Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-11058666-20141228031222/@comment-25926288-20150319023958

I agree. I go on forums of CS, SQ, RB, and OQ shippers. I don't ship at all, but you can see interesting viewpoints for their on other romances. The show was strong women, now it is women in love with loads of cleavage.

But girl-spiel aside, I think they never had much for Belle in the first place. She didn't really have anything outside Rumple until Season 4. Other than that she was centered on him, always went back to him, and was a glorified "Jimminy Cricket". On some SQ posts, they spoke of rumors of how Belle wasn't really going to be in the show, which would explain how little she did until now.

They seem to not be able to write growth with romance on the side. If you look closely, most of the main characters go in character loops over and over again with little adjustments. And, to be frank, their romances post season two were poorly handled. Who would think a drunk Robin taking advantage of a lonely Regina who told him to go home would be seen as a good thing?