Does Once Upon a Time‘s take on the “tale as old as time” deserve a fairytale ending? Let’s debate!

Belle and Rumpelstiltskin, or Rumbelle as Once Upon a Time fans have come to call them, are no longer the show’s will-they-won’t-they couple. Instead, over the last few seasons, Rumbelle has become the “should they?” couple.

Character Analysis

Rumpelstiltskin

Rumpelstiltskin is a complex, deeply wounded character. Abandoned as a child as a result of his father’s pursuit to live forever, Rumpel grew up betrayed by someone who desired power more than unconditional love. Years later he was again tossed aside, this time by his wife who viewed him as nothing more than a crippled coward who ran from war.

These actions left Rumpel with the twisted mentality that if he had power then everything else would magically fall into place. But power comes with a cost, one that isolated Rumpelstiltskin from his son, his former lover, and created a pile of enemies greater than all the lives lost in the ogre wars.

Belle French

Belle is a trusting, loving character. One brief skim of Belle’s history from curse to curse reveals a disturbing pattern. She encounters another Once Upon a Time character, be it her father or Gold or Anna, and she gives them a second, third, a fourth chance. For some people in her life, take Hook for example, that trust works in her favor. For others, it leads only to constant heartbreak.

Belle is no damsel in distress. She is tough, hard on herself, and a good friend to the town. Even as Lacey, an alter-ego that Regina conjured up by replacing Belle’s lost memory with a series of new ones, we saw a person who was drawn to what lies buried deep inside a person. Thus, during her interactions with Rumpel, we caught a glimpse of a woman drawn to the darkness in his heart.

There is room for both darkness and light inside a person and Belle has proven time and time again that she is attracted to the possibility of seeing a person become more than the actions of their past.

The Good

Once Upon a Time‘s spin on Beauty and the Beast hits all the hallmark moments of the classic tale. There is the chipped cup that reminds the audience, and Belle, that just because a person is damaged doesn’t mean they should be tossed aside. We have been witness to the sweeping romantic arc of Rumpel making attempts to become a better person for Belle and Belle giving him the room he needs to explore what that means.

There is a bond between Belle and Rumpel that extends far beyond the physical aspects of their relationship. Belle, after all, has given Rumpel the gift of knowing that without power he is worth something to someone. Rumpel, in turn, lets Belle know that even if everything fails and the world ends at his hand, she has made a difference in one person’s life by letting him know true love.

The Bad

However, what good is a relationship that is based on fleeting moments of healthy interaction? Proclamations of love and trust mean nothing without action, and the right intention behind it.

Rumpel has, on numerous occasions, told Belle that power and magic will always be important to him. He loves her, sure, but when push comes to shove he will always retreat to the coward who cannot accept love is enough. Take a look at their proposal and wedding as one example.

Mr. Gold proposes to Belle after giving her the dagger, a symbol of great trust and commitment. But he swapped the dagger for a replica while she celebrated his commitment to their love. Gold is not able to separate love as an essential human connection from a tool to use against human weakness.

In his weakest state, when Emma and Hook took a turn playing Dark One, Gold’s cowardice gave Belle the position of being the one with all the power. In that time Gold still managed to lie and push Belle out of Storybrooke, but she once again choose to see the silver lining on that dark, dark cloud of deceit.

Gold tried to protect her from the harsh reality of the world, putting her to sleep when the shattered sight spell took over the town and sending her outside the town line when certain destruction faced the town. Are these the actions of a man who cares or one who is afraid of witnessing the suppressed strength of his lover and disappointing her through his own actions?

Even after discovering that the father of her child may have accidentally traded their unborn son to Hades, she took it upon herself to find a way to manipulate the Dark One’s magic into light magic, something that Merlin once suggested was possible. All efforts to coax the warmer, fuzzier Gold out into the sunlight failed beyond this last attempt and as Belle’s dreamscape revealed, she still lives in fear of the darkest parts of Rumpel’s character.

What do you think?

Is this relationship more work than it is worth? Or, as Snow White would attest, is there hope in it after all?

Watch Once Upon a Time season 6, episode 2, “A Bitter Draught,” Sunday, October 2 at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.