My take on true love in real life and what I think can explain a lot of stuff in Once Upon A Time:

SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED ON OUAT, PERSONAL CONSIDERATIONS AND PERSONAL STUFF USED AS AN EXAMPLE.

These are just my two cents and what I personally think and like. Feel free to comment if you disagree, because I really like this subject.

Under the cut because LONG.

Let’s just say that I do not believe true love, fairytale kind, exists, because reality is way more complicated than that.

BUT in OUAT it has been clearly depicted in the classical fashion of the sleeping curse and the awakening, so let’s just assume it actually exists.

I have been in love a couple of times and, at that time of my life, I truly believed I loved the person I either was with or wanted to be with.

Right now I’ve got a very lovely, caring boyfriend who drives me insane every day of the week, but whom I’ve grown to love very much in the last two years and a half we have been together.

So, what’s true love? Is it the maddening obsession you get for that someone who clearly does not reciprocate your feelings or that subtle comaraderie you have with a partner who would give his/her life for you?

I’ve had both and, I can assure you, they both were indeed love, because in that moment I felt it.

The first kind was painful, a bit oppressive, but also stimulating and always new. It was impossible to avoid and I was constantly trying to prove myself, because I was afraid of losing my loved one.

The second is warmth and serenity, it’s waking up knowing that he is going to be there, that he’s not going to leave you no matter what happens. So, I also take it for granted most of the days, but when I look at him, I not only know what he’s thinking, I know he’s having my same exacts thoughts. It’s respect and kindness and, well, the love I would build a family upon. Just don’t tell him though, because he’s pretty vain and I don’t want him to know.

Each kind of love came in a different time in my life, mostly because I chose to, but also because I needed that type of affection, during a given time. Therefore, while I was lusting behind an ex-boyfriend who did not want me anymore, I’ve had the opportunity to meet other guys who were very similar to my current one, but I never gave them a chance because I only saw a former lover, who, in fact, was not right for me anymore.

When that door closed for good, I was able to see the wonderful person my boyfriend is and I gave him a chance and, despite I still sometimes wonder about “what ifs”, I don’t regret my past decisions. Not one of them.

With this premise, my “research” has revealed that, yes, you can have multiple loves - or true loves - at the same time, you just do not have the eyes to see them, because you believe they are not right for you or because you actually truly love another person and you only have eyes for them.

Regina loved Daniel and he loved her. So, had either of them been under a sleeping curse, they both would have woken each other.

Despite Robin Hood being a possible new true love for Regina, I do not believe that, right now, he would actually be able to wake her, because he does not even know her and he has not grown to love her yet.

The same goes for my dearly beloved Warrior Royals - right now, I believe that both Mulan and Phillip would be able to wake Aurora, because they both truly love her.

The same goes for Aurora hypothetically waking Phillip up.

One question is, does Phillip have feelings for Mulan? It’s possible, but I doubt it, despite the ambiguous “I love you” in the season 2 premiere.

Does Aurora love Mulan? In my head - yes, absolutely. In the canon world? It depends on what happened between “Queen of Hearts” and the season 2 finale. If she does as well, it does not mean that she does not love Phillip anymore. I believe - and this is just my theory based on personal experience - that, up until a definite choice she will be forced to make, she will love both of them with the same kind of intesity and, as soon as she realizes that she loves Mulan (if she does) she could be able to wake her up from a sleeping curse as well.

In conclusion, a person can have more than one [true] love in the span of a lifetime.

This can happen simultaneously.

Sometimes person A will truly love person B, but B will be too invested in C and/or will not be able to love A back for any given reason.

This show is about happy endings, most of the times. So I have faith that all of them will be ok somehow. Unless they die and I hope they won’t because I really like all the characters, including Phillip, yes.

Other examples:

1. Milah truly loved Rumple in the beginning. She grew out of love for him and fell for Hook.

Rumple truly loved Milah, but her betrayal and his transformation into the Dark One made him fall out of love. A love he found again with Belle.

2. Red truly loved Peter. He was her first true love. She ate him - and is now able to joke about it apparently. Will she have another love interest? Maybe Dr. Whale? Maybe Belle? Who knows. I’m hoping for Belle, but hey, my ships can’t all be canon.

3. Emma loved/loves Neal very very much and viceversa.

Other possible true loves? Wendy for Bae and Hook for Emma (even if I don’t like the latter, the show is going there, so… yeah).

And I coud really go on with basically all the ships except maybe for Nova/Grumpy and Snowing, because we have not been shown other respective love interests, but for all I know Hook could be a possible true love for Charming and it would be hilarious.

That said, nobody stops loving anybody - unless they turned out to be someone else entirely. So, yeah. If Regina and Robin hook up, none of them will ever stop loving their first true love.

If Aurora leaves Phillip for Mulan, it’s not because she does not love him anymore, but because she chose to follow another path, because Mulan is what she needs right now (like Milah did with Hook). She probably would care for him anyway - even still love him in a way - but choosing Mulan, she set herself upon the path of a new true love.

My solution is a game of Tetris to make all the ships fit so everyone can be happy and my feels can go back to flailing and squeeing, instead of screaming and dying.