#baelfire/neal cassidy

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

au where emma keeps henry and then ten years later she tracks neal down because henry has some unidentifiable genetic problem and he realizes it's some bullshit from the enchanted forest that his father cured with magic and now he's gotta track that fucker down without letting emma know magic is real

[knight--error]

Ah man, on Season 3 of OUAT rewatch, and the best word for poor Neal really is just... unceremonious. Youch. I'm not a big Swanfire person but offing him like that is so lazy and cuts out so much good drama and other relationships. Neal and Henry! Neal and Rumple! Neal and Hook! Even Neal and Belle! I also love his energy. He is just a fairly average dude, no magic, no incredible skills, just his wit and his determination, and yet he consistently keeps up with our main cast.

Also, they put background actors who I think are supposed to be the Lost Boys at his funeral; imagine how cool it would have been if he took them in and became a group foster dad! That just feels like it would have been a lovely move forward for his arc.

Bah. The cracks in the writing deepen.

[apollostrials]

no offense but where’s the scene where regina and neal sit down together to speak about rumplestiltskin and how everything he did to regina—the training, the trauma, and the manipulation and psychological abuse in order to mold her into someone who could serve his purposes—was to go to the land without magic to get baelfire.

where is the scene where the two of them have some trauma dump bonding caused by the same person, the same person who ruined their lives? where is the scene where they speak about henry?

[yellowbugifs]

my top 10 ouat quotes #8. Neal Cassidy & Emma Swan, 3x22 "There's No Place Like Home"

[florida3exclamationpoints]

ouat text posts: rumple (pt. 18)

[dinneratgrannys]

You know, there’s not a ton about my father that I remember that doesn’t suck. But he used to tell me that there are no coincidences. Everything that happens happens by design and there’s nothing we can do about it. Forces greater than us conspire to make it happen. Fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it.

[swanfireprincessmydear]

I don’t know why I have never thought of this before. I don’t know HOW it never crossed my mind but another reason why Emma and Neal work so well together within the narrative of the show is because they’re both ORIGINAL characters to the show. They’re not retellings of characters we already know, they’re new, original characters that only exist within the show. They both fit in the same place.

No one else besides Henry (and a few minor characters) fit this category.

[atone-with-a-lone-prayer]

Neal explaining his family tree (probably):

Yeah well there’s my evil grandfather, Peter Pan… also my evil grandmother, the black fairy… then there’s my dad, the Dark One… oh yeah, my brother, the savior slayer…

…Belle’s okay, though. (Shrug)

[anouatblog]

[mysticalarmand]

No, actually, why on my fifth re-watch of OUAT did I notice that Emma went from the masc to femme when she started dating Killian. You won't see that shit with Regina or Neal. The embraced who she is, but she felt more insecure and more femme with Killian. Idfk, but it's more telling tbh. She's not herself around Killian. Again, FORCED RELATIONSHIP FOR NO FUCKING REASON Maybe, it's due to the fact that I'm in way too many fandoms and tend to pick this shit up, but low-key what's with misogynistic tropes in media 😭

[boosyboo9206]

The one thing that I will never forgive Once Upon a Time for is killing off Neal.

Not because I'm a swanthief/swanfire shipper and wanted them together so bad. But because killing him off was complete and total fan service to pave the way for captain swan.

I'm not the biggest fan of captain swan because, honestly, they're a little toxic for each other. But, also, because Hook's only purpose after a season or two was only Emma.

At least, for Neal, he had other purposes. Henry's Dad. Rumple's son - literally his humanity and the whole reason Rumple did everything he did. He was friends with Belle. And Wendy. He had reasons to exist outside of Emma and could have completely moved on from her in time and find someone else.

They could have had a healthy co-parenting relationship and been friends. And, while it would have been nice to, at least, see them try a romantic relationship again, the time had totally passed. There's too much history and pain and things that happened for them to work. So her not wanting to try again with him and be with Hook could have still happened.

Killing off Neal was a copout and fan service and a terrible choice. They also totally ruined Hook by not giving him a purpose outside of Emma after/around, like, season 3.

[knight--error]

It's really, really funny how the OUAT writers clearly have noooo idea what to do with Hook when he's fully on the redemption train. Our man goes from interesting bad boy love interest to Wife Guy Number 3 in six seconds flat. Switching to a normal leather jacket does not help this.

It's especially funny because the writers pretty clearly killed off Neal to make way for Hook/Emma, but Neal himself would never have had this problem, because he has bonds and desires outside of Emma to keep him interesting—Henry and Rumple particularly, and even Hook himself. Also Neal just seems more capable of making friends than Hook, like in his mini-adventure with Belle.

They just really shot themselves in the foot here. Even if you want to stick with Captain Swan, keeping Neal alive only helps you, because it gives Hook another emotional connection. Poor Neal. You deserved better.

[apollostrials]

Forever flabbergasted and furious that the entire ouat fandom crucified Neal for one mistake he made for the greater good yet they also turned a blind eye when it comes to actions perpetuated by multiple proud and unapologetic serial killers in that. The double standard is so hypocritical.

I’ve been unsure about a lot of things concerning this show, but there’s one thing I’ve never second guessed : Neal was too good for that show and we never deserved him but I appreciated every single time he was on screen.

[rumbelle-scream]

BAELFIRE DESERVED BETTER

You should've seen him. He overcame worlds.

[florida3exclamationpoints]

ouat text posts: rumple