The Two of Them

Whether you call them the Stiltskins or the Golds, Belle French and Rumpelstiltskin met in a way that was true to the original old world story of Beauty & the Beast, but their relationship was about as tortured as the vibrant layers and textures of the 10x told tales of the old ABC series "Once Upon A Time." The stories were dated, but the series was not.

More than anything, what made the love of Belle & Rumpel so iconic is that if Rumpel had never lost his son, Baelfire, the story wouldn't have had a foundational lamp with which to guide itself into its own universal future. That story's future was one that the citizens of the Enchanted Forest would never have known without him.

It was because of the loss of his son to another 'realm' that we were continuously transported over the waters from the ancient worlds of many kings and kingdoms and into the modern worlds of (mainly) Storybrooke, Maine; Boston, Massachusetts; and New York City, New York.

It's anyone's guess why we had to stay in the ancient western world that was based on antique eastern stories, then over into modern-day USA, and then skedaddle on over to the worlde of olde London, thus dabbling around the ancient Far East, from time to time.

But needless to say, that was Rumpelstiltskin all over and all day long.

He was a twisted spineless yet spiny whimsical non-sensical and yet extremely intelligent 'middle-aged-looking' antiquated man with personality issues that he could only resolve by being the "Beast" that he was. Or at least that's what he thought. Belle, the love of his life and his worst enemy regardless, wasn't quite as complicated, but her simplicity mixed with his complexities made for quite an iconic duo indeed.

His ability to love so hard and fierce (yes, he did deeply love Baelfire's mother, Mila), and yet simultaneously absorb pure hatred and not think twice about taking another person's life out of anger-including that of the mother of his beloved child-was intriguing enough; yet, that wasn't all there was to Rumpel.

Thin lines between love and hate do not accurately describe Rumpel, nor does it describe what made him -with his acceptable looks- so attractive to so many women. First to Mila, then to women so wickedly vile as mother Cora and both her evil daughters, Zelena and Regina, and then to something as gorgeous and adversely driven to his wretched personality as Belle French.

Side Note: One has to wonder how it is that Mila so deeply hated Rumpel's cowardice, but was still attracted enough to him, cowardice and all, to marry him, bear him a son and then become outraged at the fact that he traded her ability to have any more children (with him) in the future in order to save Bae. He must have been 'magic' to her before he had any magic, or she just needed any old excuse (like ETERNAL BARRENNESS) to leave him. Hmmm. Anywho...

The creators of this do-forever were exactly right to run its intricate golden threads threads through the mixture of Rumpel's nerve and gall.

They not only answered the question of why Stiltskin was always making 'deals' and kidnapping people's kids, but the writers made his nerves even thicker by adding Belle (from a whole 'nother story) and running the two stories together. His kinship to the Crocodile from the Captain Hook/Jolly Roger series was laughable, but it didn't complicate things too much.

Stiltskin off'd Mila Stiltskin without so much as a wince and then went after her lover, Hook, with a vengeance, promising him a good long chase and eventual killing in return.

Belle's Needs versus Rumpel's Needs

Belle's willingness to turn herself over to Rumpel for the sake of her father's kingdom, and her even deeper need to be a 'tragic heroine' of some kind; along with Rumpel's willingness to turn himself over to the darkness to save his son and his even deeper need for the 'power of magic', captured every sense and sensibility that a human being can experience in a lifetime.

Yes - the power of magic was a crutch for a man who hobbled himself in an act of cowardice, but Rumpel's strict belief in prophecies -in which he made himself a 'god' of sorts- also added another thick layer to the story. It would later prove nearly impossible for the writers to untangle Rumpel from his own messes and also set him straight again. Regardless, with unrequited love at the root of all that evil, everything had to evolve around Rumpel or there was no story.

In the end, the love Rumpel had for Belle was so deep that he would have had to do something extremely drastic to find his way back into her heart and then back into both her lives, the one on this side and the life on the other side.

At the heart of all of this love, hate, evil, and evolution was forgiveness-the agape kind of forgiveness that would open its heart to a man who did nothing but kill people, often just for fun. The forgiveness piece, of course, was more to Belle's credit than it was to the story's universe; without her non-magical god-ess spirit, he was thoroughly unconscionable and without redemptive elements. [Note: Hollywood has its own peculiar way of de-sensitizing the world to the horror of blatantly inexcusable ice cold murder and this, they did, by using Belle as a cushion.]

No spoiler warning is needed: You'd have to see it for yourself to understand what I just said. If you have seen it, you know exactly what this means.

His & Hers Inks

His needs, her needs and the two of them together was explosive as all get-out for the writers. So explosive and iconic that it should have killed both of them just for them to be together.

Belle finally realized that not even Rumpel's love for his son or his deep love for her would purge the evil out of him without his own willingness to let it all go; and Rumpel/Gold's only fear was of losing that inhumane dagger.

Her Ink: Belle got shot by Captain Hook during an attempt of Gold to exit Storybroooke with his unwilling wife in tow. And better than a shooting, which she survived but lost and then regained her memory in the process, Belle finally got so sick of Rumpel and his real 'crutch' - the dagger and the power of magic- that she put his ass smack out of Storybrooke and meant for him to never return, caneless gimp walk and all.

His Ink: However, return to Storybrooke he did--even after she banished him for good with his own dagger. And then "it was on like popco-n".

BOOM.

Not quite "The End."

-30-