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I don’t think it’s that the writers don’t care about Belle, I think they haven’t fleshed her out as well as other regulars. I’m betting they have much of the entire series plotted out and have for some time. Belle, technically, was only supposed to be in two episodes. When Emilie’s pilot wasn’t picked up and her schedule was cleared, A&E picked her up as a regular because she was a huge fan favorite. Only problem is, they don’t know what to do with her now.
I agree. I think they wanted to keep Emilie around, especially with the success of Skin Deep, but she had prior commitments. When her pilot wasn’t picked up, they snatched her for ONCE before she went elsewhere. But they had built this interesting story for Belle–held captive by Regina, no SB life, previous encounter with Hook–and swept it aside because it was like they didn’t know what to do with it. When Emilie was just going to be a one off, they could build her story as interesting like that because they’d never have to flesh it out. But then they got her and had no idea how to flesh out Belle while dealing with their larger picture which was, for S2A, Cora and Hook.
I have high hopes that 3B is different, but I’m expecting it become the Belle show, either. And I know that’s not what Betsy is arguing. I do know that you’re noting making a stance for that. And I’m sure we’ve all seen the graph of 3A showing who got the most screen time over the first 11 episoes and Belle’s is woefully sad. But I think 3B is going to be two fold: The WWW vs Regina and the Charmings; and Belle trying to find Rumple again with help from Neal. And they all arrive back in SB just in time for the big showdown.