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It’s clear that part of the reason Rumple always makes deals is to protect himself from the costs of the magic he uses. I think they also amuse him–he’s a smart man, and he likes to give people choices and see what they do. But I’ve been wondering if maybe there’s more to it.
We know that the Dark One powers came with a propensity toward violence and sadism that Rumple didn’t have in his spinner days. What if the little bit of humanity left in him started using deals to constrain his own behavior? He might bend deals all the time, but he doesn’t break them, and he seems to have some magical ways of enforcing his deals that go deeper than just making people regret it if they don’t follow through. Perhaps he has ways of enforcing the deals on himself, too. By insisting on making a deal for everything, he doesn’t just do whatever his first impulse might be–and under his curse, that could be a good constraint to put on himself.
[adrotate group="5"]Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing
WOW, Keb- that is a great explanation. There has been a lot of theorizing as to why he needs to make deals if he could just force people to do what he wanted. I think we have seen that his first deal was with Zoso, and that Zoso told him he had made a deal he didn’t understand. Making deals kind of forces him to consider all the possibilities carefully, to avoid making similar mistakes. I was wondering why some deals require contracts and some don’t. Is the Cinderella deal the only one we have seen with an actual contract? I guess it could have been a plot device to introduce the quill…
No, he’s used contracts a few times. Cora got one, for example. But verbal contracts are still binding for him.
Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing
In the real world in the US anyway, you don’t have to write all agreements down but you cannot prove them in a court of law if they involve certain subjects. Just a (to me) funny aside. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_frauds If you’re curious.
Maybe there’s a similar thing to his deals –he only writes down the ones where he might want to prove to others something down the road, like say, why he has possession of a child that is not his. Probably was just a plot device for the quill though, but they continued it for Miller’s daughter.“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?” -- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
I think the Rumplestiltskin’s incarnation of the Dark One is the only one who has ever been about “deals”- and I think that it wasn’t a… shall we say “motif” of his until after he lost Baelfire. Zozo brought up the word deal for the first time, and then the deal with Baelfire was the first one Rumple made as the Dark One. After that, I think it became very important to him to teach others about the hidden costs of using magic.
I was thinking about this in relation to the agreement with Belle’s father. When Rumple showed up at their palace to help with their “little war”, I don’t know that he had a cost in mind. He knew what the King wanted (as it was outlined in the plea for help) but I think the decision to demand Belle as payment was one he made there on the spot. Sure, she was pretty to look at and he could think of all sorts of things for her to do around the castle, but as it was pointed out he wasn’t looking for love (at the time) and I think it came to him as a genuine surprise that any sort of personable relationship formed between them. It seems a bit more likely that when he demanded Belle he was doing so to teach Maurice a lesson. He could easily see that she was precious to her father, and she would be the biggest “price” he could ask. Belle was also clearly an unexpected “cost”- since her father assumed that Rumple would want gold etc. It was a cruel lesson, “You can magically save the people you love by giving up the one you love the most.” but at that moment there was no other reason for him to ask for Belle.
"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him."
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