Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20150413002300/@comment-26212623-20150414175728

Hmcooper4 wrote:

(...)

Back to Heart of Gold, I thought it really interesting the Zelena inserted herself into the "Operation:Mongoose" storyline by wanting to find the author, and did so PRIOR to Gold gathering the QOD in the LWM. So was/is Gold trying to use the QOD to doublecross Zelena? '''Gold has some intricate game going on, and he is playing everyone against everyone else. And something tells me that it is all getting ready to blow up in his face, again. '''(Some guys just never learn) The question is again what is he actually trying to do? But you must believe that his own master plan/his life's work (dark curse) didn't blow up in his face. How many string he pulled to accomplish this is actually amazing.

(And how strange it is while a lot of other people goes from one world to another world)

He lost Neal in season 3 because a lot of things happened he could not foresee (Neverland, ...)

His scheming in 4A was very different. He kept improvising and changed his plan constantly. And in the end his plan failed when Belle found the gauntlet.

And in 4B he is again planning something new and we know some stuff but we don't know everything. Why does he need to turn Emma to the darkness? What is he planning to with his "understanding" of Zelena?

Part of his plan is actually failing because Regina is choosing Emma instead of Robin and he didn't expect her to do that. I believe Rumple is honestly not interested in intentionally harming Robin.

I also want to say Gold's heartfull explanations are actually the truth. He doesn't lie. The conservations between Emma and Rumple (4x08); Rumple and Regina (4x11); Robin and Rumple (4x18); Mal and Rumple (4x17);  Belle and Rumple (4x17) were mostly given as a response to an question asked by the other people, the other one was asleep or given as a advice to a fellow parent who lost her child. Sometimes he says something to manipulate them but he speaks not with the only intention to manipulate them.