Emma Swan

Emma Swan is the protagonist of the TV show Once Upon a Time. She is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming and the mother of Henry Mills who she gave up for adoption when he was born. She broke the Dark Curse that Queen Regina made in the beginning of the show. Henry told her she was a savior and a superhero. She's also the older sister of prince Neal who was named after her late first lover by her parents.

She is portrayed by Jennifer Morrison (adult) and Abby Ross (young).

Before First Curse
Her parents, Snow White and Prince Charming, who inhabit in a world called Enchanted Forest, were celebrating their wedding, while Regina, the Evil Queen, arrives and announces that she plans to destroy everyone's happiness. Months later, Snow White, heavily pregnant, is worried about Regina's words and convinces her husband to visit a powerful, evil sorcerer who can see the future, named Rumpelstiltskin, who is imprisoned. They go to see him, who as a payment for his service, asks for the child's name. Rumpel prophesies that the Queen will enact a curse no one could escape, where everyone will lose their happiness, getting stuck in time, but their child, if saved, will come back for all them in her 28th birthday. Later, Snow White gives him her child's name, Emma.

The Blue Fairy asks Geppetto to make a magic wardrobe to transport two persons to another world, and he agrees, but putting as condition that his son, Pinocchio, must be transported into it. Geppetto forces the Blue Fairy to lie and say that only one person can be saved.

It was planned that Snow White used the wardrobe, but, in the day the curse was casted, her baby was born. The Blue Fairy, therefore, tries to convince Geppetto to let Snow and her child to be in the portal, but he refuses and sends Pinocchio to the wardrobe, telling him to protect the baby and lead her to save the Enchanted Forest inhabitants. Having little choice, Emma's parents decided to send her to the wardrobe. The Prince manages to send his daughter to the wardrobe and she arrives safely to the Land Without Magic, in the same location where Pinocchio was sent, a tree in Maine. Pinocchio picks her up and goes to a diner, claiming that he found her. Later, they are sent to a foster home, but Pinocchio, because of being weak-willed, leaves Emma and goes with the children that want to escape.

During First Curse
She grows up on the foster care system. She is constantly bouncing from family to family. When she is three years old, she is adopted by one set of foster parents, but they abandon her when they get their own child. During her childhood, she wants to get a family.

At seventeen years old, in Portland, Oregon, Emma, while attempting to steal a car, meets Neal Cassidy, a thief who also plans to steal it. In an amusement park, he tells her that he once had a loving home, but he escaped because his father changed too much. They quickly fall in love and begin making small robbing heists.