[Keb]

I’m bothered by someone who is apparently pro-choice suggesting that this is what she SHOULD do. That’s how women get forced to have abortions against their wills.

But on a slightly lighter note: What if aborting the child would give Hades exactly what he wants? The child’s soul would become his, therefore entirely defeating the purpose of ending its life. Narratively speaking, this is the only way i could see them considering this possibility.

Anyway, I don’t want A&E to even consider going there. They have handled rape VERY poorly when they’ve brought the subject up, and at least 99% of the audience is anti-rape. They’ve also handled other slightly touchy subjects like LGBT representation very poorly, and given the strength of the Swan Queen vocal chords, they would not be offending that large a portion of the audience. Writing Belle having an abortion, or even THINKING about it, would not go well no matter what your stance.

[Keb]

Yeah. Rumple knew of the risk but Hades hadn’t quite worked it out yet at that point. He may not have realized the contract could be enforced, but he knew Belle was pregnant…and the way he tried to gather up the shards of the ball, I think he realized that Hades could work it out, too.

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

[Keb]

Okay, from a Once-verse perspective:

Emma, the DARK ONE, chose to accelerate a 2-month pregnancy to term to avoid harming the child of the woman she intended to murder. It’s clear that in the magical morality system of the show, whether or not it’s the same one you have, and we really REALLY shouldn’t get into that discussion (there is no happy ending in that debate), the baby is considered a person from the moment of conception. That’s why we can have prophecies, deals, visions about them etc.

As my sister said, the going method for getting rid of an unwanted child in this universe is to leave it by the side of the road (or let the Shadow take it/put it up for adoption/send it through a wardrobe…).

Belle is about the last person on the show who would even consider terminating a pregnancy. And LOOK at their faces when Rumple tells her. This is a child that is VERY wanted, by BOTH its parents. Belle isn’t even going to consider killing it, both because of the show’s morality structure and her own character.

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

[Keb]

The fact that this even crossed anyone’s mind, given how happy Belle was to know she was having a child for that split second before she knew everything it might mean…

This post makes me very sad.

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

[Keb]

But Zelena was chosen to fill the seat of innocence in Oz’s witch table. Thus, despite its origins, I suspect her child could similarly serve the purpose. That’s why she and Belle, both being familiar with the requirements, believed Hades wanted the child.

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

[Keb]

I’m hoping that the point they get to (we ARE still in the middle of their story) is that Belle cannot make Rumple change for her. If/when he gives up the dagger/power, he must do it for himself, otherwise it will never stick, no matter how much he loves her or his children.

His love for them may be part of why he chooses to give it up, but it ultimately has to be a decision he makes freely to better himself. Anything less, and the moment he doesn’t have that outside support, he will fall right back into his hole. That’s exactly what happened when he took the power back–he’d become a hero, he’d shaken off the darkness, and Belle left him anyway…so he took it back the first chance he got. Likewise, in S3, he’d become a hero, died to save his son and true love, and he got resurrected and lost his son anyway (and wound up Zelena’s slave for a year)…so he fell back into manipulating, lying, and clinging to his power.

I do believe that the only way for Belle and Rumple to move forward in a way that works for both characters is for him ultimately to surrender the power in some way, but it has to be HIS choice. Just as Belle now has to make her own choice about what she’s willing to live with to get what she wants.

I don’t think Rumple was wrong in his observations, at least not completely. Belle DOES like the darkness, and from his perspective, she dumped him again as soon as he was exactly what she SAID she wanted…and took him back when he had the darkness again (even if she didn’t know that). He also knows how the Curse affected people’s personalities/alter egos, having experienced it himself; I think that Lacey represents a part of Belle that a) was always present, if suppressed and b) is almost certainly still in her somewhere, as We Are Both was supposed to suggest. She’s said herself that she loves all of him, including the darkness. But she’s not wrong to want him to stop murdering the peasants, either; I think she’d be happy with his having the power to do so if a) he wasn’t choosing it over her and b) he wasn’t murdering the peasants. Those were the two breaking points for her in 4A.

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

[Keb]

I want to see her not rushed…and I want to see Rumple back down slightly from his take me or leave me stance. He needs to SHOW her he’s truly a better man. The way this show is going, it WILL be rushed (you have a man who has an eternity to fall in love with Zelena and they got 20 minutes together…real time). But what I mostly want to see is for her to have a chance to accept the harder truths that Rumple has asked her to face. YAnno, maybe talk it out with, say, her good friend Killian? Or David?

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

[Keb]

Yeah, I did the same, and it’s been a while since I was so eager to rewatch stuff. It was good.

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

[Keb]

In S1 it was pretty clear that the baby trade was for the purposes of the promise he eventually got from Emma, which his seer abilities let him know was a good idea at the very least. And when he tried to trade for Regina, it was to train her up to get the curse accomplished.

…yet…I’m wondering…

Maybe Rumple was not so much inspired by this original deal he got roped into, but trying to find a price that could get him out of it? I’m still headcanoning that he doesn’t kill the healer guy until after Cora agrees to give him his own child.

So at some point, not liking debt, he starting asking for babies so he could alter the original deal?

I dunno. We’ve seen the purposes behind the children he HAS dealt for. And I still think that part of it was simply how he’d do anything for his son. Just thinking.

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

[Keb]

We know magical contracts enforce themselves sometimes…we saw that with Ella and Thomas back in 104. Rumple didn’t have to lift a finger to enforce the deal when they tried to break it. Only Emma’s intervention and alteration of the contract eventually allowed Thomas and Ella to resume their relationship at all.

So I’m not sure that it matters that Hades wouldn’t be able to drag Baby Gold down to the Underworld…there are other ways it could be enforced. Possibly the contract itself would cause the infant’s death, as dark as that is (likely too dark for Once). I doubt the show will ever explain it, but…it never explained Thomas’s vanishing at the well, either 🙂

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

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