Once Upon a Time 5.14 | Devil's Due
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Once Upon a Time 5.14 | Devil's Due
ouat text posts: rumple (pt. 32)
reallyrachelshelly: THANK YOU for a wonderful, love-fuelled weekend! @frconventions My heart is brimming with your generosity and kindness. ❤️❤️❤️
I have a headcanon for Rumple.
Rumplestiltskin, the man before the Dark One. Didn't know how to read. But he was very good at art.
And I have an ✨ explanation ✨
[Idk if someone has a hc like this but basically I've gotten back in OUAT and when I first watched the show I had no internet access lol-]
Anyways the explanation.
He was poor, a child abandoned, the two women taught him their craft and loved him like their own but I absolutely believe they too were not literate, they couldn't teach him. And no one else would, for he was a son who's parents had abandoned him. So, he never learned when he was a kid.
People didn't want to be associated with that child. Pity him yes, but let's be honest. Most wouldn't help.
Then he got married and, yeah I believe Milah knew how to read. By that point he knew only to read and write his own name, perhaps a word or two. Nothing more. When he asked her to teach him, she didn't. She must have said something along the lines of, “You spin Rumple. Whatever would you need to read for when spinning a wheel.”
Right, this he put in his head. He was a spinner. Spinners didn't need words. That would bring him nothing.
Now, you must be thinking, “But he got drafted for the war. He knew how to read that.”
Even if you didn't, I did lol. And basically that was very easy to explain. He asked someone to read it or, because people were being drafted, he knew what the letter looked like. He deduced it.
Though when Bae was born, and he had been crippled, he asked Milah to teach their son, she did. And Rumple would absolutely feel inadequate. Because his son would ask his Papa to read to him but Rumple couldn't (he tried teaching himself, but you only get so far without help, no?)
He couldn't give him stories in the books. So he came up with a solution. he drew. He drew stories for Bae, spun tales of distant lands (and his art became well... good)
And besides, Rumple's always been good at crafting.
Now, I also believe after he became the Dark One, he didn't learn. Didn't find a need to, his desire to learn had been dimmed and he was just focused on maintaining his presence as something feared and protecting his son.
That, and he had internalized Milah's words and believed if you wanted to learn to read, you needed to have some need for it (Milah's need for words, teaching her children.)
No, he learned once he lost Bae. Once he had to create the Dark Curse and gather power. And contracts were a powerful thing. So he learned only then, and he learned so well, this time with knowledge of previous Dark Ones, that he became one of the best manipulators there was, with contracts.
But the last thing, his curiosity never completely died. It just... hid behind the need to create the spells and gather power and control everything just so he could find Bae.
AND I ABSOLUTELY believe, Belle brought his love to learn just for the sake of learning again.
Her joy at books, the way she would light up, the way she would discuss things with him that made him want to debate with her and learn more about the topic she was reading just so he could debate with her and see her pov and present his own, this time knowing what he said would be heard not because he was the Dark One and had the solution to their problems, but because Belle just genuinely wanted to hear his thoughts
GOD I WISH CANON EXPLORED THIS INSTEAD OF THE CRAP THE WRITERS PULLED FOR RUMPLE ToT [I have a lot of grievances]
Also, Rumple would have made an excellent girl dad. He should have had a daughter with Belle (no offense to Gideon btw).
No I will not elaborate :3
[to be noted I don't remember crap about most of OUAT and have restarted it from Season 1 and if this was disproven later on, this headcanon can live rent free in my AUs OwO]
The concept of you dad being the son of your mom’s new boyfriend’s ex.
not a day goes by where i am not furious at the writers for robbing us of a Hook and Milah reunion
WE COULDVE HAD HOOK AND MILAH HUGGING
HE COULDVE APOLOGIZED FOR FAILING HER AND BAELFIRE AND THEN SHE COULD BE LIKE NAH WE'RE GOOD I JUST MISSED U AND ONE OF THOSE WAS JUST MY SHITTY EX HUSBANDS FAULT
WE COULDVE HAD TEARS
DRAMA
EMMA FEELING SUPER AWKWARD
GOLD BEING A BITTER LIL SHIT
WE COULDVE HAD IT ALL
FUCK YOU GOLD FOR THROWING HER INTO THE RIVER
Genuinely why was Milah of all people the overhated female character of ouat. "She abandoned her son she was abusive blah blah" pal did you forget she got murdered. Did you forget she paid the ultimate price for the things you hate her for. The fuck.
Every Killian Jones Scene (1/???) ↳ S02E04 - "The Crocodile"