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I don’t think Rumple is dying at present so much as losing his humanity.
Perhaps those aren’t mutually exclusive, though. Losing your humanity can equate to dying in a world where hearts can literally be affected by the choices we make. If his heart is getting progressively darker/smaller/more corrupt that would have physical consequences on the rest of the body, not just the “soul.”
I think Rumple will be undone by his grandson, who’ll correct whatever measure Rumple takes. Henry will be the next Author and ultimately fulfill the prophesy of being his grandfather’s ultimate undoing.
Yup. That sounds incredibly reasonable. Would neatly wrap up the huge plot holes from S2 and 3A in which we never quite figured out who was ultimate undoing.
[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Slurpeez wrote: I don’t think Rumple is dying at present so much as losing his humanity.
Perhaps those aren’t mutually exclusive, though. Losing your humanity can equate to dying in a world where hearts can literally be affected by the choices we make. If his heart is getting progressively darker/smaller/more corrupt that would have physical consequences on the rest of the body, not just the “soul.”
Perhaps, since as Rumple said, magic works differently here. Rumple isn’t impish green in appearance in SB, so maybe he’s not immortal here either? It’s never been made clear exactly why but chalk it up to hand-wavy, rule-bendy obfuscation I suppose. Lack of transparency and lack of consistency about rules never seemed to bother the writers, so why let it begin now? Despite his curse, Rumple was mortal again in A Land Without Magic in S2 when he went to NYC, so perhaps his growing darkness again negatively impacted him on his most recent stay in NYC. Banishment from town was tantamount to a death sentence, because not even re-entry into SB was enough to stay the course once Rumple ventured outside of the town limit to where there was no magic to keep his darkening heart from killing him. I suppose this could be comparable to Rumple being poisoned by Hook, but not even re-entering SB was enough to stop the posion from nearly killing Rumple; only Snow trading Cora’s life for Rumple’s was enough to save him that time. Now the only way to save Rumple may be to find another candle or to drive the darkness which plagues him into an innocent host (i.e. Emma, or baby Snowflake, for that matter).
"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
Would neatly wrap up the huge plot holes from S2 and 3A in which we never quite figured out who was ultimate undoing.
A&E said in season 3 that undoing doesn’t necessarily mean death then promptly had Rumple “die”
I’m hopeful that they won’t kill off Rumple, if only because at 4 seasons in they’re not likely to gain any new viewers so should be concentrating on maintaining the viewers and fanbase they have. Killing off Rumple would lose them half their audience.
All magic comes with a price!
Keeper of FelixMaybe the next episode “Heart of Gold” has a double meaning – Gold’s heart turning to Darkness forever (losing his humanity), and Henry’s Gold Heart that can and will be the Dark One’s undoing.
Rumple isn’t impish green in appearance in SB, so maybe he’s not immortal here either? It’s never been made clear exactly why but chalk it up to hand-wavy, rule-bendy obfuscation I suppose.
Well Hook did stab him in the heart in 404 (while they were sitting in the car) and nothing came of it. So I suspect he’s immortal until his heart is “gone.” Then he’s rendered human again.
I’m hopeful that they won’t kill off Rumple, if only because at 4 seasons in they’re not likely to gain any new viewers so should be concentrating on maintaining the viewers and fanbase they have. Killing off Rumple would lose them half their audience.
And I’ve stated this many times: it doesn’t matter. I think ABC and A and E know that S5 is the last. It doesn’t matter if the ratings bottom out for S5 because it’s the last and they are going to get a 22 (we think, it’s the more likely of the two scenarios, the other being an 11 or 12 episode season) to play it out however they want. ABC also know that while Rumple is popular, Regina and Hook have extraordinarily vocal fans that probably, at this point, out number Rumple viewers.
I understand the inclination to say that they can’t kill Rumple because it would “kill the show” but ratings wise, story wise (a giant good vs evil season in which we learn a startlingly amount about the book, the Author, and have a mild philosophical debate about the nature of good vs evil all scream “we’re coming to a close), I think you’re missing the point: the show is dying. It’s dying a natural TV death that happens to all TV shows eventually, especially one stepped in its own mythos as heavily as ONCE is (those shows cannot sustain themselves like their episodic counterparts do).
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"On the other hand, B&B is a really popular Disney cartoon, and A&E might not want to disappoint fan-girls of the Rumple and Belle pairing. So maybe the writers could find a way to wrap up Rumple’s story without necessarily killing him off, and instead write him as having his curse undone by TLK and then packing him off to A Land Without Magic so as to avoid the temptation that magic in SB has to offer. Maybe Rumple’s happy ending could simply be starting over again away from all the crazy once his dark one curse is broken.
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Regarding Rumple and the TLK route — I wonder if it’s even an option for him at this stage (even when his relationship with Belle hadn’t yet gone down the way of the dinosaur, I think it might have not been an option). I am reminded of Cora’s final line, upon seeing Regina after her heart had been reinserted, to the effect that “(Regina) would have been enough.” The impression I got was that without her heart, Cora still loved Regina, just in a way that was fundamentally selfish, or rather non-transformative of her as a character. Case in point, she was making choices for Regina according to what Cora herself would have wanted for herself (climbing the social ladder). And we’re given the impression that this is actually a kind of physical condition. So if Rumple’s heart has been progressively shriveling/getting darker, then what he’s probably losing is the capacity to feel anything beyond these ultimately selfish, myopic emotions. So no TLK for him even if he were willing: in a sense, when it had been possible, he was unwilling, and now it’s far too late. At least that’s my impression. It would explain why he’s saying to Belle “While it still matters…” — perhaps, as the darkness takes over,he’s actually going to lose all his capacity for any kind of positive human emotion. This, too, is in line with the whole didactic “Rumple as addict” metaphor that the show seems to have going. (*annoyed eyeroll*)
About ratings — I wouldn’t be surprised if they let Robert Carlyle go, even if it’s perhaps not what E&A intended originally, but I can see how RC might have been frustrated with what the writers did with his character. I’d personally would have preferred if they had kept him in the ambiguous “trickster” Loki-esque (in the Norse mythology sense, not Thor) role. He does those so well, and manages to make rather objectionable dirtbags actually likeable or rootable for — say, Dr Rush out of SGU (which was, otherwise, an mindbogglingly awful show). But, c’est la vie…
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