Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4839682-20130723082014/@comment-22525977-20130924155801

Yeah, as it stands on the show now, it's pretty obvious Swan Queen won't be happening even before taking into consideration the Comic Con incident. As I said, they actively hate each other now to the point of being completely okay with leaving each other to die—that's not a basis for a healthy relationship.

My point in my last post was that, in the beginning of season one (by which I mean about up to the missing Kathryn subplot), I could see potential for the relationship to happen: they had visible chemistry and, while they were definitely antagonistic towards each other, that was an understandable reaction due to the circumstances and it would have been immensely satisfying to watch them overcome that and bond over their similarities (both are extremely driven, stubborn people, both see the world in shades of grey rather than the majority of the fairytales' black-and-white views, etc.) and love for Henry.

The writers did not follow through on that potential and, from their remarks at Comic Con, they didn't even intend for it to be there. That is—while disappointing for me and anyone else who ships Swan Queen—their decision to make. (However, I disagree that the fact that the writers didn't intend for the ship to happen means that there isn't evidence in the show itself that it could—authorial intent is not everything.)

I do take some issue with this idea of "the writers should put in LGBTQIA characters because some fans want them," though. Socially conscious writing is not something that should happen because "some fans want it," it's something that should happen because fiction has power and that power should be used responsibly. And erasing entire swaths of people by not having a single LGBTQIA character in two whole seasons is not socially conscious writing.