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Cute Swan Princess stuff ! Not meaningful as a predictive or sign of intent on the part of the writers, but some creative fans sure do find a way to match things up!
I’ve been thinking about it a bit since having seen the Swan Princess comparison screencaps yesterday, and honestly, I’ve started to wonder if maybe they are actually pulling a little bit of stuff from that story as they write Emma’s story.
I know that Emma Swan is her own original character, she’s not intended to be a character from a story we already know. Swan Princess is one Disney movie they won’t do on this show, simply because they already have a Princess named Swan, so there’s no way they could have another Swan Princess as well.
It’s far from being an exact copy, but there are some similar story elements. In the movie, Odette and Derek are betrothed as a means to unite kingdoms. In the show Emma and Neal are fated, which leads to Henry, which essentially leads to a kingdom being restored when everyone remembered who they were.
In the movie, Odette and Derek are planning to marry, until he says he only loves her for her beauty and she leaves, not believing he truly loves her (which he actually does) and she ends up kidnapped and held prisoner. In the show, Emma and Neal are planning Tallahassee, until he leaves and she believes he doesn’t truly love her (which he actually does) and she ends up being held prisoner.
Odette becomes the victim of a curse that causes her to change form between woman and swan by the moonlight. Emma’s whole crappy lot in life is because of a curse.
After they reunite, Odette’s supposed to go to a ball with Derek where he’ll proclaim his love for her in front of everyone and break her curse. The big bad who put the curse on her in the first place, locks her up and sends someone disguised as her instead. Derek declares his love for the imposter instead, which causes Odette to die. If the guy telling the world he’s in love with an imposter is making you think of Neal being enagaged to Tamara, well, in the Swan Lake ballet, which this movie was based on, the role of that imposter is portrayed as the Black Swan.
Getting back to the movie (which I haven’t actually seen, I’m just getting these plot points from wikipedia, how ever did we survive before wikipedia) Derek seems to be several years older than Odette. In the show, Neal is several years older than Emma. And then there’s that whole bit with Derek giving Odette the pendant with a swan on it, which, blatant much? Judging by some screencaps I saw, I gather that swan pendant is seen again when they’re adults too.
Anyway, basically, I’m not saying that they’re actually copying the storyline of the movie/ballet in such a way as to make Emma = Odette and Neal = Derek, I’m just saying that if they’re not actually gonna do The Swan Princess, maybe they’re pulling a couple of things out of that story to apply them to Emma’s story, just because she is actually a Princess named Swan, so how could they resist.