Board Thread:Rant and Rave/@comment-31592902-20170630182255/@comment-28162607-20170713170005

Emillian Swanones wrote: I definitley agree that their relationship is toxic. I didn't think it was horrible until Season 4, though. I would say it got full blown abusive in season 4, but they were laying the foundations in season 1 and 2 (3 doesn't really count because they were apart for most of it). When you look back on it you can see the elements of toxicity, even though they are not as blatant as before.

Not to say Rumple could not have redeemed himself and the relationship could have gotten better if the writers wanted it to.

I think the thing with Rumple is that he cannot have a healthy relationship. It's one of his core character traits. We saw it with Baelfire, with Milah and then with Belle.