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I suppose the broader philosophy is that one’s HE cannot be at the expense of someone else’s. “Your right to swing your arms ends just where the other man’s nose begins” and all that. Unless, that is, you are Snowing (see Maleficient/Maleficient’s baby.) As long as you repent and vow to do good after that, you’ll be just fine.
Oh, those two, I can’t even…
[adrotate group="5"]On the other hand, B&B is a really popular Disney cartoon, and A&E might not want to disappoint fan-girls of the Rumple and Belle pairing. So maybe the writers could find a way to wrap up Rumple’s story without necessarily killing him off, and instead write him as having his curse undone by TLK and then packing him off to A Land Without Magic so as to avoid the temptation that magic in SB has to offer. Maybe Rumple’s happy ending could simply be starting over again away from all the crazy once his dark one curse is broken.
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Regarding Rumple and the TLK route — I wonder if it’s even an option for him at this stage (even when his relationship with Belle hadn’t yet gone down the way of the dinosaur, I think it might have not been an option). I am reminded of Cora’s final line, upon seeing Regina after her heart had been reinserted, to the effect that “(Regina) would have been enough.” The impression I got was that without her heart, Cora still loved Regina, just in a way that was fundamentally selfish, or rather non-transformative of her as a character. Case in point, she was making choices for Regina according to what Cora herself would have wanted for herself (climbing the social ladder). And we’re given the impression that this is actually a kind of physical condition. So if Rumple’s heart has been progressively shriveling/getting darker, then what he’s probably losing is the capacity to feel anything beyond these ultimately selfish, myopic emotions. So no TLK for him even if he were willing: in a sense, when it had been possible, he was unwilling, and now it’s far too late. At least that’s my impression. It would explain why he’s saying to Belle “While it still matters…” — perhaps, as the darkness takes over,he’s actually going to lose all his capacity for any kind of positive human emotion. This, too, is in line with the whole didactic “Rumple as addict” metaphor that the show seems to have going. (*annoyed eyeroll*)
About ratings — I wouldn’t be surprised if they let Robert Carlyle go, even if it’s perhaps not what E&A intended originally, but I can see how RC might have been frustrated with what the writers did with his character. I’d personally would have preferred if they had kept him in the ambiguous “trickster” Loki-esque (in the Norse mythology sense, not Thor) role. He does those so well, and manages to make rather objectionable dirtbags actually likeable or rootable for — say, Dr Rush out of SGU (which was, otherwise, an mindbogglingly awful show). But, c’est la vie…
Ooh, good point! I think you might be right. Though I’m tempted to suggest that the whole concept of happy ending is rather problematic in the first place…
Slurpeez, that’s interesting. I do wonder though what the “price” of magic is. I mean, is it simply mortality? Because if so, then then entire premise with Zoso makes very little sense to me. So Zoso tricks Rumple into killing him, as I think RG mentioned somewhere on this forum, but the rationale behind it is actually kind of unclear. So I went back to look at the dialogue, and here’s their conversation once Rumple stabs Zoso:
Zoso: Looks like you made a deal you didn’t understand. I don’t think you’re going to do that again.
Rumpelstiltskin: You told me to kill you.
Zoso: My life was such a burden. You’ll see. Magic always comes with a price and now, it’s yours to pay.
Rumpelstiltskin: Why me? Why me?
Zoso: I know how to recognize a desperate soul.
In other words, if the DO has an expiration date, why did Zoso go to such lengths to get Rumple to kill him? If Zoso thinks that the Duke who controls him is dumb as a stump, then why is he being controlled by him? Zoso could have tricked him and gotten the dagger for himself, presumably? And if not, why not? Now, more to the point of the dialogue, if Zoso’s life is such a burden because magic comes at a price, why is it now Rumple who is going to pay that price (i.e. Zoso’s debt) by becoming the DO? Essentially, why is Zoso saying that he got off scott-free and transferred his “debt” to Rumple by dying? Doesn’t this imply that there’s something about the DO curse that’s a fate worse than death? Otherwise that entire dialogue makes very little sense. Just my 2cents…
being the DO u can be ur own boss if u have the dagger. If u do not then u are a slave. Being an author of the storybook he would know that. And honestly I just thought of it because he reminds me of an impish rumple, very manipulative and mischievous. And if I were locked in a book for what like 30 years I’d want a way to protect myself, same as rumple did but without rumpled mistakes or his good side.
Hmm. Yes, Rumple really didn’t read the fine print, did he? Actually I think that’s the difference — Rumple was never a trickster character before he became the DO, in fact he was pretty earnest in a sort of sad way. But the Author fellow seems like he is already an impish/trickster sort.
Rumple has always played things close to the vest, but in season one they gave us clues and then Desperate Souls. We knew pretty early his motivations. It helped us fall in love with his story and struggle. But now, we get a breadcrumb and that’s it. Are they trying to get him to be the ultimate villain, kill our love of the character, so we will cheer his demise and think it’s great for the show? What they don’t realize is that it’s Bobby’s acting itself that made many of us love the show. The writing is cheesy, the plot is farcical and yet Bobby is such a great actor that we cared about this outlandish imp. His story is intertwined into the fabric of Once so completely, much like Bae, that his absence will be glaring. The thing is, if they’d have stayed with their original story of him dying as a sacrifice to save everyone like in 3a, more people would have bought it. It was an organic outcome of him going from a point of seeing his grandson as his downfall to help saving him and in turn saving the town. But then when did anything the writers decide make sense. They had a beautiful story in Rumbelle and 1) never gave them any screen time 2) tortured Belle in some way or fashion every step of the way and 3) completely decimated it. I also wonder if that was an order from highers up….a much older man and younger woman might not have tested well in “focus groups” when presented outside the context of the show. Who knows. And now I’ll shut up from rambling.
This.
Just a thought, but we have the whole fungal/cancerous metaphor of evil going on at the moment: that line by Hook when he tells Emma that “darkness has a way of growing inside you” (or something to that effect, am I remembering this right?) as well as the entire thing with retconning Snow’s heart smudge to be something that has progressively grown to finally become quite noticeable by the time she tricks Cora…
My assumption is that the DO’s darkness eventually completely consumes its “host” and whatever goodness was left there. From that perspective, maybe Rumple trying to separate himself from the dagger could make sense (beyond the idea that he wants ultimate power, which felt absolutely absurd character-development wise) if that also means that it would stop the growth, as it were. Not sure what would happen once he’s totally “gone,” if that’s indeed what the end result is. I mean, in some senses, if it’s a kind of zombified total evilness, where the personality/self is dissolved or lost, then it’s a fate worse than death, and no wonder Rumple’s trying his damnest (poor dear, quite literally) to get his story re-written.
I’m just going to throw this theory out there. I think the author wants to be the dark one, and rumple knows and he’s trying to make Emma the new dark one bc he knows she can make a balance of it since she’s all light magic and all that malarkey
Ha! But to what end would the author want to become the DO? I mean, from everything we’ve seen, the job has its perks, but you’re never your own boss, and the retirement package stinks.
So this is probably totally a wild goose chase, but I wonder if the Author’s transgressions and what Rumple is talking about in his speech to Belle are in some way related? The theme in both of these moments is about bending/changing the rules, and Rumple actually says (cryptically), something like “And something else is about to change.” So he’s trying to change the rules to get out of his karmic debt for all the magic he’s used, but it almost sounds like there’s an additional external factor that doesn’t have anything to do with him.
If we assume that part of Rumple’s ability is to see the future, at least partially, is also shared by the Author(s) as some of the theories on this thread suggest, then wouldn’t it make sense that both have an endgame that’s at a more “global” level, for lack of a better word? Are they essentially bending / trying to bend the same set of rules? And is Rumple’s prediction that something else is about to change related to the Author being freed?
Another thought… a fairy tale happy ending is essentially the end of the story, where the curtain is drawn on the characters, and we assume that behind the curtain, things keep going in a peaceful fashion, but we’re not privy to it, since we’d be bored to tears. And in the words of the Author/Peddler, that doesn’t make for a good story. So, my theory is that, however he does it, the Author’s deal is essentially deferring happy endings forever (ex: Regina), or sowing seeds of discord/temptation such that they defer themselves (ex: Snowing/Emma). This way the show (literally and figuratively) must go on. And so if MatthewPaul is right, and the Author is a stand-in for A&E, then there’ll probably more meta from where this came from. From that perspective, Rumple is actually working to end the show. ^-^
Personally, I’m curious about what the writers’ endgame is with digging the proverbial hole deeper by piling betrayal upon betrayal. Better to bury Rumbelle in? (pardon the extended metaphor). At this point, it’s become hard for me to simply enjoy the story, and not to try to reverse engineer what on earth E&A are trying to achieve here. My guess, though I might be wrong, is that they’re pushing for a point of no return, such that they can permanently disentangle Rumple’s happy ending from Belle, re-create a new HE for Belle with someone else, ret-con that their relationship was never based on true love anyway, and then kill Rumple off by the end of the season. Now, I don’t like this scenario, but actually what really annoys me the most is the way they’ve had to twist the original characters into caricatures of themselves.
As a result, they are kind of wasting Robert Carlyle’s and Emilie Deravin’s potentials as actors. RC absolutely excels at doing the kind of ambiguous not-quite-fully-villain that’s at times sympathetic, and at times chilling or infuriating — Rumple in the first seasons acted more as a force of nature than a 2-dimensional baddie. Belle’s character suggested outward softness but inward strength, which could have been further explored and developed — and offered an alternative model of a strong female character to outwardly strong but inwardly brittle Emma and Regina. Instead, Belle’s character has been made weak through and through, auxiliary to the men in her life, as some folks on this forum have noted (and kind of by extension failing at the Bechdel test…) Worst of all, the pairing now essentially portrays the idea that if you have power over someone, whether through love, trust, or a remote control plot device … ahem, I mean a “magical dagger” … you are going to abuse it — whether you are a “villain” (Rumple) or a “hero” (Belle). I don’t know why they went that way — Rumbelle was one of the more interesting relationships on the show. Even if they reconcile them at the end, it’s hard to make oneself care, because the characters have become simplified beyond the point of being particularly engaging. *Groan.*
Phee, OMG that video made me laugh so hard… it’s perfect!
If he does reunite with Ana at some point, then he’ll fit in with the gang of rich folk/royals who get their happy endings. If they don’t end up back together, and Belle never goes back to Rumple, Will can chill with Rumple in the corner for impoverish folk who lost their true loves and happy ending.
Who knows, maybe this is all very meta, and it’s in fact the “Author’s” classism that’s interfering with the happy endings 😉 He/she just needs a consciousness-raising exercise.
