Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-11058666-20150829005318/@comment-25926288-20150829015222

Strong doesn't mean right. Clearly I said she was wrong. Being a strong character doesn't mean that you are right. Some politicians are strong characters and they are probably very corrupt too. Milah was a woman trapped by patriarchal society and did a rash and regretted thing to try to escape.

You don't need to have an adventure, but leaving your dreams to go service someone else's isn't particularly strong. As I said, she has strong moments,but if we compare her to...well, noone good, but Regina. Regina tries to display strength when she's pretty much an unloved princess that got things she didn't want. Regina fears being presented as weak, so she tries to display strength everytime she can. Besides her feeling that way, she's still strong. Regina moping over Robin leaving and not talking to her son is a moment of weakness.

Belle can be strong in her naivete and good for her. Doesn't mean she's a strong character or person. BElle has few moments of strength ansd many when she's weak. Belle is treated like a doormat and you can't shake this feeling that the writers don't have much for her to do.

Belle could confront Regina about taking her heart. Belle is like a mouse compared to Regina. It's probably Belle's lack of presence or equaltiy. Magicless Emma going up to magicful Regina in season two or in season 1, showed both strong character colliding. Belle just preaches her goodness propaganda and that's about it. Is she striving towards a goal? Who knows! We know nothing about her besides what we've seen.

Can you imagine Belle going up against someone major? Oh wait, she did! Went straight up to Zelena's face to tell her about the strength of twu luv blah blah knocked out. She should look strong, but  she was like a non-entity in that scene.

Belle can look strong when facingRumple, because she is his weakness. When it comes to him, she can stand up to him and he will be weak. Just like he was to Bae. They expose his inner weak self. Otherwise, he exudes strength.

Belle had made it her dream to go on adventures and more and given ample opportunities, she declines and fights for twu luv and being a meek little housewife. I think a character (Ingrid?) refered to her as that because she's pretty much a mouse in a cat's playpen.

But this is about intelligence, which she's just of average intelligence and nothing's wrong with that.