"When I heard you might be here, and that you might still be alive, I knew I should be happy, but I wasn't. I was terrified. I didn't understand why until now. From the moment I saw you in New York, in the instant you stepped back in my life, I knew. I knew I'd never stopped loving you."

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.

ONCE UPON A TIME Swanfire in 2x16 "The Miller's Daughter"

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.