Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[kfchimera]

Interesting thoughts Phee.

Hook does have different conflicting emotions, as do Emma and Neal as well at different points in time. The media and fans on twitter seem to mostly want to talk about romantic love, but there’s more going on.

Neal is curiously chill about encountering Hook again. In Manhattan Emma tells Neal that Hook won’t hurt any of the rest of them. She tells him that she does not think Hook would be a problem when Neal says he escaped. Neal’s last encounters with Hook that we saw onscreen should have given him every reason to argue and question her word on that. Especially if you think Neal undermines Emma because he is of course the stereotypical jerk ex. Neal believes Emma quite a bit, supports her, but he is not the kind of guy who swaps sides in a heartbeat. It is hard for him to just toss aside his emotions about Tamara without solid evidence of wrongdoing. Yet he kind of does about Hook.

He is the one that asks Emma if leaving Hook behind is a problem, almost like he is concerned about him. Hook handed him over to the Lost Ones, stabbed his father, and ran away with his mother, and all he says is “It’s a long story.” He could have said “Don’t trust that guy.” or “I hate that guy.” “He ruined my life”. Four words to convey the pain and angst we’d saw him express at 14, but he keeps it all in. The writers hid this backstory from us, and had Neal conceal it from Emma.

Then there is the scene where Bae tells Hook about the dagger. He trusted Hook deeply despite their short acquaintance to reveal he is the Dark One’s son, to reveal the existence of that dagger. I don’t think he tells just anyone that information. Even if Bae’s desire to protect his papa weren’t there, the fact is, Bae knows what happened to the last person who even came close to finding about it and she was mute. His father killed her. As Bae tells Hook, he reveals he thinks the crew might be frightened to learn the Dark One is his father. But he doesn’t think Hook would be. Bae was a brave kid who didn’t want to make others suffer, but he tells Hook all this because he feels he can trust him and from Bae’s side it has nothing to do with Milah. The father/son thing might come a little in how Hook looked at Bae because of Milah, but Bae felt that trust without knowing that connection.

When he finds out about his mother, he jumps to a conclusion about Hook despite the earlier trust. He feels betrayed and he flies at Hook, saying “face me villain.” He doesn’t wait to get Hook’s side of the story. He’s 14, I don’t blame him. Not only are you not mature mentally, you have all those hormones and things at that age, and it would not be too believable if he didn’t fly off the handle. Trust is a HUGE deal to kids, and is a theme in the Peter Pan story and in OUAT itself. Bae should have been outraged, and if Hook were less damaged and experienced with kids himself, perhaps he could have more calmly handled Bae. Yet circumstances didn’t give them that time. The Lost Ones show up pretty quickly, and I do not believe Hook planned that, but I do think he rolled with it. Live to fight another day, as Hook tells Charming at one point. Pirates DO have to change teams in an instant as a matter of survival.

I think both Bae and Hook regretted that moment. It may have taken Neal growing up more to look back on it differently, perhaps being in the position he was with Emma, to realize that things aren’t always what they seem. Yet I think he got there, and it was part of his reason for resisting what Emma was saying about Tamara.
Neal wasn’t distrusting Emma so much as he was unwilling to leap to a conclusion about another person who he thought loved him, as he had in the past about Hook.

I think it is funny that Neal is ready to get Emma’s back against Tamara IF she has Regina. Regina tried to kill him and his father and tried to brainwash his son into loving only her. He doesn’t even ask the question I know I asked. “Just a thought Emma, but is what she is doing really bad? We’re talking about the Evil Queen?” Nope, he wasn’t going to let Tamara carry out her plans whatever they were. Tamara points out, he of all people should understand her anti-magic agenda, but he doesn’t side with her. He doesn’t do even a tenth of the justification we see fans do for all the bad acts of various characters on the show.

The kind of thing I’m doing right now actually, trying to understand someone’s point of view in a way that puts it in the best light. Obviously on a shipper thread you’ll slant things one way or another but I like to keep my sense of logic when I do it. So I’m not excusing that Neal was a bit blind about Tamara, but I don’t think he was unreasonably blind about it to the point where Emma would feel hurt over it. She’s had experience lately having to believe crazy things, but it doesn’t make it easier to make sense of everything. I think she’d cut him slack on that one.

Some fans though don’t want to cut him any slack. Yet to me it is just as complicated to say Hook trusted Cora not Emma as it would be to say Neal trusted Tamara not Emma. Yet back to Hook and Neal, and their broken bond–I think it affected both of them profoundly. I do think they both wished they had handled it differently in hindsight. So it led to both of them doing things in the finale, created obstacles to their willingness to trust Emma, but in the end they both did.

If the writers toss that history aside to write teen soap style enemies turned lovers with Hook and Emma, with Neal in the role of “why was she ever with that guy” obstacle, I fear it would make all three more shallow characters than I think they are now written to be. They do not exist in a show that is only about the three or even two of them, or even a pure romance genre story. We have seen back story and point of view for all three, but obviously a lot of fans bifurcate Neal from Bae, just like they do Hook from a barely glimpsed “Killian Jones”. Both men have their own “they were once”, they are both, and this season “they are truly” story to tell. I doubt Hook’s story is that he only cares for himself, or even only for himself and Emma, and I doubt Neal’s will be that too.

So because of all that, when I see Eddy saying things like Hook has his sights set on Emma, I am pretty confident there is more to the story, there always is with this show.

[PriceofMagic]

Well put kfchimera

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[Slurpeez]

In other words, Emma and Baelfire have always been destined for one another.

"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

[PriceofMagic]

Adam also tweeted that first love doesn’t necessarily mean true love.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[RumplesGirl]

Adam also tweeted that first love doesn’t necessarily mean true love.

But the opposite is also true. Sometimes first love is true love. A la Snow and Charming.

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

[Slurpeez]

PriceofMagic wrote: Adam also tweeted that first love doesn’t necessarily mean true love.

But the opposite is also true. Sometimes first love is true love. A la Snow and Charming.

Yes, precisely. Just because two people find love when they’re young doesn’t mean it won’t last. Charming and Snow are the best example of that in the show. They’ve faced struggle upon struggle, but it’s only enhanced the love they have for each other. As Charming said, “What’s 28 years when you have true love?”

"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

[Slurpeez]

Eeeee!

"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

[kfchimera]

That’s something! I expect flashbacks because I think MRJ tweeted something about J.Mo not letting him drive. I hope though it is Neal getting to NL.

“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

[RumplesGirl]

Oh huzzah. I was worried it was going to be a long hard separation.

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

[heatherc1275]

That’s something! I expect flashbacks because I think MRJ tweeted something about J.Mo not letting him drive. I hope though it is Neal getting to NL.

Those tweets were for last year’s Tallahassee episode. I don’t think he’s tweeted much OUAT related aside from when he headed back to Vancouver to start filming in July and I know he tweeted some stuff during ComiCon this summer. He tweets a lot about college football in the fall and he’s a HUGE Michigan fan. Just so you guys know, don’t ever disagree with him about something college football related because you might find yourself in a 25 minute Twitter argument with him over it….and yes, I’m speaking from experience here (just a few weeks ago in fact), LOL 😉

#MoreBOOMLessGloom

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