Can a Person Change His Fate?

[Slurpeez]

Can a person change his or her fate? This is a question that Rumplestiltskin has likely been wrestling with for centuries ever since he first crossed paths with the Seer. The last time Rumple tried to escape his fate, he ironically fulfilled his own destiny by leaving his child fatherless, set off by him listening to the words of the Seer. Here is what the Seer spoke as a young girl to Rumple in “Manhattan”:

Seer: Your wife will bear you a son, but your actions on the battlefield tomorrow will leave him fatherless.

Rumpelstiltskin: I’m going to die? No, no, no. You… Y-you must tell me how I can stop that happening.

Seer: You can’t…There is no escaping it. You will have a son, and your actions will leave him fatherless.

While the Seer spoke true that Rumplestiltskin could not escape his destiny, is that only because she had already told him his future? If Rumple had not known in advance that he was to be a father, he’d have avoided becoming the Dark One. Rumple was keen to ride into battle before he knew his wife was already pregnant. It was only after he heard the news that he was to be a father that he tried to get out the war, believing the Seer meant he would surely die in battle. Yet, ironically, it was not going to war which eventually left Baelfire fatherless. In the special feature “Journey to Neverland” Adam and Eddy said that if Rumple had just gone into battle and survived, he wouldn’t have injured himself and set off a chain of events leading him to become the dark one. Maybe knowing the future makes it harder to change the outcome.

Rumple’s S3 promo poster said:

“Believe that you can change fate.”

That is really a profound question which lies at the heart of fairytales: is one able to change his or her own fate? This show seems to be all about fate and destiny. Take Emma, for example. In the pilot, Henry said it was her “destiny to bring back the happy ending.” Rumples prophesied to Snow White that her child would be the savior. Rumple knew the Seer’s prophesy that someone else, Regina, would enact the dark curse to find his son, and that someone else, Emma, would break it. He also could glimpse the future for himself. Yet, if Rumple hadn’t known the future, would he have even worked to create the curse in the first place?

Also, there was that little conversation that Neal and Emma had in “Manhattan”:

Emma: Are you telling me, that us meeting was a coincidence? Because how the **** did that happen? If it wasn’t in your plan, or your father’s?

Neal: Think about it. He wanted you to break the curse. Us meeting – that could have stopped it. Maybe it was fate.

Emma: You believe in that?

Neal: You know, there’s not a ton about my father that I remember that doesn’t suck. But he used to tell me that there are no coincidences. Everything that happens, happens by design, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Forces greater than us conspire to make it happen. Fate, destiny, whatever you want to call it. The point is… Maybe we met for a reason. Maybe something good came from us being together.

Neal is suggesting that his and Emma meeting was not simply a matter of chance, but that it was somehow destined to be. Yet, if they had stayed together, that would have changed the outcome of Emma’s fate and she wouldn’t have saved their people. This suggests that person’s fate is not simply set in stone. It can change depending on a person’s belief, set of circumstances and the choices he or she makes. If Neal had chosen to stay with Emma and they’d raised Henry together, then the curse would have remained unbroken. Neal obviously didn’t know that it would be his own son who’d help Emma break the curse, but he believed strongly enough that Emma was meant to be the Savior. Neal believed his actions would determine whether Emma would fulfill that destiny or not. That is why Neal left her. It had to be the case that Emma came to town on her 28th birthday as the result of having given up Henry for adoption and that she’d come to believe in magic when Henry willingly went under the sleeping curse.

Likewise, Rumple knows that the future is difficult to read. Take a look at what Rumplestiltskin said to his grandson in “Manhattan”:

Henry: Sure, but in my book, it says that you can see the future. Why can’t you just look and see what’s going to happen?

Mr. Gold: Well, that ability is complicated. I didn’t always have it. And then when I did… Well… It’s maybe not the gift one would expect. Seeing the inevitable can be a terrible price.

Henry: But you wouldn’t have to worry about stuff. You’d just know.

Mr. Gold: But that’s the great trap. The future is like a puzzle… With missing pieces. Difficult to read. And never, never what you think.

Rumple says having foresight is really a curse rather than a blessing, since knowing the future can come at a great price. Ironically, trying to avoid one’s future is often what leads a person into a trap, as it did for Rumple. When he met the Seer again, Rumples said it would have been nice to know about the “pesky details” of how he ended up leaving his child fatherless. Milha was actually right (even though she was harsh and horrible to say so to Rumple).

Rumpelstiltskin: I am nothing like my father! He tried to abandon me. I will never, ever do that to my son. That’s why I did this. For him. All for the boy. To save him from the same fate I suffered – growing up without a father.

Milah: You sentence him to a fate much worse – growing up as your son.

Rumpelstiltskin: What… What… What else could I do?

Milah: You could have fought, Rumpel. You could have died.

Now, Milha was certainly a selfish creature to even think such a thing, let alone utter those horrible words aloud, since it sounds like she wished Rumple had died. Yet, she was right in saying that Rumple sealed his fate and Baelfire’s fate when he listened to the Seer. Rumple would have risked dying on the battlefield rather than taking measures into his own hands to avoid the future. If he had never heard the prophesy, he would have faced his future as a solider and fought valiantly. He might NOT have died on the battlefield after all, and he wouldn’t have crippled himself, eventually becoming the Dark One.

Seer: What I foretold during the Ogres War has finally come to pass.

Rumpelstiltskin: Well, in a manner of speaking. I, uh, hobbled myself on the battlefield. Was branded a coward. My wife – ran away and left me. Then, my son was called to the front. Oh! Then I became The Dark One. Then, Bae left me. So, yes. My actions on the battlefield left my son fatherless. But… It would’ve been nice to know about all that pesky details.

Seer: Knowing would not have made a difference. You still would have been powerless to escape your fate.

Rumpelstiltskin: Just…like…you.

Is the Seer speaking truthfully? Would Rumple really have been powerless to escape his own fate? In a manner of speaking, he might have ended up dead on the battlefield, but at least his son would not have been stranded in a foreign land alone as a de facto orphan. Baelfire would have grown up with a mother who would not have abandoned him out of desperation for being married to a coward like Rumple. This sounds harsh, but history would’ve been different had Rumple chosen differently.

In the same conversation, after Rumple had taken her “gift” of foresight from her, the Seer said to Rumplestiltskin:

Seer: The future is a puzzle with many pieces to be sorted. In time, you will learn to separate what can be, from what will be.

This suggests that not all things are set and stone. The future has many possible paths and many possible outcomes. If Rumple hadn’t heard the prophesy in the first place, his son would not have ended up in Neverland, Emma might not have been born, the Dark Curse never would’ve been enacted, and Henry certainly would not have born either, since Bae and Emma would have lived centuries apart and never would have met.

This has led me and others to believe that Peter Pan, who has been searching for Henry for centuries, very likely planted the Seer in the Ogres War to set Rumple on a path to become the Dark One. As we learned in 3×1, Felix called Rumplestiltskin the Dark One, and Felix gave Rumple a warning that if he were in Neverland for “the boy” that Rumple would not survive. This means that Peter Pan knows all about the Seer’s prophecy with regards to Henry and Rumplestktsin’s fate.

Seer: You will be reunited with your son, and it will come in a most unexpected way.

Rumpelstiltskin: How?

Seer: A boy… A young boy will lead you to him. But beware, Rumpelstiltskin, for that boy is more than he appears. He will lead you…to what you seek. But there will be a price. The boy… Will be your undoing.

Peter Pan seems to take this prophesy at face-value. Both Felix and Rumplestiltskin believe that if he goes up against Peter Pan, he will not survive. And yet, which boy, Peter or Henry, will be Rumple’s undoing? And what exactly does “undoing” mean in this case? Rumple believes that Henry will be the cause of his death, and yet, what if Henry is the cause of Rumple’s salvation? What if “undoing” really means the reversal of the Dark One’s curse?

Belle as a character represents hope to Rumplestiltskin. Her faith in being able to change one’s destiny is unfettered and causes us to believe that true love really can reach across worlds and undo curses. In “And Straight on ‘Til Morning” Belle said to Rumple:

Belle: You’re not coming back are you?

Rumple: The prophesy. The boy is my undoing, but he’s also my grandson. I must save him. I must do this to honor Baelfire. He’s gone, and I didn’t even get the chance to say goodbye.

Belle: I understand, but I also know that the future isn’t always what it seems. I will see you again.

I think in 3×2 we’re going to see Rumple wrestling with his own fear of dying versus living up to his vow to save Henry. On the one hand, he feels like he has nothing left to lose, since he he already lost his son. He might as well die honorably by saving Henry. And yet, on the other hand, he probably is afraid of dying and leaving behind Belle. We know that Rumple and Belle are somehow going to have scenes in Neverland together, despite the fact that Belle is still in SB. I think that Belle represents Rumple’s moral center and that he is going to have a conversation with her in a waking dream. I think Bell will say that by doing the brave thing that bravery will follow. She is going to be his strength, and his love for her will help him, rather than hinder him, to do the right thing to save his grandson. By going up against Pan, he will be undone, but that could ironically, be his salvation too. Choosing to do the brave thing, would allow him to change his fate of bing a coward for the rest of his life.

[RumplesGirl]

This was put together really well.

Do I think Rumple can change his fate? Absolutely. But I also think Rumple has no idea what the future really holds or what his fate really is. He’s interpreted the prophecy about his undoing as meaning death without giving one moments pause about the fact that it probably doesn’t mean death at all. So he is going in full force thinking his future is already set in stone but like Belle said, “the future isn’t always what it seems.” I think whatever happens is supposed to happen but it won’t be what the characters have predicted for themselves.

I’m totally on board the “undoing  = loss of Dark One’s power” train. I think Rumple will offer it up as a sacrifice for Henry’s heart to Peter Pan; TLK will save him in the end but this is how he will be undone. Eddy and Adam wrote that prophecy knowing that NL and PP were this season. The resolution of that is coming but they toy with words. I also think a lot of this has been set up by outside forces. It’s a chess game. You have to be several step ahead of your opponent. You have to see the whole board and know what moves they will make and how to counteract them. So if Rumple goes off to war, then you place a Seer in his path who will make him rethink his entire “must be a man and fight” idea and change it to “must not abandon my son.” Rumple leaving the battlefield sets off an entire string of events and if it had never happened everything would have changed.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[nonnie]

REALLY ENJOYED THIS POST… even though I have not thought enough about FATE to be able to post my own thoughts. Looking forward to what others think….
.
.

[RumplesGirl]

I’ve been thinking about Emma. She too tries to change her fate only to have something step in and direct her back to her rightful path. For example:

–101: Emma tries to leave SB after dropping off Henry with Regina. Course correction: Wolf runs out in front of her car.

–205: Emma and Neal are about to settle down for a life together. Course Correction: August (and probably THO) step in and convince Neal to let her go.

So far Emma’s fate is exactly what has been foretold: she’s the Savior, she came to SB on her 28th bday, and she broke the curse. But for every one of these, she had help:

1) Rumple made her the Savior by placing a drop of True Love from Snowing on the Curse

2) Henry brought her to SB

3)  Henry *died* and Emma did TLK

So I think sometimes fate needs a little push to keep it going on the path it wants.

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[tiara_rose]

I don’t think that Rumple could escape his faith to losing his son even without the prophecy. He would eventually died or he would survive but later on still his son would go to war and he would try to find away for him out to not have to fight.

Heros don't get their Happy Ending!

[Josephine]

Wow, that was so well organized and thought out. *applauds Slurpeez*

I’m definitely in the camp that Peter Pan planted the seer to get to Rumple. Like Neal said, there are no coincidences. So there is no way that Rumple just randomly was assigned to guard the seer who set everything in motion.

Do I think Rumple can change is destiny? Absolutely, because what he sees as his destiny probably isn’t what is his destiny actually is. It’s what he thinks it is. His poster reminds me a bit of the movie “A Knight’s Tale” where William tries to “change his stars”. You’re set off on this path in life, but how many people actually swerve from their place and forge a new way?

What’s also interesting about Rumple’s destiny and his visions is we never get a hint that he ever predicted Belle and the situation with her. He knew about Regina and Emma and everything else. But we never get a hint that he ever foresaw anything regarding Belle. We do know that his seeing abilities failed him in FTL when she was held prisoner. He was convinced she was dead. He didn’t even question Regina. Just wallowed in his grief. So his seeing abilities aren’t as all encompassing as he believes.

Keeper of Rumplestiltskin's and Neal's spears and war paint and crystal ball.

[Author]

Posts