Personality: Generally, the first thing that most people notice about Emma Swan is that she is an exceptionally strong and stubborn personality. She is quick to cut to the chase in any situation and is both blunt and direct, as well as aggressive when she feels that information is being withheld and she’s being left in the dark. Despite her tendency towards harsh words while under pressure, she is good at keeping her temper in check, and is far more likely to take a step back, breathe, count to ten, and re-assess the given situation, allowing herself the opportunity to attack it from another angle. She is quite resourceful, and is in possession of shrewd observational skills. She claims to have the ability to tell when other people are lying, which appears to be true, except in very rare cases, such as being fooled into her alliance with Sidney Glass. She often refers to it as her ‘superpower,’ though whether it’s an actual power or the result of many years spent learning to observe and read people remains to be seen.

Observing people was often where it ended, however. Emma considers herself a loner, having been constantly shuffled through the foster system as a child and becoming a runaway as a teenager, moving from place to place and never stopping anywhere long enough to form relationships – until she met Neal Cassidy, Henry’s father, who quickly took to running right alongside her. His betrayal of her trust was not the first she’d ever experienced, but it may have been the betrayal that hurt the most, aside from her long-standing resentment towards her parents for giving her up. Though she already had great difficulty trusting people, Neal abandoning her and leaving her to spend close to a year in prison was enough to make her close and lock the door against anyone else who might try to get in. She prefers to keep people at arm’s length – or further – and uses sarcasm as a shield. She does not trust people easily; even her son had difficulty earning it from her when they were first reunited. She is a woman who is very used to people telling her what she can and can’t do, but takes great pride in her ability to take care of herself and prove those people wrong. Her issues with abandonment run deep, and even now, with her family reassembled and her having learned the truth of why she was given up as a child, it’s difficult for her to conquer those old habits. She looks for reasons to shove people away, and is quick to do so when she sees the opportunity, as shown when she realized that Graham was involved with Regina, hurrying to slam the door on him without giving him a chance to explain himself.

Emma is quite the skeptic, even now that the curse has been broken. She is, by design, rather cynical and considers herself to be a “realist,” which means she often closes herself to the ideas and opinions of others, especially if they’re a little far-fetched. When stories of the curse came only from Henry, it was easy for her to write it off as a child’s fantasy, but when August arrived and tried to push her to believe, she stubbornly pushed back, and was so unwilling to believe in anything beyond her own reality that she was unable to see any evidence of magic, even when it was right in front of her eyes. Even now, with the curse broken and everyone’s memories returned, she has difficulty taking things at face value, made evident several times during her travels in the Enchanted Forest alongside her mother. While she has clearly become a believer in magic and what it can accomplish, she still tends to second-guess things that she’s unfamiliar with or doesn’t understand, and it takes her a little while to wrap her head around certain ideas or facts of life in the Enchanted Forest at times.

Due to the fact that she’s never been one to put down strong roots, the idea of anyone depending on her quite frankly scares the hell out of her. It was bad enough when she thought it was just her son and his desire to pull her back into his life (though it didn’t take long for her to want the same thing), but when presented with the idea that she’s the savior meant to break Regina’s curse, she can barely comprehend it. All she can say is that it’s something she never asked for, that anyone depending on her is screwed – it’s far more responsibility than she’s ready or willing to accept. Though her stubbornness and determination mean she has the potential to be a strong leader, fear of commitment and responsibility often hold her back. Even after the curse is broken, she continually insists that she’s no one’s savior, that everything she’s done up until now was luck or because someone else designed things so that she would just be in the right place at the right time. What she needs most is a push, and that push often comes from Henry. Though she had never intended to see her son after sending him out into the world to get what she hoped would be his best chance, now that they’ve been reunited, he means more than anything in the world to her. Henry’s safety and well-being are her utmost priorities, and Henry has used this to his advantage. If Henry hadn’t fallen under the sleeping curse that was meant for her, Emma never would have freed the town of Storybrooke – but the fact that Henry needed help meant that she could suddenly forget her plans to run away from the task set before her and instead, do absolutely whatever it took to get him back. Storybrooke’s freedom was a side-effect. Henry’s safety was her priority. She puts him first in everything she does, consequences be damned. Nothing matters more to her than her son.

Though her trust and loyalty are difficult to earn, once they’re truly won, they’re yours for life. She is interested in making up for lost time with her family now that they’ve been reunited, though there is some awkwardness there – she’s unsure of how to go about it and is not used to openly showing affection, though both Henry and her parents seem willing to be patient with her on that front. Stability is something quite new for her, but she’s become more willing to try and change as time goes on, wanting to be someone her son can rely on, as well as others. She has also allowed herself to become more open-minded and a bit softer than she once was, more receptive to new ideas and the prospect of letting people in – though she’s still plenty wary about that last one. Still, one step at a time. There’s progress.