Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-11058666-20150826195114/@comment-11058666-20150828003528

As for Rumple, I don't think there's anything sympathetic about him anymore. Like, in S1 his self-loathing is pretty clear-cut and in S2 it's evident that he cares very deeply about Belle and his son and would kill for them. In S3, things were going good--he was helping everyone save Henry and eventually died for the town and his loved ones. But then Neal brought him back and Zelena tortured him and things just went totally downhill from there. He's been a cold-blooded monster in S4, honestly, until Belle came and found him vulnerable and dying.