Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26116863-20161009211142/@comment-24674051-20161010230934

I, for one, have trouble classifying Rumple as an Anti-Hero. In Season 3a, while the gang was in Neverland, he was an anti-hero (along with Regina and Killian), but in general Rumple has been less than heroic. He's definitly not one of the protagonists of the story (at least in my opinion). Sometimes he helps the protagonists move forward, but other times he actually becomes somewhat of an antagonist. And that, really, is one of Rumple's problems. If the writers would select one role and stick with it, he could be much better developed. As it is, his character development is really messed up and all over the board.

Now, I think that it is possible that he may be cast more as an anti-hero for season 6. That remains to be seen. The reason that I suggest this is that his "Deal" with David for the information regarding David's dad was simply to deliver a message to Belle. While that is something that is important to Rumple, it hardly rates up there with some of his other deals (though there may be more to this deal than we have seen, but for now I'm taking it a face value).