Jane also said that he looked at Cora like a tumor, that he was furious. Seriously? He just stood there – the man was in complete shock after what had happened to Belle and he was not himself. Cora kissed him, that’s all…….
He asked Cora if she ever loved him because he needed to know that…not because he loved her any more at all, but because he’s a man who needs to be loved and he really wanted to know. Regardless, Cora saying she was the only man she ever loved meant zippo to me because she ripped her heart out……She had hear heart and she ripped it out.
Personally I didn’t see any chemistry at all between Bobby and Rose and I think Bobby and Emilie’s chemistry is the most remarkable I’ve ever seen, but this is besides the point. The Dark One loved Cora….and whatever love she felt for him, it was only as the DO. I hardly think she would have taken a single glance at Spinner Rumple; the real man inside of him held and would have held no interest for her.
Rumple, the man and the DO, loved Belle with every fiber of his being. He loved her so much that he replaced the Holy Grail with the chipped cup, wept and mourned for decades (and yes, I believe that while he was cursed, he was haunted by visions of Belle). He had a breakdown when the cup was stolen…the only part of her he had left; that cup became Belle.
Belle believed in him, always, the only person who always did. The TMD phone call said it all – that was the most beautiful and selfless act of love I’ve ever seen depicted. Gold is dying, he’s in agony, barely able to breathe………and what does he do? He doesn’t first speak to his son, he calls a woman who doesn’t have a clue who he is and struggles to tell her who she is. He won’t be around for her, but all he cares about is that she rediscover her identity. She was and always has been his hero; she was good and she created good, and she was the only one, EVER, who made him want to be the best version of himself. She gave him hope and light in a life that was filled with despair and darkness.
If Cora was around when Belle was, there would be……….nothing, Gold loves Belle so much, it hurts. In NL, the thought of a future and a family with Belle allowed his survival instincts to “kick in” and it got him out of his funk/depression. When he told Regina that his feelings for Belle illuminated him, I wanted to cry – it was so profound and even Regina (who ought to have known anyway) FINALLY got how much he loved Belle. Via the sand dollar, he told Belle that he believed in the strength and power of their love – and in NL, with Regina, that he believed in her. When Belle found the box, look at the gold light, the gold magic………it was the same gold light that we saw when she engaged the cloaking spell. That’s their TL magic, pure, gold, light.
Gold just sacrificed his life for Belle……he would give his life a thousand times over for her.
Rumbelle is extraordinary and we simply see far too little of them