OUaT 2x11

[netgirl_y2k]

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.

Comments

[ravenela]

Not reading the review because I have yet to see the episode, but this fandom has 'ship names? Ugh...I'm old and crotchety, too. :)

[miarrow]

Yeah, I really like Belle as a character, but they cannot redeem Rumple at this point. He's clearly established as a character who will do anything for power. He orchestrated a huge turn of events so that he could find Bey AND retain his magic. They've put him as the cause of too many back stories for damaged characters. He'd have to find the redemption in himself and earn Belle, but making the dynamic of Belle trying to save him is awful.

Also. Belle needs to go make Ruby her beast.

I have even more uncomfortable feelings about Mulan continually used as a sort of side-kick to the white people's stories (made more apparent that she's the only POC character left on the show, unless you count Lana Parilla's actress).

[lilacsigil]

I'm a hopeless Mulan fan so I cheer whenever she shows up, no matter for how short a time or silly a storyline!

I agree with everything about Rumplestiltskin, though - while I can, at a stretch, understand that Belle sees him changing since the whole "I promise I won't kill Regina (heh heh I'll just make a wraith do it" incident. He hasn't directly lied to her since, he helped Henry in the dream world, he didn't kill Hook. But he is absolutely not remorseful about his past, and constantly works around Belle to keep his power and control over others. Regina really is getting better (if slowly and awkwardly) but he is just the same, only better at keeping it away from Belle.

[swatkat]

I would be a lot comfortable with Belle/Rumple if I could tell whether the show knows how disturbing it is. It seemed as though they were aware of it back when they first introduced this storyline, but now I can't tell, and that makes me uncomfortable. Because they really did right by Belle in the past storyline, and yet here they had her watch Rumple attempt to beat Hook to death and still stay by his side, because she sees the possibility of a change in him - a change Rumple himself does not entirely seem to see the need for, at least, not now, not when he has more to gain by being who he is. And that's disturbing, but I don't entirely know if the show knows how disturbing it is?

I don't think he's going to get a straightforward redemption story right now the way Regina is, but the show also has stuck to its point about monsters sometimes needing saviours of their own (this episode pointedly juxtaposed Belle's rescue of Philip with the Rumple storyline) and that's something I do appreciate.

It's also why Belle screaming I will always fight for him when Regina captured her bugged me

ITA. And then it made me sad because the only person who's ever said this about Regina is Cora.

I believe the ship name is Rumbelle, so you're better off not learning it.

[frayadjacent]

Hi there! I totally agree with this assessment, as well as your and miarrow's remarks upthread about Mulan's consistent sidelining. It was nice to read because I felt vaguely uncomfortable with both aspects as I was watching, but your comments really spelled out *why*.

Also, I just want to see the female characters interact more. It's about 90% of what I like about the show. I so much more enjoy watching Belle interact with Ruby (I sort of ship them, but I also love watching them as friends) than Rumple, and I'm actually kind of upset that the show is re-emphasizing Philip in Mulan and Aurora's story. I mean, I guess it'll be an opportunity to see more of Mulan and learn how she got her amazing hairstyle, but Mulan/Aurora in particular is such an in your face pairing that I'm starting to get frustrated with it being subtext. It's 2013 for chrissakes! It's about time for the subtext to be text. But the way the story is going, I'm rapidly losing hope for any canonical non-hetero relationships.

[ein_papier]

I'd like to think that it is wilful ignorance on Belle's side; I think she's always been wrong about what Rumple being capable of love and being human means about his general decency. But I also get the impression that her "I will always fight for him" was meant to be taken as positive, so who knows. :/

[cleo]

The part that really made me cringe was when Rumple told Belle he expected her to do as he asked and go lock herself in the library. I understand his need to protect her both from becoming a casualty of his battles and from seeing him at his worst, but the extreme sexism there really surprised me coming from him. Had it been Bae he would have said the same because he always will see Bae as a child. But I doubt that would have come out to a male lover. Of course that goes to my personal belief that his love for Belle is largely paternal (and messed up! Hooray!).

I had just as hard a time with Belle watching him beat Hook. But they are more interesting as a couple to me where she accepts that he can't go back to being "good" but still makes an effort to keep him from becoming worse. I don't think it would ever be that settled, so the back and forth is getting bothersome because it really just makes Belle look less awesome than she is. But I think there's no way that Rumple can change because he's the real villain. We know Cora probably won't be around forever, and Regina is trying to change. So to avoid a villain of the week, the show needs Rumple.

Honestly, I have huge issues with Regina's sole motivation as a baddie being that her mom killed her boyfriend and it was Snow's fault. I liked her better when she was just power hungry and evil and pissed at Snow for getting in the way for reasons unspecified. I thought she was a stronger character without the Daniel part of her backstory. But I love an irredeemable villainess. I'll take a redeamae one too, but I don't want one that's bad because some dude spurned her or some dude died. *sigh* But I digress...

I think we all agree that the show needs more Mulan right now, though!

(Apologies for typos. Wrote this one my phone.)