If there’s NOT a S7, then I think Rumple is far more likely to live, having given up all the darkness once and for all.
Random thought this morning: we’ve often talked about how Rumple in the early seasons was modeled on a trickster figure. By definition, a trickster is a character with a lot of knowledge (or high intellect) who uses it to bend social and cosmic rules. But I don’t think that a trickster has a redemptive arc — that’s just not his/her narrative function. He (or she) sometimes prevails, and sometimes fails, but never stops being a trickster.
Anyway, what happened to Rumple over the seasons is very similar to how Marvel reinterpreted Loki (another trickster), by making him a villainous antagonist to Thor. But redefining the crossing of social boundaries/flaunting of norms as evil (or, worse, Evil) is a really problematic oversimplification, in my opinion. After all, one of the trickster’s roles is to challenge the status quo by exposing its injustices and absurdities. I think it’s especially a pity in OUAT’s narrative because without a trickster to hold up a mirror to them, our heroes have become, for the most part, such loathsome and unsympathetic human beings that one is really tempted to, as the kids say nowadays, send them to check their privilege 😉
Anyway, I suspect that Rumple will end up poorly, however the season renewal gets sliced, because if trickery is irredeemably evil, and a trickster can’t change his stripes, then this is going to be another retribution narrative. *sigh* Either way, I still mourn the loss of a really interesting character.