Rumbelle: The Wedding...or Funeral...of the Season

So, since we've hit the end of Season 3, and what is probably the half-way (or two-thirds-way) point of the show itself, it's a good time to take a look at the progression of Beauty and the Beast on Once Upon a Time.

Whew.....Where to start?

If you haven't seen the last episode of the third season and don't want to read spoilers, don't read the rest of this post (and stay off of the internet). If you want to ponder the strange events of the last episode as they concern Rumbelle, or if you thought everything was and is perfect, keep reading and tell me what you think at the end.



In the last episode we saw the Jane Eyre plot line come almost full circle, to the climax of the book's major plot line. About half-way to possibly two-thirds through the novel, Rochester attempts to marry Jane before she can find out about his deep dark secret. At this point, Jane believes that Rochester, despite his dark past, is a changed man, or one capable of changing if he listens to reason and truth. She is also, and she herself admits it, blindly in love with him. Despite some pretty drastic and macbre warnings that all is not well, Jane is in the middle of her vows (in a small chapel on the estate, with just a few witnesses) when Mason's lawyer interrupts the ceremony to spill the beans on Rochester. This begins the major conflict that will drive their story to its conclusion in the last part of the book and ultimately bring about Rochester's real and full redemption.

Unfortunately for Belle, there was no lawyer present at her night-time wedding in the wood with Rumpelstiltskin -- just a questionable psychiatrist and a florist (a neat touch to have your father make your bouquet). Now, don't get me wrong. I cheered on Rumbelle louder than anyone (in my heart, any way). But, like some others, I had a bit of a problem with the ending of season three, and I want to explore that.

"Because I believe he's changed...because his heart is true."

If you've read my other posts, you know that I don't believe that Rumbelle is an example of Stockholm syndrome, nor do I think it's an example of an abusive relationship. I feel like most arguments of that sort rely greatly on hyperbole and a lack of serious thought or treatment of either of those situations. However, I am not a fan of the direction of the relationship at present, nor of Belle's character in particular.

"I love him...all of him."

The first problem lies in the ambiguity of what Belle really believes, and is willing to accept, about Rumpelstiltskin, and the second is her purpose within the larger story. At one point, Belle seems to understand that Rumpelstiltskin will always have darkness in him -- at least, she says embraces the darkness and the light. At another point, however, she seems naively certain that the things he does are heroic, when they are instead, as Baelfire points out, only for the sake of Rumpelstiltskin's select interests. She says that sometimes the best tea cup is chipped (blegh!) and the sentiment is nice -- a damaged relationship can still be a good one, maybe even the best one -- but we're not always talking just damage, sometimes we're talking pure and unadulterated evil. So, how much of Rumpelstiltskin's darkness is Belle willing to accept? She says "all of it," but that seems a bit too simplistic compared with what we've seen so far.

Many fans have been waiting for Belle to take a larger role in the story, but this, sadly, has yet to be fully realized. If we cast our minds back to season two, we were seeing a bit of potential about Belle. Her friendship with Ruby seemed a step in the right direction (she had a significant relationship that wasn't Rumpelstiltskin), she had a job that was mostly unrelated to him, and she had initiated a DTR on her own terms. After a major show on his part, and what I interpret as him acknowledging that the relationship didn't have a future as it was, Belle decided to give it another try. Through a series of casual dates that we assume went well, they somehow progressed back to exclusive dating (but not living together) by the time we got to The Outsider, an episode that really paid off for Belle. Belle was shown in her own adventure, establishing her character's ingenuity and ability to carry a stand-alone story. And then...Hook shot her and we lost all that momentum.

And we were given Lacey instead.

Now, there are many Lacey fans out there, and I don't mean to offend you, but I think some of the affection for Lacey has come about as a result of contrasting her with what Belle's character has become, not with the Belle we saw in "The Crocodile" or "The Outsider." I'll get to that in a moment. First, I want to tackle the aftermath of Lacey, which is where the relationship really seemed to start falling apart.

First, Rumpelstiltskin, for some reason, essentially seemed to give up on Belle fairly early into the Lacey relationship, when it became clear that he could just be his evil self and she would like him. It was like having a new girlfriend who looks just like your old one, but who doesn't mind your "nasty habits." And it wasn't until he needed emotional support (and she and he got into a spat) that he decided to bring her back with the deus ex machina of the Blue Fairy's potion. (We won't get into the problems I have with laws of magic in OUAT.)

Then Belle returns, or does she? Who do we have after Lacey? As a matter of fact, who did we meet in "Lacey" during the flashback? Comparing the Belle in "Lacey" with previous Belles, I noticed something odd, which isn't odd at all when you stop suspending your disbelief and watch the show as it's written, realizing that the character development, of course, is happening in real time, not the time that the chronology suggests. The quiet but hopeful Belle of "Skin Deep" and "The Outsider" was replaced in the flashback scenes of "Lacey" with a sharp-tongued, sometimes cynical Belle who detested Rumpelstiltskin one moment (rightly) and then was hugging him the next moment because he barely decided not to kill someone (how sweet!). As with most of the episodes, the flashback-Belle mirrors her present-day Lacey self more than her representation actually makes sense in the chronology of her development, at least as the show would have us believe it.

And after Belle returned to "herself" in the last episode of season two (mirroring the same story arc in season one), she never once confronted the interesting issues that were Lacey. She still has not, to our knowledge, even broached the subject. We have no idea how she feels about having been Lacey, or about Rumpelstiltskin's inability and unwillingness to bring her back. Granted, in the hullabloo that was Henry's kidnapping, there wasn't much time for introspection, but her parting with Rumpelstiltskin, who was convinced he was going to his death, seemed strangely uncomplicated for a woman who'd just regained her memories and whose beloved had almost preferred her alternate persona.

The first half of the third season quickly helped us realize that Belle, once again, would serve as a tool to develop Rumpelstiltskin's personality, her own having nowhere to grow. As a result we saw Belle grow increasingly saccharine, saying the same things over and over, because that's what Rumpelstiltskin needed. We even saw this literally play out when she was a phantom projection of his subconscious. We also discovered that Rumpelstiltskin secretly believed that their relationship had no future and that he'd accepted that fact. This is one of the most troubling aspects of the story, and I'll get back to that shortly.


To sum up, Rumpelstiltskin's season three death seemed, at least to him, like a foregone conclusion. It was really a nice ending to his arc, one that effectively ended (or should have ended) his character struggle established in "Desperate Souls": "I could get to redeem myself" and "My ending will not be a happy one." Indeed, it's hard to tell if his death was really the only option or if this was simply the only thing he thought was possible. When he was brought back in the second part of the season, I think no one was less enthused about that than himself. He really seems to prefer death and has for a long time. Throughout their relationship, it has been an unfortunate side-effect that Rumpelstiltskin has also always been racked by the choice of Belle or Baelfire. I suppose in reality, of course, he could have both, but in Once he seems only to be able to be all about one of them. Up to the very end of the first half of season three, Belle was almost always the loser in these cases. Rumpelstiltskin nearly always chose Bae over her. This made sense, in many ways, but also should have clued us in to the danger ahead. At the end of the first half of the season, Rumpelstiltskin seems to have finally chosen Belle and accepted that his son is an adult with his own life (at least, just before he sacrifices himself to save sort-of-both-of-them-but-mostly-Baelfire, whom Pan perceptively picked as the victim whose death would hurt Rumpelstiltskin the most).

 At the beginning of the second half of the season, Rumpelstiltskin goes back to choosing Baelfire again. When Baelfire is dying, he absorbs him and loses the dagger, probably knowing that Zelena could easily have him kill Belle if he did so. Emma has to practically force him to let go of his son. Now, I know I'm not being completely fair in the context of the situation, but I think there's a symbolic significance in how often Rumpelstiltskin chooses his son over his lover. This indicates where his heart really lies and what he believes about himself and his future. He believes that Bae is his happy ending, not Belle, and that he will not ever get to taste that happy ending.


This is important because it colors how we should see the wedding at the end of season three. Bae is dead. Rumpelstiltskin has apparently moved on. He's chosen Belle. He gives her the dagger to keep as a pledge of his complete trust in her. But then we get the twist: Rumpelstiltskin hasn't moved on and hasn't changed. He is still tied to Baelfire, and he wants revenge for his son's death badly enough that he's willing to propose to Belle in order to distract her long enough to take back his "present," providing himself with a relationship in which Belle believes he trusts her and he still gets complete control over his powers to do as he wishes. Of course all of this indicates that he either doesn't trust Belle at all, or that he knows that she'll walk out on him.

As I watched the wedding (when I could bear to watch it), I couldn't help but be disappointed that Belle's character had been so reduced. I also couldn't help but feel most of the hope I'd had for the couple slipping away. The episode's emphasis on "you are what you think you are" only cements the earlier message we got from Rumpelstiltskin. He believes he's a villain and a monster and that he will never change. He believes that Belle will eventually leave him and that he doesn't deserve a happy ending. If Rumpelstiltskin believes these things, then I have a strong notion that they will come to fruition. It would (and maybe will) be interesting to see if Belle can change what he thinks of himself, but unless she is given the opportunity to start growing again as a character, I don't see how that will be possible.

If the story continues to follow the Jane Eyre plot line (as I hope that it does), then perhaps Belle, after discovering Rumpel's secret, will decide it's best to leave him. This would give both characters room to grow on their own, confront their separate demons, overcome their separate fears, and perhaps change for the better. But I really believe that, unless they both get this opportunity to grow, there will never be a believably happy ending for Rumbelle, marriage or no marriage.