Reply To: The Rumbelle Dilemma

They aren’t there yet, but I think this may be the episode that was really the turning point for post 3A Rumbelle…glimmers of hope in it.

Also Bobby deserves all the awards.

Has it become an abusive relationship? Yes. Irredeemably? Not in my mind…but mainly for the same reason it was okay to want Rumple to reconcile with Bae after he snailed the dude…and almost killed Henry…and all the other things. The reason I’m okay with there still being a chance of Rumple and Belle getting back together is because it IS a story. A RL mass-murderer who starts getting controlling on you and locking you on ships with people who want to kill you because of them? Nopenopenope. RUN. But a fictional, flawed, and still sympathetic villain having a chance at happiness and redemption? That I can get behind.

This is a story where the Evil Queen and Captain Hook, where even Cora, have all been treated as worthy of redemption and loving relationships. Rumple’s recent treatment of Belle has been abusive, but not actually violent. I think they missed an opportunity in an episode I otherwise loved to have Belle inform him that yes, he HAS actually been hurting her…but Rumple’s statement to the queen, that he hadn’t crossed certain lines, holds true.

I don’t think it’s exonerating abuse to suggest there are shades of it, some more terrible than others. He’s held her captive, but he did that the first day they met…so it’s not exactly new and it wasn’t unforgivable back then. It doesn’t make it right or acceptable behavior, but it is something you can come back from, especially when he did honestly believe he was protecting her on the ship and possibly that he was protecting her with the bracelet. There is a very flawed argument to be made from his perspective on that…it’s not assault if you push someone out of the way of a speeding car, right?

Rumple’s deciding not to do something awful is not a redemption at all, but it’s a step in the right direction. I think there is a VERY long way to go before they could reasonably reconcile, and it has to start with honest communication (which is what Belle wanted from the start anyway). But I feel some hope that it could be done without glorifying anything Rumple’s done now. That was my worst fear…that they would pull the kind of back and forth they did in S5B that was giving me characterization whiplash…and just make Rumple good again and Belle accept him again without working through the issues they’ve given them.

But if they can make the characters deal with these things even a little bit…they put it out there, just as they did in Skin Deep; Rumple’s afraid he’s unlovable, and what makes this ship so powerful is the idea that someone unlovable could find love.