’t be together yet because… well most shows don’t put their endgame couple together without a few obstacles. And my mom and I watched all of season 3 over the holiday break (she hadn’t seen any season 3 episodes so we had a OUAT marathon!) and my mom had actually forgotten a lot of info from season 2 and somehow got it in her mind that Neal and Emma were married- she kept calling Neal Emma’s husband (lol). Sorry, I am rambling, but I just wanted to give you all a little insight in how a casual viewer might see the whole love triangle thing.
I did want to say that I am a big fan of Hook and wished they had given him a better storyline in the first part of season 3. Would still love to see the deal he made with Pan to get out of Neverland and how he and Bae kept in contact after he let the lost boys take Bae from the Jolly Roger… I mean, how did he know where Bea’s cave was? Did they ever reconcile about Milah? After rewatching the season 2 finally, it was pretty clear to me that the reason Hook went to Neverland with Emma and the gang was because he felt he needed to help Bae’s son because of some kind of father-like relationship with Bea and regret that he let the lost boys take Bae in the first place. I would love to see some real Neal and Hook interaction this second half of the season because I just love both these characters.
Oh- my thoughts on the midseason finally: (Sorry this is so long… turns out I’ve had a lot of thoughts about OUAT I needed to write down) What I really wanted to see was Neal’s little conversation with Henry once Emma started heading towards the bug. I love that father-son relationship, and wish they had shown what Neal told Henry, but I imagine Neal said “Don’t worry buddy- I’ll find you and your mom. Family always finds each other”. I know Neal was trying to keep things light so Henry would not get too worried. I think that it was so brave and selfless of Neal to do that so Henry could have hope to see him again. After watching the episode again I noticed that as Regina was telling Emma about escaping the curse and Snow is telling her that she has touched the lives of everyone there is a brief shot of Neal and his face as he is registering that Emma and Henry are leaving him. To me, there seems like panic in his eyes about losing the two people he loves most, but you can almost tell he is formulating some sort of plan right there to see them again.
Anyway… just wanted to say how much I adore the whole Swanfire Family! Writing some of my thoughts down was a lot of fun! I might be popping in here and there adding to the Swanfire love. Thank you guys for posting such beautiful things- can’t wait until March!