OK, I'm sure this is just crazy talk, but here's an idea:

What if there was a way for someone to safely leave Storybrooke while it was under the curse the first time around?

Let's suppose that you had to have something closely enough linked to you that was protected from the curse that it served as sort of a doppleganger, a double that substituted for you. You can cross the town line because the curse "knows" you're still where you should be.

Like, say, if you were an Ice Queen and you had a Snow Queen niece who, because she shares your magic and blood, could be used as a substitute for you if she were stuck in a magic urn of some sort. Or maybe the bad effects of the curse hit Elsa but, being in the urn, she was protected from the bad effects. They hit but did nothing because Elsa was in a nothing-ish state.

And let's assume time travel doesn't mess this theory up.

So, Rumple could arrange for Ice Queen to go watch over Emma.

That leaves three questions:

1. Why didn't Emma recognize her?

2. Even if shape-changing magic was involved, why doesn't Emma remember a mother-figure guardian of some sort?

3. What did Rumple have to offer that made this seem like a good idea? Twenty-eight years under a curse and seventeen or so of those spent watching over a girl she didn't know while her flesh and blood niece is trapped in an urn? Is ice cream really that tempting?

The only theory I can think of on #2 is that Pan somehow messed things up.

Speaking of Rumple's extended family, I wonder if Ice Queen was supposed to keep her eyes open for Neal?

That's possible but how and why would RUmple let someone go to the land w/o magic when that's all he watned to do to get to Bae

Added :)

Can I be added please?
I always liked EM a lot, so happy she joined the OUAT family :love:

added :D

Thank you! :D

Yes, that is the biggest problem with the theory. But, I'm assuming it needed certain common factors to "confuse" the curse, ones that would have been hard/impossible for Rumple to use:

1. The same magic: This would be the key one. Elsa and Ice Queen have the same, rare magic. There can't be another Dark One while Rumple lives (outside of very complicated fanfic ;) ). If this was part of how the curse was fooled, I don't see how Rumple could do it.

2. Blood connection: OK, this Rumple could do. At least when he met Cora, he wasn't adverse to the idea of having a child, so a blood connection isn't absolutely ruled out. Still, Cora hurt him badly. He might have been willing to pursue a relationship as part of getting to Bae, but . . . well, he didn't.

3. Hurting his child: This would have been the big point, if you ask me, the reason #2, if it was an option, didn't happen. It required Rumplestiltskin to imprison his child in the urn.

Of course, if he'd started twenty-some years before the curse and had the cooperation of an adult child who agreed, knowing that time in the urn wouldn't be perceived and that this was to rescue a lost sibling . . . OK, I could see that. I'm not sure Rumple would go for it, but I could see it.

I'd list #1, then, as the main objection from a technical angle.

right now I think she was foster mom when either was 3 or 4 and that when your memories tended to be a bit blurry or Emma could have her memory erased somehow

Could please add me? :flowers:

Emma was adopted by the Swans at age 3, and while it's possible they dissolved that adoption in less than a year, the impact of that dissolution on Emma seems to indicate that she was part of their family for longer.

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https://38.media.tumblr.com/cbe629b9...dm6no2_250.gif http://38.media.tumblr.com/0b564eaf6...dm6no3_250.gif
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Where is the link to the video of that? SO CUTE. :lol:

She looks adorable in that video - such a change from her character!

I do love that dress. It's gorgeous.

The story of how Emma was sent away from her first family has never worked for me. I buy that it's what Emma remembers/understood about the situation--she had a family, they had a child, Emma was sent back to foster care--but I don't buy it as the full story. Legally, packing up an adopted child and sending her to foster care is the same as doing it to your biological child. The state generally wants a good reason.

Now, an Ice Queen interfering in some way could generate a lot of good reasons.