diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 400a1726c..f75cb4427 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 fish ?.?.? (released ???)
 =========================
 
+Deprecations and removed features
+---------------------------------
+- `--command` and `--path` options in `complete` no longer unescape their value.
+
 Interactive improvements
 ------------------------
 - On the first run after upgrading from an older version, fish will try harder to check if the current theme matches a historical default, in which case fish won't create ``~/.config/fish/conf.d/fish_frozen_theme.fish``.
diff --git a/src/builtins/complete.rs b/src/builtins/complete.rs
index 32fcd1fd3..eb94c8f16 100644
--- a/src/builtins/complete.rs
+++ b/src/builtins/complete.rs
@@ -316,20 +316,11 @@ pub fn complete(parser: &mut Parser, streams: &mut IoStreams, argv: &mut [&wstr]
                 preserve_order = true;
             }
             'p' | 'c' => {
-                if let Some(tmp) = unescape_string(
-                    w.woptarg.unwrap(),
-                    UnescapeStringStyle::Script(UnescapeFlags::SPECIAL),
-                ) {
-                    if opt == 'p' {
-                        path.push(tmp);
-                    } else {
-                        cmd_to_complete.push(tmp);
-                    }
+                let v = w.woptarg.unwrap().to_owned();
+                if opt == 'p' {
+                    path.push(v);
                 } else {
-                    err_fmt!("Invalid token '%s'", w.woptarg.unwrap())
-                        .cmd(cmd)
-                        .finish(streams);
-                    return Err(STATUS_INVALID_ARGS);
+                    cmd_to_complete.push(v);
                 }
             }
             'd' => {
diff --git a/tests/checks/complete.fish b/tests/checks/complete.fish
index 2624c4c27..f0c3371f5 100644
--- a/tests/checks/complete.fish
+++ b/tests/checks/complete.fish
@@ -716,9 +716,6 @@ begin
     # CHECK: -command-starting-with-dash{{\t}}command
 end
 
-complete --command="foo\\"
-# CHECKERR: complete: Invalid token 'foo\'
-
 complete -c foo -a "foo\\"
 # CHECKERR: complete: foo\: contains a syntax error
 # CHECKERR: complete: Expected a string, but found an incomplete token