I’m sorry, but no. I don’t think Belle is being in any way abusive. She is setting boundaries to protect her son and herself from an abusive man. Boundaries can also contain conditions, and her conditions are perfectly normal and reasonable. At least by saying ”if you do x then you can have a relationship with your son and maybe me too” she is giving him a chance. If she said, ”I don’t care if you change, from now on you can’t see your son or me” then that would be less reasonable because she would be giving him NO chance. Going by your logic, every time we lock up a criminal (and crime doesn’t have to be just actions, it can be emotional abuse, too) or tell them that they are free but on certain conditions, or that they will be but on a restraining order, then the law is being abusive!!!
More or less agreed. To people who saying Belle is being abusive, what does Belle *not* being abusive look like? While still protecting her from Rumple’s abuse, and protecting her safety, personal agency, and basic-dignity?
Unfortunently, due to how this show is set-up, they need (or feel they need) to play out this relationship, and keep these two characters interacting, which, in previous seasons, meant it ends up with Belle ignoring her boundaries and forgiving/taking back Rumple, then setting boundaries, then getting mad when he broken them, then over again. So she ends up like a stereotyped abuse woman who keeps going back to her abuser.
Belle can’t solve this on her own, even if she was the perfect partner with the perfect response to Rumple’s abuse, whatever that means or looks like. She has tried working it out in the past, however imperfect it was done. What do we expect of her?
The only think I can say, is she shouldn’t have married him when she did, and/or she should have left sooner. She can’t fix him, he needs to fix himself.