Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26116863-20150512000952/@comment-26033121-20160208231410

Honestly, I don't think that Rumple loves power more than he loves Belle. He just didn't think he would ever see her again, he didn't think she could still love him after that well scene in his extremely low sense of self-worth, so he probably just thought screw it and took it back. I will say that I expected it, just not like this in a way that made him look so OOC again. I thought instead of being a hero without the curse, we would get to see him be a struggling addict in a sympathetic sense. I thought we would see him struggle to take it back, and have an epiphany. Maybe, he'll tell her the truth this time. It would make sense with his character after all the growth he went through in 5A. Maybe, he took it back to save his son. Like I said though, I no longer have faith in A&E and the only ones who can enjoy this show are CSers these days, so I'm sticking to fanfiction first and foremost where the writing is actually consistent and the characters growth doesn't just all get sold out to prioritize Hook's bs "heroism." If this were S1-S3A back when the show was actually good and not just about pandering to Hookers and CSers we probably would actually have hopes of a dynamic and well-developed Rumple arc, but they killed off his son to prioritize Hook because he's pretty, thus destroying his entire character, and arguably the whole show with it by 3B, in my opinion. Since then, it's all been lazy redundant writing and wasted potential of brilliant actors.