Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-25733960-20170508011247/@comment-5106672-20170511152800

I guess it's so evident now because it stands in stark contrast to S1, which was a Chekhov's armoury where everything was properly planted and would eventually pay off.

Come think of it, though, the reason this particular instance bugs me so is not as much it being a key plot point, as a key character point. Emma's main internal conflict was struggling with loneliness. Even after she found her family, she was so scarred by her lonely, harsh past that it took her a lot of time and effort to let them in. And even then, she could only be content in the present, still not quite able to get over her past, nor deal with the mere idea of a potential lonely future (see freaking out whenever Hook is taken from her for whatever reason).

The Song™ basically resolves this conflict, helping her to a) come to term with her past, knowing somehow the love of her dear ones was with her all along, even in her darkest moments and b) not be so afraid of the future, because that same love will always be with her, no matter what, and will help her through.

Again, it's a truly beautiful way to resolve Emma's character, and The Song™ is a beautiful metaphor (unlike, say, vacuum-cleaning the Darkness from Rumple's heart, or ripping out Regina's violent tendencies and crushing them, which fortunately were not the final resolution of their internal conflicts). But it's still the resolution of literally six seasons of the main character's development, and it would have needed more foreshadowing and rounding out to be truly satisfying.