Emma Goode/Relationships

## Henry Ward

"*I thought the monsters were only out there. But they're not. **People can be monsters too**,*"
—Emma laments to Henry while on the train[src]
Emma and Henry's relationship has progressed from distant and fearful to her viewing Henry as a mentor and a family figure. Over the course of her arc Emma has slowly become more and more like Henry - distant, reserved, vengeful and unafraid to kill those that threaten her loved ones - while retaining a palpable belief that everyone has the capacity to do good, no matter how badly the new world has warped them from the people they once were. Their relationship does not conform to the typical brother-sister or father-daughter bond that some survivors develop, but they are as close as any blood relative and she considers his children, including Kyle, as her siblings.

The two rarely interacted during the first year of the apocalypse due to Emma's attachment to James - as well as due to James' possessive protection over her - but as both of them began to drift away from James their relationship became much more prominent.

Their first profound interaction occurred when Henry taught Emma how to shoot a gun while on their way to Port Collier, a skill that came in handy when Emma stayed behind to protect Jess while the others broke into Hopeville. Emma demonstrates greater bravery after she learns to shoot, even working up the courage to threaten James during their final interaction. It is clear that Emma has come to value her relationship with Henry over the bond she had with James, and even killed Francis herself just so Henry would not have to. Nearly a year later, Emma and Henry remain close, with Henry acting as a cross between a brotherly and a fatherly figure. He obeys her wishes to be more independent by teaching herself how to use a bow and arrow and later allows her to join him on dangerous treks into the wilderness. He has come to trust her with watching his back on supply runs and when facing small groups of walkers.

As the group made their westward march towards "Greencole", Emma and Henry began drifting apart somewhat, most likely as a result of Henry's leadership responsibilities wearing him down combined with Emma's growing physical and emotional maturity. Nonetheless, he remains a constant presence in her life and gave her advice and comfort regarding her puberty. Emma appears slightly troubled by Henry's increasingly violent acts and has started acting coldly towards him as a result. Their relationship repairs over the course of the group's conflict with the Innocents as Henry begins treating her more as an equal than a child.

By the events of "*Divide*", five years after settling Greencole, Emma is considered part of Henry's family, with her calling Kyle her brother and Hope her sister, but her relationship with Henry himself has tarnished, and she has barely spoken to him for two years despite many attempts by Kyle to convince her to "forgive him". Despite all this, Emma does not hesitate to follow Henry into the forest and rescue him from the Frontiersmen.

The tension between them is later revealed to be because of Henry's execution of several violent residents during the awful winter two years prior; Emma's distance from Henry was not due to his actions, but due to the fact that he had refused to give them a second chance, something he had offered to every other faction that had opposed them in the past. She decides to try and forgive him when Henry admits that the peaceful persona he has held for the past two years was nothing more than a mask to hide the violent urges and fighting instincts that he developed while on the road. However, the greatest test to their relationship comes after their battle with James, during which Henry reveals his belief that Jess' child, AJ, was his son, a secret he has kept from everybody. He finally promises to no longer keep secrets from her, no matter how damaging, to which Emma replies that, while she can't forget what he did, she can forgive him.

## Holly Parker

Emma and Holly have grown close over the course of the apocalypse, with Holly filling a sisterly or motherly role for Emma, similar to Emma and Henry's relationship. Their relationship strengthened over the course of their year spent surviving in Iron Mountain State Forest.

## James Cottingham

"*No. You're not dying today. **Dying's easy**,*"
—Emma allows a defeated James to live[src]
Emma and James once had a strong bond, one that was slowly mired by James' obsessive protection over her. Although it was apparent that he cared deeply for her, James was extremely overprotective, almost pathologically so, to the point that he completely disregarded her own wants and opinions if he believed it was for her own good. His obsession with protecting her even led to him refusing to teach her how to defend herself, just so he could exert more control over her. As Emma began to look to Henry as a mentor, she continued to drift away from James, especially so when she watched him kill Daniel in cold blood. She finally turned against him entirely after she watched him abandon Henry at the boathouse, and even aimed her gun at him during the final stand-off in the forest.

Seven years later, Emma and James cross paths once again in the midst of the Pioneers-Frontiersmen conflict, this time on opposing sides.

## Daniel Miller

Emma viewed Daniel as a brother-figure and always made attempts to comfort him, while he always made sure to know where she was while she was playing out of sight. Emma was horrified and significantly traumatized by Daniel's death, causing her to drift away from James.

## Jess Black

After finally learning to defend herself, Emma becomes very protective of Jess and volunteered to stay behind and guard her while the others infiltrated Hopeville.

## Kyle Granger

Emma and Kyle have had few interactions, but have already developed a close, sibling-like bond.

## Mike Trapp

Emma and Mike have had only a few interactions since their first meeting, which was a mission to find a lost Drew in "*What We Deserve*". By the events of "*Divide*", Emma and Mike are the only two members of the Pioneers that remain distant from Henry due to the incident described in "*Fears*", and are the first to head out in search for him when he goes missing.