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Canon means nothing to me Emma and Regina are soulmates

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and they lived happily ever after.

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Hey!I miss your posts)What do you think about new information that CS-baby's name will be Hope?And why will Anastasia be dressed at the Black Fairy's dress? Thanks a lot!

Emma: Sounds like you’re talking about hope.Regina: Something you taught me all those years ago when you didn’t give up on me.

Not sure about Ana, but I personally love that the baby is named after the last subject of the last real conversation we saw Emma and Regina have… 

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Just wanted to wish everyone a happy 2018…

…and say nothing I’ve seen on the show this season has changed my gut feeling about all of this. Emma’s absence was set up as a mystery - begging for an answer - with a lot of conflict between Hook and Regina They also keep mentioning Emma in subtle ways. 

If you look at queerness from a global perspective on the show, it went from continuous subtext…

 …to almost text…

…to one episode of text…

…to a prominent openly queer character.

Also two brunettes and two blondes kissing could just be symbols of self-acceptance, now if we can move on to that other blond and brunette accepting each other and their love, that would be great.

*crawls back into the hole in the ground*

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Alice was trapped in the tower for 6205 days aka 17 years!

Emma was 17 when she both conceived and had Henry!

[When Henry showed up at her door on her 28th birthday, he was already 10. That would make Emma almost 18 when giving birth to him.]

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Lucy = Lucifer, that’s a great connection! Love this excerpt by Black.

Also, it’s Interesting how the second picture is framed like Regina is offering an apple to the audience. Fits with your theory about the audience being under a curse. 

I'm not sure if you've done anything on it (I tried looking before I asked but) have you done a meta regarding the apple tree on Lucy's book?

Hey Anon,

not really… I have updated this post about Emma’s tattoo. Obviously the apple tree is connected to Regina. I think Emma’s tattoo - which appeared for the first time when Regina offered her an apple - may be an apple blossom.

When Emma first accepted the apple, she wasn’t ready for it. Henry took it and tossed it away. She needed to deal with her issues surrounding Henry first. Now with their mutual True Love’s kiss, Emma’s finally dealt with the traumas from her past connected to Henry.

Looks like the new book will be about Regina’s story…

There’s a bit in The Secret History of the World by Jonathan Black I was reading that got my attention, but I’m still thinking about how the pieces fit together.

The Morning Star is, of course, Venus. The Bible, therefore, identifies Lucifer with the planet Venus. It might seem counter-intuitive to equate the goddess of Venus in Greece and Rome - Aphrodite to the Greeks - with Lucifer in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Venus/Aphrodite is female and seems more life-enhancing. But in reality there are key points of similarity.

Both Lucifer and Venus/Aphrodite are bound up with animal desire and sexuality. The apple is the fruit associated with both. Lucifer tempts Eve with an apple and Paris hands Venus an apple in a gesture that precipitates the abduction of Helen and the Great War of the ancient world. The apple is universally the fruit of Venus because if you slice an apple in two, the path that Venus traces in the sky over the forty-year period is a five-pointed star, pinpointed by the position of the pips.

Lucifer and Venus are also ambiguous figures. Lucifer is evil, but he is a necessary evil. Without Lucifer’s intervention, proto-humanity would not have evolved beyond a vegetative form of life. As a result of Lucifer’s intervention in history we are animated, both in the sense that we can move about the surface of the planet and also in the sense that we are moved by desire. An animal has a conscious awareness of itself as a distinct entity that is denied to plants. To say that Adam and Eve ‘knew they were naked’ is to say that they became aware that they had bodies.

We have a new character called Lucy, we have an apple tree and we have Lily’s tattoo which looked like the Venus star and is in the same place as Emma’s tattoo.

If the tattoo disappeared and it was an apple blossom… does that mean it has blossomed into an apple?

So, these are the bits and pieces I’m currently working with, thought I’d share in case it sparks something with someone.

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Are you gonna stick around and keep doing Swan Queen metas, even tho they're not endgame? (crying hysterically rn)

I haven’t seen anything that changed my mind in these last episodes. I just didn’t expect it to be quite as vague and ambiguous. My theories are all tied to OperationOUT and there was a lot of confirmation. The existence of the story realms was tied directly to the state of Emma’s mind, I’m not sure if they could have been more overt.

Then there was Emma’s tattoo that only appeared after Emma’s car crash, which I talk about here.

It was missing again in the asylum where Emma tried to step away from the fairy tales - even if I don’t think she’s actually in an asylum, the medical setting was realistic. In conscious reality Emma doesn’t have a tattoo.

There was another reminder both of the invite of the forbidden fruit, but also of the apple as a symbol of consciousness. I’ve been saying Emma and Regina’s story can only start to play out after Emma wakes up, so all these symbols of waking mean it can finally start to happen. We had the song “In my dreams” earlier this season with exactly the message that your dreams may come true, with then several scenes of Emma and Regina matching the lyrics.

Henry’s book told the story of Snow & Charming’s happiness and their family life and history. We thought it was the story of his parents, but he told his grandparents’ story with Snow even singing at the wedding that it was her long term wish coming true. The book we finished was that of the Charmings.

Now it’s time for the next generation… so maybe Lucy can tell the story of how her grandmothers met and fell in love. Henry’s book ended after the Final Battle, but in Lucy’s book, the celebration scene was clearly only the middle of the book. Hook is posed as Judas during the Last Supper, hinting he may soon be betraying Emma. Jesus died not long after the Last Supper, so the Premiere for the next season may turn the happiness on its head and show us why Lucy had to come and find  Henry to save his family. The cover of her book has a mirror and an apple tree, so it seems focused on Regina’s perspective.

Interestingly, I’d recently read the book the Writer’s journey and while reading I thought we were at the point of Resurrection for Emma - so I was pleasantly surprised to see the Last Supper reference - but I was wondering how they were going to do it. They really seem to be following the structure of this book, but it’s written with film in mind more so than tv. They describe it as a moment where the audience really needs to believe the Hero is dead. I was wondering how that would work on Once, because they’ve killed so many characters and revived them with TLK or brought them back later. In film a few seconds too long under water is enough to create the right effect but on a tv show that’s been going as long as Once Upon a Time, they’d need to do something drastic to emotionally put us in that same position.

…so when JMo announced she was leaving I was shocked and sad… until I realized that answered my question. I was feeling exactly how I was supposed to feel at the point before Resurrection. It was the answer to a question I’d asked myself before the news. We all have to believe that Emma is really gone for good otherwise the moment she comes back doesn’t have the same effect.

Which got me wondering about all the ways this could play out and they could continue to tell her story. 

Jmo comes back for the finale

The story is mostly told through other characters like they’ve been doing with the parallels

Initial part-time rumors were true and she comes back for the second half

The interviews are PR stunts to enhance the Resurrection effect

They bring back little Emma, teen Emma or another Emma at a different age

Lily comes back to play out her story, they merge and their experiences are suddenly shared

Emma is lost but sends messages to her family who follow the trail - voice overs

There are rumors about an 8th season, resurrection happens and she comes back

…

Another possibility I was wondering about is that they may have shot scenes throughout the years to be used now. These scenes in particular come to mind.

A huge set and a beautiful dress we never saw.

Season one showed us the fairy tales we thought we knew and showed us how our assumptions were wrong and it wasn’t the black and white world we thought it was. Now it seems like history is repeating itself… what if all along they planned to fill the gaps of their story? What if they’re doing the same thing to their own fairy tale? “Hah, you assume you know what happened? Well, no, this is what actually happened.” And Lucy’s book shows us scenes that are already shot, but they reframe everything we’ve just seen over the course of 6 years. Or even just starting at the Dark Swan arc, where we know for sure 3 weeks are missing and the writers let us know it was on purpose.

So to answer your question… unless I get bored or busy, I’ll probably still be writing these thingies, yes. I’ve only seen the finale once in bad quality, so this isn’t a coherent post, but just some of my initial thoughts I thought you might like.

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Can you believe Emma Swan promised to bring back Regina’s happy ending, and she did? And Regina Mills, of ALL people, was the one to give Emma a hope speech, inspiring her as she prepared to face her prophesied death–simply by reminiscing about their story together. From enemies, to co-parents, to family. You could see the unconditional trust and love between them during the exchange. How much they’ve grown over six years together.

Swan Queen is epic, fam. They have always been the core of the show, representing family and hope and belief. Continuing to believe in even the possibility of a happy ending is a very powerful thing :)

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not to be dramatic but zelena running the black fairy over and then saying “miss me?” is one of the best scenes this show has given us

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“Looks like the wedding can happen tomorrow.” 

-Snow

“Tomorrow is a very special day for Emma Swan… tomorrow is the day she dies.” 

-The Black Fairy

Seriously the show speaks for itself lol

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This is an elegant explanation of something I've wanted to post about for a while now.

Swen is constantly dismissed for criticizing Hook's character, but the reasoning goes far deeper than a petty ship war.

Personally, I enjoy the CS dynamic. I want to ship them, I wish I could, honestly. But I feel that this show has done a disservice to Hook by not giving him a meaningful redemption arc. And despite all evidence to the contrary, I still believe the writers were purposeful in not giving the audience that closure. Maybe they're working on it, who knows. But up to this point in the story, CS endgame does not make narrative sense to me.

How do you manage to write everything I'm thinking abt haha ?! 'specially abt hook killing emma's grand father, I've always wanted to give hook a chance (i'm a fan of redemptions) but after that scene I just couldn't anymore, it was like a slap, a wake up call of sorts ? 'not everyone is redeemable' is what snow said !

They are really trying to make the audience lose sympathy, but subtly. Rationally we can follow the reasonings we are offered. “Yes, it’s true, it was a long time ago, I guess we already knew he was a murderer.” Yet subconsciously that won’t sit well with us because of this recent introduction.

I actually wouldn’t mind a real redemption arc for Hook. A karmic one, like Regina’s redemption. One that actually makes the point that you cannot make someone else responsible for your happy ending without consequences. I don’t mind villains or flawed characters and I don’t like pointless suffering. What I do like in stories are lessons that make sense, that are relevant to the character.

If I want him to lose Emma, it’s because when he first saw her, he reduced her to an object - which lasted for a very long time. He didn’t take no for an answer, disregarded her defensive body language completely, sexually assaulted her - which, yes, I think threatening to rape a woman is different from challenging her in a sword fight of equals. If you use gender-related violence to make your villain more villainous, you need to address that gender-related violence in said villain’s redemption. Instead he relentlessly went for the girl and essentially got rewarded for it. I want it to be revealed Emma used him just as much as a quick fix to make up for lost time with her parents. That is a punishment that fits the crime. To be used just because you look half decent and are the right gender for the task. Losing Emma could be the start of his real redemption. Provided he sees that she did to him what he set out to do to her from the beginning. There are plenty of signs he still sees her as a possession and not as a person. 

He goes far to protect her and save her. He traded his ship for her and somehow it feels like she now is his new ship. He was protective of the object as well. That doesn’t prove partnership, it proves ownership and a strong sense of entitlement. He doesn’t seem to see her as a person with feelings and needs beyond what matters to him. Loving her also means taking into account that what happens to the people she loves will affect her too. Keeping her safe, means keeping her family safe. Even just in the last episode. Snow embraced him completely, David has just forgiven him right away after finding out he killed his father. Meanwhile he can’t even hide his childish frustration about being interrupted when he was about to have sex? Emma is making it clear what her wishes are. She doesn’t want Snow to feel uncomfortable in that moment. Of course Snow was overstepping. And they should have a conversation about boundaries… but he cannot show compassion for a minor infringement towards the people who have shown him so much compassion and trust? I’d be embarrassed for myself and on my partner’s behalf if they needed to make it that clear to my mother how important sex was to them by displaying their anger and getting a shower to cool off.

If we then get to see what Hook really needs to confront to become a profoundly changed person, then it becomes more obvious what went wrong the first time around. They never let him hit rock bottom in a way that felt relevant to his crimes. His arc was written to show how trying to save people - having a Savior complex and making yourself responsible for others’ happy endings - doesn’t work in the long run. You take people’s learning and growth away by not letting them change their own behavior in response to the negative consequences.

I’d be okay with Hook getting a real redemption arc that deals with his sexism and the underlying issues that caused them. However, I also think it should initially be far away from women and he should definitely not end up with Emma after everything they’ve been through because that would be a horrible message. So I’m not sure if Snow’s words apply to Hook and although I can’t say I’d be terribly upset if they were about him… I’d also gain hope from seeing a man realize women are people.

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lmao..... is this show even real

‘OUAT’ Good Old Days Series

  ↳ 1x03 ‘Snow Falls’, November 6, 2011

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did Emma and Regina just agree to raise another child together?

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Tell me this isn’t intentional

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The Traditional Snow White Story as Emma’s Story...With a Twist.

So, it’s pretty obvious that Emma has a problem and there is a lot of evidence that points to Snowing (and Hook) as being a large part of that problem. This made me think about the psychological meaning behind Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs and I came across an analysis by Stephen Flynn that was very interesting.

Flynn uses Jungian psychology to suggest that the story of Snow White is really about the immature female psyche. Although Flynn’s analysis is about the traditional Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story, the points he makes fit more with what we are seeing from Emma on OUAT. A lot of Regina’s journey can be seen in the analysis as well.

To start my analysis of Snow White, I will assume that the whole of the story to date describes a state of the immature feminine psyche. For instance, there are three women in this story, and the first, the caring mother soon dies leaving our heroine Snow White with no psychological mother.

@anothershadeofgreen made the point that when Emma realizes that Snow and David are her parents, symbolically, this is Emma being born. So the behavior we see from Emma now represents her immature female psyche.

Generally speaking, fairy tales are looked at as childish stories that are told to little girls, in particular. Even Emma thought it was ridiculous at first, too, but as she came to realize it was true, the urge to identify with these people, who were the quintessence of love, grew stronger.

Love is all Emma has ever wanted throughout her entire life (same with Regina), so as she sees all of these happy endings and true loves, she wants it, too, and she especially wants it in the way that her parents have it because those are the people she wants to identify with more than anything. When you’re a kid (and remember, psychologically speaking, Emma sort of is) you think your parents are the greatest and you want to be just like them.  

…these stories tell us how to develop and integrate conflicting aspects of our selves as our personal unconscious map unfolds. At the start of the story Snow White, or the anima, is far from complete as she is both innocent and immature and lacks a caring mother figure within.

Flynn’s analysis also discusses the development of the masculine and the feminine. 

There are ten men in the story of Snow White and nine represent weak or inadequate father figures within Snow White. These ten men can be broken down into four stages of development of the masculine within the development of the female in her striving to become a fully mature woman at the end of the story.

When relating this to Emma, all of the relationships she has had with men have been unhealthy and that more than likely stems from her lack of father, i.e. lack of positive animus. Regina had a father, but he still wasn’t a positive animus because even though he loved her, he was weak and he didn’t protect her. 

Regina also had a severely negative anima in her mother. However, Regina was able to see both of her parents in the Underworld and the closure she was able to have with them greatly affected her ability to find balance within herself. I would say that, in the end, they were a positive animus and anima for her.  

Uniformity starts to emerge when we read how the queen died at the birth of her child and after her death her husband, ’..the king took another wife’(Grimm 1984:188). This is the only mention of Snow Whites’ father. He is an indolent father because he utterly fails to protect his child from the murderous hands of his new wife. This indolent father figure is also shared with Cinderella and perhaps Little Red Riding Hood who does not seem to have a father at all. Common to all these tales is the fact that the negative aspect of the masculine (indolent father) cannot be integrated and this can result in a denial of the masculine. These maidens are always doomed to die, because their exclusive domination of the feminine psyche hinders the individuation process, that is, the maturation of personality’(Jung and Kerényi 1989:172).

When relating this to Emma, we can see that she falls under the same category. Unfortunately, Charming can be considered an indolent father, too, because he was absent from Emma’s life and as we just saw in the last episode, he and Snow chose not to save Emma when they had the chance, which adds to his indolence. He desperately wanted to, but ultimately, he followed Snow’s lead and once again Emma was left alone.

Right now, we are also seeing Emma “doomed to die” just like the other character’s mentioned above. Emma isn’t that dynamic person we saw in the beginning because the “maturation of her personality” has been halted due to the imbalance of her anima and animus.

The counter balance to the weak Animus is an inflated negative feminine ‘shadow’ which is totally unconscious.

In the traditional Snow White story, the evil step mother is the negative feminine shadow, but in OUAT Emma’s negative feminine shadow would be Snow.

The whole story seems to be about Snow White eventually finding her prince, the tenth male figure, before she is able to face and tame the rage within. 

If we replace Snow White with Emma and Prince Charming with Hook, then it would suggest that Hook is the positive male figure (animus) who is going to help Emma “face and tame the rage within”, but supposedly he has already been established as her true love…twice! So if he is that positive figure that is going to help Emma balance herself and mature (psychologically speaking) then how come it hasn’t happened yet? They are already true loves…right? We see Hook and Emma kiss all the time, but it’s never TLK. Belle kissed Rumpelstiltskin and it began to break the Dark One curse, so how come the same isn’t happening with Emma…and there is strong evidence to suggest that she is being influenced by a curse or curses.

I suppose they could be holding off on showing Hook & Emma share a TLK for the wedding, but that would incredibly redundant considering they have already tried to convince us twice that they are TL. Shouldn’t once have been enough? No one else has had to confirm their TL so much.

Flynn describes Snow White as a mess because of her inability to recognize the danger around her, which is why her step mother was able to trick her into biting the apple. Emma could certainly be describes as a mess at this point in the story. She is a shell of the person she used to be and she continually excuses the destructive behavior of Hook and her parents.

If she were a patient at this stage of development, she would appear hysterical, have a terror around freedom and at the same time be dependent on whoever was available. 

Again, this is clearly seen in Emma’s behavior with Hook. They are melodramatic, depressing and codependent. Emma has become incredibly attached to him to the point of it being sickening to watch. Her dependency on Hook is unhealthy to the point that lies and deceit is readily excused and she even takes the blame for some of his behavior. “I didn’t exactly make it easy for you…”

The ego began its own development when Snow White was seven years old, and it was then we find terror expressed by our Queenly step-mother. This terror can also accommodate jealousy, a lack of love for the child within, which then becomes hateful and murderous ’…she would have been ready to tear her heart out of her body’(Grimm 1984:189).

The section above actually reminds me of Regina more than anything, especially the tearing the heart out.

Concerning the traditional Snow White story, her awakening happens in four stages. I’m not sure if Emma’s story is following these stages exactly, but parts of her story can be recognized within each stage. For example, Snow White starts to become aware when she encounter’s the Huntsman. He doesn’t do any harm to her, but he isn’t able to protect either and she becomes lost in the woods.

The Ego at this stage is under the spell of unknown forces within and is restricted in freedom being alienated from normal life where she continues hiding in the woods.

Not completely sure this fits, but the Huntsman actually reminds me of August when it comes to Emma. He did the best he could as a child to protect her, but she still ended up alone. This might also include Neal, who made promises to her and then abandoned her with a child and let her go to prison.

And of course, she [Evil Queen] had the magic mirror. It was magic because the reflection looked into the mirror and saw the real self looking back from within the mirror. This is indeed a symbol of one aspect of feminine beauty. Jung says of such a woman that they have ’..artistry in illusion being a specifically feminine talent.. However, it seems if a woman remains ’…content to be a femme a’ home, she has no feminine individuality. She is empty and merely glitters-a welcome vessel for masculine projection.

Emma has lost her feminine individuality. Her style has become duller and it can even be compared to Snow’s, which is drastically different from how it was when she first came to Storybrooke. Is this the version of herself that she subconsciously thinks is more acceptable to Hook and her parents?

The quote can also be compared to Regina’s story as the Evil Queen. We recently saw her looking into the mirror and it wasn’t Sydney telling her what she wanted to hear, it was finally a reflection of herself and there was no more denying the hatred that she had for herself.

As Snow White encounters the Dwarfs, she continues to build a more positive animus. Even though the dwarfs foolishly leave Snow alone in their house, once again leaving her unprotected, they are helpful to her. Flynn states:

Snow White has been pursued, robbed of her rights, been misunderstood or failed in her understanding, and yet she has shown few emotions.

Flynn also states: I am often astounded when working with some women that they do not realize that what is going on in their lives is 'not right.’ They have come to accept the unacceptable. 

This reminds me of Emma one hundred percent right now. It doesn’t matter what Hook or her parents do, she makes excuses for them. She showed emotion when she caught Hook trying to burn his memories, but she was quickly closed off again and then forgave him immediately when he came back, as did David, her indolent animus. Regina tried to get her to open up at Aesop’s Tables and she remained closed off except for a few tears when speaking to Aesop/Gideon. Snow revealed that she and Charming had a chance to save Emma when she was a girl and they chose not to for the greater good and Emma immediately forgave them. Emma’s only real emotion is shown when she is with Hook, whom with she is clingy and dependent upon.

The Prince comes into her world only when she is unconscious…

So, I think this is the point where it might get tricky because we leave the traditional roles of male and female.

As we all know by now, when Emma was sent to the Wish Realm, Regina wished to be where she was and she was CLEARLY dressed as a prince, complementing Emma as a princess.

So even though Regina is female, does she represent the positive example of the animus (male) that Emma needs in order to find her balance, similar to what Prince Charming was for Snow White in the traditional story analyzed by Flynn? Regina woke Emma from her unconsciousness so that she was able to remember who she really was. Prince Charming kissed Snow White, waking her from her unconsciousness.Only Snow White’s true love could wake her. So how did Regina wake Emma if she isn’t her true love?

Is this foreshadowing for what’s to come? It makes sense if you consider that Regina & Emma sharing True Love might be the twist in the plot. It would certainly be a modern fairy tale and a lot more original that what we are seeing now, which I discuss a bit more here.

Couldn’t it have been written to send Hook to the Wish Realm to wake Emma if he is supposed to be her TL? Why dress Regina as a prince at all or have Emma humming Someday My Prince Will Come if it’s not supposed to mean anything? Those were very specific choices.

The negative aspect of the feminine has to be silenced before the Prince can arrive.

In the Wish Realm, Snow & Charming were killed before Regina was able to wake Emma. Snow represents the negative anima for Emma (and Charming always supports whatever Snow decides), so they had to be silenced before Emma could wake up.

This isn’t to say that Snow (or Charming) is bad, it’s just that she is not who Emma is and there is always going to be a problem when you try to be anyone other than your self.

Flynn discusses all of the different animus that were shown to us throughout the story and to what degree, if any, they helped Snow White. He states:  

The tenth male figure represents the symbol of completion of unification with the masculine.

Regina is the only character that has been blatantly shown to be a prince to Emma’s princess. Hook has been shown to be the opposite of what a prince represents. He is a negative animus who does not contribute to Emma’s growth.

Lots of people have commented on the fact that Regina is acting like a savior more than Emma is and I agree. She was set up as being a savior in season 5 when Emma gave her the dagger…

…when she stepped in as the savior in Camelot…

…and when Leroy said if anyone was going to save them it was her.

Regina is also the only person we have seen have a complete arc to become a balanced person and she did it on her own, which shows her strength. She’s the only one who is qualified to help Emma at this point. I would say that maybe Emma could save herself like Regina did, but she seems, too, far gone at this point.

Our heroine was unable to seek out what is useful from the unconscious…people in this state lack power.

Regina and Emma are two damaged people who want the exact same thing, which is to be loved. Regina went to one extreme and raged externally. Emma went to opposite extreme and internalized her pain.

We’ve already seen Regina face and tame her rage.

Now we need to see Emma do the same.

She hasn’t been able look inside of herself to find balance, which means she lacks power, which means she needs a savior of her very own.

Also…

Emma told Regina she would fight for her happy ending. Even though Regina has found peace within herself, she still doesn’t have a happy ending yet. Emma & Regina’s story is unfinished.

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(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgftaYiY1Bw)

This scene is fascinating.

I know I mentioned that in this scene Regina and Henry are on the outside looking in. But it’s more than that. The focus isn’t the couple. It’s on Emma and Emma’s family’s reaction to the proposal. Well, the part that is awake. Usually when you film a scene like this, or any scene really, the focus is on the people who are sharing dialogue. They’ll zoom in to focus on them or something.

But here a lot of the focus is on Regina’s reaction to Hook being back, to the proposal, on Regina and Henry’s presence in the background. That’s very unusual. And it’s obvious because it’s not just one or two moments. It’s subtly throughout the entire scene.

When Hook comes back there is a clear focus on Regina helping Emma up and then not knowing what to do with herself. Fiddling with the wand and looking down at it so as not to have to look at what’s happening in front of her. 

Then at 1:22 when Hook shows Emma the ring, they film the proposal not just from Regina’s perspective, but from next to her and as if we’re looking over Regina’s shoulder with her. Again, it’s very subtle. But also very obvious and an interesting choice to make. It makes it clear that Regina starts out watching the proposal and they want us to know that without a shadow of a doubt. Even though there are no googly eyes being made-Regina’s eyes are barely visible throughout this entire scene- it still manages to capture her pining.

You know, we raged when the first hug between Emma and Regina happened along with Regina congratulating Emma about the proposal.  A lot of people argued that the hug became about the CS proposal. Now I’m wondering if it’s not the other way around. The CS proposal became about the hug. And here, again, the CS proposal only emphasizes how Regina feels about Emma. They make it a point to show us that. So much so that Regina can barely look at the scene unfolding before her but at the same time she has a hard time moving away. The proposal is literally overshadowed by the amount of emotion radiating off of Regina throughout.

Also, looking at Emma’s face she is not at all happy during any moment while Hook is pulling the ring out of his pocket. Pause at any moment immediately after Hook pulls out the ring and Emma is looking at it. It’s not shock on her face. It’s not confusion, because she doesn’t know what’s happening or why. It’s…something else.

And Henry, for the first time his reaction isn’t happy. It’s the reaction he has every time he finds out something he doesn’t want to hear. Where he closes his eyes and purses his lips. It’s the same look he had when he was throwing out the trash in 6x06 I believe. And when Regina told him there was a certain amount of chemistry with Rumple. This is new. At least for him in relation to the proposal. And given that every other time talk about the proposal happened involved Emma being focused on him and his reaction and here she’s not in the slightest I’d say this one is real and the others were for her benefit.

And after Regina and Henry move out of the picture and Emma looks up from the ring, at Hook, she just looks plain terrified. Very similar to the way she looked when Hook told her she was his happy ending.

I also love that Hook’s argument for why Emma should marry him is that he’ll always be by her side. And Emma actually laughs. And it is a joke, because he’s rarely ever by her side. Regina is usually the one who is. So if that is a legit argument for a characteristic of the person who Emma should be getting married to, she should marry Regina.

So the first time the focus of the proposal is on Hook’s lies and Emma being afraid of him being mad at her. And then Emma talking about the proposal is focused on how happy Snow is for her and how devastated Regina is. And then the focus of the second proposal is the cost for Emma’s family and Regina and Henry’s devastation. And then they throw in the argument of one marrying the person who is always by their side. Cool.