Is Rumpel a hidden saint?

That’s a pretty interesting cconcept and I do Love Rumple – he’s my fave character on the show 🙂

In relation to him being a saint, though, I can’t get past the fact that he turned a man into a snail and crushed him with his bootheel, killed Enora, and killed Milah.
Although, Milah was kind of a b*tch, she and the others didn’t deserve to die.

I’d say he’s no saint, but I love him as much as you do. He’s done some particularly nasty things that are hard to forgive, even if they’re understandable.

–The Snail Incident–completely unjustifiable, as Bae pointed out as it was happening.
–Killing Honora–just because she heard them talking about the dagger.
–Killing Milah–he could have gotten the bean and just let her go, but he let his anger and self-loathing get the better of him and killed her anyway, and then cut off Hook’s hand and let him suffer. It was understandable, but cruel.
–Getting Victor and Jefferson to give Regina false hope about reviving Daniel. And he knew he was creating a monster when he did it (possibly two, given his words to Victor); he knew he was being cruel and why–and that she would ultimately have to kill what she loved most to cast his curse. But this was the point in his manipulation of Regina that is the hardest to justify.
–Beating Moe. (Who later deserved it but at that moment was really just a pawn of Regina’s, and again, Rumple’s own self-loathing got the better of him.)
–Refusing to heal Greg (though given how Greg turned out and the fact that Rumple was kinda right here…AND knowing how heartbroken he was then…much easier to forgive in retrospect)
–Offering to make Bae 14 again instead of actually making things right.
–Suggesting that a vague warning that Regina was plotting something was sufficient assistance to family members who just saved his life by doing something pretty awful on his behalf.
–Beating Keith. (Okay, he was a jerk, but he was apologizing–it really wasn’t deserved unless there’s more history we don’t know between them.)
–Contemplating killing Henry. (I still don’t think he’d have done it in the end, but he WAS doing it…)
–Refusing to help the town when Gregmara had the self-destruct. (Again, understandable from the POV that they just told him Bae was dead and then immediately demanded he help them…but still.)

But, unlike Regina, we don’t generally see him harming anyone directly whom he doesn’t perceive as a threat to himself or Bae/Belle (unless we want to count the curse itself as harm…I think he’d see it as collateral damage). I think that makes him seem more sympathetic in the long term. And the fact that some people do make out on their deals with him–that he even confines himself to dealmaking in the first place–makes his interactions with other people slightly less threatening (if more menacing in its own way). He gives people some choice, which Regina generally does not. He also generally tells the truth, if not the whole truth.

And that bit of him that secretly aspires to be Charming could allow for him to be a hero if he got past his cowardice and shed the DO curse.

I don’t think it’s so much trying to help her redeem herself as a) telling her the truth and b) trying to make up a little bit for having her mom killed (I think he genuinely DOES have sympathy for her on that point). He’s always told Regina the truth, more or less; he told her she didn’t have to become like Cora, that dead is dead, that people didn’t like her because she slaughtered an entire village, etc. And there he’s telling her the truth again–that she can’t hurt Henry’s family and still have Henry’s love and affection–something she knows (she said as much to Cora) but keeps fighting.

(Telling the truth != complete honesty, of course, most especially in his case!)

And no, he can’t just choose to get rid of it (though TLK might do the trick)…but shedding it might be necessary for him to be a true hero.