Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-28162607-20170103120839/@comment-27885419-20170103153551

Does it really matter whether she was 16 or 17? How much difference does that make? The fact is that she was a teenager, a lonely teenager with abandonment issues at that, and I think we all know how great decision making capabilities a person in such conditions will have. Adolescence in itself is an unstable period, add to that Emma's past, and bad decisions follow.

Let's take into account that she was living on petty thievery. She meets this older guy, a fellow thief, when they steal the same car. This guy turns her into his crime partner, teaches her more tricks, drags her deeper into this life. Does any of this sound vaguely positive? I understand that it was apparently all they could to survive. Let's change that to all he could do to survive, coz Emma did turn her life around. Anyway, the fact that Neal, the 'responsible' adult in the relationship, was dragging a teenager, who still had some hope for the future, into life as a criminal and fugitive from the law. Everything good in her life happened after Neal left her.

I could still get through that and be happy about it if they had went on to have a lasting happy relationship well into Emma's adulthood, if hooking up with Neal didn't end up as a teenage mistake.

It ended up being worse. Emma was abandoned yet again, and left to take the fall for his crime, and bonus, pregnant, alone, in jail, giving birth chained to a bed, giving up her baby because there was no way she could handle motherhood even after the 2-3 months left in her sentence. Which of these screams positive about her ex?

I don't care about his reasons. Pinocchio told him it was for the best and he believed him as easily as that? What told him Pinocchio was the best decision maker? The supposed guardian angel was absent for most of Emma's life, too busy messing up his own. You don't just listen to strangers and leave your girlfriend to be arrested, just because they know your identity from your old realm.

What was worse was the way SwanFire picked up afterwards. The guy actually has the audacity to be mad at her or yell at her about bringing his father to him. If I were Emma I'd have beaten the hell out of him. Then he yells at her because she didn't tell him they had a son. He doesn't deserve to be a father to a son he abandoned before they even knew he existed.

I don't know why everyone tries to show Neal in a positive light. Henry is mad at Emma about lying, but doesn't consider her reasons for doing so, but with Neal he's all chummy from day one. Her parents continuously try to push her towards him, despite knowing what he did. I guess there's only certain characters whose wrongdoings are ever taken into consideration.

Long rant, couldn't help it. Neal gets on my nerves.

@Eskaver I think a pretty non-biased anti-SF blog, which claims to hate SwanFire for SwanFire and not because they ship someone else with Emma, is the perfect place to go if you want to know why not to ship SwanFire.