Was Neal's death a course correction?

[PriceofMagic]

With all the talk about how Marian may die in present day because she was meant to die in the past and the universe will course correct, it got me thinking about Neal. Was Neal’s death actually a course correction?

Baelfire was initially meant to be sent to the ogre war where fatalities were pretty high and to be maimed instead of killed by the ogres was considered to be lucky. Rumple himself said “The law doesn’t want you to fight, son. The law wants you to die. That’s not battle – that’s sacrifice, son.” However, Rumple became the dark one and stopped the ogre war thus intervening in what could’ve easily been Baelfire’s death.

With Rumple immortal, he wouldn’t have let Bae grow old and die, he would’ve prolonged Bae’s life forever, so once again Rumple has intervened in Baelfire’s death. Blue Fairy shows up and gives Baelfire a magic bean, despite it being the last one which could’ve been used for a better purpose. Blue said she was on the “right side” restoring the order of balance would be considered the “right” thing to do, but it wouldn’t be considered “good” to set things in motion that would lead someone to their eventual death even if they were meant to die anyway. The bean was supposed to send Baelfire and Rumple to a land without magic where Rumple couldn’t use his powers, in other words, where Rumple couldn’t prolong Baelfire’s life.

Baelfire ends up going to Victorian England where he would’ve grown old and died with time (or some illness or accident). However, once again there was an intervention in his death- this time in the form of Pan who incidentally turns out to be his grandfather. Baelfire is taken to Neverland where you never grow old.

Baelfire somehow escapes Neverland a few years later and meets Emma. Emma and Neal were in love and had planned to settle down and grow old together in Tallahassee. However, once again there was an intervention in what would have been Neal’s death (Growing old with Emma and dying of old age or an accident), Pinocchio showed up and split Emma and Neal up and they went their separate ways.

Neal met Tamara and she shot him before he went through a portal to the EF. With no proper medical care in the EF, Neal would’ve surely died from his wounds. However MAP intervened in what would’ve been Neal’s sacrificial death and healed him.

After everything that happened in Neverland, Neal ended up back in the EF where he unintentionally sacrificed his life for Rumple’s return. However, Rumple once again intervened in what would have been Neal’s death and gave him a half life by absorbing him. Neal eventually died for real when he sacrificed his life as Emma separated him from Rumple.

Baelfire/Neal was originally meant to die as a sacrifice in a land with magic in the Enchanted Forest until Rumple intervened. Neal ended up dying as a sacrifice in a town with magic in a forest when Rumple couldn’t intervene. The universe course corrected.

[Gaultheria]

It feels as if the producers had a lot more in mind for the Home Office plot. Neal would have featured heavily in that storyline; apart from a few early mentions of Henry’s father, the character of Neal probably began as an integral part of the writer’s meetings for season two. When the show changed course for Neverland, the likeable character — one who had no history in fairy tale lore — no longer had a solid plot reason for being on the show. That’s guesswork, of course.

Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

[Jenna_B]

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the reasons we’ve been given for Neal’s death.  The concept is interesting, but I’m not 100% sure about it, simply because I’m not sold on the idea that the death was story driven.

The writers’ handling of Neal was always a little clumsy.  They set up some amazing storylines and then just dropped them.  And then they killed him in such a manner that felt very unrealistic for this character.  Neal turned to dark magic so quickly?  After everything he’d been through?  I think if they were going to go the turned to dark magic route they needed to show a lot more of Neal’s trying other avenues, because up to that point they wrote Neal as probably the least likely to turn to dark magic, even to get back to his family.  Obviously, Neal and Henry’s relationship was rife with potential – Neal didn’t know about Henry until Henry was 11….Henry had lived for 11 years without a strong male role model, and then he got to meet his father.  They got into Hook/Bae backstory, which could have made an interesting storyline (and perhaps even shed light on the characters for people who have difficulty understanding one or the other or both)…Rumple and Neal’s storyline was probably the tightest and seemed to be fleshing out well…and then all of a sudden, Neal’s gone.  It just seemed too quick, too un-organic, if you will, to really feel real and well planned.  And I get the concept of death sometimes happens suddenly and whatnot, but to me, it didn’t feel like that’s what the writers were trying to accomplish with the death (and if they did, I think they missed that mark completely…)

So I like the theory but if that’s what they were attempting with his death, in my opinion, they missed the mark in explaining that concept.

[once_dude]

my opinion on Neal’s death has not changed:

Neal was being stupid and out of character!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He and Belle at the time of dark one vault opening knew it was a scam by at least Lumiere and at most the wicked witch. Neal knew that Rumple had sacrificed himself to save him and Belle. Neal undid this even though he clearly knew that it came with a price.

If there is anything that Neal’s story has taught us magic always comes with a price.

1. Neal and his dad part 1: Baelfire’s dad has to completely change and take on a monster the dark one in order to save his son.

2. Neal and his dad part ii: Pied Piper, Neal wants to escape but also wants his father, Rumple gets tricked by his dad.

3. Neal warns Wendy John and Michael to stay awy from magic.

4. Neal unwittingly is a pawn of Tamara.

In short why Neal why, stupid writing. stupid stupid stupid!!!!!!!

Magic always comes with a price, so I pay with visa.

[lunatiger]

I really don’t think it’s course correction, since they’ve written it as Neal dying by his own hand due to opening the vault when he had the choice to back away.

Neal’s death was just convoluted, plain and simple. No amount of reasoning would be able to put into context what the writers were aiming for and what they actually executed. It was clumsy, all in attempts to rush the plot with only 10 episodes remaining. Not sure why they couldn’t stretch it a bit longer and carried it over to season 4 is beyond me…. :/

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