Ditto. Holy crap. I love this thread! 😀 Just a few more tidbits…
he was not a good guy willing to let Moe French sell his Valentine’s flowers to pay him, in fact, he was quite cruel to the man.
So? xD When I first watched that episode I thought “Ok, here’s the writers trying to show us that he’s such a badie, acting like a loan shark.” But he’s a terrible loan shark! xP Business-wise it doesn’t make sense to take the truck and flowers on the busiest day of the year because then Moe really can’t pay him back. So it wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about collecting on his loan. It was revenge. And we all get why it was personal. He thought Moe killed Belle, his own daughter! You would hate Moe too. But Moe basically has amnesia and so does everyone else so Gold can’t go off on him for no public reason. So he contented himself with taking the truck.
It was cruel, but also understandable. I don’t think that makes him so bad. Especially, since the only reason Gold later beat up Moe is because of the cup. And that is really understandable too. Because having your lover’s murder steal the only memento you have left of her is honestly TOO MUCH. It’s not at ALL surprising that he snapped since 1) he is unscrupulous and has a dark side and 2) he ALREADY hated the guy, with good reason.
It was terrible to watch him beat Moe up though. Especially because I don’t think Moe ever estranged his daughter and he obviously didn’t kill her and because he only took the cup because of Regina. So Rumpel was not actually in the right. He just thought he was. Does it it make him a bad guy? I don’t know. I would be more inclined to call him a “bad guy” if he actually was just a loan shark. Beating someone up because they can’t pay up or because they stole from you is a lot different than taking revenge on them for killing someone you were both supposed to love.