Relationship Spotlight: Emma Swan & Prince Charming (Once Upon a Time)

 

(Be advised, I can’t talk about this without spoiling a major plot development from season 1.) 

 

This isn’t one of the most prominent relationships on Once Upon a Time, but I adore it.  Since the initial premise of the show placed most of the characters under a curse that, among other things, made time stand still, Emma grew up while her parents stayed the same age in Storybrooke.  So, when the curse breaks and the Enchanted Forest folk regain their true memories, the mother and father Emma has looked for her entire life stand in front of her, and they’re her age.  Thus begins two of the most unconventional parent-child relationships on TV.

 

Emma’s relationship with Snow is interesting, too, but today’s post is about Emma and her dad.  Magic weirdness aside, it’s a tough situation – Charming and Emma have spent 28 years apart.  He hasn’t felt those years, being frozen in time (and in a coma) for most of it, and he doesn’t know who either of them are when they meet.  Emma, on the other hand, has been wondering about the unknown parents who seemingly dropped her into the world and then erased every hint of their existence as she was shunted around the foster system, made some bad choices, and put her life back together.  She doesn’t know that his sword protected her the moment she was born, that he fought tooth and nail and nearly died getting her out of the curse’s reach.

 

So when Charming gets his memory back, he’s every inch the proud papa who knew his little girl could save the day, and Emma is very not ready to deal with him or Snow.  The father who, in her mind, abandoned her, is both Prince friggin’ Charming and a 20-something (in fact, Josh Dallas is a couple years youngerthan Jennifer Morrison.)  She doesn’t know how to wrap her head around a relationship like that, and an awkward stretch of episodes is spent with him wanting to make up for lost time and her wanting to avoid the issue.  She’s had a difficult life, and she can’t simply forgive and forget because her dad was a fairytale character under a curse, and her cold shoulder serves to remind him of all the years he couldn’t be there for her.

 

As time goes on and Emma starts to open up, though, she and Charming develop a really great dynamic.  He works alongside her at the sheriff’s department where they make a good team.  Both are trackers who are handy in a fight, and she gradually gets used to him having her back.  While he’s protective, he still lets her stand on her own, and when it comes to sharing, Charming is good about waiting for Emma to come to him.  He always lets her know he’s there for whatever she needs, to help or to listen, but he doesn’t push.  As a result, he’s been a sounding board when she’s confused, a comfort when she’s upset, and a support when she’s overwhelmed.

 

I really have to hand it to Jennifer Morrison and Josh Dallas.  Any time you have two good-looking actors of the same age portraying a familial relationship, you can run the risk of inappropriate chemistry; too many onscreen siblings have trouble giving off consistent “sibling” vibes, and it gets weird.  These two have an even harder task, making the audience buy him as her dad, but they’re more than up to the challenge.  In all their interactions, you never lose sight of the fact that she’s his daughter.  There’s even a scene where he’s teaching her to dance, a dream sequence in which he’s regretting all the years he missed with her.  Both are dressed to the nines and dancing to lovely music, and it’s father-daughter all the way.  He’s warm and paternal, and she’s slowly, beautifully becoming an incurable daddy’s girl.  I love it.

Favorite Characters: Emma Swan (Once Upon a Time)

 

Since the new season of Once Upon a Timestarts this weekend, I thought I’d spend the next few posts on a few of my favorite characters from the show.  I get that the show isn’t perfect, a fact often made stunningly clear by improbable twists, fumbled redemption arcs for the baddies, and a preference for Big!  Shocking!  Moments! over thoughtful storytelling.  Still, I appreciate its creative ambition, and when it’s on, it’s really on.  The series is home to some wonderfully interesting characters who keep me coming back when the writing is questionable.

 

Although today’s character is technically from the Enchanted Forest, she’s not a beloved fairytale figure with built-in story beats.  Rather, she’s our rather splendid, cynical eyes into the show’s world of stories and magic.  Utterly badass bail bondsperson Emma Swan has spent 28 years relying only on herself, jumping between group homes before going off the grid, getting in trouble, and then pulling herself up.  She comes honestly by her job, finding people, because she’s been searching for her parents since she was young.  Unfortunately, when your parents are Snow White and Prince Charming, and they sent you to this world as a baby through a magic wardrobe (to protect you from an evil curse, duh,) there’s not so much of a paper trail.

 

So there’s Emma when we meet her.  Awesome, hardened, clever, BAMF, lonely and pretending not to be, and then, all of the sudden, she’s accosted by an adorable moppet from a magically-guarded small town, claiming she’s the only one who can save these trapped fairytale characters from the curse her loving parents helped her escape.  She doesn’t believe him; how could she?  But she’s softer-hearted than she lets on, and she can’t really let a kid ride the bus from Boston to Maine by himself, so she drives him back to his impossible village of Storybrooke.  And once she has her foot in the door, her spidey senses tingle enough to make her stick around.

 

I know I’ve only been talking about the pilot so far, but it really gives you ample reason to love Emma.  From her savvy, cool-as-a-cucumber collection of a bail jumper to the compassion and concern for young Henry that keeps her in Storybrooke, she’s every inch the amazing but flawed hero.  She’s tough and gutsy, she’s perceptive, and almost immediately, in her own guarded way, she starts to care deeply about Henry and his welfare.  Plus, she’s stubborn, jaded, and sometimes foolhardy in her boldness, and she has trouble believing that anyone would believe in her.  Her emotional damage resonates from her childhood to her present, and it’s both stymied her and made her stronger.  Is it any wonder I was a goner?

 

Because I can’t write up a TV protagonist based entirely on one episode and should touch on the rest of the series, the show benefits greatly from having her as a viewpoint character.  The tug and pull of her “real world” pragmatism against her fantastical destiny makes for great drama (and boy, does Jennifer Morrison bring it – I’ve always been lukewarm on her, but she’s nothing but stellar here,) and you can always count on her for incredulous commentary to let the air of the tires when the fairytale stuff gets too sparkly for its own good.  As the show goes on, I love watching her find her footing in this incredible new world, bring her practical skills and insights to magical crises, and slowly begin to let her walls down with the family she’s never had.  Apart from just being fantastic, I think Emma is instrumental to grounding the show and keeping it from being mere fairytale fanfic.  Despite all the swords and dragons and poisoned apples, it’s really herstory.  And it’s a fine one.