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So one big thing that utterly annoys me is when Neal haters throw out that he let Emma take the fall for the watches. First, as I have said a billion times….”Are we watching a different show?”
Let’s look at some facts:
His original plan was to go to Canada WITHOUT Emma as he knew it would only drag her into the trouble.
SHE offered to get the watches and insisted he stay because she loved him.
August had stopped Neal as he was going to meet up with Emma after she retrieved the watches
We NEVER saw who initially called the cops on Emma but A&E have INSISTED it was NOT Neal.
Theories: August called, somehow convinced Neal this was for her own good.
Now you ask, why would he think jail is for her own good? That is a very good question I can’t give a direct answer to but we don’t’ know what August said, only that in the ending scene he did confirm how long she would be in jail
Neal expressed EXTREME regret that she was doing his time that he felt he deserved.Second thing that annoys me is when people say he abandoned Emma because he didn’t want to see his father again
During Tallahassee when he sees August again, he expresses interest in wanting to know when the curse is broken so he can see her again.
In the August/Neal flashback scene when Emma has already arrived in StoryBrooke he still has not denied wanting to see her, only that he’s afraid she wouldn’t want to see him.
He’s admitted to Emma that he did search for her, despite the fact August told him not to
When explaining what he did and why, it’s almost in a similar fashion to how Emma explains giving Henry up for adoption, giving the best chance.-My theory on this is the following: I think in his time with Emma, Neal must’ve gotten some kind of idea of how lonely she was as a child, similar to his own. They had a kindred soul as they believed they were both abandoned children. Him with his father letting go of him and her being left on the side of the road as a baby. So when he finds out from August this is all untrue and that she has parents who had parted with her for her own safety and to save everyone, he learns that she has that potential to have a family, to have those parents they both yearned for growing up. And in that moment he sacrifices himself, basically his need for love and instead of being selfish, because at that point he could be very selfish. Just think about it, he could’ve kept Emma to himself,ensured his father would never regain his memory, and go on with life. But I think he let her go because he wanted her to have that love that he didn’t think he was enough for. He gave her up for her best chance. Why would he abandon her because of his father when he could’ve kept her, kept his dad without his memory, and had a nice happy ending? That’s why I believe he gave her up for that soul reason.
Why give her up when he could’ve taken her? I think that has a hand to do with A&E’s comment of how something very bad would happen and I think August told him this, causing him to make it seem like he abandoned her, just so she woudln’t go after him causing whatever bad thing would happen.So the fact that this whole bit is the main reason people hate Neal and call him a jerk blows my mind. And the fact these same people LOVE Bae but then say he became a jerk. Ummmmmm did you not see the Bae scenes and how Rumple let go of him? How Hook gave him to the Lost Boys and Pan?
His mother left him for a pirate, something he had to find out later in life though he thought at first pirates killed. His father, despite making a promise to him, let’s go of his hand as he’s thrown into a new world, choosing magic over him. Then the man who had stolen his mother way, who promised this life together, ends up giving him to Pan. How the hell would that make you feel in life? And then to top all of that he’s 14 and left in another time, He has no one to protect him, no idea where he is, what the customs are. How would you survive if you had to go off basic instincts? So he turned to being a thief so he could survive. And I’m sure he was pretty bitter about life until he met Emma.
Another thing to look at, during Tallahassee in one scene, Emma tells Neal “I love you” when convincing him not to go to Canada. He looks at her as if he had never heard those words before in his life (still sticking to my head-canon that was the first time she told him). He had always thought he meant nothing to anyone, his mother leaving him willingly, his father, Hook. And now here was someone so adamant to keep him with her and telling him that she loved him and that was the only reason why, no hidden agenda just that she wanted to be with him. You could see that hope and love in his eyes like he only just discovered love.
So how in the hell is this guy some abusive jerk? Abusive jerk is if he kept her from her parents, stuck with her just to have her to himself. But he didn’t do that, he gave her up for her, not for him as it never benefited him in anyway possible.
If you don’t like Neal then you don’t understand Baelfire at all or what he’s gone through. There is no way in hell he was going to retain his purity and innocence after all he has gone through and realized. It’s amazing he’s not in some hardcore therapy! Or hell for all we know he might be! But I just really cannot understand why people say he’s a jerk or he is selfish, etc, etc. If you can give me a good reason, other than ”He abandoned Emma!!111oeeennnnnn” I’ll hear you out and open a discussion. But I’m tired of the same overused excuse that has been refuted by Neal fans and especially by Adam and Eddy.