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Well, it always makes my twitchy when they harp on Rumple being a coward, because frankly I think it’s quite sensible to want to be there for your newborn child rather than suffering a brutal death in war. But I’m a big ole “war what is it good for” hippie, and the show seems intent on labeling him a coward for being a deserter, so whatever.
Which is *weird* when you think about how it was presented in Manhattan (manipulation at the hands of a seer) and then re-presented to you in s3A (with Pan abandoning Rumple) the singular idea that Rumple is just straight up a coward is…not true.
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Yes! That was interesting — I was wondering about the exact same thing. That seemed like an interesting little slip. But if so, why does Merida think that Rumple should be the one to take on Emma?
Probably just a matter of convenience. She’s already been tasked with training him, so it’s safer to work with him rather than trying to run around town recruiting other people to her cause and risking Emma finding out that she’s up to something. If she sticks with Rumple, she can fool Emma into believing she’s just doing what she’s been told to.
the singular idea that Rumple is just straight up a coward is…not true.
Right?! And it’s a disservice to someone who is actually a very complicated and layered character, when they just get out the big red COWARD stamp and slam it on his forehead.
She’s already been tasked with training him, so it’s safer to work with him rather than trying to run around town recruiting other people to her cause and risking Emma finding out that she’s up to something.
I think what makes it murky is how much control she has over her actions and intentions while Emma’s holding on to her heart. It seems there’s no hard and fast rule about how a heart-less person makes decisions on OUAT. Like, if you order someone to do something while holding their heart, is it sort of like a genie — mindless obedience with potentially devastating consequences? Or are they more result-driven?
Right?! And it’s a disservice to someone who is actually a very complicated and layered character, when they just get out the big red COWARD stamp and slam it on his forehead.
The way Rumple has been flattened out in the last few seasons, and especially last season, has been one gigantic disservice to the character. Honestly, I think they just don’t know what to do with him without Nealfire — you can see some of the same struggles with how Emma’s written now that we’re in the Dark Swan plot line.
In Rumple’s case biggest problem is that while, at the beginning, the COWARD stamp was in tentative scare quotes — Rumple is a “coward” — by writing Bae out of the picture the narrative no longer allows for the coward definition to look relative or problematic. Rather than be the label that Rumple’s brutal world gives him, that we, the audience, know not to take at face value, with the needs of CS and Neal out of the picture, Rumple’s cowardice has been rewritten as if it had been literal, or endgame from the very start, and Rumple’s arc got retconned last season to fit that. It’s another symptom of the Jenga mechanics of OUAT post 3B.
I think they are now trying to find a way out of that mess by re-centering Rumbelle, and acknowledging Neal, but it’s gonna be an uphill battle, and I doubt the show will be able to pull it off in the time it’s got left.
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