How the Stiltskin Clan Will Reunite: A Theory

[kfchimera]

Aurora, I’m assuming, can use the poppies that Mulan knew about to force her to a deep sleep like they did for Snow.

I am not sure about MAP getting Neal to SB–that might be the major plot point is they have to find a way to get to SB or contact someone there.

[angiebelle]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

@AngieBelle wrote:

I think maybe Mulan and Aurora and Prince Phillip will help Bae get back to Storybrooke and that it will be Belle who finds out he is still alive first and not Rumple. Then Bae and Belle will try to find Rumple. Snow only goes to the red room under a very deep sleep, and by this time, the same may be true of Aurora.

Ok, playing off your idea: how do MAP get Nealfire back to SB? Most likely a portal and as far as we know, they don’t have any beans or hats. Lake Nostos might still be active, but they don’t have ashes or the compass.

Hmm….not sure- but I bet they find a way- they somehow freed Prince Phillip. The communication through the dream thing only works if both parties are aware of what is going on. If it does happen that way, I think communicating with Henry is more likely than with Snow. I am guessing that once Neal is healed, his priority will be getting back to Henry and Emma. He doesn’t even know anyone went to Neverland.

[angiebelle]

@KFChimera wrote:

Aurora, I’m assuming, can use the poppies that Mulan knew about to force her to a deep sleep like they did for Snow.

I am not sure about MAP getting Neal to SB–that might be the major plot point is they have to find a way to get to SB or contact someone there.

Oh yeah, the poppies…they might try sending Aurora to the red room to try to communicate with Storybrooke. That is plausible. But it would have to time out right to meet up with Henry.

[RumplesGirl]

The only issue I have with Neal finding his way to SB (besides the fact that I’m really fond of my theory 😆 ) is that it doesn’t give Belle the chance to be a hero outside of SB. I think having Belle go on some sort of quest to find Neal would be a great story for those who don’t like her, let them see her be something more than just Rumple’s TL. In SB, her options are limited in some ways. She’ll put up the protection spell and then her day to day job will be making sure the town runs smoothly and people continue as they always have. If she’s out looking for Neal then she gets a chance to be like she was in the Outsider.

As to the Red Room:

I think I said this above, but I think we’ll see it a few times this season. Aurora and Charming together where Aurora tells Charming about Nealfire. And then Aurora and Henry where Henry reveals where he is. Not sure about the order of Red Room appearances but it would make sense that the two worlds are going to interact.

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

[Phee]

Excellent thoughts…here are some of my own, just to confuse matters. 😛

@RumplesGirl wrote:

Also, something else we learned in the finale is that Rumple has been to Neverland before. Now why would he have gone to NL? I believe the answer lies in the episode Into The Deep. Rumple tells Henry:

Mr. Gold: Yes, indeed a quill. And yet, it wasn’t the quill itself, but the ink that captured the Dark One – harvested from the rarest species of squid, from the bottom of a bottomless ocean. Impossible to find, unless, you’re a mermaid… Or me. I happen to have a private supply. In my jail cell… That is where they will find it.

I believe in Rumple went to NL to find squid ink and he used a certain Little Mermaid to do it.

I still haven’t settled on the how and when I think Rumple was in NL, so this does sound like a plausible option to me. However, I’m also pondering the possibility that he was only ever in NL when he was taken there as a child, just like Bae was.

If AdultDarkOneRumple went to NL, on the one hand, they could play it up as being completely sad and tragic that he was in the same world as Bae, but had no idea. On the other hand, it might be hard to believe that Rumple would have gone there, done business there, and left without discovering any hint that Bae was there. Unless PP went to great lengths to make sure Bae’s presence remained secret, of course.

An idea I’m toying with regarding the squid ink involves Regina’s “mermaid problem”. Perhaps Rumple said he’d help her, but what he got out of the deal was that she had to bring back the ink for him. This would work if Rumple had been to NL as a kid and was now scared of the place, and PP, and didn’t wanna go back there himself.

Now Rumple implies that he himself got the squid ink, but this Rumple we’re talking about. I think it’s far more likely that he struck a bargain with a mermaid. What could he trade for the ink?

Recall that in the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast there was a magic mirror

This mirror has the power to let the looker see anyone they chose. What if there were two? Rumple traded one mirror to the mermaid for squid ink. Mermaids are often depicted as rather vain creatures, remember the sisters in The Little Mermaid? Constantly doing their hair? I bet a mermaid would like a nice mirror.

If Rumple did play an active role in acquiring the squid ink himself, this is a fun theory for it.

Now, the next part of this theory: how Rumple finds out that Nealfire is alive. We know that people who have undergone sleeping curses travel to the Red Room during nightmares. Thus far Charming, Snow, Henry and Aurora have undergone sleeping curses. How nice that Neal ended up with one of those people! Charming or Snow at some point will have a return trip to the Red Room where they will meet Aurora. She will inform them that Nealfire is with her and Mulan/Philip.

This is highly likely IMO!

This will cause a small dilemma. Rumple will want to go after his son, naturally. But that’s not what Nealfire would want. He would want Rumple to protect his grandson, Henry. BUT how nice that Rumple has his true love back in Storybrooke.

Like so many things in FTL, the other magic mirror ended up in Rumple’s shop. Rumple will remember this and the Jolly Roger crew will set off to make a deal with a mermaid.

What could they offer her? My guess is that she wants her home to be free of Peter Pan, a tyrant who hurts young boys. In exchange for letting Rumple use the mirror, she wants them to promise that they must rid the world of Peter and his Shadow. The other possibility is that there is something on Hook’s ship she wants. Hook’s ship, we have been told, has many wondrous things on it.

Are you assuming that said mermaid would be Ariel? My headcanon has her as a human in present day NL, so this part of the theory wouldn’t really work with what’s currently in my head. I do love the idea that the merfolk want the curse of PP eradicated from NL though, and that the quest of Charmingstiltskins&Co will help achieve that.

The mermaid agrees to the trade and Rumple uses the mirror to contact Belle.

Just to cover the flipside…if there were only one mirror, which Belle finds, and she sees Rumple in it, she wouldn’t recognise the place as NL. But she may have a, “That big rock looks like one I saw in FTL this one time,” ( 😉 ) moment and will assume he’s in FTL, so she’d choose to go there, and that’s how she finds Nealfire.

But how does Belle get to FTL? In my mind there are two options:

1) The Hat. Jefferson’s hat was killed by Charming, but Emma’s hat from Hat Trick is still in her car.
2) The bean plant Regina grew is still very much alive.

I think #2 is more likely. Belle takes two newly grown beans (perhaps magically quickly grown by our favorite Plot Device) and uses the first one to get to FTL. She and Bae spend a day or two in FTL (where she tells him all about what a good man Rumple really is) and then they use the second bean to get to NL.

I vote re-grown beans, for sure.

Reunion. Tear. Cookies.

This will be my fave part.

[RumplesGirl]

If AdultDarkOneRumple went to NL, on the one hand, they could play it up as being completely sad and tragic that he was in the same world as Bae, but had no idea. On the other hand, it might be hard to believe that Rumple would have gone there, done business there, and left without discovering any hint that Bae was there. Unless PP went to great lengths to make sure Bae’s presence remained secret, of course.

It would be very sad but Rumple seems to believe that Bae has been running from his Papa for a very long time. I think that was a hint from the writers that while Rumple hasn’t seen his son in 250+ years, Bae might have seen Rumple.

Are you assuming that said mermaid would be Ariel? My headcanon has her as a human in present day NL, so this part of the theory wouldn’t really work with what’s currently in my head. I do love the idea that the merfolk want the curse of PP eradicated from NL though, and that the quest of Charmingstiltskins&Co will help achieve that.

I am. In my head the Ariel story we know hasn’t taken place yet but rather Ariel is a lonely sad mermaid who is also an outcast because she alone likes humankind and doesn’t want them to suffer. The other mermaids, while not liking Peter Pan, are more or less content to keep to themselves. Ariel wants to be part of their world (sorry I had to) but not under the cruel rule of Peter.

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

[angiebelle]

Oh! I totally forgot that Charming has been under the curse too!

I see what you are saying about Belle going to FTL to get Bae…I don’t think she even knows that the gang went to Neverland as they made that decision after she left.

Right now, everyone thinks Bae is dead so no one will think to try to communicate with him. I hope they don’t drag that out too long, and someone finds out fairly quickly.

Another reason I think it may be more likely that Bae ends up in SB is because the actresses who play Mulan and Aurora have both been signed for other shows from what I’ve heard. I agree that we will likely get Belle and Bae together at some point either way because otherwise there will be an awful lot of narratives going on at once!

[RumplesGirl]

Another reason I think it may be more likely that Bae ends up in SB is because the actresses who play Mulan and Aurora have both been signed for other shows from what I’ve heard. I agree that we will likely get Belle and Bae together at some point either way because otherwise there will be an awful lot of narratives going on at once!

Correct, but both shows have been benched until midseason (which is probably going to start a bit later given the Olympics) which means they will start shooting roughly…late October/Early November. I think the first 4 episodes will find Belle in SB dealing with being Librarian Mayor Queen, then at the end of episode 4 she receives word from Rumple about Bae. Two episodes about her in FTL with Bae and MAP before MAP goes on their way. I think Bae and Belle might have an adventure of their own, getting to know each other. I suspect the reunion of PapaStiltskin and Rumbelle will be episode 12 before Winter Break so Bae and Belle need to do something for about 6 episodes. Maybe there is something in FTL that will help them out (it’s also possible that we won’t see them every episode, but only once or twice).

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

[angiebelle]

I think maybe I just really like the idea of Belle finding out about Bae first and trying to get word to Rumple rather than the other way around. I think the gang on the ship will be too focused on trying to rescue Henry, and I am wondering what would happen if Rumple found out that Bae is still alive after all. Would he still want to help with Henry? But you are right that it could go either way.

[Phee]

@RumplesGirl wrote:

If AdultDarkOneRumple went to NL, on the one hand, they could play it up as being completely sad and tragic that he was in the same world as Bae, but had no idea. On the other hand, it might be hard to believe that Rumple would have gone there, done business there, and left without discovering any hint that Bae was there. Unless PP went to great lengths to make sure Bae’s presence remained secret, of course.

It would be very sad but Rumple seems to believe that Bae has been running from his Papa for a very long time. I think that was a hint from the writers that while Rumple hasn’t seen his son in 250+ years, Bae might have seen Rumple.

Ah, hadn’t considered the comment that way, but I can see where you’re going with that.

Are you assuming that said mermaid would be Ariel? My headcanon has her as a human in present day NL, so this part of the theory wouldn’t really work with what’s currently in my head. I do love the idea that the merfolk want the curse of PP eradicated from NL though, and that the quest of Charmingstiltskins&Co will help achieve that.

I am. In my head the Ariel story we know hasn’t taken place yet but rather Ariel is a lonely sad mermaid who is also an outcast because she alone like human kind and doesn’t want them to suffer. The other mermaids, while not liking Peter Pan, are more or less content to keep to themselves. Ariel wants to be part of their world (sorry I had to) but not under the cruel rule of Peter.

Firstly: (I love that you did.) The fact that they’ve already made mermaids out to be potentially dangerous with only a couple of brief mentions of them definitely makes me think that it’s a setup to show us that Ariel is a unique case, who has no desire to hurt humans because she finds them wonderful and fascinating. I think that most mermaids do actually drown/devour/destroy any human they catch in the water, because PP and his troops screwed up NL, so the merfolk hate them.

Secondly: Gotcha! My headcanon, (which is Hookriel biased), is that she already became human at some point in the past, during Hook’s previous stint in NL, sometime after Bae was taken captive by PP. Years of unrequited love followed, (in keeping with the theme of her prince having given his heart to someone else, in this case, Milah), then the object of her affection left NL. But now he’s back in present day. Hans Christian Anderson didn’t give his mermaid the happily ever after twu wuv like Disney did, and like I assume Once will. So I cooked up this headcanon that allows for a little of column A in the past and a little of column B in the future.

@AngieBelle wrote:

I think maybe I just really like the idea of Belle finding out about Bae first and trying to get word to Rumple rather than the other way around.

I do love the idea of a scene where Belle and Nealfire show up to rescue Rumple, who is stunned and overwhelmed to see his son alive, and working closely with the love of his life. Awwww. <3

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