Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-28162607-20160409073756/@comment-5106672-20160429154707

Belle has very strong morals and she has every right to live by them. See Gaston: she only agreed to marry him when Gaston and Maurice basically manipulated her into feeling responsible and guilty for the Ogre War. She puts the safety of others before her own happiness and she agreed to the arranged marriage because that would benefit her people and protect them from a danger she was made feel she caused in the first place.

She is upset that Rumple chose to become the Dark One all over agin (understandably, 'cause from her point of view he gave up his chance at a normal, peaceful life with her), but accepting of that: she's just setting boundaries to what she considers acceptable of him to do and what not. She is willing to compromise on the whole premise, but only until that does not end up hurting other people, which is what Rumple does on a regular basis.

About present-day Gaston, she has many reasons to be upset: for one, finding out Rumple killed him and neglected to tell her, basically creating the issue in the first place. Also, I think she's mostly blaming herself for what happened, and she lashes out at Rumple because he keeps suggesting that compromising that much on her morals was the right thing to do.

Side note: I agree that the overall plot keeps making Rumbelle miss many opportunities to grow and work out their issues. Belle goes dark as Lacey and enjoys Rumple's dark side too much? Never going to address that, 'cause the next minute Rumple goes to Neverland and he dies as soon as he's back. Marital problems because Rumple lied and manipulated her? No time for that, gotta banish him lest he goes on a killing spree. Sneaking back to town, accessory to brainwashing everyone including her? Boom, impending death and subsequent coma. Dark One all over again: real life issues need for Belle to be put asleep. There's always something bigger and more pressing going on that eclipses the fallout of their issues. Please, just give those two a break and let them sort them out for once!