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Waking the Beast

Home › Forums › Once Upon a Time › Season Five › 5×03 “Siege Perilous” › Waking the Beast

  • This topic has 27 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 9 years, 7 months ago by RumplesGirl.
Viewing 10 posts - 11 through 20 (of 28 total)
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  • October 12, 2015 at 6:01 pm #309790
    MatthewPaul
    Moderator

    Only hole in the Rumple dying to become a hero theory, is that Emma still needs him to be able to pull the sword out.

    [adrotate group="5"]

    October 12, 2015 at 8:01 pm #309794
    RumplesGirl
    Keymaster

    Only hole in the Rumple dying to become a hero theory, is that Emma still needs him to be able to pull the sword out.

    Quote

    Unless Rumple dies after he pulls the sword and somehow forges it back with the dagger?

    "He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
    October 12, 2015 at 8:13 pm #309798
    Josephine
    Participant

    Sadly I have zero faith in that happening, since Rumple’s story arc has been methodically train wrecked since he died a hero in S3 — I think it’s quite likely they we will see more “I want my power back” type of writing.

    This is the biggest complaint I have of the show. So many people dismiss complaints as just ramblings of bitter shippers, but really my underlying disgust with the show is how they’ve destroyed their own story. Rumple in season one was written fantastically. Look back at Desperate Souls, Skin Deep, The Return. They all laid out this tale of this complex character. What they have done to him 3B and beyond is horrendous. His motivations, his actions, his story. They took away the heart of his story, not just killing his son off but erasing all mention of him, that they now have no idea what to do with him. They won’t even develop a relationship between him and his grandson. Season One Rumple would have moved heaven and earth if he knew Henry had been his blood, imo. Knowing his regrets about his own son, you can’t convince me that he’d distance himself from his grandson.

    So for the future, I have no faith that Rumple will be written well. He hasn’t for the past season and a half, so why should they start again. My theory is that Emma will use him to pull the stone from the sword, and then he’ll once again sacrifice himself to save Emma toward the end of 5A. They can always have him come back some way in flashbacks if they want to keep Bobby on the show. But I can’t think they have any real story for Rumple other than death. Outside of being the Dark One, he’s Baelfire’s dad. They cut this last pesky tie to Nealfire and they can totally pretend that he ever existed. (Henry belongs to Regina and Emma so they can continue to ignore there and keep him).

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

    October 12, 2015 at 11:18 pm #309804
    nevermore
    Participant

    This is the biggest complaint I have of the show. So many people dismiss complaints as just ramblings of bitter shippers, but really my underlying disgust with the show is how they’ve destroyed their own story. Rumple in season one was written fantastically. Look back at Desperate Souls, Skin Deep, The Return. They all laid out this tale of this complex character. What they have done to him 3B and beyond is horrendous

    Yep, all this. And lets also not forget OUAT’s cavalier approach to consent, offensive class politics, increasingly explicit misogyny, problems with representations of racial and gender diversity, and the OOCification of characters for the sake of plot and ratings. But actually, I agree with you — all this, while problematic and sometimes downright offensive, could perhaps be overlooked in a “guilty pleasure” sort of show. And of course, no show is perfect. But it’s the way OUAT seems to have mangled its story’s message, reneging on its own stated moral cartography, while throwing some of its characters under the bus with no care for consistent character development that I personally find particularly disappointing.

    My theory is that Emma will use him to pull the stone from the sword, and then he’ll once again sacrifice himself to save Emma toward the end of 5A. They can always have him come back some way in flashbacks if they want to keep Bobby on the show. But I can’t think they have any real story for Rumple other than death

    I agree — it’s probably going to be something like that. The problem is that the writers are no longer able to imagine “high stakes” drama outside of wrecked ships and characters giving up their life for the “greater good,” whatever that is at this point. Which is devalued through the completely arbitrary ways some characters come back to life and others don’t. Similarly, some relationships are portrayed as unsalvageable and moribund, while others, with seemingly the same exact problems, shamble on undeterred. And sure, romances breaking up and characters dying are all Big Dramatic Events, but they are also the most common denominator for Euroamerican culture (we’re all pretty obsessed with romantic love and individual mortality.) What’s so disappointing, I think, is that OUAT started somewhere else — with fragile family relationships, the complexity of good/evil and hence of the villains/heroes, and with an interesting play on the cosmology of fairytales  — but has gotten more and more reductive and simplistic with each season. The perverse thing with this is that, while I expect OUAT to produce more derivative plot lines and horribly mangled character arcs, I keep hoping I might be wrong. It’s a classic abusive relationship!

     

    October 12, 2015 at 11:53 pm #309809
    Slurpeez
    Participant

    To quote Lily Sparks…

    If magic can make you go from being the Dark One to being the Purest Hero ever then does magic really have a price? If Rumple’s heart went dark from all the horrible things he did but then he just waved his hand and all the darkness left and then all it took was one touch from a sword and he’s okay? Ugh whatever.

    "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

    October 14, 2015 at 7:11 pm #309949
    RumplesGirl
    Keymaster

    POM posted this elsewhere, but thought it deserved to go here as well.

    https://www.tumblr.com/captainswan4e/131099326649/ouat-plot-holes-add-one-more-to-the-list

    The sword Emma used never touched Rumple. He shouldn’t be awake at all. Reason #13564 why they should have used something of Nealfire’s.

    "He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
    October 14, 2015 at 8:00 pm #309955
    MatthewPaul
    Moderator

    My guess is that the main reason they decided not to use the shawl was because it would have been obvious. They wanted the item to be a twist at the end of the episode, and they wanted to do that scene with Emma tricking Hook. However, by doing so they sacrificed the characters’ own logic. Belle clearly would have known about the shawl.

    October 14, 2015 at 8:06 pm #309957
    Gaultheria
    Participant

    The sword Emma used never touched Rumple. He shouldn’t be awake at all. Reason #13564 why they should have used something of Nealfire’s.

    I assume head-Rumpel has been lying to Emma about everything. Or maybe it’s “touched” as in “shaped his life”, not requiring physical contact.

    Anyway, scowling Emma looming over comatose Rumpel with the sword made for a more menacing bit of misdirection than the shawl would have.

    Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

    October 14, 2015 at 8:14 pm #309958
    RumplesGirl
    Keymaster

    However, by doing so they sacrificed the characters’ own logic. Belle clearly would have known about the shawl.

    That and the sacrificed everything that happened three seasons ago when it was established that Neal’s shawl was Rumple’s talisman and poetic protection.

    Anyway, scowling Emma looming over comatose Rumpel with the sword made for a more menacing bit of misdirection than the shawl would have.

    Menacing sure, but think how bittersweet and kinda lovely it would be if it was Neal’s shawl that woke his papa up from a coma after losing the dark one’s curse. It’s circular, after a fashion, going all the way back to S1 and Bae wanting his father to no longer be the Dark One.

    It’s….(inconsistent) drama over character and heart.

    "He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
    October 14, 2015 at 9:38 pm #309967
    Slurpeez
    Participant

    My guess is that the main reason they decided not to use the shawl was because it would have been obvious. They wanted the item to be a twist at the end of the episode, and they wanted to do that scene with Emma tricking Hook. However, by doing so they sacrificed the characters’ own logic. Belle clearly would have known about the shawl.

    Let’s be real. The actual reason Bae’s shawl wasn’t used is because Baelfire was written out of the show in favor of Hook.

    "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

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