I think his thought process is more like, When I don’t have power I loose the people I love (Bae) so I am going to make sure I don’t loose Belle by having enough power to protect her. Of course this is circular thinking because he lost her because he wanted more power, but I don’t think he has figured this out yet.
Sure. I think that’s mostly spot on, but at what point is Rumple, at best, hopelessly dense and, at worst, power hungry and refusing to see any alternative besides “more power.” His son literally died and his attempt to get more power (by *twitch* cleaving himself from the dagger) only resulted in Belle banishing him from SB forever. If all *that* isn’t a wake up call, then what is?
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"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"