[Keb]

I could only see that happening if his heart returns to a strong enough form to take on the darkness again AND he believes it’s necessary to protect Belle/Henry from Emma. He took on the DO powers to protect Baelfire, not because he was hungry for power. He was desperate, afraid, and, he believed, powerless before, and he’s since sought to escape ever going back to that state–but the only time we’ve seen him make a grab for power just to have the power is with the Hat in 4A (and, knowing how close his heart was to going dark, it’s arguable that he believed it was necessary to protect Belle and Henry as well as himself…but his speech at the town line suggested otherwise. However, it was also an opportunity that the show indicated ANY Dark One would be tempted by, and his actions were more opportunistic than carefully orchestrated).

His attempt with the author was an attempt to escape the price of his power…but he was also trying to escape having the DO unleashed. He tethered it for centuries by tying himself to the deals he made, and I’ve believed since S1 that this was an intentional move to keep himself in check as well as to escape part of the price of his magic (and build up his power and influence). We have seen him use other means to keep himself in check, like not healing his leg once he had magic in Storybrooke–he kept the limp until he needed to be free of it to save Henry, because it was a link to his son, a reminder of why he had done all the things he’d done.

[Keb]

The author didn’t tell him who Henry IS. I think hero Rumple with memories of doing (apparently mostly) right by his son would NEVER have attacked Henry, no matter what the stakes.

(Scared Dark One Rumple considered it, yes. But he also was willing to sacrifice his own life to save Henry in Neverland and DID with Pan in the end, which, for Rumple, is a BIG BIG deal. And we know he intended to protect Henry from Ingrid even if he didn’t care a bit about the rest of the town besides Belle.)

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 think Hook is going to have to find a way to work with Rumple because he’s going to need that knowledge fount. Belle’s friendship is probably how he’ll bridge the gap…if he doesn’t go full on villain like Regina did and threaten Belle to get his way. (Yes, that was a villainous move even if it was for heroic purposes against another pair of villains. Regina’s not a perfect, innocent being of heroic light just yet.)

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 excited!

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 wonder who they’ll entrust with the dagger if it’s not Emma herself. It would be interesting to see what Henry would do with that responsibility. (Hook will probably wind up in keeping of it at some point. Have fun with your fanfics, CSers, heaven knows the Rumbellers have for years.)

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]

Well, we know the seer’s power was something separate that he gained (and seems to have lost). But we’ve also seen what Belle is capable of doing without any inherent powers at all. Rumple could do ten times that. I’m still convinced he’s got a backup besides just his shop of things.

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 darkness of the dark one was removed, but does that mean he’s powerless? Does that mean he’s fully human? I mean, right now he’s in a magic stasis popsicle like Zelenarian was in 4A more or less but what actually WAS left?

I’ve long headcanoned that while his chief powers came from being the DO, he was accumulating backup powers along with trinkets.

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]

1) What was your favorite episode of S4B?
Darkness on the Edge of Town or Operation Mongoose Part 2…hard to choose. I loved watching Rumple maneuver without his magic at the start, and I loved how Team Charming (INCLUDING BELLE) handled things with Chernabog and the hat.

Operation Mongoose overall was pretty good, but the most epic moments were the swordfight with Rumple, Emma, and Henry, and the tiny bits of Rumbelle fluff we got. Not quite enough to make up for the angst of the rest of the season, but I really enjoyed those moments and felt more captivated by this second half of the finale.

By itself, Poor Unfortunate Soul stands out…that episode felt magical to me even if I wish that it could have had a) more Belle and b) more Ariel.

2) What was your least favorite episode of S4B?
Lily. I didn’t enjoy Emma turning on her former best friend, wasn’t a big fan of the backstory (though it was well-performed by the younger actors), and really disliked the Zelena pregnancy reveal. Just left a bad taste in my mouth at the end of that episode…even with the beautiful Rumbelle moments and Will finally having something to do for two seconds. This ep reminded me a lot of In the Name of the Brother on how I felt after watching it…there were moments I loved but the rest was painful to watch.

3) Did you prefer S4A (Frozen) or S4B (The Queens of Darkness)?
S4A. It was frustrating as heck from a Rumbelle PoV but at least Belle occasionally got to have a role to play. And I loved the Frozen cameos–and the fact that they were present throughout the arc, rather than dropping off like flies the way important characters did in the second half of S2.

4) Who was your favorite QoD?
Tough one…I loved having Mal back but wasn’t the biggest fan of the Lily storyline, and Cruella won me over by being incredibly entertaining to watch against all my expectations; I loved Ursula’s episode but she was also a bit of a let down as far as actual relevance to the storyline. If I have to pick…I’ll go with Mal in the hope that there is more to come on her backstories with Regina, Aurora, and Robin Hood.

5) What was your favorite plot twist?
Honestly, frustrating as it was to see Ursula leave so soon, her getting her happy ending by making a good choice. It was refreshing and made that episode feel a little more like things we saw in S1–where Emma was bringing back happy endings even if she didn’t believe yet.

6) What was your least favorite plot twist?
Emma killing Cruella. It made sense but in the end it didn’t even matter. It mattered for all of 2.5 seconds when she said it was fine to kill Lily since she was already a murderer. That’s IT.

And Zelena’s pregnancy. I thought they were going to try to make OQ palatable and they made it worse. Just…eugh.

7) Overall grade for S4B and final thoughts?
C-. Some of the episodes left a really bad taste in my mouth and there were a lot fewer of those magical moments that Once sometimes gives us. Also, Will was completely wasted this season, and Belle, who could easily have been SO SO relevant (I mean, when Chernabog was loose, she was part of the team…and then once she lost the dagger Team Charming just…forgot she existed), kept getting entirely forgotten. For entire episodes. The finale where she was hyped as being, you know, present, served up an entire hour of No Belle, and and maybe two whole minutes of her actually mattering to the storyline. There were things we were promised, either explicitly or implicitly, that A&E completely failed to deliver, and retcons that hurt to watch (Aurora’s story stands out here, but also Snow and Charming’s thing with Lily felt retconny the way it was done, even accounting for the author’s influence on events).

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 going to blame the QoD failure on not using all their assets. Will, Robin, Aurora, Regina–all had history with Maleficent. But even in the rare cases they interacted, they rarely acknowledged those histories (with the exception of Aurora, whose backstory didn’t even work with the S2 version we got). By not tying together the QoD with the loose ends from previous seasons (and Wonderland), they seriously dropped the ball and reduced them to plot devices instead of continuous characters.

And here I’m talking about Mal who actually got treated as relevant in the larger scheme of things…Cruella wound up being our comedic relief for most of her scenes, while Ursula left so fast for her happy ending that I got whiplash. Ursula, too, could have been much stronger if they’d tied her better to her history. They had Ursula and Ariel in the same episode and never had them interact (and yes, they established that there are at least two Ursulas, fine, it still would have been rewarding to see Ariel and Ursula together). That’s seriously letting their fans down and seriously not using the treasures they have RIGHT THERE ON HAND to build their world.

I realize that the realities of filming this show and actors’ schedules sometimes make things difficult, but as they’ve proven time and again, they can still acknowledge these relationships and ties in dialogue even if they can’t/won’t include the characters physically. This show so often feels like missed opportunities for something great (like…you set up everything down to the blocking for a Beauty and the Beast TLK and then have…the apprentice suck out the darkness?) that never happens. Almost every episode since S2 began I’ve been going that was awesome but why didn’t they X? (Why didn’t they take Belle to Neverland, why didn’t they give Neal a chance to be the father he wanted to be, why didn’t they give Henry something to do…etc)

I’m in love with the characters and I want to see them grow and be affected by their pasts. That’s what we saw happening in S1 and the early parts of S2, before Neverland Fever took over. That’s the biggest advantage of a format that expressly explores past/alternative lives for the characters: We get to see what is most true about them, who they truly are.

So I’ll just stop writing by saying it would have all been better with more Belle.

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]

Yep. And I saw there was a thread about that here after I’d already checked myself. I’m kinda loving that bit now.

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

[Author]

Posts