I have a fanfic that will probably never be finished that’s a FTL AU Swan Queen thing with Henry (LOOK, I HAVE IT FIGURED OUT, IT’S FINE) and my main fear about this episode was that Princess Emma would be too simpering and useless.
She was. She was actually worse than I expected, in that she was worried about her parents every single second she was on-screen and then literally just… gave up when even vaguely threatened.
BUT
The AU was clearly not an actual AU with an actual Princess Emma, but an Emma who was never The Savior, so all of that uselessness is basically the product of the wish and I can headcanon my way out of that particular paper bag, thank you.
AND
That means I can keepnot writing the FTL AU. Yay.
Also:
She was. She was actually worse than I expected, in that she was worried about her parents every single second she was on-screen and then literally just… gave up when even vaguely threatened.
BUT
The AU was clearly not an actual AU with an actual Princess Emma, but an Emma who was never The Savior, so all of that uselessness is basically the product of the wish and I can headcanon my way out of that particular paper bag, thank you.
AND
That means I can keep
Also:
This was a very broken AU. Do I believe that a real Princess Emma, raised by kick-ass Snow and brash, loyal, steadfast David/James would ever surrender to the Evil Queen?
NO.
Do I believe that the wish corrupted and took away the heroic part of Emma?
Yep.
The purpose of the AU wasn’t to show what Emma’s life would have been like without the curse, but to show what she would have been like if she WASN’T THE SAVIOR.
This AU was at least as broken as the Author’s twisted one–there was plenty of other stuff that made no sense whatsoever. It was NEVER REAL.