Emma Swan

"I'm not used to someone putting me first."

- Emma to Mary Margaret, Lady of the Lake

Emma Swan is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She debuts in the first episode of the first season. She is portrayed by Jennifer Morrison and does not have a counterpart.

Before the Curse
Emma's parents, Snow White and Prince Charming, are inhabitants of a land called the Enchanted Forest. On the day they marry, the Evil Queen interrupts the ceremony to announce she will destroy the happiness of everyone in the land.

Months later, Snow White is heavily pregnant expecting her first child but worries about what the Evil Queen promised. She convinces Prince Charming to let see a man who can see the future called Rumplestiltskin. As payment for his services, Rumplestiltskin asks for their child's name, which Snow White later gives Emma, though Prince Charming assumed the baby's gender is male. He prophesies the Evil Queen will cast a dreadful dark curse no one can escape, but if their child is saved, she will come back for them on her twenty-eighth birthday.

The Blue Fairy brings the Enchanted Forest's last know enchanted tree, which is made into an magic wardrobe by Geppetto and his son Pinocchio, to them. The Blue Fairy lies and says the wardrobe can only protect one when in actuality is can save two people as per the secret deal she made with Geppetto; if carves the the wardrobe, Pinocchio must also be allowed to go through it. The plan is to send Snow White into a magic wardrobe while she is still pregnant so she can guide her daughter in the new world. Due to the early labor and birth of Emma, Prince Charming and Snow White both agreed that their daughter must be the one to go into the wardrobe.

Prince Charming manages to lock Emma in the wardrobe before some of the Evil Queen's guards stabs him. He stays conscious long enough to see, when they wrench the wardrobe's door open, Emma was gone. Then he falls unconscious as the Dark Curse envelops them all.

Meanwhile, the newborn Emma arrives in a wood in "the land without magic." Earlier on, Pinocchio was sent through the wardrobe by Gepetto. He picks the infant up and takes her to a nearby diner, claming to have found her along the highway. They are placed in a foster home together. Later, Pinocchio runs away, leaving her behind.

During the Curse
Emma is stuck in the foster care system, bouncing from family to family. As she becomes three years old, she is adopted by one set of foster parents that abandon her when they get their own child.

She becomes indeoendent at sixteen. Two years later, she is living in Portland, Oregon and has become a thief. While stealing a car, a man pops up from the backseat. At first, Emma is startled, but they begin talking and he tells her that his name is Neal Cassidy, and he is also a thief. The two begin dating. One day, the enter a convenience store. Emma fakes a pregnant belly, and while Neal distracts the owner at the counter by asking for driving directions, she steals items. They are caught by a customor, but before the owner can check, Emma pretends to go into labor. As they hastily leave, Neal steals a swan keychain for her. The duo drive away and go to a hotel. Neal tells Emma that he wants to start a life somewhere, and anywhere she points to on a map is where they will move. She closes her eyes and her finger lands on Tallahassee.