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I went and had coffee and took a shower and came up with a more shippy archetype essay.
Thinking about archetypes, this is another reason why I think SwanFire is endgame. Emma *is* her archetype: she is the savior. For all that A and E are creative and innovative, they’ve stuck pretty close to the heroes journey as laid out by Joseph Campbell. If you think about the most popular savior figures in the past 100 years a few spring to mind–Frodo Baggins, Luke Skywalker, and Harry Potter. Emma Swan fits pretty neatly with those guys because A and E don’t subvert archetype so much as they subvert gender, Emma instead of Emmett for instance. Most of you (if not all of you) have read or seen some (if not read or seen all) of the books/movies of those male characters. Similarities out the wazoo, right? Orphan, a call to adventure (Henry in the Pilot, Gandalf to Frodo, Obi Wan to Luke, Hagrid to Harry), the refusal to be part of the adventure and so on and so forth. Emma fits right in, it’s just that’s she’s a girl.
However, with that said, one of the biggest differences between Emma Swan and those other guys is that she is continuously trying to reject her archetype. She knows she is the Savior but she doesn’t really want to be and if she could, she’d get out of it. Think back to the episode Lost Girl, Emma sitting in front of Peter’s map trying to figure out its secrets. When she starts talking to the map, she doesn’t automatically go to the “savior” role even though it’s the most obvious–why would Pan care about the more mundane aspects of Emma’s Swan’s life, right? But Emma lists the things that are important to her–she’s from Boston, she’s a bail bondsperson, she’s the sheriff, she’s Henry’s mother. It’s only with prompting that she begins to go more mythic–daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, the offspring of true love. And still she hesitates before giving her archetype, “the S word” as Regina says, rolling her eyes. For Emma, being the Savior is something she has to do, not something she wants to do. And what does she want to do: be Emma Swan, mother, sheriff, daughter, normal. Her archetype doesn’t define her in her eyes and she *really* doesn’t want it to.
I think there is a reason why they keep having Hook call her in the Savior in passing. Hook is an archetype just like she is–the Sailor, the Pirate. But unlike Emma, he revels in his archetype. He enjoys it. So much so that instead of rejecting his archetype after Liam died, he simply moved to a darker version of it. Hook is at his best when he’s fighting giants, sailing the high seas, climbing beanstalks, rescuing ladies, ect. Hook sees Emma has being on par with him, two archetypes that should be working in tandem and in love. The Pirate and the Savior. When you reduce them to their archetype, it makes a lot of sense. So Hook rarely calls her “Emma,” he calls her “Swan” or “Savior, constant reminders that she’s an archetype.
But now look at Neal. Like I said a few posts up, Neal suffers from “lack of archetype” syndrome. He’s not really any specific stock character–the closest one being “the lost son,” but Nealfire doesn’t feel like a lost son after 300 years. His father, Rumple, tries to make him feel like the lost son but Neal has more or less rejected that label once he found Emma and their home.
Sound familiar? In the same way that Emma rejects her archetype of Savior, Neal no longer considers himself the lost son. He has moved beyond the mythic to the human. His main characterization now is that he’s a man in love, fighting for the woman he loves and his family. Neal can give Emma what she wants–the human life, even though Emma will also always belong to the mythic realm as the Savior. Neal never refers to her as the Savior, just Emma. To him, at the end of the day, Neal doesn’t love the Savior (he doesn’t unlove her either) but he loves Emma. And that’s what Emma wants–someone who loves plain ol’ Emma, not the SAVIOR.
(that was long) (maybe I need to stop drinking coffee)
I love the way you put that into perspective RG
Sound familiar? In the same way that Emma rejects her archetype of Savior, Neal no longer considers himself the lost son. He has moved beyond the mythic to the human. His main characterization now is that he’s a man in love, fighting for the woman he loves and his family. Neal can give Emma what she wants–the human life, even though Emma will also always belong to the mythic realm as the Savior. Neal never refers to her as the Savior, just Emma. To him, at the end of the day, Neal doesn’t love the Savior (he doesn’t unlove her either) but he loves Emma. And that’s what Emma wants–someone who loves plain ol’ Emma, not the SAVIOR.
This totally fits with how Emma regards Baelfire, “He was always just Neal to me.” She knew him and loved him before she knew he was Baelfire, son of Rumplestiltskin. Likewise, Neal knew Emma and loved her before he knew she was destined to break the curse. She was always just Emma to him. That’s not to say he doesn’t support her being the savior; in fact it was because she was that he let her go to fulfill her destiny and to save their people. Neal realized that the simple, everyday life they dreamed of in Tallahassee would prevent Emma from finding Storybrooke. Without Henry being adopted by the Evil Queen, Emma wouldn’t have found the undetectable town nor accepted she was magical. Emma only reluctantly accepts her mythical status, and she’d much rather have a “normal” life with Henry and arguably with Neal, the man she loves. Emma didn’t ask to be made the savior or for any of it. She told August it was “crap” and that she didn’t want any of it. She thinks the price of her being the savior means not getting to have Neal in her life, because the curses have always meant being separated from him. I think in S3b we’re going to see Emma rediscovering what it is she really wants, which is home, family and the missing piece to the puzzle: Neal.
Slurpeez I couldn’t agree with you more
I think in season 3B we will see Emma & Neal work through alot of the issues they had from Season 2 & Season 3A The only difference being now is that Emma like everyone else had in Storybrooke has two sets of memories her real memories and her cursed memories that Regina gave her & Henry in both in 3×11. I think it might make things easier for her & Neal both in one aspect to workout their issues. I believe it will be a journey of rediscovery for both of them because as Slurpeez & RG have both said Neal & Emma are both children of Iconic Fairytale characters at the end of the day neither one of then really carry about their archetype status the only things they care about is just being themselves Neal & Emma not being the son of the dark one and the product of true love and the savior. By the end of 3B I believe they will be back together. There is no question in my mind that they are indeed Endgame Just like Snow & Charming and Rumple & Belle because I see a lot of parallels in Emma & Neal’s story that tie into the stories of both Emma parents & Neal’s father & stepmother.