Emma | Emma Swan Character Bio

Emma | Emma Swan

Fairy Tale Land Persona: Emma
Real World Persona: Emma Swan

Emma Stats and Info

When you wish upon a star...

• 5'6"
• Hair: Blonde
• Eyes: Green
• Daughter of Snow White and Charming
• Sent to our world through a magical wardrobe moments after being born to escape the Evil Queen and The Dark Curse
• She was found on the side of the road when she was a baby and grew up in our world. The couple who took her in had her until she was three then they placed Emma back into the foster care system when they had their own child.
• Was a bails bondsman in Boston, then a deputy in Storybrooke, Maine, and now she's sheriff of Storybrooke, Maine 
• Walks nonchalantly through traffic
• Gave birth to Henry in a Phoenix, Arizona jail when she was 18, she gave him up for adoption
• Destined to break the curse
• Makes a terrible blind date
• Slouches
• Drives a yellow VW bug with the license plate # 836-M4X
• Has been known to take her anger out on apple trees and toasters
• Self-proclaimed loner 
• Claims to know when someone is lying 
• Lived in Tallahassee for two years 
• Has a star charm keyring
• Has a flower tattoo on the inside of her left wrist

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[+] ► [-] Emma Swan Bio

Emma was born in Fairy Tale Land to Snow White and Charming. She was placed into a magical wardrobe moments after being born to escape the Evil Queen and The Dark Curse. She appeared in our world in a blown out tree hollow. A childless couple took her in, but in a prime example of jackassery, the couple returned Emma when they had their own child.

Little Emma gives her opinion on being returned to foster care.

Emma was shuffled from foster home to foster home, and when she was eighteen, she gave birth to a son in a Phoenix, Arizona jail. She gave her son up for adoption, so he could have a better chance at life than she had.

At twenty-eight, Emma was living in Boston and working as a bail bondsman when the son she gave up for adoption ten years prior showed up at her door.

Hi, I'm Henry. Remember that time you gave birth...?

It's late, it's her twenty-eighth birthday, and she's just had a crappy fake dateShe setup a fake blind date to catch a guy who jumped bail.. She wants this kid out of her apartment, so she can wallow in misery and eat her little birthday cupcake. She tries to call the cops but Henry, her son, says that he'll cry kidnapper! if she calls. Emma calls his bluff because she says there aren't many things in life she's good at, but she can tell when someone is lying. Henry breaks then pleads with her to take him home herself. Home is Storybrooke, Maine.

On their drive to Storybrooke, Emma notices Henry's book of fairy tales. He tells Emma they're not fairy tales but true stories and that Emma's in the book.

Emma replies, "Oh, kid, you've got problems."

Henry quips, "Yep, and you're gonna fix 'em."

Emma and Henry arrive in Storybrooke and eventually make their way to Henry's home. Emma meets Henry's adoptive mother, Regina Mills, who is also the Mayor of Storybrooke. Emma assures Regina that she is in no way trying to claim Henry.

Emma leaves for Boston but just as she is about to leave Storybrooke a wolf appears on the road, causing her to veer into the Storybrooke town sign. She is knocked unconscious.

You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

Emma wakes up the next morning in jail. Apparently, in Storybrooke, people found unconscious in a car wreck are thrown in jail rather than taken to the hospital.

Seriously, dude, I could've had a concussion.

While Emma's in jail, Regina comes to the Sheriff's office to report Henry missing. Emma offers to help find him.

Emma tracks him down and after a tearful comparison of whose life sucks more she takes him home--again. Regina is grateful but makes it perfectly clearRegina: "No! You don't get to speak. You don't get to do anything. You gave up that right when you tossed him away. Do you know what a closed adoption is? It's what you asked for. You have no legal right to Henry and you're going to be held to that. So, I suggest you get in your car and you leave this town because if you don't I will destroy you if it is the last thing I do. Good-bye, Miss Swan." that Emma is not welcome in Henry's life or Storybrooke.

Hand on the hip: always a sign that one means business.

Emma asks Regina if she loves Henry. Regina replies, "Of course I love him." The expression on Emma's face is skeptical, and it looks as though her bullshit inner lie-detector is actually working and sounding alarms in her head. Emma finds an inn to stay in for a week because now she can't get Henry off her mind, and she wants to make sure he's alright before going back to Boston.

The next morning, Regina visits Emma at the inn with a basket of apples from an apple tree that Regina claims she has had since she was a child. Regina ends her visit with a threatRegina: "It's time for you to go."
Emma: "Or what?"
Regina: "Don't underestimate me, Miss Swan. You have no idea what I'm capable of."—leave Storybrooke or else.

Regina's threats to Emma are what spinach is to Popeye, and Emma's resolve to stay in Storybrooke strengthens.

Emma runs into Henry at Granny's Diner and at his request walks him to school. Henry explains to her, once again, that the whole town is enchanted, under a curse that was cast by his mother, The Evil Queen. He also tells Emma she's the only one who can break the curse.

Emma is doubtful and visits Henry's psychiatrist, Archie Hopper, to ask about Henry.

So, doc, is he nuts or not?

Archie gives her Henry's case file, which understandably causes Emma to raise an eyebrow. Archie explains that he's giving her the file because Henry talks about her often. In truth, Regina ordered Archie to give the file to Emma.

Emma takes the file and heads back to the inn to read it. Sheriff Graham interrupts her then arrests her because Archie claimed she stole Henry's file.

Regina tells Henry that Emma has been arrested because Emma's a con-artist who wanted to take advantage of them. He doesn't believe her and convinces his teacher, Mary Margaret Blanchard, to bail Emma out of jail.

Emma is released from jail and her first act as a free woman is to commit vandalism and threaten Regina. Emma takes a chainsaw to Regina's beloved apple tree then uses Regina's own threat against her, "You come after me one more time, I'm coming back for the rest of this tree because, sister, you have no idea what I am capable of."

Oh, no, she didn't...

Emma moves in with Mary Margaret after being evicted from the inn because Regina reminds Granny, the inn's proprietor, that there's a "no felon's rule" that prevents Emma from staying at the inn.

Mr. Gold, the owner of Storybrooke, hires Emma to find Ashley Boyd. Mr. Gold claims Ashley has something precious that belongs to him. Emma finds Ashley and discovers that the precious something Mr. Gold was speaking of is Ashley's baby. Emma makes a deal with Mr. Gold: Ashley can keep her baby if Emma agrees to owe Mr. Gold a favor.

Sheriff Graham offers Emma a job as deputy. She declines at first, but after spending the day with Henry, looking for and helping Ashley, she decides to take the job.

Emma and Sheriff Graham share their feelings for one another then Regina kills him. About two weeks later, Emma is voted the new sheriff in an election against Regina's yes-man, Sidney Glass, who was the town's newspaper editor, but Regina axed him when he lost.

Emma's adventures in Storybrooke have just begun...

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Curse Effects

• Technically Emma escaped the curse but at what cost? She went from being a princess and having loving parents to being an abandoned orphan who has led a lonely life.

[+] ► [-] Emma Swan Quotes

• "Oh, kid, you've got problems."
• "What is her deal? She's not a great people person. How did she get elected?"
• "You come after me one more time, I'm coming back for the rest of this tree because, sister, you have no idea what I am capable of."
• "You want to change things, you're gonna have to go out there and changes things yourself because there are no fairy godmothers in this world."
• "Seriously, you're complaining about how I saved your life?"
• "Take a whiff. It smells like your sheep crap oil."
• Mary Margaret and Emma discuss Emma's parents.
  Emma: "If they wanted to know me, they wouldn't make it so hard to look."
  Mary Margaret: "Maybe, but maybe there's other reasons. Maybe there is an explanation."
  Emma: "If there is, it's something crazy. Something even crazier than Henry's theory."
  Mary Margaret: "What's Henry's theory?"
  Emma: "Well, that my parents put me a magical wardrobe and sent me to this world to save them."
  Mary Margaret: "Aw, who does he think they are?"
  Emma: "Well, for one--you."
  Mary Margaret: "Me?"
  Emma: "Snow White."
  Mary Margaret: "Snow White--has a kid."
  Emma: Apparently that book you gave him, not exactly the stories in the most traditional sense.
  Mary Margaret: "I have a kid. You'd think I'd remember that."
  Emma: "Yeah, you'd think."
  Mary Margaret: "You do kind of have my chin."

[+] ► [-] Emma Swan Family Tree

Mother: Snow White
Father: Charming

Grandfather: King Leopold [Snow White's father]
Step Grandmother: The Evil Queen [The Queen married Snow White's father, it has not been revealed what happened to Snow White's biological mother]

Grandfather: Unnamed Farmer Man [Charming's father]
Grandmother: Ruth [Charming's mother]

Pseudo-Grandfather: King George [Charming's pseudo-father]

Step Great-Grandfather: Henry [The Evil Queen's father]
Step Great-Grandmother: Cora [The Evil Queen's mother]

Other Family Members:
Biological Uncle: Prince James [Charming's twin brother who was adopted by King George]
Son: Henry Mills

Here's a Family Tree Chart that should help clarify relationships. Click image to enlarge.

Additional Info

• Emma's Necklace
• Emma's Case File
• Emma's Door
• Emma's Baby Blanket
• Possible name meaning
• In the pilot script, the character's original name was Anna.
• Emma Swan is played by Jennifer Morrison.

Emma Pics	Emma Swan Pics
[+] Show ▶ Hide [-]	[+] Show ▶ Hide [-] Yeah, I know, my red jacket is awesome. Thank-you. Emma's wrist tattoo [Thanks to Reader for pointing this out.]