Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11058666-20141228031222/@comment-26116863-20150315163821

The real problem was that he didn't have any guidance. What he wanted was understandable, but he was so set in his old ways that he didn't know any how else to accomplish it. If he had let Belle in on it, she would have told him " no, this is not how you do it. There must be a better way." like she always does. He didn't feel like she could be trusted to understand, so he hid it from her and did it his own way. That's pretty sad, but maybe justified by her actions when she did find out. She was so ready to think of him as an evil villain that she didn't even think about his possible motives. She may have now broken any trust that she had built up with him. It's a lot like with the Frozen storyline. Ingrid couldn't accept that anyone could ever really see her as anything but a monster. Once her sister affirmed that with her actions, it took a lot to get her back.

Rumple was going to deceive them with that story because wanted a fresh start, as a hero. He told Regina that he was going to make his own happy ending. I guess he felt like that wasn't possible in storybrooke, that he had too much history as a villain, as well as being at the mercy of the dagger. This way he could leave his history behind forever, and start his new life as a hero in the eyes of everyone left around him, his family.

What he did actually isn't that different from what Regina was trying to do with the curse. She didn't want to be the villain anymore. She wanted to be loved and respected. She could never escape her history in the enchanted forest, so she went somewhere where she could. She might have said she was doing it because she was evil, and seeking revenge. What she actually did tells a different story. She didn't kill Snow White. Instead, she was content to live the same day in and out as a respected and well liked mayor. That was her happy ending, not being the villain anymore. Then Emma came along and broke the curse.

We saw this before with Rumple, where everything that we peceived as being a result of pure evil was motivated by something understandable, in this case, a desire to get back to his son. We're seeing the same thing now with Maleficent. She's not just "evil" she's a mother who was willing to go to great, albeit sometimes questionable, lengths to protect her child.

They deliberately took a genre which portrayed very two- dimensional characters, with shallow and arbitrary motives, and fleshed it out as the complete opposite. This is very effective in making a point which they have been building up to, and are now focusing on this season. It is that people can't simply be categorized as "good guys" or "bad guys". People are more complicated than that. They have motives, and weaknesses, and histories. They can change, for better, or for worse. We all have the potential for evil, and the best of us are honest about this and try our best to overcome it.

When you look at it this way, Rumple and Regina are a lot more admirable than say, Snow and Charming, who try to cover up their dirty deeds to save face. In my eyes, they're more the villains right now than anyone else.