#bealfire

I was on Tik Tok and saw an anti Swanfire edit, an old one, and in the comments people were complaining about how Neal left his pregnant girlfriend, but here are some things those people don't understand or take into account.

Neal didn't know Emma was pregnant. Emma herself didn't know she was pregnant until she was already in jail. So saying Neal left and let a pregnant Emma go to jail is wrong because as I said HE DIDN'T EVEN KNOW!

If he did know I don't think he would have left because he never wanted to be like his father.

Neal is Selfless. Neal left Emma because he knew how much she wanted to meet her parents. August basically told Neal that if he stayed with Emma she wouldn't go to Storybrooke and wouldn't break the Curse and in doing so would never meet her parents.

This could have gone two ways for Neal. (or three if you have read the Fanfiction "Wishing On a Shooting Star and Thinking that a Heart Can’t Lie" by Dragonbat on AO3)

1. He stayed with her and they leave get their money, go to Tallahasse, have a son together and Neal would never have to think about Storybrooke or his father who would never come back into his life because Rumple would never remember and the Curse would have never been broken. (but Emma would never know that her parents didn't want to abandon her)

or

2. What happened in Canon. Emma got to find her parents. All the people cursed broke free due to Emma coming to Storybrooke. But most of all Rumple remembered, Rumple came after him.

Something Neal didn't want but knew would be inevitable if let Emma go. Which he did because he knew how much Emma wanted to find her parents, how much she wanted to know why, why did they abandon her on the side of the highway?

And of course all those people caught in the crossfire of HIS father's curse, a curse that was made to find HIM.

We don't know Neals Age. Now no one said anything about his age in the comments of this specific video but I have seen other Anti Neal and Anti Swanfire edits on Tik Tok saying that Neal statutory r*ped Emma. Even though we are talking about a fictional character who was in Neverland, a place that doesn't age one physically or mentally, for who knows how long. We kinda know the age he goes to Neverland at. (I think it was around 15 or 16, I don't know for sure) but we don't know how long he was in Neverland or when he leaves. In other words we don't know his age and I wouldn't put it past him to fake credentials when he go back to this new world were you need an ID to live.

Literally nothing at all on that wanted poster was correct, 1. He’s not from NJ, 2. His freaking real name isn’t even Neal Cassidy, and 3. he was born like 200 years before his stated dob. Baelfire was like 14-16 when he wound up in Neverland, so physically he would have been that age when he got to the real world. He doesn’t ever mention being in the foster system or anything, so we can assume he probably avoided it. And if his info is on a wanted poster that would mean he would have needed a kind of form of identification. A fake one. Lying and saying he was maybe, 21 or older would have helped him gain all the benefits of being a legal adult! Like certain jobs and staying out of the foster system. Also the poster was shown for like half a second, I don’t know how closely the viewers were supposed to look at it. Multiple times during the show they were both called “teens” or “kids” when referring back to their past relationships. Pretty sure Mr. Gold calls what they had a “teenage love affair” or smthing a long those lines. Also again, literally nothing on that poster is true.

That being said It’s hard to argue what age he is exactly when the actors portraying supposed young Neal and Emma were literally just grown adults that the show just wanted us to believe they were young. And in real life the actors have a a 1-2 year difference. And guys let’s not forget ouat is TERRIBLE at age consistency.

Plus if we are going to hate on Neal for an age gap that is kinda up for debate, let’s take a quick look at all the other questionable age gaps. Rumple/Belle, Killan/Emma, Hades/Zelena, and our favorite non canon ship Regina/Emma! Not saying that if Neal WAS that much older it would have been okay, I just don’t believe he was and I’m pointing out that for some reason people only ever hate on Baelfire/Emma!

And guys let’s not forget Regina is canonically a rpist. But people still adore her! It’s stupid, bad writing, and out of character but still a canonical thing. People just extend more mercy for this than Neal.

Emma is a "listen to anything the people around her listen to" type bc she's a people pleaser. She likes subgenre metal the most, though, especially having an interest in Twisted Sisters and Rammstein. She got it from her mom <3

Reggie listens to mostly post-70s indie pop. They also still keep all of their music on cassette tapes (no matter how much Emma is trying to get them a spotify acc). Kate Bush, The Smith, Aztec Camera, and Sonic Youth their notable favourites.

Henry chronically only listens to the same music as Reggie. He tried finding other stuff he likes, but most of it ended up being 70s pop-punk. Everyone bullies him for having the music taste of a gay Ford commercial.

Snow is super into oldies female-led metal like Joan Jett, Halestorm, Alice Cooper, The Runaways, etc. Though she doesn't listen to music very often - only when she needs to calm down or she's drinking with Ruby.

Charming likes divorced mom country and nothing else.

Ruby used to like a lot of club music during the curse and would just go what whatever's popular at the time. After the curse broke, it took a long time for her to find other things she liked. She later started listening to more rap while jogging, and she's pretty fond of Doechii and Megan Thee Stallion these days.

Rumple would rather jump off a bridge than turn the radio on in his car, UNLESS it's Belle's music. He's a strong audiobook guy.

Belle enjoys 70s rock like Van Halen, Sammy Hagar, Fleetwood Mac, etc. She thinks it's nice bc it's stimulating, and bass is cool. Absolutely nobody believes her when she says she likes it though.

Hook says he won't listen to anything that isn't a sea shanty, but Emma has a video of him singing and dancing along to the Reputation Era.

okay so i've been obsessed with ouat recently with my rewatch and i was looking into Henry's weird ass family tree and oh my god i need to put this out there because why.

for starters i've only included big plot points or villains and main characters etc so none of the side plots but also i've realised how weird some of the age gaps are.

oh yeah also ouat likes to fuck with their timelines and historical context so i have gone with the basic dates that make sense based on what the characters in the show actually say.

the dates are what they would be in the real world not in ouat logic.

pre-main timeline

Ancient Greece - zeus and hades happen (season 6)

ancient greece but later - orpheus and Euridice and pandora's box happen

between 400-500AD - the Holy Grail and Merlin and Nimue

1650's-1660's - Mother Gothel leaves the new land without magic

1770- Malcolm is Born

1804- Rumplestiltskin is born, Malcolm is 34

1808- Rumple is abandoned, Peter Pan becomes a fae trickster tumblr meme

1845- Baelfire is born, Rumple is 41

1859- Bae arrives in england, Rumple is 55

1947- Zelena is born and abandoned

1948- Cora and Rumple have their weird affair

1949- Regina is born

1955- Snow White is born

1973- Regina sends the huntsman after snow, Snow is 18, Regina is 24

23/3/1977 - Neal (Bae) chooses this as his fake birthday

22/10/1983 - Emma is born, the curse is cast

1991 - Neal escapes neverland and comes back to the land without magic

15/8/2001 - Henry is born, Emma is 18, Neal Cassidy is 24

22/10/2011 - Emma arrives in Storybrooke

13/5/2012 - The curse is broken.

so some of the dates are based on when episodes aired and things such as when the curse breaks and when emma arrives in storybrooke. other dates are based on easter eggs in the show like Neal's birthday. so i realised that Neal had to have landed back in the real world in 1991 because he was 14 when he got to neverland and obviously didn't age so working backwards those dates make sense.

however... emma was 17 when she got pregnant with henry and at best Neal is 24 but at worst he's 156 years old! i mean what the fuck. and he has to be that old because he tells Emma that technically "I should be a couple hundred by now" (2,15). so at the oldest he can be with Neal's Once upon a time maths education the earliest he can be born is 1845 because big ben isn't built until 1859 which is the absolute earliest that he can be in old england.

the rest of the dates i managed from working backwards from when the curse was broken and cast and from small things the characters say. In the first episode of season 2, Emma says that her and Mary Margaret were the same age which means that the 10 year war she has with regina that ended with the curse started when she was 18.

short summary: You're Rumple and Belle's daughter that was taken and don't have any memory of them or any family while in Storybrooke a couple months after the curse broke.

Feeling the wind blow against your face, you walk briskly down the sidewalk, your heeled boots making a quiet sound against the concrete. The curse had broken over the town a couple months ago. It’s been pretty quiet since then, with everyone remembering and reconciling with their loved ones. Except you. You have no one. You never had.

You grew up in the woods of the enchanted forest your entire life until it came to when you turned 16 and the magical abilities you’ve always inhabited went haywire, made you stop aging. So really, the aging being stopped, mixed with the curse of 28 years, you’re technically around 50 years old. Though your mentality stopped growing, along with your physical appearance from no longer aging.

Your life growing up wasn’t the best. Being real, it was traumatic having no one but yourself to rely on all throughout your life. In an unironic turn of events, the cursed life you lived also had you living with no one to rely on, no fake friends or family, only fake memories of always being alone. Which wasn’t that surprising when you woke back up with all your actual memories. But, hey, at least you were living in a nice apartment instead of the woods, and you still reside there. No more hunting for food or building shelter every other day.

Except there’s one problem. So far, you haven’t had any run in with the saviour or the evil queen (who, thankfully, has chilled and relaxed a lot, becoming more likable to everyone in the town), or anyone else in their group. But the last good week and a half, you’ve been having a feeling of someone or multiple someones following you. And every time you went to check it out, one or multiple of them were always around. It caused you to be suspicious. More than you’ve ever been in this town.

Over the week and a half, you written and clocked out everyone who has been around continuously whenever you had the feeling of being followed. It consists of; Emma Swan – the savior, Regina Mills – The Evil Queen and mayor, Mary Margaret Blanchard – Snow White and ex science teacher, David Nolan – Prince Charming, Killian Jones – Captain Hook, Neal Cassidy – Emma’s ex? (All you really know about him is that he came from New York and he and Emma clearly know each other like that), Belle French, and Mr. Gold – Rumpelstiltskin.

Why they’ve been following you? You don’t want to know, only want them to lose interest in you and find someone else to creepily stalk. It’s not like you’ve done anything wrong in the last couple weeks, not really. This is what you think about while walking along the sidewalk, passing by both run down and lively buildings.