Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26116863-20150512000952/@comment-25926288-20160208232906

I think Rumple's priorities are: Bae > Power >= Belle, but only slight differences.

Rumple wants security and he finds it in Power, which is why he falls back on it. In the best case scenario, Belle should leave him. Rumple's priority is himself. He is like his father, but Rumple couldn't let his son go (There's a great tumblr post about that). He feles he needs power to be secure as power never left him and will "always" be with him. That's why he chooses DO powers over general magic.

So, Belle needs to simply leave and show self-respect. She had two moments, but now she's running back to him after one act. No, he can be complimented, but not going back to him because he did one good thing. That's setting a low bar. The Rumbelle relationship is really just Belle.

Rumple is Rumple. Belle is Belle. Rumple has been tarnished, but for the relationship, Belle needs to move on, since Rumple clearly never started as 4x22 showed "Who could ever love me?" He doesn't think he can be loved, so the relationship was quite always one-sided and it's lterally in Belle's hands. (Or rather the writers).