Was Emma's true self a sad one because Peter wanted it to be so?

[sedorna]

During this episode, Emma spends quite some time trying to get the map to work by stating what she truly is. She’s so many things. She’s a mother, a loyal friend, a daughter, somebody who doesn’t give up. All of those are just as important as her being an orphan. So, why did the map suddenly appear when she admitted that she still felt like an orphan?

My theory: Peter Pan magicked the map to appear to when Emma realized the most negative, regretful, depressing part of who she is, perhaps to make Emma depressed and regretful. Why? Belief is everything in Never Land. So, Peter, being a rather Machiavellian guy, puts that seed of doubt into Emma’s mind. I think Peter hopes that Emma’s love is more powerful than the doubt that he placed into her mind. He definitely wants something, and I get the impression that he’s willing to do anything to get what he wants, so I could easily see him actually going through on his threat to kill Emma’s parents.

Except Charming and Snow have a very powerful ally on their side. ABC probably doesn’t want two of the most prominent main characters to die. 😉

[RumplesGirl]

There is ZERO chance of Snow and Charming dying.  But I think Emma’s true self was a sad one because that’s the life Emma has lived. Her life has been harsh and cruel. Her real self can’t be what Snow and Charming are–infuriatingly optimistic. She’s had different life experiences. And that’s what Pan needed her to see (for some reason)

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

[Slurpeez]

Why would Peter Pan go out of his way to make Emma feel like an orphan? He seems really interested in the fact that Emma hasn’t yet forgiven her parents for leaving her, and that Henry really hasn’t either (or so PP claims). The question is why. While I don’t yet know for sure what that might be, I think PP is jealous of Henry for having maternal true love. I think PP suffers from severe abandonment issues too.

"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]

Why would Peter Pan go out of his way to make Emma feel like an orphan? He seems really interested in the fact that Emma hasn’t yet forgiven her parents for leaving her, and that Henry really hasn’t either (or so PP claims). The question is why. While I don’t yet know for sure what that might be, I think PP is jealous of Henry for having maternal true love. I think PP suffers from severe abandonment issues too.

I think PP needs Henry to want to stay (and then give him his heart). At same time that he’s reinforcing that Emma is a lost girl, is he doing the same to Henry–reminding him that his birth mother gave him up? Does he need Emma to have lost faith in herself in order for Henry’s faith in Emma to be broken? Or maybe Henry’s faith in Emma as his mother and The Savior only reinforces that Henry has the HotTB?

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

[sedorna]

I still think that Emma’s true self isn’t just a sad one. It is sad, but there’s so much more than that, and Emma is so much more than that. I also do think that Peter didn’t lie when he said that Henry hadn’t forgiven Emma for abandoning him. Perhaps I’m wrong, but I think Peter is being quite literally, very honest. I think every word he’s said has been the complete and utter truth. But it’s not what he says that’s important, but what he *doesn’t* say. The conclusions that Pan knows that people will come up with. Lies by omission, and whatnot.

[RumplesGirl]

I still think that Emma’s true self isn’t just a sad one. It is sad, but there’s so much more than that, and Emma is so much more than that.

I don’t think any one person can fit into a category of “one”

Emma is an orphan. But she’s also more than that: she’s everything she said to the map before she admitted to being an orphan. She’s a bail bonds person, a sheriff, a daughter, a princess, TL incarnate, the Savior. But it’s the Orphan one that she’s been denying for so long. She’s pushed that aside in her head because she found her parents, only it wasn’t what she thought it would be. She is a everything I said above, but she’s been neglecting that orphan inside her and I think that’s what Pan wanted: to get her to see that.

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

[kfchimera]

I agree RG, and Sedorna, I was trying to make sense myself because I don’t see much resentment from Henry,  and Emma seemed to be working through things she had suppressed, but Pan is playing up the weakness and the doubt for sure.  I think it will make more sense when we know more about Pan.

“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

[sedorna]

I agree RG, and Sedorna, I was trying to make sense myself because I don’t see much resentment from Henry, and Emma seemed to be working through things she had suppressed, but Pan is playing up the weakness and the doubt for sure. I think it will make more sense when we know more about Pan.

Peter didn’t actually say how much Henry resents Emma for abandoning him. His words imply that Henry is really resentful and angry at Emma.  But, on a scale of zero to a hundred, with zero people, “I totally forgive you” and a hundred being, “I will absolutely never forgive you, and I would rather die a thousand deaths than even consider forgiving you”, Henry’s feelings might be, say, .000005. Tiny, almost miniscule, but, still there. There, and able to be manipulated.

And thank you, Rumple’s Girl, for actually explaining why the Orphan thing was so important. Now I’m wondering if the opposite would have been true. If Emma’s first realization had been “I’m an orphan”,  and then later had done her history and savior stuff, would the map have appeared immediately after the orphan realization, or would it have waited until everything else? Personally, I think it was the accumulation of everything that Emma is. I also think that Peter knew that Emma would accept the orphan thing last, and think that *that* was what triggered it by virtue of what it was, when it was an important part of what triggered it.

Oh, and I just remembered that Peter lied to Henry in the previous episode, so I guess my Peter Pan doesn’t lie theory isn’t exactly true. Darn. I really liked it.

[Phee]

I also think that Peter knew that Emma would accept the orphan thing last, and think that *that* was what triggered it by virtue of what it was, when it was an important part of what triggered it.

Yep, the orphan thing was the final piece of the puzzle, and (I’m assuming) being an orphan himself, and having been surrounded by orphans his whole life, he knew that it would be the hardest thing for Emma to accept and admit about herself, especially when she has her parents right there, who are really hoping to fix things with her.

[thelonebamf]

I had a somewhat different read of the puzzle- and think there was a more sinister reasoning behind it. Peter is of course, incredibly powerful in Neverland, but I think his power manifests itself in a different way. He’s not shooting fireballs or creating curses- his magic takes another form, one that preys on the young and immature. I mean this in a slightly less than literal way, I don’t just mean agewise, but rather in regards to the maturity and progression of ones self development.

For example, the Peter Pan of the story had the Lost Boys. Boys who were convinced to come to his side because of a mutual disdain for the grown up world that had wronged them one way or another. Maybe they felt their parents didn’t love them, or that they had been abandoned in some other way. Peter was giving them a place to go, but by doing so was also allowing them to play the victim and run away from their fears and problems rather than maturing and confronting them.

Why is this relevant to Emma? To my way of seeing, the map wasn’t a gift, it was the first of a number of attacks. Emma herself says that being the Savior is the last thing she wanted to admit and the thing she’d hidden from herself the most. But being an orphan? This is no great secret and her abandonment issues are the main reason for the major chip on her shoulder- but we’ve seen her slowly grow out of those feelings as she has started to feel she was part of an actual family.

So why would Peter bring this up? Again, it’s part of his ploy, and it’s a multi-pronged attack. First, he’s forcing her to remember painful memories. Those feelings are also ones that will alienate her from her parents, destabilizing the group and her role as leader. Thirdly, by telling her the map would only reveal itself when she admitted who she really was, he forces the view that she “really is” just an orphan, when that is a viewpoint created just to break her down and destroy the personal growth she’s had since coming to Storybrooke.

(Likewise, I think Peter is preying on Henry’s self doubts behind the scenes. As Henry is alone and doesn’t have his family around him to help, when we see him meet the group- he will probably be in a very dark and lonely place.)

Peter’s weapons and power are subtle, and I don’t think we’ve seen the end of it. He’s clearly playing mindgames with Rumple and the doll (another tactic to break someone down internally) and I think we are going to see more of these kinds of tactics through the season. I think the second set of promotional photos and taglines adds credence to this idea- as they several are regarding believing a (insert the dark or sad side of a character here) can overcome their personal demons, demons that Pan is going to do his best to use.

In the end, I think we’ll have a situation where many of the characters don’t believe in themselves and are consumed by self doubt- but unlike the beginning of the season, they will start to believe in one another. This unity will be the weapon they use to defeat Pan, who will likely have expected them to crumble.

tl:dr – Yes. It is.

"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him."

[Author]

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