“Why are so many people waxing poetic about Rumplestiltskin’s pain and revenge when they could be talking about Belle confronting Regina?! I’m sick of Mr. Makes You Suffer If You Dare Need Help getting sympathy and people wanting him to fight Belle’s battles for her.”
I wouldn’t say that I’m looking forward to Rumpelstiltskin going mental at Regina because I don’t think Belle can fight for herself. It’s more that what happened to Belle is a massive turning point in the complex relationship between Rum and Regina, where Belle’s relationships to the two are - by comparison - far more clear-cut. We have seen Rum and the Queen as mortal enemies, conspirators, and everything in-between, and we know there is a LOT of backstory there we haven’t yet uncovered.
Her faking his true love’s death (especially after what happened to Daniel) is quite possibly one of the most meaningful moments in these two characters’ evolving relationship to each other. She does something unspeakable to him, causes him the same pain she’s felt ever since Cora killed Daniel, and that’s really - as far as I can see - the point of no return for them. She’s treating him like an out-and-out enemy, and now, in Storybrooke, he knows it for sure. He might possibly have suspected all along that Regina had something to do with it, but now he has proof.
So really, for me at least, while Belle going and taking out her anger on the Queen is a scene we need to have, Rumpelstiltskin’s reaction is the more interesting. Because he used this woman and her hatred to build the Curse, and their relationship is so complex and, at this point, largely unexplained. There’s so much emotion and conflicting agendas and history there, that it’s not about pure hatred. This isn’t going to be like Gold taking Moe French to the cabin and beating him half to death: this is more subtle, more nuanced, and more explosive.
This is the lines being drawn: how he reacts to this will determine one of the most important and central relationships on the show, between the two of the most powerful players in the game. It will decide which side - if any - he falls on in the coming battle, and with magic back that is a very important decision.
Look at me ‘waxing poetic’. My point is that it’s not about Rumpelstiltskin’s ‘pain’ so much as it’s about who inflicted it, what it says about their expectations and view of each other, and how the story will play out from then on. Belle confronting Regina is simple, its “you lied to me and locked me up and (possibly) tortured me, and all to hurt my true love” vs “Mwahahahahah!”. While it’s a scene I want, it hasn’t half the flesh to it that Rumpelstiltskin vs Regina will have.
#theories #rumpelstiltskin #regina #belle #look at me writing essays again #oh well #this be how I feel
Rumbelle feelings: I has them
When Rumple was talking to Charming, and he was talking about Snow ‘changing’ because her love was taken, he had a very similar expression to when he was yelling at Belle in Skin Deep, post-kiss.
Which makes me wonder: is he afraid of how he might have affected Belle? We know he has a certain amount of guilt about the whole thing, and he seemed more… intense than usual. Which is really saying something, considering how intense every scene with Rumple/Gold is.
He knows she wasn’t a spy for the Queen, and so he knows exactly what he did: he broke her heart. Like he knows Charming did to Snow.
