This difference between pre-Dark-One Rumplestiltskin (limps, using a simple wooden staff), Dark One Rumple (agile like a trained athlete) and Storybrooke Mr Gold (while cursed and post cursed – limps, using the cane) is so visible, that I doubt that the writers haven’t given it any thought so far. It’s quite an essential mark of the character, of the different personalities of Rumple.
I like the idea, that the knife might be hidden in it, but unfortunaly it is unlikely – just look at the dimensions of the knife, the width of the blade. And in Broken (2×01) we can see him using the knife to summon the wraith while he is leaning on the cane.
Agree with SpinningGold, that Gold might have had access to magic in (still) cursed Storybrooke, regardless when he remembered that there is magic and that he is Rumple. Gold’s shop is full of stuff, and like Regina’s trinkets she brought with her, there probably have been some things carrying magic in Gold’s shop. But, before the curse was broken that was all magic that was there, littel bits captured in things. Wouldn’t see curing his leg high on the list of Gold to use up that little bit of magic. And the same view I have when it comes to create the curse. That Dark Curse was pretty sure some complicate thing, avoiding limping was something rather unimportant to have in it.
Why doesn’t Gold heal himself now, that there is more magic in Storybrooke? Is there something to heal, or something he could heal? Don’t think it is all an act to appear less threatening, although agree he might use it to fool people into believing he is not much of a physical match to any of them, nevertheless think he is limping for real. But that doesn’t have to mean there is (still) a physical reason for it, it could be mental.
We don’t know when Rumple started limping, what happened. Could be he was indeed injured, but doubt that happened in a fight in the Ogre war, otherwise people wouldn’t have called him a coward. They seemed to care little even, that Rumple was having a bad leg. Hook certainly didn’t care, he challenged to fight a man obviously physically no match to him, with a physical handicap and no experience in sword fighting (what an honorable code pirates have). And at least Rumple made it sound like there was little to no empathy from the villagers or town people. It made me wonder, if Rumple’s leg was injured in some very foolish, clumsy way, if that was what saved him from having to fight as some food soldier, if people evenutally thought he inflicted an injury on himself, if maybe he even did it himself to not fight – people do a lot of things out of fear or being desperate out of whatever reason. Could as well be, that Rumple was limping all his life, but that limping was something recruiters of the Duke at some point didn’t take as a reason anymore to be exclude froms serving as soldier. I don’t have an answer, how it happend that Rumple started limping, but I think knowing how would help to understand why Mr. Gold is still limping.
I suspect by now at least it is more of a mental thing. Could be a way to excuse himself. Because he has a bad leg he can’t do all the things a man, a good father normally can do, or should be able to do. I am not saying, there is anything a father should be able to do besides loving his children, but societies have images and create expectations, how a person should behave to fullfil a role, and we internalize many of these expectations. Not even saying, someone with a bad leg can’t do pretty much everything like someone with two uninjured legs. But Rumple might have felt for a long time, that he was failing the people he love, and the limping is as much an expression of failing to do what he thinks a capable man would do, as much as an excuse to fall back onto to avoid any profound reflection, why else he might have done some things or not done. It’s as strange as it might sound the easy way out. A crutch to lean on. As magic is a crutch too.
In other words: the limping is a habit. Something he relys on to make him feel secure. Nothing he does all on purpose, it’s a coping mechanism.
(and if anyone wondered, I do use the different names to distinguish between the different personalities of Rumpel / Mr. Gold, although maybe not always consistently)
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