EW July 17: Emma Swan–Not the Dark One, YET

[RumplesGirl]

“Episode 1, season 5, she is not the Dark One,” co-star Robert Carlyle explains. “Maybe she becomes that, but at this point, she’s trying to get rid of it. She’s trying to get rid of the dark magic at the moment.”

After the darkness within Rumple (Carlyle) was accidentally set free in the season finale, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) decided to sacrifice herself for the town and become the new Dark One, a.k.a. Dark Swan. But as executive producers Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis previously told EW, Emma is still fighting to stay good when the show returns — though it’s clear that’s a losing battle based on the aforementioned photos and video.

Read Full: http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/15/once-upon-time-emma-dark-one-season-5-spoilers

[RumplesGirl]

Well that (somewhat) explains the film pictures. Though, not all of them.

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

[WickedRegal]

“Emotionally, it’s interesting because there’s something really fun and free about Emma in the darkness, where she’s just free of the gravity of what other people think and the gravity of worrying about saving people,” the actress continues. “There’s a lightness, in a sense, in her darkness, because she doesn’t have to do the right thing and she doesn’t have to try to be the stronger, better person all the time. There’s a little bit of freedom in that that is really fun.”

So….according to JMo, Emma’s going to have this really big “Let It Go” moment.

“In addition to that, there are swans that can fly for a certain distance, and there are certain black swans that can fly for 60 feet,” she says. “Eddy, Adam and I have talked about looking at this as her 60 feet of flight. Instead of looking at this as, ‘I’m trying to be mean, dark and evil,’ it’s about the absoluteness of her freedom from responsibility in the darkest way you can imagine. She’s completely selfish and she’s completely free of her responsibility. She is completely indulgent in her sensuality and her confidence and her demand for things in life. We’re building her from that place. It’s coming from a guttural, raw place in her that is almost like sociopathic in a way, someone just completely free of conscience.”

And perhaps a little “Defying Gravity” mixed with “No Good Deed”. This Black Swan Emma could really be interesting if written correctly.

"If you go as far as you can see...you will then see enough to go even further." - Finn Balor

[RumplesGirl]

Here’s the thing I find troubling (okay, a few things)

1) Rumple didn’t have a transition period. He went from Peasant Rumple to Dark One Rumple. Now he got darker as time went on, but there was no “battle within” for him. So why is it different for Emma?

2) Why in the world does Emma give into the darkness if she’s able to resist. Yes, PLOT. But what’s the narrative reasoning? Are we trying to say that darkness is stronger than the savior and true love incarnate (which is what Emma has always been?) Is that the takeaway of this show? If Emma, as the Savior and True Love Incarnate, can resist the darkness then there should be no giving in unless the writers want the message to be that darkness overcomes light.

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

[Sweets]

So why is it different for Emma?

I think the difference is Emma didn’t take the Dark One power through an act of evil. She forced the darkness back into the dagger and then into herself as an act of love and sacrifice. It also might make a difference that the previous Dark One is still alive.

Robert C has been hinting that he might still be the Dark One, even though the darkness is gone. In 4B Rumple was trying to cleave himself from the dagger. So maybe the Dark One is a title you receive by killing the previous Dark One and the dagger is the power source. IDK. Just a thought.

If Emma, as the Savior and True Love Incarnate, can resist the darkness then there should be no giving in unless the writers want the message to be that darkness overcomes light.

I think ultimately Emma will save herself from the darkness. She will succumb, because no one is all good and no one is all evil. We are all capable of falling short of grace. But ultimately good always wins and Emma being the product of True Love and Savior and all that has to travel down that road.

It reminds me of your post on the Hero’s journey RumplesGirl

[TheWatcher]

I was thinking this would be the case.

Rumple didn’t have a transition period. He went from Peasant Rumple to Dark One Rumple. Now he got darker as time went on, but there was no “battle within” for him. So why is it different for Emma?

Emma is TL incarnate. Maybe it will take thr Darkness longer to infect her than it does with regular people. It has to battle against the light inside her perhaps. Its been established that TL is the strongest magic of all and that it can destroy the dark one curse. So I can believe it will take awhile before she gets converted fully.

"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGIC

[MatthewPaul]

Emma is TL incarnate. Maybe it will take thr Darkness longer to infect her than it does with regular people. It has to battle against the light inside her perhaps. Its been established that TL is the strongest magic of all and that it can destroy the dark one curse. So I can believe it will take awhile before she gets converted fully.

That, and there was a difference between Emma and Rumple’s intentions. When Rumple became the Dark One, he did so with the intent of gaining those powers and he willingly embraced the darkness within him. Emma, on the other hand, only became the Dark One to save the town, nor would she want to accept the darkness immediately the way Rumple did.

2) Why in the world does Emma give into the darkness if she’s able to resist. Yes, PLOT. But what’s the narrative reasoning? Are we trying to say that darkness is stronger than the savior and true love incarnate (which is what Emma has always been?) Is that the takeaway of this show? If Emma, as the Savior and True Love Incarnate, can resist the darkness then there should be no giving in unless the writers want the message to be that darkness overcomes light.

Maybe there’s a time limit, where Emma has no choice but to fully transition. Or perhaps there comes a situation where Emma resorts to drastic measures and allows herself to fully transition, because she needs certain abilities that she wouldn’t otherwise have in order to help the others.

[RumplesGirl]

She forced the darkness back into the dagger and then into herself as an act of love and sacrifice. It

It didn’t go into the dagger. It went into her, not dagger and then her.

I think ultimately Emma will save herself from the darkness. She will succumb, because no one is all good and no one is all evil. We are all capable of falling short of grace. But ultimately good always wins and Emma being the product of True Love and Savior and all that has to travel down that road. It reminds me of your post on the Hero’s journey RumplesGirl

Yes, I get this. As you point out, I obviously understand the mythological ins and outs here. But Emma isn’t a traditional hero in that she makes good choices and this alone makes her the hero. Her DNA, her fundamental being, is different from other hero archetypes. Harry Potter, at the end of it, was a boy. Temptation to the darkness is all well and good–as I pointed out back in that post, even Jesus goes through the Wilderness. But they don’t succumb; that’s the issue. Where’s the narrative impetus for Emma’s fall from grace? She’s been infected with the ultimate darkness but, as she should being True Love Incarnate, she manages to resist. That’s great. That’s a clear narrative follow through for the entire show (darkness = bad; light/love = good). But *why* does she cave? That’s the issue here. Sure she’s not all good, but she has resisted the baser instincts all along. And after 4B when she did start to crack a little only to rebound in the ultimate way–sacrificing herself for the town and those she loves–her moral center, her drive, her belief in the good should be stronger than ever. Not weaker.

So the takeaway is that darkness beat light until…what? Light wins again? Through what–the love of her family? Well, they’ve loved her all along. The love Hook bears for her? Well, hasn’t Hook loved her for some time now? The love Henry bears for her? Again, Henry’s loved her all along. Emma’s self love? Well, did she not find her home, her family, her son, her purpose beginning with the end of S1 up to the present day, especially in the S3 finale and then during the Frozen arc and Queen of Darkness Arc. She accepted who she was, her powers, the whole part and parcel with Elsa in 408 (and then shot off fireworks for reasons).

Emma is TL incarnate. Maybe it will take thr Darkness longer to infect her than it does with regular people. It has to battle against the light inside her perhaps. Its been established that TL is the strongest magic of all and that it can destroy the dark one curse. So I can believe it will take awhile before she gets converted fully.

And that’s fine, like I said. The battle within could be interesting, but the issue is that the darkness wins. Or rather, Emma lets it win.

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

[RumplesGirl]

That, and there was a difference between Emma and Rumple’s intentions. When Rumple became the Dark One, he did so with the intent of gaining those powers and he willingly embraced the darkness within him. Emma, on the other hand, only became the Dark One to save the town, nor would she want to accept the darkness immediately the way Rumple did.

Well there was this kid named Baelfire….

and lest we forget, one of Rumple’s first acts as the new DO was to stop a war and lead the children home to safety. It was not all about ALL ZE POWER.

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

[MatthewPaul]

Well there was this kid named Baelfire….

and lest we forget, one of Rumple’s first acts as the new DO was to stop a war and lead the children home to safety. It was not all about ALL ZE POWER.

The difference is that Rumple became the Dark One to intentionally use the powers for those purposes, as noble as they initially were. When Emma sacrificed herself, it was because it was the only way to stop the darkness from destroying the town, not because she intended to actually use the Dark One powers. And lest we forget, Rumple also took those powers not just to save his son, but because he no longer wanted to be a powerless coward. One of the first things he did as the Dark One was kill Hordor and his men. Yes he was saving Baelfire from being drafted, but he didn’t necessarily have to resort to killing the soldiers.

[Author]

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