Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-28260770-20161213001110/@comment-25926288-20161213012059

I know. I myself have issues with what they presented. At the very least, the writers could have wrote Rumple's transition back into villainy more organically. I actually was fine with Rumple killing Zelena and everything up to 4x01. Then anything followed fell apart. The rest of 4A made it appear that Rumple wanted to "Take Over the World". Um......what sort of cartoon cliche villain did that pick that from? It wasn't Rumple or even the Dark One's goal. If anything, they went against his personal touches. Rumple was fond for Henry, Emma, and Regina. But season 4 made it seemed like he drops anything with the smallest request. So, 4A made him less personal, more shallow. 4B changed his manipulative/mastermindy ways into bumbling into straight up luck. So, 5 had a good reset given what transpired.

I think they have potential and are conflicted. Look at season 6 so far. Every other episode (more like 3) has a sympathetic Rumple, while the others makes him just abusive and controlling.

So, this is seen in Rumple's phlight. Rumple of yonder EF is the redemptive Rumple, who rejects love for power and security, but hasn't destroyed all his bridges as his main goal at the very least equates Power with Love. Current, Mr. Gold seems to have that equation bounce around depending on the writer.