Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11058666-20141228031222/@comment-25926288-20150328130217

DavidTennantismyAngel wrote: Belle is in need of counseling sessions because when Rumple was dead, she was thinking of how to revive him, and succeeded? She's not a clingy girlfriend, she's smart. Complain all you want about her having Stockholm Syndrome or that one time she betrayed Rumple. She's got a brain, and she gets things done. There's your moral example. Small correction, I think Neal wanted to revive Rumple; Belle was wary of the idea to revive him. Belle isn't clingy or have Stockholm's Syndrome. However, she did cling to something that wasn't there or rather who she wanted to see. Even though she says she loves the dark parts too, she really loves the tormented and tortured soul of Rumplestiltskin. The only one to this day that actually had the chance to love the real Rumple underneath it all was Milah. Belle comes off as naïve or some say "stupid" because she rarely gets a chance to show otherwise. I know people have their headcanons on how Belle should be and how Disney!Belle would be, but not everyone is a strong female character, or this outspoken bookworm of all total goodness. She was young and naïve, which is understandable, and she like prior incarnations saw the man behind the beast, which in real life isn't always (or rarely) going to end in a happy and stress-free journey.

Belle is like Snow and Aurora in this regard. They are models or representatives of certain traits: seeing the man behind the beast; having hope and keeping goodness in one's heart; making it through life when all things go awry for no reason apparent to you. (Okay, that's bit of a stretch, but you get it.) Not every situation works perfectly in life and they have consequences. Though writing can be shoddy and flawed at times (at least more recently, most of the time), we are seeing the bad these fairytale qualities can take. We see the hopeful and pure Snow White facing a difficult challenge in trying to make sure her child has goodness in her heart. She is faced with challenges and hope isn't always the go-to response every time. She was impulsive and gave up hope for a brief moment and now and even then after the act she regretted it. Likewise, Belle has always seen the supposed goodness behind all the darkness and she has. She has worked to help Rumple overcome or at least tame his demons and his addiction. Rumple, using Belle as a moral compass, has indeed done that. But that feeling doesn't always last. Bad things happen and there are some things you can and can not fix. Some challenges will take time to resolve and it takes two for a relationship to succeed. Rumple's self-loathing and being met once again with the bad and dark times in life led him to work retroactively. Now, as a fatalistic person he always was, he sees that he can not change because no matter how much good he can do, he will undo. Is it a higher power (the Author) at play? Is this why his life never gets any easier and always the more difficult? Can he really change after spending so many years wallowing in the darkness? Is their an evil lurking in this curse? Is this what he has become or who he always was deep inside? Who can love a man, no, a monster like him?