I wonder if any of the other characters, including Regina herself, realise exactly how much he was pulling her strings to get that curse cast. Not to excuse Regina, there's too much of that in fandom as is; she can be awful and she doesn't stop being awful just because she's my favourite, but if she's the gun then Rumple's the one pulling the trigger.
I think the thing with Rumple is that he doesn't seem to regret anything he's done, the collateral damage he's caused in pursuit of Bae. And he doesn't seem to want to change, he wants to keep Belle, so he lies to her and changes just incrementally enough, and really only when she's there to see it, to keep her believing in his essential goodness, which frankly seems cruel.
Basically, after starting well their story veered right back into what I find disturbing about the bare bones Beauty & the Beast tale, the idea that if you're patient with the beast and you love him enough then eventually he will change. And I have a lot of thoughts about exactly why Ruby would make a better beast in this instance, mostly that while the love of a good woman might help, Ruby's desire not to be a monster is internal, it comes from her first.
This was the first time I really noticed the side-lining of Mulan, and once you see it you can't help but notice how it's part of a pattern. Really, the way I'd have much preferred that to go down, because I get that the episode wanted to highlight Belle's brains and book-smarts, would have been for them to work together, with Belle tracking the monster and setting the trap to incapacitate it, and Mulan there to protect her and to finish the monster off, with Belle reading its cry for help when Mulan was going in for the kill, and that would give Mulan even more cause for her later loyalty to Philip because she felt guilty for nearly killing him when he was cursed. Um, I've overthought this again, haven't I?
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I think the thing with Rumple is that he doesn't seem to regret anything he's done, the collateral damage he's caused in pursuit of Bae. And he doesn't seem to want to change, he wants to keep Belle, so he lies to her and changes just incrementally enough, and really only when she's there to see it, to keep her believing in his essential goodness, which frankly seems cruel.
Basically, after starting well their story veered right back into what I find disturbing about the bare bones Beauty & the Beast tale, the idea that if you're patient with the beast and you love him enough then eventually he will change. And I have a lot of thoughts about exactly why Ruby would make a better beast in this instance, mostly that while the love of a good woman might help, Ruby's desire not to be a monster is internal, it comes from her first.
This was the first time I really noticed the side-lining of Mulan, and once you see it you can't help but notice how it's part of a pattern. Really, the way I'd have much preferred that to go down, because I get that the episode wanted to highlight Belle's brains and book-smarts, would have been for them to work together, with Belle tracking the monster and setting the trap to incapacitate it, and Mulan there to protect her and to finish the monster off, with Belle reading its cry for help when Mulan was going in for the kill, and that would give Mulan even more cause for her later loyalty to Philip because she felt guilty for nearly killing him when he was cursed. Um, I've overthought this again, haven't I?