#anti-cs

there is NO reason they need to be holding hands in this scene

Like, Emma used to be an independent person who could do things by herself.

She used to be a character on this show and now she's just one half of a canon ship

And I swear, it's like they knew the ship was forced right from the start, so they had to make them make out every time they were alone together, and hold hands when other people were around, because the viewers might forget they're supposed to be rooting for them

and then I think about how the CS shippers would complain that CS didn't get enough air time, meanwhile it was being shoved down our throats every episode

gahhh

yes I decided to try to finish season 6. I am a glutton for punishment

And, not that I plan to watch any CS interactions, but I can only imagine this is going to result in some stupid heart-to-heart moments where Emma forgives him for killing her grandfather and says it's all okay because he's a hero now, which is a scene that COULD happen between Emma and Regina, but won't.

And if it happened with Emma and Regina, it could actually be an emotionally complex thing where Emma has to come to terms with what her grandfather actually did to Regina. Even if people believe that he never wanted sex from her (which I do not), he still stole her future from her, and trapped her in a loveless marriage that she couldn't leave, forced her to become a replacement mother to a child when she was still a child herself, and he KNEW she was miserable, he admitted it in canon, and he still wouldn't let her leave.

I have no idea why Hook killed David's father but I doubt it's even remotely as complex.

But also, they were never going to be able to have Snow come to terms with why Regina killed her father, because Snow couldn't see any bad in him. But Emma didn't know him, and Emma has a lot more real world experience and doesn't see people as all good or all bad. The show never (as far as I've seen) addressed Regina's trauma from being trapped in that marriage.

I always hated OQ wayyyy more than I hated CS, but I do remember I felt bad for the OQ shippers when this aired because what even?? (and, for the record, I distinctly remember that the CS shippers were the worst ones in the fandom, the OQ shippers were too busy constantly having their ship destroyed by canon events to have time to pick fights with other shippers)

But also... this is why I always say I am SO glad Swan Queen never became canon, because this show could not have been trusted. I honestly would prefer being queerbaiting than to see SQ get the OQ treatment in canon.

It would have been a plot twist, because obviously everyone knew that she was going to save hook so there was no real stakes there, but also it would have worked because Gold became the dark one again, and it could have been written in as a master manipulation from him, to get his son back

All around it would have made more sense, because Neal is an integral part of the story right from the start, and hook is just shoehorned into the narrative and then takes it over, and the show becomes all about CS which was never the original premise of the show. Like, if season 1 had been all about Emma's quest to find true love, no one would have watched it.

And like, I'm not even saying it should have ended with Emma ending up with Neal, but saving him instead of hook would have been a way more interesting story... especially when they had Emma recycle the Snowing trademark line "I will always find you"... they say it, and they always do find each other. It would have been more compelling to have Emma say it and not succeed, because it would have been like an anti-parallel of Snowing, since Emma constantly reiterates that she's not a fairy tale character, she's a real person.

I would've wanted to see Hook killed violently by the narrative.

I'm kidding. For Hook, I would've liked to see him and Regina, actually. They have similar backstories and it would've been nice to see them both trying to work hard to make it up to Neal and Henry respectively. (Pairing Regina with Robin Hood was bullshit. It makes no sense and how are you going to write out Marian like that in the most bullshit way...)