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Just heard the best definition of love ‘Love is when you want the best for another being- whether said being is with or without you’ ….. Like a true CS’er, the 1st thing that jumped to mind was our charming pirate & his beloved Swan
Love it! And your post…one thing that kinds of annoys me is the whole “Neal HAD to leave Emma or bad things would happen.” And if this has been cleared up, or someone has a good theory please let me know! 🙂 I don’t have S1 so I can’t do a rewatch and I’m still trying to get through my S2 rewatch, I’m only at Queen of Hearts!
Ok, so August said Neal had to let Emma become the saviour. But why exactly did that entail Emma having to take the fall for Neal? Or Neal breaking her heart? He had 10 years…why couldn’t Neal stay with Emma and over the course of those 10 years figure out a way to get her to where she needed to be to break the curse? I mean, if Neal is actually Emma’s true love, and Neal knows about the curse, he just drives her over the town line one day and BAM! curse broken. She was already pregnant with Henry when August and Neal discussed Emma’s future (and took away her choice in the matter, but I digress) so if the TLK was with Henry then Neal drives them across the town line and BAM! she kisses Henry and the curse is broken.
Unless, you know, she loves Neal, and rightly so, because he’s Henry’s father and really not a bad guy, just maybe a little easy to manipulate…but a dashing rapscallion might actually be her True Love?? 😉
Haha and seriously, do the writers whip out some Old World English dictionary to come up with some of Hook’s phrases? ‘Cause them be some fancy words he whips up sometimes. He must be really smaaaaaart.
[adrotate group="5"]I’m still not sure how Emma is jail was necessary towards her breaking the curse. The only thing I can think of, is that her and Henry needed to be separated otherwise she would not have a reason to come to Storybrooke.
My wish, is that Neal openly admit that he was wrong about sending her to jail and he and August could have found a better way for her to get to Storybrooke.
I’m pretty sure they keep Hook’s vocabulary porn in the show because in the original Captain Hook story he WAS extremely smart – he was educated at Eton. So Hook might be a pirate but even when he is being Captain innuendo, there is still a part of his long ago, proper upbringing shinning through!
The problem with Neal for me is that he is continually shows just how much like his father is really is, which results in him making very bad choices that affect Emma. Just like I have never questioned that Rumple loved Bae, I do think Neal loves Emma, but that doesn’t mean that Rumple made the right choices when it came to Bae versus his power. Even though Rumple loved Bae he was all about power. I think it is very much the same with Neal – even though he loves Emma, he has always been about self preservation and self-protection. Rumple always told Bae that he loved him and only wanted what was best for him, just like Neal has told Emma that he loved her and only wanted to do what he thought was right for her. When Rumple had the chance to go into the portal to the land without magic with Bae, he panicked because of his past history with his father and sacrificed his son instead. Similarly, when Neal received the broken postcard he could have gone to get Emma but instead he panicked because of his past history with his father and decided to protect himself instead. Just like his father, Neal is very well intentioned but is just not able to follow through.
There’s an analogy I always use with people that I think works really well with Neal. Let’s say you accidentally hit someone with your car and injure them. If you apologize for hitting them does that make the pain or the broken bones go away? No. If you tell them you didn’t MEAN to hit them does that make the pain and broken bones go away? No. If you tell them that it wasn’t your fault that you hit them because someone distracted you and you made a bad decision to look away from the road for a second does that make the pain and injury go away? No. There is NOTHING anyone can SAY that will make the pain and injury go away. The only thing that will help the pain and injury is time and the right kind of treatment.
I feel like this is Neal’s problem on the show. He keeps trying to find things to SAY to Emma to make up for the fact that he hit her with his car. Now it might not have been entirely his fault that he hit her with his car, but she was still left with the pain and injury. And if he can just find the RIGHT words than he will either convince her it wasn’t his fault or his words will make the pain and injury go away.
The difference with Hook is that he heard that Emma got hit by a car but that she never went to get treatment for her pain and injury. So even though he isn’t the one that hit her with his car, he is the one who is treating her injury and helping her take time to heal. He’s the one who is trying to find different treatments that make the pain subside. He’s like Emma’s first aid kit. He’s always there when she needs him, even when she doesn’t realize she does need him. She looks to him for advice in Neverland, she trusts him enough to drink the memory potion, she trusts him with Henry – her prized “possession”, she now knows that he will always come back for her, she starts to get concerned about something and he is able to say something to immediately ease her concerns.
Hook instinctually knows how to be what Emma needs him to be, all the time, no matter what the situation. And it is literally instinct for him to just do it – he doesn’t have to think about it, it just happens. Whereas Neal talks about what he SHOULD have done – but didn’t, what he needs to do – but doesn’t, what he will do – but won’t. He just isn’t capable of it.
That was awesome @rumplegoldfan 🙂 I love the accident analogy.
Here, you deserve this for that whole post:
RGF – that was an amazing post!! 🙂
We did some talking in chat today, so I could look at my S1 issue without shipper eyes – that being, why did Neal need to leave Emma for the curse to break? If he had 10 years, couldn’t he have figured out a way to get Emma to where she needed to be to break the curse…the concept of maybe it needed to be powerful came up, but I disagree that TL is any less powerful because the persons involved (Emma & Henry) have known each other the entire time. But I did find a way to pretty much blame it all on Stupid August and that made me happy. I do like Neal and I think he’s very well intentioned and he can be strong and passionate (Hi, Bae). But his major character flaw, in my opinion, is that he seems to rely on the path of least resistance too much, and maybe doesn’t have enough self esteem to feel he’s earned the things and people he wants in life. And that is what destroys his chances with Emma in the present.
I’m not one for soul mates, even in fairy tales. I think TL is active, growing, and can change – you can choose who to accept into your life, you can choose who you want to love. You are responsible for your actions, and the path they lead you down. So, yes, Neal WAS her TL…when she was 17. But he chose his path, and it destroyed Emma. So while she may still love him, that love, too, has changed – from romantic love to a familial, he’s the father of her child love.
Hook chooses to love Emma, even if she chooses to love another man. He chooses to be her rock. He choses to turn his life around and let others in after hundreds of years of loss. And in turn, because of all of the choices made – Emma’s, Neal’s and Hook’s – I believe Emma will choose Hook as her TL. 🙂 Hopefully before the end of S3B…tee hee.
I think TL is active, growing, and can change – you can choose who to accept into your life, you can choose who you want to love. You are responsible for your actions, and the path they lead you down. So, yes, Neal WAS her TL…when she was 17. But he chose his path, and it destroyed Emma. So while she may still love him, that love, too, has changed – from romantic love to a familial, he’s the father of her child love.
Now, I have to modify my True Love meta again. Lol.
But I get you. I wrote a two-part meta about how Jen’s tone in regard to Neal has changed in recent interviews for 3B. (Part 1 and Part 2). IMO, the change started in the winter finale with the goodbye scene.
If you compare Neal’s goodbye with Emma to Hook’s goodbye with Emma, one goodbye was intentionally set-up to be portrayed as more romantic than the other. And Hook got that one. Neal’s goodbye with Emma, felt more like two old friends parting ways.
Just wanted to chime into say what a great episode that was and looking forward to tonight’s episode. Great meta and very well said @rumplesgoldfan… I never really understood the whole “bad things would happen” thing either, but at times it seems there is a lot I don’t understand. 🙂 Which is why I love coming here; I love reading what you all have to say!!
I so enjoy reading all the deep thoughts about the characterizations and plot devices/scenes because I have too much aging induced ADHD (grin) to join in on the conversations. You all express the detailed thoughts very beautifully.
So, thank you for that! It is much appreciated and is part of what makes the CaptainSwan community so very cool.
I go more by the (very personal and opinionated, and not going to change) “gut” (grin) …and, all things considered, the *aura* of what is clearly placed in front of our faces.
As written and portrayed, Hook and Emma, have ten times the chemistry than Emma and Neal. It fairly blasts off the screen. And the writers know it. Even during difficult, heartfelt scenes between Emma and Neal, Neal comes up often bland and rather shallow. His delivery of lines is all basically surfer dude and lacking genuine emotional depth. He does a *walk through*. Most of the torment we saw in younger Bae, sadly, got lost in the translation to adult Neal. (And to be totally shallow and unfair myself, Neal always looks like he is about to burp.)
Emma’s starry-eyed teen love for him was short-lived, ill-advised and produced a child. First love is almost impossible to forget. The good AND the bad. We all tend to over state the *star dust*. Nothing in the present woman (molded by all those experiences) shows why she would have any real interest in the man Neal turned out to be~ except to protect Henry from feeling the same anxiety she suffered in the *orphan* mode. She clings to the *baby daddy* concept because she was so devastated from not having the picket fence family. Projection can be a powerful motivator.
Hook is a flawed, tortured romantic. His passion for Emma is very much in the present… and deep. For all his delicious snark and wit, though, he is an old, passionate soul. Whether she ever admits it to her freaking self or not (pursed lips) he is the challenging, loyal and deeply satisfying emotional match to her stubborn, hopeful and deserving heart.
So says my old guts!
***Always in search of a good flock***
That was beautifully said Bo-peeps.
Neal for me is like where reality and theory collide. In theory, he should be an interesting character. He should have these complex scenes and relationships, but onscreen he doesn’t deliver for me. I am not sure why, but I don’t like his scenes.
The meta is very timely. I was thinking the same thing. Basically Emma has put her trust in seemingly good men who have let her down. With Hook on the surface he seems the villain, but he is loyal and willing to do anything for his loved one.
i think we are going to see Hook continue to put Emma first while coming to terms that she doesn’t seem to reciprocate his feelings. Emma will push him away and might even tell him a pirate doesn’t fit into her vision of a happy ending. Hook will make big sacrifice (it damn better not be his ship) that will almost cost him his life for Emma to realize she loves him along.
Keeper of Hook and Emma's smoldering first kiss, a certain Pirate's sauciness, the Evil Queen's snarkiness, Grumpy's gruffness and a drop of true love to make it all go down smooth.
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