netgirl_y2k (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
netgirl_y2k) wrote2013-01-14 08:36 pm
netgirl_y2k) wrote2013-01-14 08:36 pm
Entry tags:
OUaT 2x11
I have to admit the last episode of Once Upon a Time conflicted me somewhat because there was a lot of awesome in it. Basically everything about Belle. I loved her getting an adventure of her own, I loved her adventure get up (those clothes! that hair! that ass!) I loved her bookishness (enjoy the lake!) and the way it was framed as just a different sort of competence. I adored her meeting up with Mulan, and my favourite thing about this show continues to be how they can throw seemingly random female characters together and make it work. I love that she saved Philip, who I find the most adorable of the not!Charmings, and that little bit of backstory about how Mulan and Philip met.
But I am increasingly unsure how I am supposed to view her relationship with Rumpelstiltskin. Like, I actually liked their origin story in Fairytale Land, mostly because the show seemed to know that after you strip away all the Disney stuff the basic Beauty & the Beast story is kind of... disturbing. Probably my favourite moment of S1 is Regina's line about not advising young women to kiss men who're holding them prisoner, I thought that was nicely meta and self-aware. And I liked that not only did Rumple let Belle go, but that Belle went.
And I actually liked them in-- was it The Crocodile? with Belle leaving until Rumple changed. But now, now it seems like he's not changing and she's not leaving.
I mean, Regina's redemption arc hasn't been perfect, it's at times been akin to watching a drunk fawn try to take her first steps, but at least you've been able to see her trying. Rumple's seems to start and stop at Belle insisting she can see the good in him. And, I dunno, maybe they aren't trying to write a similar journey for Rumple, maybe he's still meant to be the Machiavellian puppet-master, but even so Belle's blind faith shows a certain amount of willful ignorance, and does nothing to convince me that their original relationship wasn't, you know, the fairytale version of Stockholm Syndrome.
And it might actually work better for me after Belle's lost her memories and she can get to know Gold and decide for herself without all that baggage. We'll see, I guess.
And it's not that I dislike Rumpelstilskin (I'm not that interested in him, but there's really no one on this show I dislike) but Hook, Hook, of all people! had a point when he found out Rumple was trying to get back to his son; he's still essentially the same man that Bae was so desperate to change/escape from all those years ago.
I'm actually fascinated by how true love is supposed to work in this world. I mean, it works with Snow and Charming because you can see why they love each other and why they're better together than apart. But, does everyone have a true love? And if you do are you stuck with that person forever, no matter how dysfunction the relationship is?
It's also why Belle screaming I will always fight for him when Regina captured her bugged me; one, because I can see it becoming the new I will always find you, and, please, no, and two, because what I liked about them was that Belle loved him but was only prepared to be with him if he changed, and now-- not so much.
Anyway, those are my massively disjointed thoughts on Belle/Rumpelstiltskin; I am old and and crabbit and refuse to learn this fandom's ship names.
But I am increasingly unsure how I am supposed to view her relationship with Rumpelstiltskin. Like, I actually liked their origin story in Fairytale Land, mostly because the show seemed to know that after you strip away all the Disney stuff the basic Beauty & the Beast story is kind of... disturbing. Probably my favourite moment of S1 is Regina's line about not advising young women to kiss men who're holding them prisoner, I thought that was nicely meta and self-aware. And I liked that not only did Rumple let Belle go, but that Belle went.
And I actually liked them in-- was it The Crocodile? with Belle leaving until Rumple changed. But now, now it seems like he's not changing and she's not leaving.
I mean, Regina's redemption arc hasn't been perfect, it's at times been akin to watching a drunk fawn try to take her first steps, but at least you've been able to see her trying. Rumple's seems to start and stop at Belle insisting she can see the good in him. And, I dunno, maybe they aren't trying to write a similar journey for Rumple, maybe he's still meant to be the Machiavellian puppet-master, but even so Belle's blind faith shows a certain amount of willful ignorance, and does nothing to convince me that their original relationship wasn't, you know, the fairytale version of Stockholm Syndrome.
And it might actually work better for me after Belle's lost her memories and she can get to know Gold and decide for herself without all that baggage. We'll see, I guess.
And it's not that I dislike Rumpelstilskin (I'm not that interested in him, but there's really no one on this show I dislike) but Hook, Hook, of all people! had a point when he found out Rumple was trying to get back to his son; he's still essentially the same man that Bae was so desperate to change/escape from all those years ago.
I'm actually fascinated by how true love is supposed to work in this world. I mean, it works with Snow and Charming because you can see why they love each other and why they're better together than apart. But, does everyone have a true love? And if you do are you stuck with that person forever, no matter how dysfunction the relationship is?
It's also why Belle screaming I will always fight for him when Regina captured her bugged me; one, because I can see it becoming the new I will always find you, and, please, no, and two, because what I liked about them was that Belle loved him but was only prepared to be with him if he changed, and now-- not so much.
Anyway, those are my massively disjointed thoughts on Belle/Rumpelstiltskin; I am old and and crabbit and refuse to learn this fandom's ship names.
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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?
no subject