Emma + Baelfire = Swanfire

[Slurpeez]

CrownedWithLaurels wrote:Even though I still get bothered by everything, even though I still get sad… I choose to remind myself of the things I’ve seen and the things that are certain and the things that I DO know. That’s how we stay sane in the midst of this craziness.

You’re right! Having hope doesn’t mean being blind or not having any fear. It means seeing beyond our fears to believe the future could get better. Insofar as Emma’s story is one about hope, and happy endings always start with hope (especially as they relate to Neal’s survival in the context of 3×6), I have hope even in the darkest night. Emma and Neal love each other, and love casts out fear. And the antidote to fear is hope.

Also, the fact that the writers have known since at least last summer which character would die also suggests the characters’ development has been consistently built up: Hook wants to change and is trying but doesn’t really know how while Neal has been working really hard to get another go. Here is what Eddy said last summer about the “triangle of doom” in an interview:

EDDY: “Obviously, they think Neal is dead. Obviously, Hook is a man that likes ladies, and as we saw last year when they climbed the bean stalk, Emma certainly has captured his heart a little bit. But at the same respect, Neal is fighting like hell to get a second chance with her. And right now Emma is focused on getting Henry. She’s not somebody who likes to let her walls down. Her heart has been broken too many times to be worried about dating right now.”

It’s clear that at the end of S2 and going into S3, the co-creators were writing Neal’s story arc as believing in second chances. They also knew which character would be killed off. It doesn’t make sense on the one hand to build up his character arc to “believe in second chances” and then turn right around and have him die. The writers also knew that Hook’s S3 theme would be “believe a pirate can become a hero” at the same time they knew which character would die. Having Hook be the one to go out in a blaze of glory would actually fit the hows, whens, whys. He’s the one who’s been called “dead guy of the year.” Eddy has called Hook the “eye candy” of the show who’d be fun in Vegas but that Emma wouldn’t look at him as a good father figure to her son. I think A&E are going to stay consistent with the themes they’ve already laid out in S3, and that is why I think Hook is ultimately going to be the one to go while Neal will survive.

[Slurpeez]

Lovely things

"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]

Another lovely

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

[Slurpeez]

Also, this new tweet from Adam also indicates that he and Eddy have not forgotten that Hook has wronged people like Belle. Adam even admits Hook ought to be sorry for what he did to her. Hopefully, this will be addressed in the show and suggests Hook’s past sins won’t be brushed under the rug!

"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]

I saw that tweet earlier and cheered. I do hope that if Hook is going to die the big set up will be (in essence) his mea culpa. He apologizes to the people’s he’s wronged–torturing Regina, punching (!) Belle, trying to kill Belle several times, and the ultimate apology–Nealfire, giving him to the lost boys. If Hook starts clearing his soul in S3B then I think the death spoiler is really pointing to him. That’s what people do before they make giant sacrifices.

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

[heatherc1275]

Link to an awesome Tumblr blog post about Neal: http://swans-glasses.tumblr.com/post/76180430113/lunarblue21-nealfire-this-is-in-response-to

Highlight:

He is still the same person, that’s why I love him so much, because his core remained, despite all the abandonment and loss he’s had to go through… because Neal still has Baelfire in him. Hell, even his name, Neal, implies that he hasn’t forgotten who he truly is, but trials can change person and he has made some mistakes, but you know why I really love Nealfire?

Despite all of his big mistakes (that are rather glaringly obvious) here is a man who would sacrifice himself in a moment for those he loves. 

 

#MoreBOOMLessGloom

[Slurpeez]

Also, can we please remind ourselves that we don’t know what is happening plot-wise? All we have are a few out-of-context leaked photos from S3B. Here is another new tweet from Adam after people bombarded him claiming they know Hook and Henry are bonding, etc….Adam maintains we don’t know diddly squat. Remember when the photos for 3×11 of Hook and Emma were leaked and CS fans claimed they must be on a date? Well, no, actually Emma was on her way to have a date with NEAL. When photos of 3×12 were leaked of Emma and Hook in NYC, the CS fans were quick to say it’s because Emma chose Hook and they were having a romantic weekend away in NYC. Well, actually no, Emma’s not even in her right mind in 3×12. Adam told us then it’s #NotWhatYouThink, and low and behold, it turns out to be something totally different.  The abundance of photos of Hook, Emma and Henry in recent times doesn’t mean Hook is replacing Neal as Henry’s new daddy. In fact, we’ve been told that someone is not to be trusted and that someone may revert to his old ways. Might that person be Hook?! He has been known to flip-flop a lot and to switch allegiances. Just how did Hook get back to NYC and how is it that he alone seems to remember the “lost year” from the EF? How is it he alone knows Emma’s family is in danger? Sounds suspicious to me.

"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

[Phee]

Over the last several pages I’ve loved the posts from Laurel, slurpeez, molly, Macy, Heather and PoM! Get outta my head, the lot of you. 😉

One thing that PoM said: “There is a marked difference between season 2 Hook and Season 3 Hook. Yes, it is “character growth” but it happened all too quickly.” This is something that struck me in the interview, their confirmation that the decision on the death was made between seasons. To many viewers, Hook at the end of S2 and Hook at the start of S3 seem very disjointed. He was remembering Bae at the end of S2, but come S3 it was “EmmaEmmaEmma, oh hai old friend Neal, Imma get your EmmaEmmaEmma to fall in love with me, so sucked in friend, because EmmaEmmaEmma.” I feel like that wonky shift in Hook’s character could be explained if they decided between seasons that they needed to take Hook in a very specific direction because they wanted him to be in a specific place by the time his big, sacrificial, redemptive death came around. No other characters have had a seemingly inexplicable shift like that that would suggest that the writers made a big decision between seasons that their storyline would take a new trajectory. And FWIW, an explanation like that could also go some way to backing up what Adam tweeted about how no character was going anywhere unless and until the character has grown, because they got an idea for a specific path of growth that Hook would be going along.

[Slurpeez]

Tumblr

“And the more she tells Neal ‘It was ten years ago, I’ve moved on,’ we know she hasn’t, we know it’s hard for her to live Tallahassee with someone else. Neal has always regretted that day as he actually says out loud. So for us it’s how do two people who love each other come together when there’s so much hurt?” —Eddy Kistis

To me, that’s the story A&E are still telling. In 3×4, Emma told her parents she was “pi$$ed” when she thought Neal had died. When Emma thought Neal was dead, she may have felt some relief about not having to open up her heart again, but she also felt cheated by fate to not get another chance to explore what it meant when she discovered Neal has always loved her, too. In 3×6, Emma told Neal that it would’ve been easier not to face all the pain they went through. Yet, in 3×6 and in 3×10, Snow reminded Emma that she owed it to herself to discover if Neal could be alive and to have lunch with Neal. Mama Snow is all about doing the hard thing, as she told Ariel, because love is so worth it. And even if it doesn’t work out, at least you know you’ve tried. Emma and Neal haven’t even gotten to have another go to see if they could work it out. Heck, they haven’t even been able to have a moment alone in NL or even meet up for lunch because of outside circumstances. Well, Emma said she wasn’t sure she was ready, not that she never would be, but after Charming encouraged her, she went anyway to meet Neal, but PP got in the way.

“There’s so much for them to work through and so much that hasn’t been dealt with. There’s a tremendous amount of baggage there.” – Jennifer Morrison

“I don’t think Neal is under any kind of illusions that there isn’t work to be done between he and Emma, and that he doesn’t have a lot of work to do to get to where he wants to be, in terms of their relationship. He’s not expecting her to just be waiting around, pining.” -Michael Raymond-James

There’s still so much work to be done, and yet Emma and Neal keep getting interrupted by curses! When are they ever just going to have a “day off” as Emma would say? Are bad things just going to keep her and Neal from ever getting to have the “good moments” as Charming and Snow call them? Emma doubts her parents because she viewed PP’s curse as confirmation that the price to her being the savior meant not getting to kick back and enjoy herself. She never got to have lunch with Neal, to talk and see if they could pick up the pieces. The fact that we’ve yet to see any resolution on that front means Emma still has yet to deal with any of her past history with Neal. That has to be unpacked for Emma to figure out what “home” and “belonging” mean to her. It’s so important to her as an individual, not just as a love interest, to examine that which is why Neal’s premature death would also be a “death” for Emma’s continued character development. She needs to explore why she has walls, to rediscover that Neal didn’t ever want to leave her, and that dealing with these issues, doing the hard thing, is worth it if it means getting to be with the man she loves.

"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]

with the spoiler pics that came out this morning from Canadgraphs, I think it’s safe to say that overall Hook plays a more minor roll in Emma getting her memories back. It seems to be Emma figuring it out based on going to Neal’s apartment. This gives me some major feels

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

[Author]

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