Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-28162607-20170103120839/@comment-28162607-20170103154538

Eskaver wrote: Since I dislike big quotes,

1. The writers are really going with the idea that Emma was 17 when she was with Neal. The writers, as Lily said, don't do math very well. So, that's more on the writers than anything else.

Also, Baelfire had an American accent, not a British one. It doesn't take long to figure out somethings via the power of plot magic. There's nothing to say that he didn't take 5 years to learn all that.

2. Emma could have said no. Neal clearly did the threat in jest, because he would have been locked up as well (which Emma realized). Emma didn't have to pursue a relationship with him, even if you believe he manipulated her into the first date. Second, Emma looks back on the relationship fondly and often mentions it to Henry.

ABC. I'm not going to argue age of consent because in the US, it's 16 to 18 which means it is pointless to argue legality. If we did, then all the characters are in prison because they are all murderers.

Emma was seen to be happy beyond the first encounter and even in that same encounter, she clearly wasn't afraid for her life and well-being by him. You act as though it was a scene from a PSA. Emma was startled that she stole someone's car with that someone in it. Anyone would be. Neal and Emma then have banter and then Neal covers for Emma when police come.

But to not get off-track, Emma was still 17. Neal was ??. Neal and Emma have a happy relationship until he sets her up for a crime. Emma's age is a non-issue. Neal's age is unknown. The flyer is insignificant. Simple maths works out Emma's age. In canon, Emma was 16.

But really 16 or 17 with an adult is still creepy and predatory. Do you really expect me to believe that he learned to effortlessly navigate a completely foreign world-including crossing borders and getting jobs-in five years? And the most logical explanation is that social servies picked him up and he got an ID close to his own age. So no, the flyer is not insignificant.

In the state they were in, the age of consent was 18, making Neal a sexual abuser and the relationship just generally creepy (even if she were 17 or 18 I'd still find that he pursued and hit on a teenager creepy).

Just because Neal was laughing as he blackmailed her into giving away her name doesn't mean it was any less bad. It was a reminder  of who held the power.

And Emma's "fond memories" are, in my view anyway, both as a result of the writers determined to retcon Neal into some kind of romantic hero and because she doesn't want Henry to have bad memories of his dad. But she said he caused her so much pain that she wished he was dead and that he was "a part of my life that I wanted to forget". Not very fondly. (plus "often"? I count once in 5x05).