"What I Really Want Is You"

[beastwhisperer]

LOL Yeah, we’ve got two races under our belts for the triple crown. Only one left to go! “Come on, NealfirePan! You’re in the homestretch!” *waves racing ticket* 😆 That really does sound kinda like a racehorse name.

K&H’s podcast was something that I found very positive for both Nealfire and Swanfire, while listening last night to both that and the Once podcast. Just wanted to copy a section that slurpeez108 brought up in the Henry Product of True Love thread:

Podcaster: Neal obviously still loves Emma.
Eddy: I think that when Emma in the bar scene says she made a deal, he knows what happens when people make deals with his father. And he does, of course, love her. He gave her up because August said she had to fulfill her destiny rather than give her up because he fell out of love with her. And, I think, unfortunately, so much time has passed and so much stuff has happened and she’s so hurt that he understands that, at least in his mind, it was a door that got closed off to him, but that doesn’t mean you stop loving someone. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/once-upon-a-time/id561291113?mt=2

So we do have confirmation that Neal still loves Emma. At the same time, they say that in Neal’s mind Emma’s so hurt after all this time and with all that happened that he thinks that door is closed to him. Even believing that she’s closed off to him, he still loves her. Of course, they are very careful with how they word this, because they never say that Emma really is closed off to him. I’m hoping that will become more clear to Neal over the rest of this season. He didn’t get to see her marvelous reaction to the dreamcatcher, but I’m hopeful about him seeing the bug at some point and hopefully August will tell the rest of the story about his breaking his promise to Neal before he gets rewarded with becoming a little boy again.

[mich7]

Thanks for posting that from the podcast…I haven’t had the time to listen to it yet..so it sounds like at least on Neal’s part even though he has moved on to Tamara he still carries a torch for Emma. I guess the question becomes if Emma realizes she still has feelings for him after some time will he choose her or Tamara…sounds like Kathryn again…lol guess it could be worse…they could throw another sleeping curse in there.

[beastwhisperer]

You’re welcome!

I got the impression that Emma was aware of her feelings for him still in Manhattan, but she is so angry and hurt that she is putting up the biggest wall she can to hide them. She must have had thoughts about it during the necklace and dreamcatcher scenes. Both Neal and Rumpie catch her in unconscious actions that pertain to her feelings.

I think her biggest issue is fear of being hurt if she allows herself to feel or be vulnerable around Neal again. She’s deeply into self-protection mode right now, and I think what she needs most is reassurance from outside sources that Neal isn’t going to break her heart any time she opens up to him. That’s going to take time and experience, so how they handle the Tamara situation with the whole Love Triangle v2.0 is going to be important.

The sleeping curse doesn’t frighten me quite as much as any potential… “who killed/kidnapped Tamara” framejob stories. Oy. That would just be the worst for me. 👿

[HappyEndings]

I think her biggest issue is fear of being hurt if she allows herself to feel or be vulnerable around Neal again. She’s deeply into self-protection mode right now, and I think what she needs most is reassurance from outside sources that Neal isn’t going to break her heart any time she opens up to him. That’s going to take time and experience, so how they handle the Tamara situation with the whole Love Triangle v2.0 is going to be important

I think Snow/MM will be the one to really help her with her insecurities as she did with the Huntsman and with the phone call from Emma. 🙂

[mich7]

@BeastWhisperer wrote:

You’re welcome!

I got the impression that Emma was aware of her feelings for him still in Manhattan, but she is so angry and hurt that she is putting up the biggest wall she can to hide them. She must have had thoughts about it during the necklace and dreamcatcher scenes. Both Neal and Rumpie catch her in unconscious actions that pertain to her feelings.

For just a moment there I thought her guard went down when Neal told Gold to get out and she took a step toward Neal and said his name…I think with her familiarity with Neal it would be easy to fall back into step with him so I totally agree that she has a huge wall up…she’s terrified of getting hurt again…that’s why I didn’t really see the need for them to bring in Tamara…they have enough problems to overcome without a fiancee added to the mix.

[beastwhisperer]

Yeah, Snow gives very good advice. She gave Emma exactly the right advice on the phone.

If Emma had listened, she and Neal could have found a better way to reveal the truth to Henry so Emma wouldn’t have had a big traumatic a scene to go through with Henry. Neal would have done whatever he could to help make it easier for her and their son in that instance, and Henry wouldn’t have been witness to Emma trying to hide the connection from both him and Neal. Instead, just like when she trapped Hook at the top of the beanstalk, Emma didn’t allow herself to trust or be vulnerable. I completely understand why she reacted as she did, but her inability to trust cost her again.

Her mom’s continuing good advice and guidance would be a huge help. I’m very interested to see how Neal and the Charmings meet and interact.

For just a moment there I thought her guard went down when Neal told Gold to get out and she took a step toward Neal and said his name…I think with her familiarity with Neal it would be easy to fall back into step with him so I totally agree that she has a huge wall up…she’s terrified of getting hurt again…that’s why I didn’t really see the need for them to bring in Tamara…they have enough problems to overcome without a fiancee added to the mix.

Completely agree! She did seem unguarded in that moment. She feels so much that it would be quite easy to fall back into step. Even when she was taking her coat off in the bar while trying to maintain that she’s over him, Emma had the unguarded reveal of the necklace. It’s impossible for her to be on high alert at all times, and there’s so much potential for them to have this interesting back and forth.

I think they have enough issues that Tamara isn’t needed at all. But maybe the writers just figure their feelings are so big and that inadvertant ability to gravitate to one another is so natural that the writers couldn’t keep Swanfire apart for more than an episode without Tamara. LOL The thought makes me feel a little less irked about the impending triangle. I just need them to handle it better than the last one, since Neal and Emma aren’t under a curse.

[naomi]

Woo, rant time. (Sorry).

Here’s my beef with this Tamara thing. (^I agree with posts above.)

Unless this show takes a daring leap into bigamy, this “Other Woman” conflict with Neal will have to be resolved somehow. But the dangerous thing about ALL love triangles in ALL TV shows or film is that you usually end up with a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t outcome. You’ll have fans rooting for one pairing or the other, and in the end some people are going to be upset.

If he ends up with Tamara: Then, admittedly, as a Swanfire shipper this breaks my heart. But more importantly, this means that in the end Emma paid a HUGE price for the curse to be broken. The ultimate price of Emma finding her parents again was that she actually lost the future she could have had with Neal and Henry in Tallahassee. Snow and Charming were reunited and got their lives “back on track” so to speak…but Neal and Emma couldn’t be fixed. This outcome just makes me feel bad for her…I dunno. I can’t describe it. Yes, I’m biased, but I think it would be quite tragic.

If Neal ends up with Emma: Then this doesn’t sit right with me either. Did he not love Tamara at all? Is he just going to break his promise to marry her? Why did he agree to marry someone if he wasn’t really in love with her in the first place? (Basically, all that annoyance with David sneaking around with MM and being untruthful to Kathryn will come rushing back. And seriously, if you ditch your fiancee for someone else there’s definitely going to be deception involved while ‘new feelings are developed’ or in this case, ‘rekindled’.) And I hated how the writers handled the Kathryn thing last year: after weeks of drama, she basically said ‘I’m OK with it now.’ It was just so…unrealistic. And Kathryn and David were in a fake marriage. Neal and Tamara obviously had/have real feelings for each other, which will make their break-up that more painful, I think.

So, basically. I hate love triangles. Involving any characters.

HATE THEM.

ETA: I’m really looking forward to the Emma/mama!Snow scenes, though. She’ll have to get through a LOT of emotional crap in the upcoming episodes.

[mich7]

Considering her character description
:
She’s beautiful, artistic, relaxed, friendly, charming and smart. She’s also ambitious, fearless and a born leader, and she won’t stop until she gets what she wants”

I get the feeling that she pursued Neal…not the other way around…and that she might be very aggressive in trying to keep him…so Emma may have to fight for Neal if she really wants to get back together with him. If she figures it out and tells him she still loves him…then it will be up to him to choose…so then we are back to the Kathryn parallel again…hope he comes across better than David did during that time…that particular time in the Snow/PC romance was painful imo.

ETA: @Naomi I think Tamara is someone Neal may have settled for because he didn’t think he would ever have a future with Emma. I’m not saying he doesn’t care for her but would he have even taken a second look at her if Emma had been in his life…whereas we know that he probably is going to be feeling for Emma even though he is with Tamara.

I agree with you about triangles…I hate them…they are also way overused these days but I do not and probably will not have sympathy for Tamara…as far as I am concerned she’s the other woman…and if she turns out to be the aggressive person I think she may be from her character description I think she may have pursued Neal until she got him…in other words right now…until I know better…she sounds pushy and who knows maybe controlling and manipulative…sometimes those go hand in hand. To me not stopping until you get what you want kinda screams that she will use any means necessary imo.

[HappyEndings]

I’m really looking forward to the Emma/mama!Snow scenes. I am too!!!

[beastwhisperer]

It’s not impossible for a series to do a decent love triangle for me, but it’s really, really hard. First off, it’s much easier for me to accept a love triangle when neither half of it is in a hugely commited relationship. A character meets two other characters and has an attraction to both is a far cry from married character loves other character on the side. I’m more easygoing about Mulan/Phillip/Aurora’s weird dynamic for example than I felt about MM/David/Kathryn. Phillip seems to care for both, but he also seems to have had the decency to try to avoid exploiting Mulan’s feelings or doing something that would really hurt Aurora. Please don’t let that change! The problem of a split fanbase still remains though, but even in a clear relationship state some folks will prefer to ship characters AU.

ETA: @Naomi I think Tamara is someone Neal may have settled for because he didn’t think he would ever have a future with Emma. I’m not saying he doesn’t care for her but would he have even taken a second look at her if Emma had been in his life…whereas we know that he probably is going to be feeling for Emma even though he is with Tamara.

^THIS. So this!

To me that whole not stopping til you get what you want sounds like a shady character who will use whatever means necessary too. I’d actually find her more interesting if she were a villian who was pursuing Neal, either from attraction or because she thought it would get her something else she wanted. Otherwise it’s very much the Kathryn parallel again. That time in Snowing was so bad for me that I developed a strange softspot for Dr. Whale and Snow’s one-night stand. I still cackle gleefully any time it is brought up and makes David uncomfortable. Sad. But true.

My other big problem with this is that every stinking triangle on this show is one guy and two girls. It’s starting to feel sexist to me as if it’s just a woman’s place to have to fight other women for their man. Ugh.

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