Work Text:
EDIT: I AM NOW EDITING THIS AND THEREFORE, THIS WILL CHANGE LATER.
Inspired by this post [x]
Just in the past couple months that I’ve been in the OUaT (or ONCE) fandom, I have noticed one thing that repeats itself over and over again, the fact is this: People are constantly playing the blame game. Who is the most responsible? Is it Regina? Or Rumplestilskin? Perhaps Cora? Maybe.. maybe it’s Snow. Who started this mess?
Another issue has been brought to my attention even more when I joined the “Emma/Hook” Captain Swan (CS) shippers. The astonishing amount of hate towards Neal and Regina and anyone else that gets in-between CS is downright terrifying…less so than Dean/Castiel or Stiles/Derek shippers (although, this might do because of slash shipping vs. hetero shipping so they probably can’t compare). However, I think a lot of people have missed the main point of the show. Not all, I will admit there have been a lot of fic that I’ve skimmed where Neal, Regina, Hook and Emma all raise Henry together. These people have not missed this point and for that I am extremely happy, because my faith in humanity is not completely demolished.
The point that I believe the ONCE writers are making is this: That not everyone is inherently good or evil, everyone is human. As it relates to shipping… well, that not everything is in blacks and whites when it comes to love, despite their continued push to One True Love. That’s it. That’s the show. Allow me a few minutes to explain. First I will go into the background of the characters and then, based on their own ships-Captain Swan, Charming/Snow, and Rumple/belle- you can see the humanity of their actions. steps on soap-box
Let me begin with Baelfire aka Neal, as he’s the one who inspired this rant, I feel like it’s best to start with him. Let me just start out and say that I personally don’t like Neal all that much. At first, yes, it was because of CS but then he started doing more and more things that made me annoyed, had me thinking he wasn’t right for Emma and definitely not her True Love. Partly, I have reconciled with myself, is because I have a bit of a self-hate issue and I see myself in Neal so much that I get annoyed with him doing the same shit I do. For example: Letting Emma go because he thought this was the right thing to do. There’s always the saying, “the road to hell is paved with good-intentions,” and I think Neal was a very good example of this. You would think being self-sacrificing would be a good thing, I mean, he did this for her, right? He had her in mind-said that himself when Emma confronted him- but frankly he was just scared. Scared of making that commitment and taking the blame himself, despite August telling him to make that choice. The point is Neal had a choice and he chose to run… Much like his father. This is compounded once you know his background.
Neal has been through a lot, way before Emma was even born. Think on that. Neal is only a few decades years younger than Hook. He was a boy when they met, and Neverland slows down the aging process. This is how Hook could be 330 years old while Neal could be 30 also. They both spend time in this vortex before being shoved back into their own world. It’s almost as wibbly-wobbly as Doctor Who. Getting back to the point, Neal having spent time with his father after the death of their mother (who is taken away by Hook), having spent time alone with him runs away with Peter-finds his father again, dropped down into a portal to our world where he meets Wendy and gets sent back to Neverland-meets Hook and where we are figuring out he escapes a second time. (Speaking of which, I can’t make a comment on how “human” Peter is, since we have yet to figure out his and Wendy’s backstory, however I will note that I think he’s the worst of all the “bad guys” we’ve encountered) has had to make very difficult decisions…
This child has been abandoned, brought up faster through multiple different worlds/cultures, has had to see his father driven mad with power, and then when he thinks he’s finally behind it all.. he finds the savior. The savior whom he doesn’t know is the savior, then doesn’t realize she’s pregnant and forced to make an uninformed decision in an impossible situation. Honestly, I probably would have made the same one he did. And then, once learning about his son, he does everything he can to be the father his never was. I think that’s commendable. He wants to change. Great. What I don’t like about the whole situation, as it concerns Emma, is where he thinks he knows better then she does. He made the decision for her and now he thinks he can walk right back into her life… no. It’s going to take a lot more than that. Or rather, I hope it does… even now, with us knowing he’s alive and Emma not, but saying she still loves him. I still can’t see them being suddenly okay. Yes, I think it’ll be wonderful that Henry has his father back, and Emma obviously cares for Neal-loves him- but there’s a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone. I think Emma is starting to realize that difference. She will always love Neal. Just like she’ll always love Henry… I won’t deny this. He’s the father after all. However, there’s been adequate proof by the writers’ words, the choice of scenes, and parallels with Snow and Charming… we’ll get into that later.
Which brings me to Rumple and his entire situation. Here’s where it gets a bit trickier in proving that everyone is human. After thinking this through and having watched season 2 a few times.. I have made the premature decision to believe that all of this could have been avoided if Milah had been more honest with Rumple. There would not have been the portal incident with Neal, thus no Dark One. There would not have been no one to give power to Cora. There would not have been the fight with Hook… so on. However, thinking back on it.. maybe not. Even if Milah had been more honest, she probably still would have left and Rumple still would have been driven mad with jealousy/rage. If not then, then some other way…it’s this that causes me to realize that it’s all about the choices the characters have made. At every point, at every deal that Rumple has made, there is a turning point.
Having already discussed some of Rumple’s past, I would like to just go on to talk about his relationship with Belle. This is the point where you realize even the most hideous of “monsters” can have a turning point. That his insistence to sacrifice himself because of a prophecy-confessing that to Belle as he says goodbye- that this is the only way honor Baelfire, after his perceived death, is, I think, another more human moment- beside all the scenes between him and Belle where he tries to become a better man for her. It’s what makes her fall in love with Rumple to begin with. She sees the man he was before becoming the Dark One.
Along this note, we have Belle herself. I don’t think that Lacy-the persona that she adopted because of the spell that Regina placed on her was just because of the spell. I think that this persona was always within her. Something she fights against constantly, because I’m sure that she sometimes has the thought of “I want this person who terrorizes people to be gone.” But she chooses not to voice that out loud. Take Gaston for example. Because Disney owns ABC, and the writers are basing these characters off of those versions, I can imagine Gaston was one of those that she didn’t want to have around… maybe not dead, but simply not around. Not the purest of people, either.
Another influence to Rumple’s, Neal’s, and Emma’s character was Hook. Rather the man that he was before, Killian. Killian-who when he first set sail was an honorable man, a good guy, a man who wanted to sail the seas with his brother and be a honest member of the King’s Navy. It was only the influence of Pan and that of the King’s own greed that he became the pirate without morals whom Rumple was thrown into conflict with. If not for the King and Pan, Liam might still be alive, but for only a short time as the King’s greed would surely have caused a war later on. One thing that irked me with the speech he gave to his men, was this: I could have sworn he was going to fight against the King’s Army simply for being immoral and therefore become labeled as Pirates for going against the Crown. Instead he took a completely different turn and went straight to piracy and doing what they wanted. It’s somewhat understandable “do what you want because the King does so too,” however, it’s still drastic.
After a couple years of this, we’re lead to his relationship with Milah-previously explained- where we see him caring, once again, for one other person. The first person since his brother. However, the way he goes about this, exploiting Milah’s want of the sea, and all the other actions-joining with Cora and Regina, stealing Aurora’s heart, shooting Belle- are what make him a “bad guy” and as such, I can see why people wouldn’t want him to be with Emma. However, there’s so much proof as to how he’s literally changing for her. Much like how he changed after he lost Liam, he’s starting to recover back to Killian after being Hook for nearly 300 years-bent on revenge-because of the chance and the people around her and for her. He came back with the bean when he clearly had an opportune moment to leave. Unlike, Neal.. who left at the first sign of conflict from the police.
I mentioned, that the people around her are also helping to change Killian back into his previous self. I will begin with Charming as he’s one of the main antagonists against Hook. There was a really good meta recently that I commented on, which you can read here [x], about Charming’s motivation in “Good Form” and how we’re starting to not only see Killian’s development as a better man, but also the acceptance and frustration in which Charming is also starting to grow as a father. The only reason that I’ve ever really been annoyed with Charming is because he’s too much of an optimist. This is a personal problem that I have against those kinds of people. I’ve never been able to be that strong-willed before. It makes me jealous and, much like Hook, I lash out. Never will I say that Charming doesn’t care. Never will I say that he’s a bad father. Never will I say that he’s a bad person. I don’t think anyone could be as noble as he is-except for maybe Snow. I know he’s not perfect-the initial meeting of him and Snow, the drive for murdering Cora and Regina-proves this, but he’s trying, given the crappy circumstances he’s been given. Much like Hook and Emma and everyone else in Storybrooke. As for Snow, herself.. we’ve already seen how human she can be. Yes, her eternal optimism is in place, however, we’ve seen the consequences of where her choice to kill Cora has landed her.
I mentioned previously about the parallels between Snow/Charming and Hook/Emma…this however, is probably best explained by the numerous of posts already out there comparing. Two of them being available here and here. The use of angles, the dialogue, the looks between the characters.. these are all thought out and planned by the writers. How can you say that this wasn’t planned or that Neal is supposed to be with Emma when the evidence clearly points otherwise? I could make another whole paper about this, and I’m sure others have as well…
Finally, we conclude with the most unlikely of characters to consider as being anything other than good or evil: Henry, Cora and Regina. Left out of the shipping loop, these three are a good examples of simple character studies. We’ll start with Henry and Regina.
You would think that being a child, he would have all the hope and goodness that comes with being a child brought up in a fairytale world, however, we’re starting to see in season three how that isn’t the case. We starting to see him doubt himself and as such, start to become a Lost Boy someone who we know can become cruel and vicious, born out of loneliness and pain. His love for Regina, even after everything she’s done astonishes me and I am so glad they keep that in. It shows that everyone has the potential to be good if given the chance of a loved one (ie. see Hook too). Regina is a better person because the only person that she values an opinion from is giving her the chance to be the person she wanted to be all along. Something that Cora never did. It makes me feel very connected to her, as someone who is also misunderstood by the ones closest to her. She was always forced to make the wrong decision by the people around her. But then there’s always the choice. But after a while.. that choice to do good becomes less and less simple and harder to make.
Cora.. now, she’s a piece of work. The episode in which we see her background provided me with so much insight into her character that I can’t help but pity her. A miller’s daughter, all she ever wanted was a better life than the one she was given, something we can all be familiar with. The only thing that makes her motivations suspect is the way in which she tries to achieve these goals. It’s actually a wonderful parallel to the conflict of the “American Dream” and why some people resort to crime. You could even go so far as to say that magic is symbol of crime and that crime “always comes with a price.” Cora did the only thing she thought she could at the time to provide for herself. There was even the theory that Snow’s mother was the one who tripped Cora at the beginning and that that is why there is that grudge against Snow by Cora and Regina alike. I would source it if I could.
Someone really needs to map out one time the order in which everything happens with Rumple. Was it Pan when he started planting doubt in Baelfire’s heart? Was it when Rumple refused to fight in the Ogre Wars? Was it Milah and Hook? I guess we’ll find out.
If you’ve made it this far, I commend you. You should totally leave me a comment. I hope you realize that not everything in this show is black and white. While I agree with Neal not being right for Emma, I don’t think there should be so much hate towards Neal. Same with Rumple, Regina and even Cora. But this is just my opinion.
*steps off soap box*