Ah, apologies surayya, I may have been unclear in my meaning. I agree with what you said about the blue fairy. My point was simply that that scene with August and Gold at the abbey is an early example of the writers manipulating the dialogue to make the Blue Fairy seem as though she has an ulterior motive, or knows more than she does, when actually she is telling the truth (although perhaps not the whole truth- because she doesn’t know it as in this situation). The dialogue, plus her expression and attitude (which is an understandable reaction to Mr. Gold as he makes no attempt to pretend he likes the nuns) makes it seem as if she’s hiding something, but she’s not. It’s just a very tidily written scene that takes the viewer exactly where the writers want them to go.
I also agree with your interpretation of good vs evil magic and the way the work, respectively. In a way I think that good magic is very much about giving people tools and helping to influence them to make the right decisions. Evil magic (and Rumplestiltskin is a great example of this) is about tricking people in to taking what is offered (whether it’s what they need or not) and manipulating them into acting the way you want them to. Last night’s episode was a fantastic illustration of this.
Regarding Cora and the concept of true love- I think that this show makes some interesting contrasts between the different kinds of love. Sadly, english doesn’t have as many words for love as other languages say… Greek, so we’re restricted to one word that covers such a wide variety of feelings. Do you love your pet? Your child? Your friend? Your spouse? Are these feelings even remotely the same to one another? Even romantic love has many different colors. No two relationships are the same. (Even two different relationships between the same two people can vary greatly based on when they occur and who those people are at that time in their lives.)
I think this concept is very relevant to Rumplestiltskin, because he has had several lifetimes worth of experiences and has three distinct relationships with women that I think can all be classified as love. I’m sure that if you asked pre-war Rumple and Milah “Do you love your husband/wife?” the answer would have been “Of course I do!” We don’t know a lot about how the two came together- but they did and for a time they were happy. Why wasn’t this true love? Because in the end Milah wanted more than he could give her and that desire eventually destroyed the feelings she had for her husband. She wanted adventure, she wanted power over her own life- things that being the wife of a reviled coward would never award her.
So this brings us to Cora. Again, I believe that their feelings for one another were genuine. I don’t even think that it’s Cora’s liklihood to have brought out the “darkness” in Rumple that makes their love different from “true love”. Her situation was almost the opposite of Milah’s. She could have had nearly limitless power and control if she had left with Rumplestiltskin, however her father-in-law made it clear that she would be giving up other things, namely peace of mind and the comfort of living amongst others. It was actually a desire for the more domestic comforts that kept her from leaving with the Dark One. Again, she wanted something he could not give her.
So that brings us to Belle. Why is Belle’s love true? She clearly has her doubts about the man as evidenced by her frequent departures. However, Belle- unlike the other two, doesn’t desire Rumplestiltskin for what he can do for her. She wants adventure, she wants love, but she is also smart enough to know that these things must come from within oneself. Belle makes her own opportunities (like agreeing to go with the Dark One to save her people as an act of bravery that might not have been afforded to her otherwise).
In the end, I don’t think “True Love” should be confused with “Real Love”. I think that all of these women had real love in their hearts at one point, and I think “real love” is all around in their world, while “true love” is so much rarer. Instead, I think that “true” refers to the people themselves who have love in their hearts. Belle is true to herself. All she wants from Rumplestiltskin is for him to be true to himself.
"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him."
