But I think this is going to be a moment of Rumple choosing his destiny (= choosing to die) for his family which will keep with his promise to protect Belle and Gideon and save Emma from having to do the Savior thing AND end the cycle of choosing power over family.
Okay now that I have had a night to process this, I am going to try and give me a bibliophile some hope. The problem with this theory is that he has already done this. He chose his destiny (a young man will lead you to your son and be your undoing) for his family which kept the promise of protecting Belle and Bae. If this was how they wished to end Rumple’s character why did they bring him back in the first place. The ultimate savior sacrifice for Rumple is not dying it is giving up his powers. He is more than willing to die to protect his family but is he willing to give up all his power and live as he was before becoming the dark one. This would mean that he has to accept that he is a worthy individual capable of bravery without dark one powers. He has proven this in the past, but then immediately reverted to the dark one. I don’t think it is a coincidence that he was the one who had to pull the Excalibur sword from the stone proving that he was a hero who was worthy of the sword. The fact that it is also part of the dark one dagger and we have the prophesy by merlin about someone being able to wield the dark one dagger with light magic just emphasizes this. I also don’t think it is a coincidence that he has never given his power up freely, it was sucked out of him without his knowledge. Rumple’s finale redemption would be giving up his dark one’s power to save his family
Rumple states that their family is spinning on a dark wheel in which they continue to choose power over love. Fiona severed Rumple from his destiny to protect him but could have chosen severing her destiny instead (she took the easy way out because she was scared), Rumple became the dark one to save Bae and in process looses him (because he chose the easy way out becasue he was scared), Rumple contemplated severing Gideon’s fate of hating Rumple (which would have been the easy way out becasue he was scared). Rumple dying is the easy way out. Rumple giving up his powers and living without them is by far the harder fate for Rumple. They have even talked about this in 6A, Rumple if you want your son’s love don’t take it be worthy of it. In other words do it the hard way work for it and be brave enough to maybe fail.
On a purely story side, if they decide to end stories this season including Rumbelle’s it would be super easy to give them a happily ever after. I mean they have Rumple and Belle making a significant amount of progress working together, being honest, and trying to save their son. Why bother fixing their relationship if they are going to kill him in the end, it would have been easier on us Rumbelle fans (and more compelling and suspenseful) if they were continuing to be horrible to each other and then he sacrifices himself at the last minute and Belle is able to see that sacrifice and know that he really did care about her and Gideon. Why fix it to kill it, I don’t know about anyone else but this will just make me angry and may stop me from watching OUAT now that my favorite character is gone. It would be super easy to have Rumple CHOOSE Belle and Gideon over Power (“There is nothing wrong with power, not when it can give me..us everything we want” Belle stating, “I just wanted you, I wanted to be chosen”) de age Gideon, and have them go off somewhere just the three of them. This would make me happy and willing to continue to watch OUAT even though my favorite characters are gone.
Do I think they may kill off Rumple, I am mentally preparing myself for it, but I think it would be LAZY writing and a rehash of season 2-3 which is not cool.