Why I can't Ship Rumbelle

I’ve been coming to the Once Podcast Boards since the beginning of season two, and while I’m primarily here trolling for spoilers, I often  get sucked into general discussion posts and find myself frustrated by the sheer volume of Rumbelle love on these forums. I have, until now, held my tongue on my distaste for this relationship, however, since the door to venting frustrations has been flung wide open, I feel justified in expressing my opinions below.

As with the OutlawQueen thread, this is not not for the purpose of a shipping war. This thread is in place for anyone who wishes to vent their frustrations on the existence of Rumbelle.

So here’s my beef:

First introduced with Jane Espenson’s season one offering, “Skin Deep,” (an episode I actually loved) we were given a twisted rendition of this tale as old as time that was unlike either Disney’s Beauty and the Beast or the original LePrince de Beaumont story.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I liked how dark Jane went with it. While Rumple’s skin made him look Beastly, it was his inner character that really made him so — the opposite of WD’s retelling. We really see this later when we learn that his outward appearance was not cast upon him by a hag/witch, but by his own cowardice and greed. Oh I could write essay’s about Rumple and RC’s portrayal of him, but I digress.

So Jane spun a tale of a girl essentially sold into slavery, who falls in love with her master. While some might call Belle’s sudden love for Rumple Stockholm Syndrome, I thought it actually made sense for her character. An adventurous soul trapped forever as a housekeeper? What better adventure is there for a young, naive, girl than finding love, and maybe even freeing that love from a 300 year old curse. Sure, it’s twisted. And so dark that the writers even hung a lantern on it: ” Oh, Child. No. I would never suggest a young woman to kiss a man who held her captive. What kind of message is that?” In short, it was awesome!

But Truidia? If you liked it some much, why did you start this thread?

Because, in the nearly three season’s since Belle attempted to use true loves kiss to break the Dark One’s curse, these two have made exactly zero progress in doing that. This whole relationship is built on Belle loving the “good man” that resides within that yellow scaled exterior. The man that he can never be while cursed. And yet, five big bad’s later he’s still the dark one. I understand that they have been separated multiple times (trips to Neverland and death and whatnot) but, come on! They found the time to get married, they can find the time for true loves kiss.

But they wont. And there in lies my beef with this relationship. Rumple will never willing give up his powers. And Belle seems to be content with the delusion that Gold is that “good man” she saw beneath his beastly exterior, despite the fact that he’s still the Dark One. In other words: He’s too selfish to commit to the this relationship and she’s in love with the idea of him, but not the actual man. And the worst part? Neither one of them realizes that this is a problem.

Is it a drama llama? Yes! Is it a ship I can support? No thank you.