Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-23906605-20131017110136/@comment-22525977-20131029031521

August also didn't give a crap about doing his part in getting Emma to Storybrooke. I mean the next time we see him he is on the other side of the globe.

Maybe OUaT fate is the kind where things HAVE to happen one specific way or not at all instead of the "you can't fight it" style where no matter what you do it still ends the same way, in which case yeah, if Neal hadn't left then Emma doesn't show up to break the curse (and also ew, get it off). If that's what Neal believes is true, then yeah, he did what he believed was right but he did without Emma's knowledge or consent, which is a dick move without figuring in that he got her sent to jail.

And I think that kind of defeatist attitude, where he doesn't even think about going "screw destiny, I'm not going to abandon her" and/or try to find another way to get the curse broken without Emma going to jail, is cowardly. Any decision to roll over and accept a crappy "destiny" seems cowardly to me.