@Faux Pax wrote:
The one thing I like most about this show is that there is no concrete “Bad” and “Good” when it comes to people (actions, yes, people overall, no). Rumple manipulated hundreds and caused the curse for a very human reason: to find his son. Regina enacted the curse because of a deep-seated pain born of a lifetime of emotional abuse from Cora. But we’ve seen both of these “bad characters” do good things. Regina is trying to be better, and we’ve seen Gold help Henry. Yet we’ve seen good people do “bad” things as well. I mean it wasn’t that long ago that Snow almost put an arrow through Mulan’s neck and left Aurrura to Cora just so she could get back to charming.
What this all boils down to to me, is empathy or the lack of.
The characters people usually characterize as “good” are able to put themselves in others position at least most of the time. In “We are both” Charming wants nothing better then to run after Jefferson so he could fix the hat and get Emma and Snow back, but he stops when Red reminds him that “the town needs him.” He puts the needs of the many above what he wanted.
Now think of all Rumple has done, much for the same reason. He wants Bae back, but in the process he has torn apart how many family? Condemning them to the same agony he felt when he let go of Bae.
But then doesn’t that become the concrete difference between the good and the bad ? whether they can put themselves in other peoples positions or not ?