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I really don’t get why this is a fan theory (not Belle’s heart) when the recap that spoiled this in the first place says that Regina takes Belle’s heart. It’s not ambiguous that it’s Belle’s. What is, is the level of consent. That’s it.
And yet it keeps popping up. I don’t get it, either. But it annoys me.
And, true, Lacey did have a bit of a sadistic streak, but Lacey, too, was partly a creation of Regina’s. As herself, Belle does not indulge in Lacey’s sadism that we’ve seen at all.
[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
Ugh, I’m annoyed by the fan theory that it’s not actually Belle’s heart.
We SAW Belle behave as Aurora and Graham behaved when controlled by their hearts (Killian less so, as Rumple was torturing him with it rather than just controlling him).
We KNOW Belle would never be so cruel to anyone, even Rumple, as to say the things she did. She’ll speak cold, hard truths when she has to, but she doesn’t do it to wound. And Regina said herself that it was in Regina’s nature to do just that.
And let’s suppose that it WAS someone else’s heart, and Belle was in on the whole thing (which is beyond my ability to accept from Belle’s character, but seems to be the theory that Regina’s more desperate defenders favor). How does it clear Regina ANY to harm (she did squeeze) and possibly kill (she’s against Rumple; she had to be willing to go through with it if absolutely necessary) an unknown stranger?
They really needed to show Regina taking the heart to clear this up. I get that they wanted to make it a bit more dramatic…but the effect is awful with the fandom and just muddles the pool of consent issues in this show terribly.
Regina took Belle’s heart and used it to do things Belle would not do on her own. That IS what we were shown, however the missing pieces fit together.
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
Staria might be her last name. Lily Staria.
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
Given what they sometimes do to Belle’s poor hair (which is often so pretty), I think the hair department LIKES messy.
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
What we saw was Belle asking: “How can I help?” and Regina saying, “I’m glad you asked,” with a bit of the old evil queen’s glint in her eyes.
Obviously people are interpreting it differently, and even the sources beyond the show are reporting differences. Here’s how I read it:
Regina then immediately took Belle’s heart, perhaps even seeing the question as consent (Regina has interesting ideas sometimes). She did not waffle about and say, well, if I had your heart, I could blah blah blah. That’s NOT Regina’s style; the ONLY times we’ve seen her waffling about taking a heart since the events of the Doctor were when Snow & Charming cast the curse, in Neverland when Operation Save Henry was debating whether they should use the Lost Boy that way, and when she took Zelena/Marian’s heart to save her life. All three of those times the heart was being used more or less for Heroic moves…when it’s for something SHE wants, she’s far less hesitant. And this was NOT exactly a heroic move–yes, she wants to save Robin, but she also wanted vengeance against Rumple for upping the ante that way. (I do love the echoes of their old power struggle.)
Beyond that, Belle does NOT like giving up her autonomy, would not want to be used as a weapon against Rumple, and certainly wouldn’t consent to having Regina kill her to get her way. Whatever Belle would have agreed to in this case, however much she trusts Regina, she’s not about to say “Sure, you can use me as a puppet to torture Rumple and kill me if he doesn’t obey.”
I do believe, however (and again it’s frustratingly vague) that Regina’s commands were first for Belle to summon Rumple to find out what his plan is, and then didn’t kick in again until after the kiss. Everything before that felt like genuine Belle; everything after was CLEARLY Regina toying with Rumple.
I hope Adam will eventually clarify the lines here for us, because it’s going to become a curtains thing along with all the consent issues of Graham. In other words, UGLY.
Neither Rumple nor Regina are going about things in the right way; both are falling into the usual patterns of their villainous histories. Both are justified in feeling ire at the other. I’m still a little miffed at Robin for violating his code and flipflopping, but definitely in THIS part of the story he and Belle are victims of Rumple, Regina, and Zelena’s long-standing rivalries.
Also Roland. Poor kid 🙁
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
–Not showing us how Regina took Belle’s heart. They left the suggestion that Belle might have OFFERED her heart to torture Rumple with? What? No way. But now it’s going to be endlessly argued in the fandom because of that lack of clarity. Plus…I dunno, there’s something I wickedly enjoy about Regina’s heart taking…but they couldn’t allow Belle to have that extra second of screentime. And forcing Belle to forget everything…sigh. That means basically in Belle time NOTHING has happened for three episodes. Again.
Belle might be willing to work with Regina, but she’d never trust her old jailer with her heart. That was just one of the spares from Regina’s vault. It was all a ploy to protect Belle from Rumpel’s wrath.
No, that was definitely Belle’s heart that Regina took. Not letting our dear queen off on that kind of speculation.
Belle would NEVER hurt someone, especially Rumple, with the things that Regina had her say after the kiss. It’s not in her nature, and as Regina pointed out–it is in hers. Besides, Rumple can tell whether a page from the book is real–he’d definitely be able to tell if Belle’s heart were a fake.
So the big issues are:
1. Did Belle consent to having her heart removed? (I cannot believe she would; the press release said “steals”; Regina’s used Belle as a weapon against Rumple countless times; Belle would not willingly agree to lose her autonomy.) By not showing us how Regina took the heart and by having Belle ask if she could help, it’s left ambiguous–in Regina’s favor. Given their characters, I believe that Regina answered, “Yes, you can,” and then took the heart before Belle could protest. Once she had the heart, of course, she could command Belle at will.
2. How much of Belle’s meeting with Rumple was Belle’s self? We know (best from Aurora and Graham) that heart-controlled people often seem unaware of when they’re being controlled, even if it’s right in front of them (Killian was an exception, but I think Rumple wanted him to be aware), but that when they’re not directly controlled, they have free will and their own personalities. Based on what felt “in character,” I think that Regina ordered Belle to summon Rumple, and then let them chat until she got bored with it and stepped in (having learned some crucial data in the process and caught Rumple off guard). That means up to the kiss, Belle was operating independently. However, it’s again ambiguous and we won’t know unless A&E confirm.
3. Belle was ordered to forget everything, so will she know ANYTHING of what transpired? She probably will not be aware her heart is missing for some time; Regina will put it somewhere safe (I’m not sure if she can take it outside a land of magic?) from Rumple so she can use it for leverage until she no longer needs it.
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 really enjoyed this episode.
Liked!:
–Within the first 20 minutes both Henry AND Belle had actual lines. Lines relevant to later action, no less.
–PONGO! I’ve missed you.
–Belle wanting to help Regina under the circumstances.
–Belle summoning Rumple with the wishing well.
–I’m headcanoning that Regina let Belle be Belle until she got bored (and had the info she needed) and then poured on the snark. Belle might not remember what happened (boo) but I think it was her up through the kiss–as much her will as anything a heart-controlled person does. (Regina probably didn’t let Belle be aware that she’d taken her heart, though. See dislikes.) And I loved every moment of their reunion.
–Regina facing off with Rumple and winning.
–Rumple trusting Belle enough to show her his heart.
–Cruella playing Angry Birds. OMG I laughed so hard.
–The twists with Cruella’s story. It got dark but it was dark when Jiminy turned Geppetto’s parents into creepy people puppets and Red ate her boyfriend back in S1. It felt like classic Once.
–Understanding the Author a little better.
–Rumple using his crystal ball (nice callback to previous episodes).
Disliked:
–Emma killing Cruella, when she had every reason to believe in that moment that Cruella was about to kill Henry, somehow makes Emma more evil than when she killed Chernabog or Maleficent (the latter with similarly limited info about her foe)? Wait, what? She hasn’t killed a LOT but she has killed as savior, and been willing to kill more (Her threat to Regina in 122?). Emma is not all innocence and sunshine, even if she IS good. (And other Good, Heroic characters have killed without its harming their innocence at all–David, for example, who definitely killed a few guards in just the pilot.)
–Saying bye too soon to such a fascinating character–Victoria made Cruella a pleasure to watch, something I never expected when she was first announced (not my fave film by a long shot, and I struggled to see how she could fit in…but she did, Darlings).
–The author so quickly abusing his power (and like, WHEN? I know A&E don’t’ care about the timeline but some of us do). Isn’t there, like, a test or something to prevent this?
–Not showing us how Regina took Belle’s heart. They left the suggestion that Belle might have OFFERED her heart to torture Rumple with? What? No way. But now it’s going to be endlessly argued in the fandom because of that lack of clarity. Plus…I dunno, there’s something I wickedly enjoy about Regina’s heart taking…but they couldn’t allow Belle to have that extra second of screentime. And forcing Belle to forget everything…sigh. That means basically in Belle time NOTHING has happened for three episodes. 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
What it makes ME wonder is how Wonderland’s fictional London relates to time…
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 don’t think Belle was ever completely at peace with what she did–she had to stop Rumple from killing Killian (or she wouldn’t be Belle), but she never stopped loving Rumple, or feeling betrayed and hurt by his lies. And while they’ve kept it very brief, we’ve seen some of that self-blame come out that she’s done before; she feels guilty for what he did.
However, in context of other spoilers…this may not even be 100% 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
I’m pretty sure it’s metaphorical here. But ugh, my poor heartstrings.
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
