Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin Character Analysis

[midnight dreary]

I understand why people would view Rumpel as evil, but Rumpel before he became the Dark One seemed to be pretty decent. A little cowardly, yes, but a pretty decent guy overall.

[mickey]

I don’t understand it either. You can’t sympathise with pre-curse Rumple even though he sacrificed his humanity to practically save his son’s life but you can find sympathy for EQ just because she had a bad childhood. A lot of people have bad childhood, even worse than her, and they don’t turn out like this. And it wasn’t her childhood that made her evil. She grew up a strong and passionate woman capable of love. The loss of her loved one was what changed her.
And what exactly was so bad about Rumple before he got cursed.

[hjbau]

I just don’t see any difference between the pre dark one Rumpel then the one after. He was a coward, he was willing to burn down the count’s house, he was willing to murder the dark one and he did not listen to his son who said that he would go with the men and fight. The difference is that he couldn’t kill those men before he became the dark one. I think he wanted to which is why he killed them right after he became the dark one. I don’t think it seems to have made him a different man just more powerful and more confident.

And i think that it is all guess work that the war was not a good war or that it was not necessary to take every solider possible. And the episode is badly written so that doesn’t help the situation. Like why not take the parents instead of the children? And there was also slight suggestions that Rumpel may have done something to Bae’s mother and that Rumpel may have stolen Bae.

I just don’t see what is good there. There may be a sympathetic character in Rumpel and i think we saw that more after he became the dark one. He seemed much more sympathetic in Skin Deep where you do feel sorry that he is such a mess and just doesn’t know how to act around people and is so paranoid about Queen that he treats Belle terribly. Though those were all his choices. I haven’t really seen Rumpel do anything good so far.

I think that i just have a difference of opinion. It seems that a lot of people see Rumpel wanting to burn down the count’s castle and kill the dark one as an appropriate response to his son being sent to the war. I just don’t think it was. I don’t think Regina’s response was appropriate either towards Snow or what killing her father to do the curse or sending Hansel and Gretel into the blind witch’s house for the apple or using the Genie to kill Snow’s father.

I just think that the difference is that we don’t have any clue what Rumpel is playing at whereas we know the Queen’s motivation. Rumpel just seems like a rabid dog that is doing evil for the sake of doing evil with no purpose at all possibly because he is bored. And i think a lot of people don’t really think what Snow did was enough for Regina to go off the deep end though i think there is still more to their story then what we have seen so far.

What exactly is good about Rumpel? I just think he is an evil character. That doesn’t mean there aren’t shades of gray, but i would consider him just as evil as Regina.

[mickey]

You still didn’t manage to answer what some people asked you, namely why do you think Rumple, a single-parent of Bae, was such a bad person before he met Zoso. You didn’t find any arguments to support your claim ( apart from guess work) so you just reversed the question and tried to prove that there isn’t anything good in him ( which, I think, is very far from the truth).
It’s something more than just a difference of opinion. Sorry to say that but you seem extremely prejudiced against Rumple.

[hjbau]

It is just a fake character. I am not prejudiced against him because that is impossible because he is a fake character. I like him as a character. There is no reason to get personal about this. I just think he is evil. I will repeat what i said. He was a coward. He burned down the count’s house. And her murdered the dark one. All before he was the dark one. And they suggested that he may have done something to his wife and the show said that he may have taken Bae from someone because he Bae might not have been his son suggesting that his mother may have been messing around with someone else. And becoming the dark one did not make Rumpel a murderer. He was willing to murder the original dark one before that so i think it stands to reason that if he thought he could get away with killing those guards before he was the dark one he would have done it.

I am not sorry that i think Rumpel is evil. He isn’t a real person. Just a character in a show. I have no feeling at all about him except for how i think the character works for the show. I just think he is an evil character for the show. This is simply a difference of opinion. Some people think that Rumpel will be an ultimate good guy who will save the day in the end. I just don’t.

And i am asking it again. What is good about Rumpel? What is this good that everyone sees? Because i don’t see it. I see one of the villains of the story. And still an interesting villain with bits of gray and one who cares for his child in some way even though it isn’t quite right and he cared for Belle in some way even though it wasn’t quite right. Still a villain though and an interesting character.

[mickey]

Sorry, didn’t mean to offend you. But no matter how absurd it sounds somehow in all your posts concerning Rumple’s fake ( yes I know it’s fake) character you seem prejudiced, biased or whatever you call it. I see it that way and can’t help it. You just always seem to see the worst of him, expect the worst and wish him the worst, even though, in fact, there are many shades of grey in this character.
You said somewhere earlier that Rumple was a bad person before he bacame the Dark One, so before he burnt the count’s house, killed Zoso etc. Why do you think so? Where was it said that he killed his wife or stole Bae from someone? The only thing implied is that Bae might not be his biological son.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe he is a villain of the series. I just don’t think he is the devil himself. And contrary to what you say I believe that his evilness is a result of the curse.

[hjbau]

I just don’t see how it is biased to say that the bad guy is a bad guy. And i have no feeling about that of anger or disgust because he is just a character. The word prejudiced just has a lot of connotations of feeling that i don’t think about Rumpel at all because he is just a character on a show and not a real person. I am actually much more disturbed by the Evil Queen and do think that she is always going to do evil. Like whenever she gets too close to a character like Gretel, or Hansel and Gretel’s father, or Kathryn, i am afraid she is going to take their heart and am extremely creeped out when she touches someone like when she grabbed Mary’s hand and when she grabbed her face. It is like when Voldemort hugged Draco at the end of the last HP film.

Whereas with Rumpel you never know what he is going to do partially because we have no idea of his motivation. We haven’t seen enough of his past so we can only guess at this point. We have seen the incident where he became the dark one, but nothing before that. We can only guess based on what they said and based on who he was at the point he became the dark one. I just didn’t see a good man at that point. And it is so hard because i think that episode is so poorly written to even guess. I feel that i am talking in circles. We need more information. Maybe Rumpel will talk about his past in the next episode a bit more.

And maybe at some point they will show his past and what happened with Bae’s mother and what happened with him running away during the war. Or maybe he will just talk about it in the next episode. We will see.

[midnight dreary]

Zoso was only taunting Rumpel so that he would kill him. I think that was made quite clear in the episode. So, I still think Baelfire is his biological son. And even if he isn’t, that doesn’t automatically translate into “Rumpel probably kidnapped him.” The mother probably left him or died. And there are also a lot of theories going around that suggest that Cora may have been Rumpel’s first wife, and if that’s the case, then I’m glad Rumpel raised Bael instead of Cora.

But I’m confused as to why you label Rumpel a coward for running away from war (a war that asks young children to kill), but the criticize him for killing the knights at the end of episode. So, it’s ok for him to kill in a war, but not to kill for his son? Personally, being a coward or refusing to fight another man’s war doesn’t translate into being a coward. Why risk your own life for another man’s war when you can risk it for the life of your child.

And also disagree with your comment about Rumpel “doing evil for evil’s sake.” We all know why he became evil. He’s possessed by the power of the Dark One. Even someone like Mary Margaret or Emma would eventually succome to it’s power.

And of course we don’t what his motivatins are. That’s been done on purpose. It’s not because the writers are confused about his character, it’s because the show needs to last longer than 1 season, so they stretch the story out. He’s hundreds of years old, has a lot history and mythology to tell, and is the creator oft he curse. So naturally, it’s going to take longer to tell his story than the Evil Queen’s or any of the other characters for that matter.

[an empty heart]

Ok, let’s all take it down a notch in here. It’s just a show. 😯

Personally, I don’t see pre-Dark One Rumpel as evil or bad. Flawed? Yes. But evil? Definitely not. He was in a desperate situation and needed a way out. And to be honest, his situation could easily be compared to Emma’s. Emma has a child who she loves and is concerned about, she’s fighting against someone much more powerful than her, and she hasn’t won a single battle yet. She’s desperate. That’s why she came to Mr. Gold for help. Mr. Gold even asked her if she was sure she wanted to make a deal. He reminded her that she doesn’t always like his methods. But Emma responds “but you get results.” Mr. Gold asks her again, “How far are you willing to go?” Emma ruthlessly responds, “Further.” So we have one of the “god guys” knowingly putting aside her own moral and ethical beliefs all for the life of her best friend, Mary Margaret. And she’s not even possessed by an evil power like Rumpel was.

The same goes for Mary Margaret in both Fairytale land and Storybrooke. Snow White selfishly made a deal with Rumpel to rid herself of her broken heart. A BROKEN HEART? Girlfirend, trust me, you’ll get over it. 😆 And then we see her Storybrooke counterpart Mary Margaret again make a deal with Mr. Gold to help her get out of jail. Once again, another example of desperate souls. They’re both good people, but their horrible situations make them do things and associate with people they know for a fact are corrupt or untrustworthy.

So, it’s pretty difficult for me to judge Rumpel so harshly.

[lissy]

You know a show must be good when people become this invested in the characters 😉
I just wanted to throw out there that I think through all the bad deads Rumple has done, he is willing to redeem himself for Belle and his son. Do you guys think he can be forgiven? What must he do to fully redeem himself?

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