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@emmajones – because they are determined to ignore canon and hate Killian no matter what is shown on the show 🙂 let them hate, by the end of the season Emma will make her choice and it won’t be Neal.
[adrotate group="5"]Keeper of Captain Swan's first kiss
The “triangle” summed up in one PERFECT post from thepixiewoods:
True Love storytelling and this lopsided blob of a love triangle After reading Hilary’s post today (and along with a few other posts I responded to), I got thinking about the storytelling of this love blob ”triangle.”
There’s an element of catharsis in the endings of stories, I think. The reader obviously has expectations about what will happen based on the clues they find throughout. When a reader’s expectations are met, they can experience that catharsis at the end – an odd feeling of satisfaction the readers has, that, after all that tension, things have ended up how they should be. I’ll grant you, not all readers feel this way at the end of a story because every reader has different desires and expectations, but because of the nature of fairy tales and the fact that happy endings are such an important element of this show, I’d venture a guess that for the ending, they’re going to go for making the viewer feel like everything has ended up how it is supposed to. That being said, I thought about the way this “triangle” story has been told in terms of the males involved and what we know about the nature of true love in the OUAT universe. As viewers, we want the heroine, Emma, to end up with the right person (her true love) and to be happy. Consider what we know about true love. The three biggest lessons we’ve had so far are:
1.that it doesn’t move on
2.it always finds one another
3.and when it is separated, both lives are ruined. When it comes to the story telling payoff with Emma’s romance, her true love needs to fit (at minimum) these three characteristics, or (many) viewers can’t get on board with it and feel that she ended up with the right person. This is a show that prominently features the idea of happy endings. Emma is going to end up with her true love, with the right person. For it to be the right person, it needs to be her true love, who needs to meet (like I said, at minimum) those three requirements. Now for Hook, we’re missing part of the story. We don’t know the details of his year apart from Emma. However, before she leaves he tells her he will think about her every day, so I think it’s pretty safe to say the separation negatively affected his life in a profound way if he was thinking of the woman he loved every day and being told that he truly couldn’t ever see her again (but not believing it, no – you’ll see). I think Hook meets true love requirement three, and I predict we’ll get to see a lot more of how much his life actually was ruined when 3B starts. Obviously, Hook also meets true love requirements one and two. When he is separated from her (and not by his choice, mind you), he doesn’t move on, or he wouldn’t be at her door a year later, trying to plant a TLK on her. If he had moved on, he wouldn’t have even tried a TLK because he would have known it wouldn’t work. Further, he finds her in a world he doesn’t know and minimally understands. Like, how the eff did he do that without a car, or knowing anything about trains, or addresses, or anything modern at all? I’m interested to find out. But in the biggest city on Earth, he finds her. Let’s be honest, here: Hook thinks Emma is IT for him. He can’t be happy with anyone else now that he knows what it’s like to even just have Emma IN HIS LIFE, not even being with her. It’s just the truth. I don’t think Neal fits any of the three true love requirements. For one, when he is separated from her, his life isn’t ruined. He doesn’t go to jail and he faces no repercussions of any kind. He gets out of the country, is eventually able to come back (since Rumple uses magic to figure out that his son is in New York, we know he comes back to the US), and has a fiancée he’s about to marry. Seems like he’s doing pretty peachy to me. After Neal is separated from Emma (by his choice, in contrast to Hook, who has no choice thanks to Pan, that little *poop*), he acts like he wants to find her after she has “done her job,” and even tells August to contact him once that has happened. August does, and there’s Neal’s chance to go find Emma. He doesn’t go. So he doesn’t fit requirement number two either. And finally, given that he had a fiancée and was prepared to marry her, clearly he had moved on, and can be happy with someone other than Emma. (Brief aside to address comments about Milah that will undoubtedly come: listen, you can’t count Milah as moving on from Emma. Hook hadn’t met Emma yet. Emma hadn’t been born. SNOW, Emma’s MOTHER, hadn’t been born. When Neal moves on, though, he has already been with Emma, whereas anytime after Hook meets Emma, he doesn’t move on.) So. Which guy, in terms of storytelling, will it be satisfying for the heroine to end up with? The guy who can’t be happy with anyone but her, or the guy who can? The guy who doesn’t meet ANY of the requirements of true love, or the guy who meets all of them? I don’t think this is a hard question to answer.A good read. Thanks for posting this @CaptainEala. The one thing that really really raises red flag to me about Neal is that, he was able to move on and ready to marry Tamara. He still chose Tamara even if he saw Emma again and knowing they have a son together. He only “moved on” when Tamara tried to kill him. Moving on isn’t a switch you can easily turn on or off. Look at Hook, took him 300 years to move on from Milah. Granted, he may have truly loved Milah but isn’t his true love ( speculations on that is still on going I think) but it took him 300 years.
The fact that Neal wasn’t waiting for her in SB when she returned from the Enchanted Forest was the time I was like “hey… he CANNOT be her true love”. Because all we heard from Snowing OVER AND OVER AGAIN throughout season 1 and 2 was that TL finds each other. We saw that with Aurora and Phillip as well. He woke her up and she returned his soul to his body.
At that time I was shipping Captain Swan but wasn’t sure if they were TL. That didn’t come until 2×22 (ugh I can’t think about those dark days when Colin broke his leg without shuddering)
Keeper of Captain Swan's first kiss
This is what I have in mind but just can’t put into words:
http://mufflednoise.tumblr.com/post/66657535469/my-headcanon-is-that-she-realized-how-much-hook
My headcanon is that she realized how much Hook really meant to her. It surprised her just how much she cared that his life was in danger, and how much she cared that now, he was safe. And dealing with her disbelief, maybe, because she knew that at that moment, she chose him.
This is what I have in mind but just can’t put into words: http://mufflednoise.tumblr.com/post/66657535469/my-headcanon-is-that-she-realized-how-much-hook
My headcanon is that she realized how much Hook really meant to her. It surprised her just how much she cared that his life was in danger, and how much she cared that now, he was safe. And dealing with her disbelief, maybe, because she knew that at that moment, she chose him.
I love this scene omg. Shouting for him, and looking at him when he gets up……… ugh
SO
MANY
FEELINGS
Keeper of Captain Swan's first kiss
Massive meta time!!! FABULOUS writing from carrielynne:
Anonymous asked, “Hi Carrie, I’m a bit down because I was following someone for OUAT stuff and they posted anti-captain-swan stuff (it was like a train crash I couldn’t stop reading) and it’s all the usual, how we ignore context, pick and choose from scenes in our favor and how Neal and Emma are TL because of the Echo Cave scene etc. I was wondering if you could write your own comprehensive meta about why CS are TL? It’s great to get multiple points of view, and not all CSers agree on everything :)”
Haha oh boy. I’ve never been asked to actually DO this before so I’m really honored you asked me. And of course, I will tell you my thoughts on CS and why I believe they are, without a doubt, true love. And keep in mind, this is only my opinion, I could very well be wrong — but again, just my very honest and heartfelt take on the story that is unfolding. And I’m really sorry if this is a bit long but I do have a lot of thoughts on this subject so this has been pretty cathartic. LOL 😉
First of all — let’s talk about how they were introduced. Trying to keep it as objective as possible here. Hook was introduced as a character and active love interest for Emma almost 10 episodes before Neal. (Tallahassee, in my opinion, was NOT the introduction episode for Neal as an active love interest and full fledged character. Manhattan was that episode — to me anyway.)
Emma saw through Hook within minutes of meeting him. He said himself, the number of people that have been able to best him have been few and far between so, he immediately took to her. When he said he was hoping it would be Emma going up the beanstalk with him, he wasn’t lying. He was giddy about it even. And as she did with him, he was able to read her like an open book. When they got all the way up the beanstalk and he was bandaging her hand, she called him out on his tattoo and guessed why he was after Rumple. Within mere hours of knowing each other, they’re already talking about love and being in love, guessing each other’s personal history, and just generally falling in step together showing how natural of a partnership these two are capable of having. They just naturally fall into a place that’s right together.
Some could argue that’s just my interpretation and that is entirely fine but, the writers confirmed that Emma recognized this as well and the last time this happened, she got burned — that’s the biggest reason why she left him chained up. That was the entire story of Tallahassee. Emma & Neal were crazy about each other, it was obvious. I will never deny that b/c I’m glad Henry was conceived in love. But for an introduction episode of both couples, it was presented as Emma’s past holding her back from moving on with her life and being able to accept “what is right in front of her”, being able to “try something new” and trust someone again. And sure, we knew that Neal didn’t abandon her out of spite — he thought he was doing the right thing. It doesn’t diminish Emma’s hurt though. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. At the end of the day, his actions caused her 10 years of misery…having to give birth to a child in jail, giving him up, missing out on his life and then spending 10 years wondering why not just her parents now but, the only person she ever loved abandoned her, too.
That’s not the way you kick off and introduce your main protagonist’s central love story — by explaining to the audience that this is where a lot of Emma’s emotional issues come from. What would be the point of introducing Hook in that situation? There is more than enough baggage and barriers in the SF relationship without adding Hook to the mix. SF was introduced as an obstacle for CS right out of the gates. “I can’t take the chance that I’m wrong about you”. In another words, I want to trust you and that never happens and it scares me b/c the last time I did, I got screwed so…we’re not even going there, buddy. Emma was not ready to take the leap of faith with Hook and that was because of Neal.
Neal has been nothing but a bunch of broken promises and empty words to Emma. He said he didn’t want to bring her to Canada with him because he couldn’t risk her getting in trouble but was more than fine with putting her in harm’s way to get the watches out of the locker, he promised her a home and then let someone talk him out of it, he said he would find her when the curse was broken and he didn’t, he said he would tell her her loves her @ the beginning of S3 and he never did, he said he wouldn’t stop fighting for her and was elated when Hook made it easy for him and backed off. I’m sorry, I know SF fans love to say that the fact that they are an “imperfect” love story is what makes them brilliant, but I call bull*stuff* on that. Not in a show about fairy tales and love conquering all fears and choosing love over revenge and anger and always finding one another and believing in love above all else.
Emma grew up with very little love in her life, she always had people disappoint her and she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop, waiting for someone to disappoint her again because it always happens. What would be a dream come true for Emma love-wise? To find someone who does the exact opposite of what everyone else has done, someone who never lets her down, who keeps their promises, who puts her first even before their own happiness and before their own fears, someone who understands her and what she needs emotionally, someone who knows when to back off and when to be there and someone who believes in her without fault, without question. There is 1 person (aside from her parents & Henry) who has been filling that role and then some. Even the actress who plays Emma has confirmed this. It’s Hook. Both Hook & Neal had pasts with Rumple. Hook’s 300 yr quest for revenge and Neal’s 100 or 200 years of running from him. One of those men gave that up and came back to Emma, the other…not so much.
Now let’s talk about screentime. (Here are my resources for screentime analysis. S2 & S3 — S3 is only up until Good Form so I expect Hook’s screentime to be more balanced among the core characters – Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina & Rumple when factoring in the remaining episodes of S3)
Hook, even with Colin breaking his leg and being absent from a handful of episodes, still had the most amount of screentime in S2 outside of the big 5. He even had more screentime than Henry. Then when you look @ S3, the results are pretty astonishing. Again, these results for S3 are only up until Good Form, which was a Hook centric and only the 5th episode of the season so his screentime total for the season kind of sky rocketed b/c of it.
The point is, these writers value the HELL out of his character — He is no plot device. Another thing that’s interesting, the episode from S3 where Emma realizes her true self “Lost Girl” — Neal wasn’t even in it. Not only that, when she does admit it to herself, she recites exactly who Hook told her she was on the beanstalk and at the end of an episode about Emma facing her past, they have a sweet ironic conversation about him wanting to know who she is, when he already knows and has always known.
When Neal came back into the picture he was with Tamara, which, again…was confirmed by the writers that he was genuinely in love with her. They could have taken advantage of Hook being out of pocket for a few episode and really amped up Neal & Emma’s connection but, it was just more sad than anything else. They thought it was more important for Neal to show how much he loved & needed Tamara…even after the audience knew she was evil, they still kept having scenes with Neal talking about their future and saying how lucky he was to have met her -and all of this WITH Emma back in the picture. Why give us a scene where Neal expresses the depths of his feelings for Tamara, even after we know she’s a bad guy? It’s not like they were trying to get us invested in them. Because they wanted us to see he had moved on and was happy.
The thing is, they’ve had a TON of opportunity to really emphasize Neal & Emma’s “love story” if that’s what they wanted us to see. But you don’t do that by having Emma interact with another man like this…
Emma is not some Mary Sue. She is a strong, smart and resolute woman who doesn’t give in to her emotions very often, which is all the more poignant b/c Hook is able to bring that out of her. (See above. LOL) — even in the most negative of circumstances, he makes her feel good. Isn’t that what life is all about? Finding that one person who helps you escape, if even for a few seconds – someone who makes you smile beyond reason and beyond anything you’ve ever known, learned or expected?
They could have had Emma meet Neal for lunch and realize there is truly something there to be salvaged, only to have it ripped away by the new curse and her losing her memories and then having HIM show up at her door a year later b/c he did what he said he’d do and never stopped fighting for her. But no — Neal’s invite to lunch served as a plot device for a nice father/daughter moment and turned into Emma being forced into meeting him (while saying clearly that being pushed towards Neal comes between she & Hook) and then the scene automatically swapping to Hook trying to forget about Emma – and Tink calling him on it culminating in 1 ridiculous scene where Emma gets irrationally jealous. I can tell you what pairing is being emphasized in that scenario and it’s not Neal & Emma.
When Pan told Hook the secret about Neal, he made Hook the apex…the active player. He came clean about Neal being alive, he lead them to the echo caves, he put his own heart on the line knowing it would lead the woman he loves into the arms of the man who is also vying for her heart. This was done for Hook to prove himself to Emma, to her parents and to the audience. That was also why they kept shooting to his heartbroken face every chance they could. They could have had Neal make his fighting promise to her afterwards much more beautiful and intimate…but instead they had that line heard and seen from Hook’s POV — b/c his emotions, his reaction is what was important, not Neal’s half hearted empty promise.
When Neal stormed off in Dark Hollow, upset over Hook giving Emma the cutlass — Emma could have chased him down and THEY could have had the moment CS had where Neal promises to win her heart and tells her he believes in her but nope. I mean, they could have at least had the camera pan back to Neal overhearing their conversation but again, nada. That’s b/c those moments are all about Hook, Emma and how they feel about each other — it’s not about anyone else’s reaction, it’s about them. Because THAT is the story being told here. Hook is the one at her door a year later. Hook is the one who got the romantic goodbye. In an episode as important as the mid season finale, it was important that they set things up for the rest of the season. Hook will be the one to restore her memories and Hook will be the one bringing her home. From a writing standpoint, you don’t give those huge types of game changing moments to the couple who aren’t going anywhere…you give it to the couple you’re invested in for the long haul. Ha. See what I did there.
I know Hook has done some awful things and he hasn’t come close to fully redeeming himself for them. But, I believe in him and I’ve been given every reason to. Same reasons why people believe in Rumple & Regina. I do get why people have a hard time with him and I just hope one day he redeems himself in their eyes as well. But I just understand him, I see his remorse and I see him really trying. I wish people would give him a chance but again, I understand if those things prevent some folks from wanting him with Emma. There is nothing I can do about that but, I know he will make up for everything someday. I just have faith.
I could seriously go on and on about the scene framing, the suspense of keeping Hook & Emma from physically touching, the order and content of their goodbyes in the mid season finale, all of the foreshadowing with David saying Hook’s never going to get her and Emma’s “one time thing” and the intentionally written princess bride references (why purposely make a connection to one of the biggest ultimate true love couples in movie history in the same few episodes in which Hook tries true love’s kiss only to have her true love revealed as someone else 10 episodes later…???) — the bromance of Hook & Charming, them showing us that Hook is deep down, a man of honor — giving Hook all of these romantic one liners like Charming gets, having Hook do something sweet for Henry during the very short time they had real Henry on the boat — the emphasis being placed on Hook selflessly giving of himself for Emma. Him stepping out of the way for Neal before he had the chance to play the “you broke my family up once already” card, the numerous parallels to the other true love couples on the show, etc. etc.
I feel bad for Neal — I truly hope this situation with Emma & Hook shows him what all encompassing true love looks like so he can find his own eventually. I feel bad that he’s been kept from real meaty character growth for the sake of being a plot device for a love triangle. (Because think about it…real character growth for Neal = him acknowledging the bond between Hook & Emma, realizing he caused Emma too much pain for them to ever salvage what they had and stepping aside. They’re just not in a place in the story where they are ready for that yet.) And that sucks b/c I truly feel that in order to grow, he needs to let go of his past and quit living under the shadow of his past cowardice and neither he or Emma will ever be able to do that if they’re together romantically as they are both living, breathing reminders of what Neal abandoned and what Emma lost.
People can say I’m missing the signs all they want, I think I’m actually pretty astute if you ask me. I’m not ignoring anything that has happened on the show — if I saw Emma looking at Neal like she does Hook or their scenes hit the same emotional resonance as the CS scenes, I would be honest and readjust my expectations so I can still enjoy the show as a whole. I’m not the type to go yell at the writers and post in anti blogs and whine — it’s their story to tell and I’m just along for the ride.
I just know that Hook & Emma have been written perfectly for each other. Emma needs someone who will devote their life to making her happy, someone who has an enormous capacity to love and love deeply and true. Hook devoted 300 yrs to avenging the death of the woman he loved and hasn’t loved anyone since. (Until Emma.) – Hook’s first love had her heart ripped out in front of him and wound up leaving her son for him. He learned from that experience and not only will he never expect or even be okay with Emma ever leaving Henry, she ironically can’t have her heart taken. Ever.
They are the answer to all the riddles. They are the unexpected happy ending. And they are quite the team. I will always believe in them until the show tells me otherwise, and it’s done anything but. — So forgive me when I honestly couldn’t care less what any of the anti CS/anti Hook people say b/c I know I’m on the right track and they will use everything in the book, whether valid or not, to try and invalidate CS. I mean I think we’ve heard them all at this point so I’m good. I’ll just be over here in my little bubble of true love enjoying my OTP. KThanks.
Keeper of Captain Swan's first kiss
*sigh* I wish I could get into AU fanfiction. I’ve tried soooo hard (even tried to read Crimson which everybody raves about)!! It’s just not my thing.
Keeper of Captain Swan's first kiss
CE – Nice meta – thanks for posting! BTW, what’s your tumblr blog name thingy (See how technology savvy I am??)? I decided to be somewhat brave and get on tumblr but I’m sticking to following blogs that I’ve seen before or of people from here that have similar ideas — and thanks to you and @Obisgirl, I have to follow teenwolfmixtapes.tumblr.com because she posts some of the funniest stuff ever…
@Hookian, Yeah, I saw that chat you referenced the other day and jumped in a bit. It got a little rough. I got a little overwhelmed with the “A&E said so-and-so” but afterward I realized, yeah, A&E probably did say that – but for every pro-SF thing they’ve said, they’ve said a pro-CS thing! Because the statement just causes whichever group to go nutty and all nuttiness over the show is good nuttiness if you’re the EPs!! It’s easier to just stay here. Sometimes I do check out the SF thread, because I do want to check out other points of view, but when it gets too anti-Hook I jump back out. Just like I’d invite any CFers to come read our thread and if it’s too anti-Neal for them, back out. I think overall, most of us here don’t actually dislike Neal, it’s just that we’d like to see the Neal/Emma storyline wrapped up and MRJ given a better storyline than just being a foil for CS.I got a little overwhelmed with the “A&E said so-and-so” but afterward I realized, yeah, A&E probably did say that
What’s this??? Did I miss something???
BTW, what’s your tumblr blog name thingy (See how technology savvy I am??)? I decided to be somewhat brave and get on tumblr but I’m sticking to following blogs that I’ve seen before or of people from here that have similar ideas — and thanks to you and @Obisgirl, I have to follow teenwolfmixtapes.tumblr.com because she posts some of the funniest stuff ever…
Here I am 🙂 http://perhaps-i-would-swan.tumblr.com/ send me an ask when you join and I’ll follow you back (am careful about who I follow back these days after seeing some stuff that I’d rather not see lol)
Keeper of Captain Swan's first kiss
The topic ‘The Captain Swan thread!’ is closed to new replies.