Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26225812-20150707104315/@comment-7526254-20150822203842

In The Shepherd we learn that Rumpel took James so he could make a deal with King George. Maybe he runs some sort of adoption agency so people will owe him favors. He does refer to babies as merchandise. This reason is slightly more legitamit then in the traditional story.

I notice one conflict with the assumption above. In The Outsider, Rumpel is about to leave to find his son by himself. After Belle is shot, his plans are delayed and he later decides to take Emma with him. This means he wasn't planning on having Emma help him find his son, so his deal with Cinerella would have been unnecessary. He may still have wanted to have leverage on Emma for other reasons.