Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-26018039-20150329230148

Since early season 2, Belle has been my favorite character, but what I've noticed is the writers don't seem to really handle her right. First of all, she was in 2/6 of the first episodes of the second season - that right there is kinda rude. She was only ever really Rumple's love interest and the writers only ever used her when they remembered her, it seems like. They pretty much pushed her aside for the second half of season 2 with the amnesia story; she just hung out in a hospital while Rumple was going after Bae and such. Then there was the whole Lacey fiasco which basically turned her into a knock-off version of Ruby. She also wasn't really handled right during that, yunno? They coulda made it so much...better. I was disappointed to see she wasn't brought to Neverland. They could've used her book smarts to help with stopping Pan, and maybe grow her relationships with the other series regulars. I, for one, have always wanted her to become BFFs with Mary Margaret (the only other Disney Princess series regular :P).

She never even had a proper story in season 3; she basically just tagged along with the regular group. Things did start taking a turn with the episode "Kansas", however, when Rumple gave her the fake dagger, but her involvement in the first half of season 4 was kind of sad. In "White Out", "Rocky Road", "The Apprentice", "Breaking Glass", and "Shattered Sight" she had one scene each and no lines in two of them. The thing is is that usually a character is a series regular because of how much they appear, but in Belle's case the amount she appears is because she is a series regular. I have such high hopes for her story with Will in 4B and the time she spends away from Rumple. So far it hasn't been too much of a disappointment. I really enjoyed her scene with Hook in "Darkness on the Edge of Town".

Basically, I think Belle has loads of potential and that the writers don't use her as much as they could. 