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She has always appreciated and been responsive to gestures, something Rumple knows
FOR EXAMPLE
I don’t think Rumple was manipulating her in The Crocdile (1 and 3 GIFs) but I think he is remembering Belle’s reaction to his heartfelt apology and goodbye in that episode and “trying it again” as it were
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"If he really believes that what he’s going to do (or what’s happening to his heart) changes everything, he might be just as sincere about this farewell as he was in the Crocodile. Belle asked outright at the well if he was trying to get her back (the same question she had in the Crocodile, in fact), and he denied it.
His goal now seems to be simply to escape paying the full price for several centuries of hurting people, including the ones he loves, and his plan is to use the author’s ability to manage that. If he succeeds in that, then he’ll have time (if the possibility still exists) to consider whether he can win Belle back or not. His speech to her when she was asleep suggests he’s not sure about how that’s going to work out.
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
Exactly. Will is no stranger to hearts, taking and giving. He could have easily given Belle her heart and Rumple, if his intention was truly knowing that Belle was safe and happy, could have been content knowing that Belle was fine, safe from Regina once more and that Will would watch out for her. But instead he saunters into the shop, gives this huge speech, and then literally puts her heart back in her chest. He knows that this will hit her like a ton of bricks and that whatever feelings she has for Will will be temporarily (or perhaps longer) squashed by the gesture. She has always appreciated and been responsive to gestures, something Rumple knows.
Ugh! You could be right. Rumple being the one to put Belle’s heart back in her chest and making such a seemingly selfless gesture, once again puts her in his debt. He knows that he holds emotional sway over her. By being magnanimous towards Will, he’s perhaps heaping coals on both of their heads–a tricky thing to do indeed, seeing how Rumple seemingly still wants her back. He said he’d come back for her, if he could. He still seems to want unlimited power and love. However, I think those are two mutually exclusive things, as Rumple will find out when he successfully convinces the Author to rewrite the villains their happy endings.
His goal now seems to be simply to escape paying the full price for several centuries of hurting people, including the ones he loves, and his plan is to use the author’s ability to manage that. If he succeeds in that, then he’ll have time (if the possibility still exists) to consider whether he can win Belle back or not. His speech to her when she was asleep suggests he’s not sure about how that’s going to work out.
I think maybe Rumple’s intentions aren’t as pure as they initially seem, because looking back, there was that scene when Rumple was talking to an unconscious Belle and saying he’d come back for her if he could. He still wants her back, but only if he can stop fate and not have to pay the price of his dark magic. Rumple is more concerned about self-preservation at this point, by any means necessary, even if it means corrupting the savior so that villains can get their happy endings at the expense of the heroes. And Belle is firmly in the hero category, so by Rumple changing the rules of fate, he’s effectively denying Belle her happy ending so that he can get his (whatever that may be now, which I suspect is power without consequence, rather than Belle or Baelfire anymore).
That makes what Belle said to Rumple at the town line just before she banished him all the more poignant and impactful, since it’s actually one of the few times Belle’s been allowed to voice her opinion without Rumple interrupting her. She knew she had to keep him from talking so that she could have a chance to speak for once. Rumple always seemed to have the upper hand over Belle in their relationship, since he’s the one with all the power, so her getting the dagger was the only way she was able to have her say in the relationship. If you look what was said in 4×11 as an example of the power struggle going on between Rumple and Belle, the relationship unfolds in a new light.:
Rumple: Belle, what are you doing?
Belle: Finally facing the truth.
Rumple: Please, put the dagger down, and let me explain.
Belle: No! It’s my turn to talk. Do you remember the first time you saved my life? You traded for me. I thought I saw something in you, something good. Well, I found that gauntlet today, and that’s when I finally realized that all the signs I’d been seeing were correct. You’d never give up power for me, Rumple. You never have. You never will.
Rumple: You don’t understand!
Belle: [holds up dagger] No! You told me that gauntlet could lead you to someone’s weakness, to the thing they loved the most. Well, you know where it led me, Rumple? To the real dagger. Your true love is your power.
Rumple: [doesn’t try to deny it] I like the power, but there’s nothing wrong with power! Not when it means that I, that we, can have it all!
Belle: I just wanted you! I wanted to be chosen! I tried to be everything for you, Rumple! But I wasn’t, and I lost my way trying to help you find yourself. Not anymore.
Rumple: Please, Belle, I’ll make it up to you. I’ve changed once before. I can do it again!
Belle: You’ve never changed.
Rumple: Please! [reaches for Belle’s face]
Belle: [holds up dagger] No! It’s too late. Once I saw the man behind the beast. Now there’s only a beast. Rumplestiltskin, I command you to leave Storybrooke.
Rumple: Belle, no! Please! I won’t be able to come back! [increasingly distressed]
Belle: I know! [crying]
Rumple: I don’t want to lose you!
Belle: You already have!
Rumple: Belle…please, I’m afraid!
Belle: [turns away, crying]
Rumple: Belle! Belle! Belle! Belle, please!Rumple was trying desperately to re-establish control in the relationship by getting Belle to put the dagger down to let him explain. He knew that if he could just get the chance to explain himself, to dominate the conversation again, that he could once again be the one in charge, and could once again have mastery over Belle. Rumple has used “love as a weapon” before since he was using Belle’s love for him to manipulate her (something he did again twice in S4b). But Belle refused to let him talk, because she knew she was susceptible to his emotional manipulations. Finally, she was taking control of her life again by getting to talk for once, which Rumple didn’t like one bit, as he kept trying to plead with her and to get a word in edge wise. However, she had finally had enough and she was finally standing up for herself. She knew she couldn’t let him explain himself, because that would prey on her vulnerability. That was why she banished him, because he was a threat to her well-being as well as everyone else . That was something Rumple didn’t like one bit, but which ultimately had to be done.
I think it’s pretty clear that it did not give Belle closure. Her letting go of Will’s hand when he reached for her seems pretty neon flash-y that suddenly the Rumple-inflicted wounds that were just beginning to heal (a little at least) were reopened. And I won’t lie, part of me wonders if that wasn’t Rumple’s intention all along. He is the master manipulator and while long ago I would have thought it extremely unlikely that he’d manipulate Belle is such a manner, he clearly has no qualms about doing it now. Over and over.
In this most recent conversation in 4×19, Rumple again shows that he knows how to use emotional words to affect Belle, and that little speech he gave her could be viewed as a huge guilt-trip. He doesn’t let her get a word in edge wise this time; he dominates the conversation. It’s a monologue rather than a dialogue, as he again asserts dominance over her. Rumple knows he is Belle’s weakness, precisely because she loves him. Rumple uses her love for him. He used her to sneak back into town and to get back his dagger (unbeknownst to her). By being the one to give Belle her heart back, rather than letting Will, it’s almost like he’s ripping off a freshly formed scab on a wound that was just starting to heal.
"That’s how you know you’ve really got a home. When you leave it, there’s this feeling that you can’t shake. You just miss it." Neal Cassidy
*Reads scene from 4×11*
*cries a Trail of Tears*
Belle asked outright at the well if he was trying to get her back (the same question she had in the Crocodile, in fact), and he denied it.
He said, “It’s a bit more complicated.” I think Rumple fully intends for Belle to be his happy ending.
By being the one to give Belle her heart back, rather than letting Will, it’s almost like he’s ripping off a freshly formed scab on a wound that was just starting to heal.
Also, Rumple was extremely forthright at the well, which is all Belle truly wanted, but he knew Regina told Belle to forget. He didn’t offer any of that information to her in the scene in the Pawn shop, which could have changed her view of him.
He told her some of it, just not with the same degree of honesty. Some fans believe that once her heart was returned she was able to remember what happened at the well; I’m not so sure about that but he did tell her some of it.
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
He told her some of it, just not with the same degree of honesty. Some fans believe that once her heart was returned she was able to remember what happened at the well; I’m not so sure about that but he did tell her some of it.
Yes he did say his heart was almost totally black. As for the fan theory, that’s interesting but nothing confirmed. (cause of course)
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"A bit dated, but I think this speaks to the conversation.
This is fairly anti-Rumbelle, so fair warning.
This isn’t a play on Beauty and the Beast where the relationship actually is messed up and we’re supposed to hope Belle escapes and becomes her own person again. It’s simply meant to be Beauty and the Beast, with all of its potential issues, and plenty of new ones, laid bare.
I don’t necessarily completely agree with the article, in that I think we need to differentiate Rumple 1.0 from Rumple 2.0. Pre-pit-of-goo Rumbelle (which involved Rumple 1.0) was essentially a story about how people can change (and be redeemed). Rumple 1.0 wasn’t evil for evil’s sake, and the resolution, where Rumple sacrifices himself to save everyone and dies a hero was the logical completion of Rumple 1.0’s character arc.
Resurrected Rumple (Rumple 2.0) is completely rebooted, and has very little to do with Rumple 1.0. It’s essentially a different character. At this point, Rumbelle changes accordingly. This story is essentially about how people cannot change and, in the context of Rumbelle, this becomes about an abusive relationship with a sociopath. If any of you have seen Dexter, Rumbelle 2.0 has a lot in common with Dexter’s relationship with Deb.
The problem, is that while Rumple has been entirely rebooted, with a clear, but unexplained break between R1 and R2, Belle has remained the same character, by and large, except that she is now rewritten to fulfill the parameters of this new take on Rumebelle, which isn’t a story of change and redemption, but of stasis and repetition.
The problem, as with Dexter, is that the story is told to us from Rumple’s perspective, and Rumple is an unreliable narrator. In other words, we get very little of Belle’s take on things I think because almost no episode are ever from her POV. That being said, I think it helps me to think that Rumple 2.0 is, actually, a different person (i.e. he came back wrong), with the same set of memories and physical conditions, but a different character make up. I doubt that was originally intended by the writers, but I think that’s how it’s coming across. I don’t have much hope for Rumbelle because Rumbelle (which, as far as ships go, I associate with the early seasons) is now underpinned with an entirely new narrative premise
Just a thought.
I think the mistake they made with Rumple in 4A is that they never showed his more humanising moments (they all ended up as deleted scenes) and they never explained his motivation for doing what he said so he came across as power-mad for the sake of it. Rumple clings to his power and magic, not because he’s power-hungry, but because he’s afraid that without it, he’d go back to being what he was: a helpless victim. Rumple is caught in an addiction that he can’t seem to break free of but rather than explore that issue, the writers have his actions pinned as “for the evulz”.
I do actually wonder if Rumple’s black heart isn’t the result of what he’s done but as a consequence of being the dark one. He’s been the dark one a lot longer than most people are dark ones so what if it is just the effect of being the dark one for such a long time? Rumple likens not being able to feel any kind of love as a type of death, wouldn’t it be somewhat fitting if Rumple’s power was killing him, much like drugs do to a drug user?
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of FelixI do actually wonder if Rumple’s black heart isn’t the result of what he’s done but as a consequence of being the dark one. He’s been the dark one a lot longer than most people are dark ones so what if it is just the effect of being the dark one for such a long time? Rumple likens not being able to feel any kind of love as a type of death, wouldn’t it be somewhat fitting if Rumple’s power was killing him, much like drugs do to a drug user?
Yes, I have been wondering the same exact question. Especially in light of the wafting writing about the physical/spiritual nature of Rumple’s condition. As I am interpreting it, the black heart isn’t actually 100% the result of “bad choices” but interrelated with them, such that it both partially motivates and is enabled by these negative emotions and decisions. In other words, as Rumple’s heart progressively blackens, his entire worldview shifts more towards “evil”, which, in turn, makes it less possible to see what the “right” thing to do might be, which blackens his heart more and thus ad infinitum. This would actually explain the quirky temporality of what seems to be a sudden turn for the worse — towards the end, the process accelerates — and also explain why the Dark One curse is actually a curse, rather than practical omnipotence offset by a gnarly skin condition.
I do actually wonder if Rumple’s black heart isn’t the result of what he’s done but as a consequence of being the dark one.
I dunno. I think chalking it all up to being the DO is taking away his choices and the decisions he made that were terrible. I mean, I love(d?) him but he has some truly appalling things. Saying it’s because he’s the dark one and his heart is darkening as a result and thus becoming evil isn’t quite fair. I don’t think the DO curse helped, but he still made the choices he made, even back from the moment he became the DO–like mass murdering the soldiers.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
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