Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-27060727-20160929050506/@comment-5106672-20161115140455

Idealism dies hard, and Belle has (had?) gallons of that. Also, she grew up in a family with a very supportive, loving mother and a (possibly, deeeeep down) loving yet controlling and unsensitive father. This is pretty much the scenario she pictures right now for her child. OUAT is all about breaking bad family circles, and Belle has tons of hope to give away: it's quite fitting she would be trying to grasp whatever sign that Rumple can be a bit better, if not to mend their relationships at least to give her son a more functional family than she had.

The only problem with that is, she should be rooting for a possible redemption for Rumple in several-episode-long cycles, not however the current episode demands. To the writers' credit, though, I get the impression that Belle's "you could be better" speeches lately are laced with frustration rather than hope. They sound more like "You could be better but you still choose not to, until then so long" about their son, and "You could have been better but here we are, too late, I'm out" about their relationship, rather than her "You could be better and I'm here to help you" like she did in ye olde days.

Also, at leas the rumbellish angst shows they're not trying to capitalise on that big box office hit we're heading towards next year.