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Alright so this thought has been killing me ever since the last episode of Season 4A. Belle’s freak-out was completely warranted. Rumple had been lying to Belle and doing some pretty sketchy things so it’s okay, but I feel like the main trigger was the gauntlet leading her to his dagger and that that’s what she was really the most upset about and that is what’s been bothering me. Rumple told Belle in the past that the gauntlet leads you to a person’s greatest weakness and that people’s greatest weakness is most often their true love. Key words being most often. Belle assumed the gauntlet would lead her to herself because she is Rumple’s true love, which is true, but the gauntlet lead her to Rumple’s greatest weakness, his dagger. His dagger is his greatest weakness but it is not his true love, it’s what he fears. The dagger is litteraly the only thing that can kill him and the dagger is ultimately what has caused him to become an even bigger coward then he ever was without it. The dagger can make him do things he doesn’t want to do, can kill him, and has filled him with an overwhelming amount of darkness. The dagger is obviously his greatest weakness, but it doesn’t mean he loves it more then Belle. Belle is his true love. Now I don’t know if this was just a little plot hole that A&E hoped no one would notice, or one they didn’t even catch themselves, or if they didn’t it intentionally and it will have some affect on the plot later this season. Okay so now for thought number two:
Rumple did some pretty sketchy things in the beginning of this season, and he is still doing some pretty sketchy things. Only I started to analyze why he might be doing these things and this is what I came up with. Rumple had spent over 300 years trying to get Baelfire back, trying to fix his biggest mistake and he did some really bad things in order to get him back. That is a lot of time and a lot of darkness and it ended up being all for nothing. I think A&E have really glazed over this. Rumple’s entire life revolved around reuniting with Baelfire and Baelfire ended up dying and he died sacrificing himself for his papa and the town. Rumple has to be truly broken now. Maybe even beyond repair. Rumple hasn’t even really had a chance to mourn his loss. Sure he went to Bae’s grave, but he wasn’t there to burry him and he barely had a chance to say goodbye before Zelena ripped him away from his son with none other then the dagger. It’s with this point that I as a oncer have made sense of what Rumple has been doing. To me, Rumple is more broken and more damaged then he has ever been before and I think he has come to realize what the dagger can truly make him do. He’s realized that this dagger isn’t his power, it’s his weakness, it’s his curse. He’s become afraid of the dagger and what it can make him do. He could have hurt Belle, could have done something more evil then he ever wanted. He’s starting to see why Zoso wanted to be free and why he tricked him all those years ago. Only Rumple isn’t only afraid of the dagger, he’s also afraid of the man he was before the power. Thus, Rumple decided he needed to free himself of the dagger, but he also needed to keep his power and so he started to do without really thinking the situation through. He became obsessed with getting rid of his curse, but keeping his power and in the process he lost the only thing he had left. He lost belle. What Rumple did wasn’t okay, it was beyond wrong, but I don’t believe that what he did was pure evil and all for power and taking over the world. What he did was out of cowardice. He was afraid of the dagger but also afraid of the man he is without it. He was broken by the loss of his son and so he saw his scheme as the only way out and he believed he could carry out and still have Belle to come home too. He was wrong, so wrong, but he wasn’t acting out of greed. He was acting out of fear. Just needed to get these two things off my chest. Would love to hear if you guys agree or disagree.
[adrotate group="5"]I agree.
The thing with Rumple in the show at the moment isn’t that he doesn’t have sympathetic motivation for what he’s doing, it’s that the show isn’t showing these motivations. Neal’s death and Rumple’s treatment at the hands of Zelena are the two main reasons for why Rumple would be getting antsy about being under the dagger’s control but the show seems to be trying to ignore Neal’s character and pretend he never existed. The show makes it seem like Rumple is all about the power, when the truth is he’s not, he fears what will happen if he doesn’t have the power.
Belle freaking out about the gauntlet itself never made any sense to me. Firstly, it wasn’t hidden or concealed away, it was lying on a shelf gathering dust so it wasn’t like Rumple was trying to hide it from her. Secondly, Rumple could have got the gauntlet back at any point, through a deal or what have you, why did Belle assume that once it was gone that would be it? Lastly and most importantly, the gauntlet is supposed to lead to a person’s weakness. Like you said, that is normally someone’s loved one but not always. Rumple himself said in 3A that Belle made him “stronger”, Belle gives Rumple strength so there is no reason why the gauntlet would’ve pointed to her.
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of FelixThe gauntlet was THE worst plot device in a show that’s become chock full of them.
What made it the worst was that Hook, Anna, and Emma ALL had ways to confirm Belle’s growing suspicions (as we saw she had in 406). It would have been SO much more satisfying (and dramatic) to have Anna actually speak like three words to Belle before going through that door.
Keeper of Belle's Gold magic, sand dollar, cloaks, purple FTL outfit, spell scroll, library key, copy of Romeo and Juliet, and cry-muffling pillow, Rumple's doll, overcoat, and strength, and The Timeline. My spreadsheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6r8CySCCWd9R0RUNm4xR3RhMEU/view?usp=sharing
I think A&E have really glazed over this. Rumple’s entire life revolved around reuniting with Baelfire and Baelfire ended up dying and he died sacrificing himself for his papa and the town. Rumple has to be truly broken now. Maybe even beyond repair.
Glazed? They bulldozed over it and are now trying to erase Bae’s existence from the show. It’s a giant elephant in the room that everyone but Adam, Eddy, and the writers are willing to acknowledge. Rumple is now evil for evil’s sake. I was so angry that Mal pleaded with Rumple to show her what happened to her child, and Rumple showed no empathy, no spark of acknowledgment of being in the similar situation with his son. It was a slap in the face to Rumple’s character and fans of the show. This is a man who worked for centuries to get back to his child. He literally moved worlds for it. And now it’s just dropped.
I get angry because I watch Grimm, another show about fairy tale creatures that is also in its fourth season. It’s vastly different than Once and not really fair to compare them side-by-side, but the similarities are they both have large casts, characters have odd interconnections, and throw in supernatural abilities. But the key difference is that there is a lot of continuity and character development. The characters don’t change to suit the plot and they discuss problems even if they don’t agree. Once has become known for changing the characters to suit the plot. The biggest glaring example is Rumple. They need him to be evil so they they ignore his passion for his son and the fact that he never wanted to rule the world. He just wanted his family.
Keeper of Rumplestiltskin's and Neal's spears and war paint and crystal ball.
Glazed? They bulldozed over it and are now trying to erase Bae’s existence from the show. It’s a giant elephant in the room that everyone but Adam, Eddy, and the writers are willing to acknowledge. Rumple is now evil for evil’s sake. I was so angry that Mal pleaded with Rumple to show her what happened to her child, and Rumple showed no empathy, no spark of acknowledgment of being in the similar situation with his son. It was a slap in the face to Rumple’s character and fans of the show. This is a man who worked for centuries to get back to his child. He literally moved worlds for it. And now it’s just dropped.
Not to flog a dead horse, but what I especially ‘appreciate’ about the way A&E have dealt with Rumple is that they have literally, vilified him for his misfortunes. Watching how the show has dealt with Rumple and Neal, it’s not just literal and figurative character assassination, it’s the icky feeling that it was done for “the oooh-aaah factor”, the gratuitous cruelty of it — as in, how many horrendous things can I inflict on those two before they fall apart as characters?
Like watching two kids giggle gleefully as they incinerate ants with a magnifying glass…
Not to flog a dead horse, but what I especially ‘appreciate’ about the way A&E have dealt with Rumple is that they have literally, vilified him for his misfortunes. Watching how the show has dealt with Rumple and Neal, it’s not just literal and figurative character assassination, it’s the icky feeling that it was done for “the oooh-aaah factor”, the gratuitous cruelty of it — as in, how many horrendous things can I inflict on those two before they fall apart as characters?
Like watching two kids giggle gleefully as they incinerate ants with a magnifying glass…
A part of me is feeling they’re self-sabotaging their own show. They’re thinking “How can we destroy our characters even more?” And the sad part is they’re including Snowing in this now, too. I’m brought to mind of the Paul Simon song “Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover” in which the song enumerates all the various ways to break up. I get that Adam and Eddy are playing with their toys and seeing how many ways they can push their characters to the point we hate them all. Maybe someone can come up with a parody “Fifty Ways to Break your Fandom”.
Keeper of Rumplestiltskin's and Neal's spears and war paint and crystal ball.
I’m glad to see other people feel the way I do about the direction the show has been going with Rumple and Belle. I’m not a regular poster here, but I do listen to several Once podcasts (including of course this one) and I’ve felt very discouraged by the general lack of empathy for Rumple on every podcast, he hardly seems to get discussed most of the time, and when he is it’s mainly negative, which could of course be my own bias showing and the show itself doesn’t give them much either. Anyway I’m happy to know I’m not the only frustrated fan out there. Thanks for the long and reasoned posts about the issue.
The topic ‘A thought about Rumple that needs sharing…well two thoughts.’ is closed to new replies.