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I’m wondering if this will have any connection at all to Snow, since it’s established that she has a connection with birds.
[adrotate group="5"]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
They definitely seem to want to present “strong” women
I agree that they want to–I’m just not sure it’s all that successful.
Belle is a pretty good example. You did a nice job of laying out how she can be very feminine but doesn’t have to be masculine in her moments of being the hero. But while she’s not the omg-I-can’t-do-anything-I’m-in-a-skirt trope, she is a certain type of Sexy Librarian trope–all the brains and all the looks. I seriously expect her to be chewing on the end of a pencil, leaning over a book, with her breasts exposed any day now. Basically this:
And while she does occasionally get fleshed out in her flashbacks, her present day is seriously lacking in the strong woman department. Her entire story is about Rumple/Rumbelle. Any attempt at a life outside of Rumple is never given any screen time–actually being a librarian (does anyone besides Belle go into the library except when they need to solve the Problem-Of-The Arc?); her complicated relationship with her father was handwaved way so that it’s all fixed now and he walked her down the aisle, but nothing since then; any friend Belle makes–Ruby, Mulan, Anna–are dismissed without any sort of closure for Belle and the rest of the female main characters pay her no attention, rarely speak to unless they need information, and almost never offer her comfort when things happen to her.
And you’ve seen me rant every time they’ve cut her character and potential story out of the picture unnecessarily, too 🙂
I think they’ve done some very good things with most of the mains at some point, but they’ve also got a lot of failings and a LOTLOTLOT of dropped threads that really seem to be due to the OOH SHINY syndrome of thinking of a new toy or plot twist and forgetting the set ups that they already have, or even storylines they already promised to tell.
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
I’m hoping for Rumbelle to survive, but in order for it to work, Rumple is going to have to show he’s changed and Belle is going to have to demonstrate a reason for accepting that change as valid beyond love. She was right that there’s been too much broken trust, and the erratic treatment of her character–she would have been consistent had she either asked to take things slowly and work it out because love or not run back into his arms with almost no pretext, but you can’t have it both ways without making Belle seriously OOC somewhere along the way.
But this is about Rumple…and his redemption (re-redemption really) requires that he once more choose love over power. He did it once, losing everything, then got brought back to lose everything all over again…and again.
He has to find a way to break the cycle, and my Rumbelle-loving heart still hopes for a resonant TLK moment that will shatter the darkness forever and free Rumple to be with his family as he’s always truly wanted.
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
They definitely seem to want to present “strong” women–and one thing I liked a LOT was that with women like Belle, Regina, and Snow White, strength came out in different ways that did not require (much) masculinization/sacrifice of femininity. (The omg-I-can’t-do-anything-I’m-in-a-skirt trope bugs the heck out of me, and Once has mostly evaded that one.)
Belle, for example, is all girl, and not much of a physical fighter, but she still beats up pirates and defeats yaoguai and saves the day on the rare occasions that she gets screentime. They even built her up to be a real character with a complex set of motives, fears, and conflicting desires (omg Family Business)…though their recent opportunities to explore that have been inconsistent at best (insert headesk over 509/10/11 here).
Anyway.
Men in Once have been shown to be sensitive and as concerned about family (and as affected by it) as the women. Even with Mary Margaret’s baby obsession I think David’s desire for babies was the stronger one. We’ve seen all our leading men weep at one time or another, and I don’t feel as though it was portrayed as a weakness in any of them (though it was occasionally treated as such by background characters).
So there is a worldview being presented that does challenge some dominant stereotypes, though they’ve been challenged plenty of times elsewhere. What’s more valuable, when they do it–as they did better in S1 than they have since mid S2–is when they give us three-dimensional, dynamic characters who are people first, with gender identity being only one aspect of their humanity.
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
I think it’s mainly that they’re not sure what to do with Rumple OR Belle, tbh. They hit on a chord whose strength they couldn’t have predicted with Em’s and Bobby’s chemistry, and not knowing initially how long they could tug on that string, they’ve had to compensate.
Killing Neal killed a huge part of who Rumplestiltskin was and what drove him, and that’s left them flailing about with a character whose power is too immense to allow unchecked; if he’s always helpful, the heroes won’t have to work for anything, and if he’s always evil, they can’t win against him. Likewise with Belle–to keep her in character, they have to keep her in the dark about things, because she’s Super Smart (as is Rumple) and figures things out too quickly for anyone else to have a chance unless they either dumb her down (as they have done on occasion) or distract her.
Regina and Emma are likewise powerful, and Henry clever, but Rumple’s the foil to all three for large segments of the show. When he teams up with them, however, you have to find a way to deal with the fact that he’s supposed to be one of the ultimate powers in their universe, and not only that, the most knowledgeable. Resolving his search for his son so early and closing that door by killing Neal made it impossible for his ulterior motives to be both consistent and potentially at odds with the others.
They’ve given us explanations since then that sort of make sense, but just aren’t as satisfying as when it came from the core of who he was–the bit of love left inside the Dark One for his son, which Belle ultimately helped keep alive both by reminding him of his purpose (when he cast her out) and what real love felt like; once she understood his motives, she was fully supportive of them. Now nobody understands them because his motives keep shifting.
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
I’m actually glad that he took back the DO power–though I want to see a solid motivation for it–because taking the darkness out of him via Apprentice magic was too “easy” for his character. It needs to be something that he chooses for it to resonate.
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
The heart splitting idea should work given that the price in each case is a life…but I want to bank on True Love being necessary for it to work, too.
And I’m not seeing True, sacrificial Love between Hook and Emma for the most part.
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
I think it’s important to note that the retcon of Rumple’s motives is from his perspective–a perspective that we’ve seen was skewed for well over a century by exposure to the darkness. And yes, he said that when he was perhaps more objective, but I think it was colored by guilt and, again, fear; he doesn’t need to darkness for the fears to be in control of him, and here he fears that he didn’t even have noble reasons for what he did–that he’s not worth even what Belle believes he was.
Very human and very sad. A man convinced he’s unworthy and who twists his memories to support that belief.
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
I think the show has made it very clear that Rumple was a coward only before he became the DO. Since then, I have not seen his cowardice until this past season, but that’s because he wasn’t the DO anymore. So he’s only a coward when he isn’t the DO.
I have to disagree–the fear drives his addiction. With power, he is less afraid because it’s harder for things to hurt him. But one of the few things I loved about S5A is I could -hear- how in the past the darkness could have persuaded Rumple “THIS is the only way to protect your son/get to your son/be safe.” You see it when he’s planning to get the hat; every plan is “Well, now THIS is the only way to be free of your fears.” He takes back the DO power because he’s still, at his core, afraid. That’s the definition of cowardice. The Rumple he shows everyone else is a mask (or series of masks, really) to hide his fear, to make others fear him so that they won’t hurt him.
He has rarely overcome his cowardice; the DO’s power is part of his being a coward, even if he clings to it in the hopes that it will mean he doesn’t have to be. And it took Emma approximately 2.5 seconds to prove that he still is a coward when she threatened to take Belle from him again.
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
I do think the writers have been inconsistent, partly because I don’t believe they got the idea for how the Dark Ones -are- controlled by the darkness until they started writing S5. The Darkness works by manipulating their fears and making them believe that Darkness is the only way to get what they need/want.
Yet we have seen Rumple controlled by that concept of “this is the only way,” even if he always offers OTHERS a choice in flashbacks. I always believed that his trading was part of keeping the darkness in check, actually, as well as necessary to keep the magic in balance–perhaps less within himself and more in general, as we see with the wraiths.
I don’t think Hook’s behavior in 4B contradicted the idea that Rumple needed the heart to control his actions, but because Hook did not want to die at that point and because he was trying to protect Emma, Rumple still had powerful control over Hook; Rumple’s had centuries learning to manipulate people, and Hook knows that he could cause a lot of pain and still reach his objectives. He only has a little leeway to try to warn anyone.
I do think the characters in the show have whitewashed Hook’s behaviors significantly, but they’ve also looked past Regina’s occasional flashes of reverting back to Evil Queen (as when Zelena taunts her). One thing I appreciated about S5A is that Regina WAS called out on her prior evil doings…however, Regina got out of it with the Charming’s hope-flavored get-out-of-bad-stuff-free card.
And Rumple’s own past behaviors were whitewashed significantly when his heart was made “pure” and he was turned into a hero in three easy steps. We have not really had a chance to see how Darker One Rumple functions…but his reversion to darkness does make sense given how driven he is by fear, which is not something the Darkness made him. Belle’s leaving him just when he had proven himself a true hero, when she herself said he was everything she’d ever wanted him to be, told Rumple that he really wasn’t ever worthy of her love and never could be. We see how depressed he is when Emma arrives for the sword. There isn’t anything left for him…and she offers him the chance to regain the one thing that DID give him something, his power–power which enticed Zelena and Cora, which could have allowed him to keep Milah, which gave him the chance to be with Belle in the past, which made him someone that people sought out even if they didn’t like him, and which drove away the fears (though not really, as the darkness preys upon them in reality). The power allows him to pretend to be who he wants at least.
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
