Ok so I keep thinking about how Rumpel should have been the main character on Once Upon A Time. Like the curse and Emma and Regina were all window dressing for the story of a tragic character who was doomed by prophecy as a baby. Like I'm not saying that the other characters were pointless (I mean I feel like some were but I'm trying to be objective about this lol). Everyone had a role to play in the narrative but they picked the wrong protagonist/protagonists.
You mean to tell me that this whole time we're supposed to think this is about Regina's fall into evil but behind it all was a man desperately trying to find his way back to his son??? And through the years we find that he's been traumatized again and again???
And yeah they say the show is about hope but this was also about Generational Trauma TM. And the writers majorly effed up by getting lost in the sauce of new curse to break, new characters to introduce every season kind of deal. Like as someone who suffers from inherited trauma (is that an official term idk but like i got ptsd from my parent's ptsd kinda thing), I know that my trauma started at least 100 years ago and I will never have the closure of figuring out how to untangle that knot. BUT Henry had Rumpelstiltskin RIGHT THERE in his face! Baelfire had Peter Pan RIGHT THERE in his face!
Like how healing would it have been if Baelfire knew why his father was terrified of the magic bean portal??? If he knew how beaten down and afraid Rumpel really was. How he was still very much that 8 year old boy being ripped away from his Papa because he wasn't wanted anymore.
And WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY KILLED OFF BAELFIRE BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH HIM???? You have him work through all of that stuff!
And then we find out that Rumpel was supposed to be the savior this whole time???
And liek they had already spent so much time building True Love and the concept of THE Savior and you mean to tell me that we spend the MOST of that arc STILL focusing on the Charming Clan?????????????????????? And the Evil Queen reborn. Like COME ON!
They gave us Dark Swan for the King Arthur arc WHEN RUMPEL WAS RIGHT THERE! He had been grappling with doing good and evil. Having to choose to be a better man but somehow it was easier for them to put him in a magical coma because they wanted Hook and Swan ANGST???? ADDITIONALLY YOU MEAN TO TELL ME YOU'RE GONNA TELL ME THAT THEY WENT TO THE UNDERWORLD FOR HOOK AND NOT BAELFIRE???
I had to sit through the friggin fake dagger plot WHEN THE OBVIOUS CHOICE was Rumpel- the guy who TORE UNIVERSES APART to find his son- forcing his way into Hades and rewriting the laws of magic, good and evil, life and death, and the universe TO FIND HIS SON!
Like the main reason I cannot stand OG!Hook is because he's essentially pointless. He's a transitory character at best. He was given Rumpel's happy ending because he was young and hot. (sorry not sorry)
Now when I talked about it with my hubby he was like you're not a partial party because you love Rumpel and Rumbelle, and at the time I couldn't say that he was wrong, I mean I did tell him very loudly that he was, but he was partly right. But all I could say was NO I don't like him because- to steal the Family Guy meme- he insists upon himself. And it wasn't until season 7 that I could be fully convinced that I wasn't just hating to hate. Because I LOVED Wish!Hook
He was exactly what OG!Hook's redemption arc should have been. Nothing was handwaved, he took responsibility for his actions, and he even left Rumpel the hell alone.
In that way I can never forgive the writers because they gave every villain redemption without them even really trying or apologizing. Even Regina got more grace than Rumpel did and she also killed a lot of people for less than stellar reasons. And all Rumpel had to do was breathe and people were accusing him of being nefarious. Even when he was actually trying to do Good TM.
And like Wish!Hook was like stay the hell away from my daughter but then was like oh, oh crap you've actually grown and changed as a human let me give you your side of the Enchanted Bayou (or where ever the hell they were) and I'll let you have your side. And we'll just let the past go.
Whereas OG!Hook NEVER EVER let Rumpel breathe. Like dude you were a pirate who ran away with his wife and were a bully just so you could be a bully. Even Rumpel had better reasons for turning people into snails than Because I Can. NOT GOOD reasons but better reasons. This is all degrees of morality here. No one was an actual Hero on this show but somehow they still insisted on a black vs white narrative. And yes I condemn Milah in the same way too. I'm sorry you chose Piracy because your life sucked so you were like making other people's life suck seems to be the good life?????????????
Essentially what I'm trying to say is that they could've saved us all some heartache and grief if they completely eliminated most of seasons 4-6 tightened up the story telling. Still have kept Rumpel as complicated as he was while not making him make the worst and honestly out of character decisions possible. And in the end season 7 ended reaffirming my belief that the story was about Rumpelstiltskin all along because he saved the day by sacrificing himself.
His story is the thru-line it started with him and ended with him. Regina's coronation was a footnote at best.
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