#i’m not anti belle french but i don’t think she’s this ‘blameless’ victim in her relationship with rumple either

[gch1995]

This show would have first come out around the time I was 16 years old in my sophomore year of high school. However, I didn’t actually start watching it for the first time until my freshman year of college when I was 19, during winter break, and it was right before S4 was about to start. I quickly latched on to Rumple and Emma’s stories with their loved ones because I really related to their introverted outsider who are afraid to be emotionally vulnerable with people personalities. I really related to their fear of being unlovable.

Looking back, the problems in the writing of ableism, abuse apology, classism, misogyny, moral double standards between Rumple versus every other character, bizarre plot holes, retcons, and twists that didn’t always make any sense started showing up as early on as S1. However, the show was actually entertaining in the beginning with enough coherency, consistency, depth, and actual dynamic growth of character in the main cast to make up for the parts that were cringey and nonsensical. After the Neverland arc, it was like Kitsowitz and the writers rebooted the show as a magical Disney sponsored soap opera AU for a much less mature and intelligent audience because it very much became a show that relied heavily on framing characters by shoehorning them into “hero,” “villain,”and “redeemed” roles selectively and hypocritically based on the plot and/or how the writers desired their audience to feel about them, regardless of previously established canon, or regardless of how objectively bad the choices they made were. It relied a lot more on Kitsowitz and the writers tricking and teasing the audience post 3A, rather than telling a story that made consistent, logical, and well-developed sense, especially with Emma, Hook, Rumple, and Belle. In earlier seasons, the characters actually used to have a sense of humor, hang out, and laugh with each other, but since 2B, it had just become constant separation, fighting, and/or angst beyond reuniting and being together happily for a centric episode or two. It relied on them believing their audience would be dumb enough to buy the fact that the first three seasons never happened, especially with Rumple.

It’s like these characters never got the chance to be human and settle down with each other. I think the best they managed was with Regina and the Charmings, but even with them, the plot was often separating them for the next big magical thing.

It should have ended with the Neverland arc, and as far as I’m concerned, that was actually when it did. The rest of it was a shitty magical soap opera reboot that was only worth existing at all because Kitsowitz and the writers many failures of character assassination and wasted potential in the show inspired far superior fanfic, theories and headcanons from those of us in the fandom.

I’m 25 going on 26 now, but I remember coming into the fandom when the war between the Rumbelle fandom went into factions of Dearies vs Beauties. Personally, I think Rumple and Belle in canon did and/or said their fair share of wildly ooc, fucked up, and toxic shit to each other that most sane people would never forgive, or at least have a lot of trouble forgiving, a partner, friend, or family member for in real life for. If you look at this show objectively, everyone would have at least one major felony and/or misdemeanor on their record in real life, except for maybe, Henry, including Emma, Snow, David, and Belle post S3. Everyone who lasted post S3 was pretty inexcusably awful to one another at one point or another. So while I usually tried not to take sides between Rumple and Belle post S3 because the writing for both of them had become so ridiculously ooc and melodramatically toxic, I did tend to have a softer spot for canon Rumple than canon Belle in their drama because I knew that Rumple would always get demonized and punished for behaving in wildly ooc, abusive, controlling, deceptive, and/or manipulative ways with Belle, whereas she mostly wouldn’t because she was the “hero.”

You know what? Being a 20 year old OUAT fan in this day and age is fucking weird and wild sometimes.

Because I’m sitting here reading all these fanfics written in like 2012 before everything was already known. I’m seeing people’s long-forgotten fan theories and and I’m thinking “Damn, I wish I could’ve been in this fandom back then. Would’ve been so nice to be a part of the community when it was so new and active.”

But then at the same time I’m realizing that Jared Gilmore is older than me by two months and that I would’ve had no business reading most of these fics that I’m stumbling across back then.