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I dont wanna get excited for cs getting engaged cause last time we thought that big kiss was emma and killy moving in with another and it was just emma saying i love you...le sigh they did eventually move in with another but still...i dont think the ring showed in promo is for emma because i still think he would give her the ring Liam had...i want to so much for them to be getting engaged :(!!! Lol
the (more or less complete) 5b theory i have going right now
okay, so after the title spoiler for 5x20, and various thoughts/spec/ideas i’ve both had and seen knocking around my dash, i think i finally have a grip on how 5b is (probably) going to go.
the basic structure is that of emma paralleling both megara and hercules (who are showing up in 5x13). as megara, she is making deals with hades to protect/save the man she loves; as hercules, she is rescuing the soul of her lost loved one from the underworld. in both, she’s performing a classical heroic action and ultimate test of worthiness. we already know that she’s going to discover her role as the savior is only just beginning, per eddy.
let’s review 5B titles to date:
5x12: souls of the departed 5x13: labor of love 5x14: deal with the devil 5x15: the brothers jones (i’m super calm right now) 5x16: our decay 5x17: her handsome hero 5x18: ruby slippers 5x19: sisters 5x20: firebird
early in the arc, 5x13/14, we have titles which imply some kind of deal/work arrangement being made between emma and hades. he’s gonna make her a deal: she is going to have to do the labors of love (from hercules’ original story, but with whatever ouat twist) for him. if she can get them done in time, he’ll release killian, pinky swear, and they can totes leave and go back to the real world. this is probably the significance of the moving storybrooke clock, as we’ve speculated before: emma is on a time limit and each episode shows how much time has progressed before she hits the deadline, at which when it comes she won’t be able to save him anymore. so, pressure’s on.
and emma of course will agree and vow she’ll do anything she has to as savior/hero to fulfill his tasks and save killian.
except this is hades we’re talking about. he doesn’t really plan to let killian go. he is confident emma won’t be able to finish the tasks and besides, he’s scheming with green green to actively sabotage them. what green green gets out of this arrangement is less clear, but probably one of zelena’s usual motivations -- she wants baby pistachio, she wants to defeat cora, she wants to keep regina down in the UW forever, so forth. the point is, zelena and whatever she’s going to be doing in oz/the UW are the counterpoint to emma and her efforts to finish the tasks in time and save killian. cruella will also be involved as we’ve seen in 5x19 spoilers, as well as pan and rumple (who knows whose side they’re on, or if they’re working together).
between 5x15-5x19, we have episodes focusing on each of the sets of characters in the UW dealing with their past/their choices in going/the unfinished business they need to settle. 5x15 is the joneses, 5x16 will have the charmings, 5x17 belle and rumple, 5x18 tying the oz arc in, and 5x19 david/james, regina/zelena, pan/rumple, etc. all this while, we’ve had consistent captain swan filming pics -- emma and killian are still working together trying to get the tasks done in time, because they’re a team and they’re dedicated to having their future together. that’s the overarching story running through each of the various centrics.
then we get to 5x20: firebird. at this point, there will be one of two scenarios. one, emma has actually completed the heroic tasks and returns to hades asking for him to keep his promise and set killian free. two, she hasn’t finished them in time (because they’re impossible). the point is, it’s the moment of truth and hades now has to put up or shut up, or there’s a moment where it looks like she’s going to lose everything. possibly both.
either way: (drumroll please): ENTER THE PHOENIX!
as an anon suggested, “operation phoenix” may well be henry’s code name for the expedition to find killian. we may be introduced to it as a plot device/reference fairly early on in the arc. but this is where it will make its entrance. it will save/rebirth/regenerate killian somehow, and it will do that because he (and emma) will have earned ultimate hero status through the completion of the labor of love, thus dignifying them to return to the world of the living and be set free of the UW. the phoenix’s magic can close the un-healable excalibur wound in his neck or give him a new body or whatever it needs to do: this is the macguffin that will solve that issue.
this still leaves three episodes (counting the extra hour) in the season. finales are usually two hours, so i’m guessing 5x21 will be a standalone ep and 5x22-23 the finale. but they’ll all be part of the same climactic story. and usually when it looks like things have been fixed with lots of time still to go in the season, they will then hit the fan.
i’m not entirely clear on what the finale will be yet, but it will probably involve some serious showdown between emma, killian, henry, the charmings/regina/robin on one side, and hades, zelena, and rumple on the other (remember, we still have the entire darkness plot/rumple’s attempted ascendancy to ultimate big bad status to deal with). emma will have to fulfill that role as savior. but since the firebird/phoenix is probably going to come into play to save killian and make hades feel cheated of his prize, he’s going to get VERY flame happy and things will likewise hot up.
then, with the extra hour, you still have time to a) set up whatever will be going on next season (i think it may involve rumple returning as final big bad) and b) captain swan engagement/wedding/emotional reward for completing the trial. because that’s what the story will have been throughout 5B, continuing in the background of the 5x16-19 centrics on other characters: emma and killian becoming the ultimate savior/ultimate hero to complete the labor of love and thus become worthy of the phoenix’s magic to be healed and return to life, defeating evil together.
is it march yet?
so i’m RIDICULOUSLY FUCKING EXCITED about 5x20 after that new title spoiler and here’s why
it’s a jane espenson episode (i was thinking we were about due for another one) and we all know that it’s going to be great regardless
BUT
WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR WITH PHOENIXES FROM HARRY POTTER YES?
well that’s what a “firebird” is: a phoenix
a phoenix is part of greek mythology (ding ding ding) wherein it dies and is reborn (either from regenerating from its ashes, or from being born completely after death and decay); it’s strongly associated with renewal, resurrection, new life, etc
they are also strongly associated with HEROES (it was the “ultimate man” in the writings of greek philosophers; it was jesus christ for later christian writers due to the obvious resurrection parallels) and as we saw in harry potter with fawkes healing harry the hero who had just killed/destroyed the horcrux and the shade of tom riddle.
hence you have the magic of a phoenix to jigger/fix whatever you need to about the fact that killian has a supposedly un-healable wound in his neck: either you fix it with phoenix magic or you give him a new “body” entirely
SO HILARY, ARE YOU SAYING THAT 5X20 IS PROBABLY GOING TO CENTER MOSTLY/COMPLETELY ON KILLIAN RISING FROM THE DEAD/BEING REBORN/RETURNING TO THE WORLD OF THE LIVING THANKS TO THE MAGIC OF THE ULTIMATE HERO BIRD FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY, TO GET OUT OF THE UNDERWORLD (FROM GREEK MYTHOLOGY)???? WHILE WRITTEN BY JANE GUARANTEEING US GREAT CAPTAIN SWAN TO BOOT?
WHY YES I AM!
THOSE CLEVER ASSHOLES!
What if saving Killian, bringing him back, is what causes Emma to lose control of the darkness. What if that's why she didn't want him to know what happened in Camelot. Because Killian realizing she lost her battle with darkness to save his life would fill him with so much guilt and he'd blame himself. What if she was still wearing his ring when it happened and she blamed herself for him almost dying, because he wasn't wearing it. And what if finding out what caused her to go dark is why he switches sides, and seemingly becomes her ally in Storybrooke. Regina thinks she's manipulating him, but she's actually told him the truth. She used dark magic to save his life and because of that she succumbed to it. But it was a trade-off she didn't have to think twice about, because she will not lose Killian. Not until the Season 5A finale at least...
“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.”
Right, so I’ve been up in total Harry Potter land all weekend, which you can blame for the title. Anyway, I have been thinking a lot about how this whole 5A arc is going to end (aside from us drowned in a flood of our own tears, because that is a given) and what it means for us. So, gird yourselves.
First, we know that the Merlin/Nimue and Killian/Emma parallels are coming. We also know that the reason Merlin got turned into a tree is because he wasn’t willing to kill whatever was left of his love (Nimue) to end the darkness. Red flag number #1. Second, we’ve known all along that Emma is going to have to save herself, that she’ll have to pay a price for being the DO, and that she (or at least so we strongly suspect) gave into it fully in the first place to save Killian’s life. I.e. she’s trying to get what she wants, and avoid paying the price, with dark magic, even telling herself it’s for the sake of someone she loves. This is never going to work. Ruh-roh.
I can’t remember who it was ( @mediumsizedfountain maybe?) who made a post recently about thinking there was going to be a “Buffy kills Angel” moment at the end of 5A, but, although I admittedly have not watched BtVS, I’m starting to think this is what happens. Remember, Emma is both Nimue (the Dark One/the last Dark One in parallel to the first) AND Merlin (the savior, the ultimate light magic, the most powerful force for good). She is going to have to fulfill BOTH their expectations and succeed where BOTH of them failed. This means destroying the darkness by making a conscious choice to reject it in herself.... and, welp, killing the person she loves to pay the ultimate price for it. She has to be both villain and hero. And in this framework, if Killian takes on some of the darkness for her (after all that talk about sharing the burden, and our thought that he might be LITERALLY sharing it) killing him would destroy the darkness permanently as well and save Emma. He will almost certainly willingly offer up his life (again, can we take a moment to appreciate that he’s been trying to kill the Dark One, and not die himself, for 300 years, and now he’s potentially willing to become the DO AND die for the sake of saving Emma. Ouch) and hence, Killian will ALSO be the villain and the hero. Their names are both on Excalibur. They are both villain and hero. They are both Merlin and Nimue. Their love has to succeed where the other one failed, and allowed the darkness to continue to exist for centuries.
So we’re in, IMHO, for a rough 5x11. Epic and incredibly romantic and setting up for many, many good things... but “buy an extra blanket, three bottles of wine, two bars of chocolate, and watch it alone with a box of tissues” rough. Emma is going to be saved and destroy the darkness, but she will have to kill Killian (a willing sacrifice) for it, with the idea of then saving him from the underworld in 5B, because of course she will.
WHICH LEADS ME TO:
For BOTH Snowing and RB, their wedding was directly preceded by a “defeating death” moment. For Snowing it was the sleeping curse; for RB it was Rumple’s actual death followed by resurrection (and HMMM, he sacrificed himself for the town in 3x11 and married Belle in 3x22. My opinions on RB are well known, but that is a fact). The point is, TL/major couples ALWAYS have to defeat death in some way before they can get married: hence the title of this post, “the last enemy that will be defeated is death.” I’m not interested in whether you personally think CS should get married this season or at all; the pattern stands (and they ARE going to eventually). Neither Snowing nor RB’s stories ended because they got married, so why would CS’? They have the most time spent on their defeating death arc because Emma is the main character of the show and they’re the central couple, but the fact is, that is what follows this plot progression: a wedding.
Think of it this way. We already saw CS being an adorable couple in s4. Now they’re going to have both died for each other in some way, defeated the darkness, overcome hell itself, and you’re telling me that they’re just going to.... continue being an adorable couple? That will be their reward and their development for going through all this? When Emma was so hesitant to tell Killian she loved him in case it changed something? Well, now EVERYTHING has changed, and once she gets him back and they’re safe and together and the underworld has been defeated, why are they going to waste another moment apart? Yes, we could (and probably will) get a TLK. But that will just be a validation of everything we’ve seen on screen already, and not necessarily a relationship step forward. There needs to be something else. Possibly just an engagement, but IMHO more likely a wedding.
We also had that tease from A&E about “can’t say, love to but can’t say” if there’s going to be a wedding. Now, obviously they’re trolls and you can’t trust everything they say, and sometimes “can’t say” actually ends up meaning that it doesn’t happen but they didn’t want to say so. However, if there WASN’T going to be a wedding, they could have just said no. “Love to” sounds like something they WANT to tease but can’t just yet, and which is more likely a yes.
When the s3 wedding scoop came out, most people guessed it would be RB just because they were “due,” and indeed it did end up being them. However, there was a CRAPTON of CS wedding foreshadowing in the same arc, to the point where those of us who were very skeptical about a CS wedding had to admit and think it was possible because the narrative had hinted at it so heavily. Well, the next couple to be “due” is CS. They’ve been together as many seasons as RB, they’ve gone through as much shit or more, and they’ll be in the place (after having an ENTIRE SEASON focused on their love and saving each other) where it’ll be justified for them to be rewarded with it, the same way it was for RB. We had Emma with the ring in 3x22; we’ve had all these bridal/wedding imagery for them in 5A. Are you really telling me we have this epic season centered entirely around them, and then they DON’T get married at the end?
Because I don’t think so.
Hence: death.
It’s been real, guys, but no really, we’re fucked.
BUT WHAT IF SHE DOESN'T REMEMBER HIM BECAUSE THE DARKNESS TOOK AWAY HER MEMORIES AND WHEN KILLIAN FINALLY FINDS HER HE HAS TO MAKE HER FALL IN LOVE WITH HIM ALL OVER AGAIN?
