Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[dontstopbelievin]

Ah, no, I actually agree with Marty on this one. By the time she kissed Hook for real, everything that made her special had been stripped away. Because Emma Swan, the Emma Swan we all love(d) from the past couple of years, would not have done that. They had to strip the character down to absolute vanilla storytelling for it to happen.

Anyways, thanks all for the hugs. I will accept them and try my best not to squirm away. My essay wasn’t meant to be sad, really, but rather ironically hopeful… *I* do not have showrunners dictating how my walls go, it’s just me, and I can make a better choice. I have tried, already, to be present in moments and genuine with people instead of hiding behind walls, it’s only been a day or so but it’s a conscious effort so I will take it 🙂

Finally backread in the thread; first and foremost, Corbin, I am so so sorry for what’s been going on in your home life. I am glad that you’ve found a home and comfort here. I sincerely hope this thread can live on; for those that want to remember SF and for those who want to keep watching Once and process it from the SF perspective.

Here’s the thing, for me, about continuing to watch the show – what makes it so compelling and so dangerous all at the same time. I don’t doubt that they will sprinkle SF things in – something about the storytelling of the last few episodes to me just reeks of “we had to divert course, but we REALLY want to still tell this story, so we’re going to tell it in the background while distracting everyone with this BIG SHINY THING OVER HERE CALLED CS!!” I might be insane, but honestly, the things we picked up on weren’t totally crazy. It’s funny, roomie STILL has this faith that SF is endgame, and I think she’s totally nuts (hi, pot? kettle) but she seems to think that if A&E wanted to tell the SF story, they’ll make sure it gets told, even if it’s just bringing Neal back at the very end of the finale-finale. She might have a valid point; I have no question that this was network interference. I also find it particularly telling that this show really started its hard left with 314. 312 & 313 still seemed to be on track, but 314 just went absolutely nutso – it began with a nightmare and had a horror movie feel to it. And Charming’s nightmare just has soooo much packed into it, but the kicker for me is that mobile – that mobile that featured so prominently in the early days of the show, as a latent prop that we would later find to be important. It spins, wildly, with its dreamcatcher top and its unicorn pendants swinging out as do the chairs on a carnival swing ride.

I guess it’s the optimist in me that won’t die, but I don’t think A&E are unaware of what happened in 3B. Whether they were required to go CS, or whether they opted to sell out, this half of the season truly was a walking nightmare. Everything that there was to LOVE about this show was systematically dismantled, from the death of the Reason and the truncation of the Lost Children story to the OOC of Rumple, the blatant fan pandering (you can’t tell me Hook’s insincere apology to Belle was intended as anything other than, ‘Here, you asked for it, you got it,’) and almost mostly of all the literal retcon of their own story. Seriously? You want to go back to the start of your Truest Love story, on a show about True Love, and *change* it?! They can talk a good talk in the press, but there was no accident that we all felt the turn in a sequence that was literally a nightmare.

So Phee’s theory about watching with SF as endgame isn’t necessarily insane. I know it’s what roomie has said she’d do. For me, the idea of them not having Emma end up with her TL is about as crazy as if Rachel had ended up with Joey instead of Ross. It’s just *wrong,* wrong from the fabric of the show. I suspect they’ll putz around with CS for a while, but without any real heart in the writing the story will fall flat. As long as they know the final will be the final (and not have the show cancelled when they are writing towards renewal,) I think there’s a shot there of redemption for us as SF fans. It doesn’t help, though, that what I’d really like to see here is the journey. But I guess that’s what fanfic is for, right? :/

BTW, Phee, sorry about your encounter with a pirate. Sounds no fun, and I hope he gets the message quite quickly. (Also? Thanks for posting that fic drabble. There need to be about sixty-five more of them written!)

And lastly, Text’s post about twenty pages back regarding what she saw in SF – yeah, that. Brilliant. I adore it, and totally get it. That’s where I become shippy… they were wonderful, beautiful, simple and REAL. I don’t need a prince, I just need a guy who gets me and lets me be me.

[RumplesGirl]

I like Phee’s idea about just believing SF is endgame in order to continue to watch the show. It’s perfectly valid. I just…give up, I guess?

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Lauren]

omg this song came on at my friend’s on the music channel and i nearly started crying cos of the swanfire feels that hit me.. ;( after listening to a few other songs by the band ALOT of their songs remind me of Swanfire Already home is another but this one is the finale OMG

#BOOM #Swanfire #Always #Pancakes #Haven #Fate

[dontstopbelievin]

Oh, I feel ya RG. I’m pretty broken about it… honestly, there were a few things in 322 that felt like passing of the torch from SF to CS (for me, Prince Charles/Charley’s Girl is a huge huge one, and it stings more than it probably should… CG was not initially a SF thing but a NealFire thing, how they managed to hand that over is a pretty special piece of specialness.) So on one hand, all the fight has gone out of me. But on the other hand I look at the bits in 319-22 and wonder if there might not be pieces to dissect, for those that choose to view the story that way. That’s all I’m saying.

Cause this story needs some mending & a better happy ending...

[Phee]

Could have sworn I’d posted something in this thread earlier today, but I don’t see it, and now I don’t remember exactly what it was I said. Bugger.

source

[RumplesGirl]

Could have sworn I’d posted something in this thread earlier today, but I don’t see it, and now I don’t remember exactly what it was I said. Bugger.

source

All he ever did was try to get her home 🙁

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[lunatiger]

Could have sworn I’d posted something in this thread earlier today, but I don’t see it, and now I don’t remember exactly what it was I said. Bugger.

source

 

I’m a little bit sad that they waited this long to show an intimate SF moment such as this. If they’d had show it sooner more people would’ve understood a bit more on where Neal was coming from. Why he did the things he did so that Emma could have a real feeling of home with her actual parents. And not have people so viciously tear him down for just leaving her just because we’ve only heard them mention home but not the real reason why.

*sigh*

[Slurpeez]

I keep thinking back to what might have happened if Neal had decided to stay. Adam said “bad things” would’ve happened if Neal hadn’t let Emma go to jail. But what would’ve happened if he’d met her in Tallahassee after she got out? She went there and stayed there for two years, waiting for him to come. She would’ve forgiven him. Would she have told him about the baby she gave up for adoption? Would they have reconciled? Could Neal have ever have explained to her what really happened to him the night August showed up? She probably wouldn’t have believed him, but I do wonder if Neal and Emma had been living together in Boston when Henry showed up 10 years later if it would’ve all still worked out, the whole breaking of the curse. Would Neal and Emma have gone with their son to SB so Emma could break the curse?

It kind of hurts to think about the what-might-have-beens, especially because Neal didn’t go to Emma when the curse was finally broken. Now, we know he was a child of abandonment who felt Emma could never forgive him for what he did, and that Tamara targeted him the same day August was going to SB via NYC to talk to Neal. Neal’s biggest regret was not going after Emma when he had the chance, as he told Mulan, one he didn’t wish upon anyone. It’s just so sad to me that Neal tried so hard after that to get back to Neverland to help Emma save their son, but then he never even got to be the father he wanted to be to Henry. It’s like Adam and Eddy just tossed away Neal’s redemption in favor of a pirate’s “redemption,” even though said pirate was vying for the same woman and happened to have been in love with Neal’s mother.

I think this is the biggest sticking point I have. Neal’s tale of self-sacrificing, of trying to do the right thing, of making amends, of seeking forgiveness got him no where in the end. Neal may as well have never left Emma, so that she never went to jail, never gave away Henry, and thereby never would have saved the town of SB. After all, what had his father ever done to merit Neal sacrificing his own happy ending with Emma and Henry? True, Emma never would’ve known her own parents, but then again, she would’ve had her family with Henry and Neal. It’s like all Neal ever wanted he gave up to get Emma home, and in the end, the pirate swooped in to claim the honor of being the one Emma found it with in the end. Yes, that pirate who seduced Neal’s mother and helped to destroy his family all those centuries before. It’s so disheartening when you look at the bigger picture of what’s going on, that I want to weep for Emma, because she doesn’t know the full truth of Neal and Hook’s complicated past.  Will she ever discover the past? I have my doubts, especially after the name Milha was danced around in the S3 finale.

"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy

[RumplesGirl]

Will she ever discoed the past? I have my doubts, especially after the name Milha was danced around in the S3 finale.

I won’t be the least bit surprised if Milah is never mentioned ever again and the tattoo Hook has of her name is erased from the show altogether.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[RumplesGirl]

This moment forever

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Author]

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