Also, I’m sorta shocked that no one has brought up Neal. By the end, he and his father had made a sort of peace. Neal loved his father in spite of his father’s flaws and even came to understand some of Rumple’s fears and cowardice thanks to their time in Neverland and leaning about Pan. Someone needs to remind Rumple of this, that his other son saw the man behind the beast and moreover saw that his father was still his Papa even when he didn’t always like some of his actions. But that would mean bringing up Neal which, yknow, we mustn’t do.
Does Rumple recognize this, or does he see Bae’s death as a failure. I think they never really explored this but gave us hints that Rumple blames himself for Bae’s death. In the end of season 4 while they are in the alternate world the author tells Rumple that he is to blame for Bae’s death, and this is just brushed under the rug. Rumple has always taken full responsibility for his actions and has even gone farther and taken responsibility for consequences that were other people’s makings. I think this is the dynamic that has been in play since season 4 but never expressed on the show. The reason Rumple wanted power is because he feels that when he does not have power he looses the things that he loves. So while it may be wrong circular thinking I can see Rumple seeing the fact that he did not have power to stop Bae’s death as a failure to protect him and therefore his fault. This would come into play now, because Rumple does not want to fail again. He has no idea why this child hates him, so he has no idea how to fix it so he is relying on powerful magical items to try and help fix the problem. The problem he still has not seen is that the pursuit of power is the reason he lost Belle and maybe it is the reason he is going to loose his son’s love.