#anti-kitsowitz

[enchantedxhearts]

All this CS gifsets on my dash and rewatch of some episodes not only tempt me to add OG!Hook (a divergent version of him, of course, fy Eddie and Adam) but also got me thinking... thinking that it's not even Hook himself I hate so much, it's the way writers treated him,

like "we declare him to all of sudden be a good guy so everyone should think of him as a good guy without any redeeming steps on his part (I'm not saying he didn't do good things after S2, I'm saying he didn't actually try to redeem himself, like, you know, at least try to apologize to people like Belle and Archie for all the shitty things he'd done before he fell for Emma and joined the hero squad)",

like "we're gonna half-ass him a tragic backstory in a poor attempt to show that he is actually a good guy who became a villain because bad things happened to him" (mind you, I'm not saying anything against his backstory, just that it looked like it was very hastily and poorly thrown together),

like "we are gonna make up some new bad things he did way in the past so we can show that he is remorseful about them but we are going to totally ignore all the bad things viewers saw him do back in S2"

So I am actually seriously considering adding Hook here and giving him the proper redemption arc he (or at least Colin, who is such a fantastic actor it's a shame they wasted him a lot on a pretty one-dimensional and poorly-thought through character when it could have been a really great character, and Emma, in the universe where he is her True Love, do) deserves.

[violetfaust]

Wow.

Reading that Vanity Fair expose on how the Lost writers' room was exceedingly toxic, racist, and sexist sure shines a light on Kitsowitz and how they ran OUAT.

[celticheartedfangirl]

Waves hi -- been revisiting old posts so here's a reminder that OUAT has been off the air for almost FIVE YEARS and every project that A&E has attempted since has either tanked or been canceled before it even started.

I am now confident in saying that my curse worked!!!

[thestory812]

When you realize two sets of male show-runners butchered their show’s “twist on Beauty and the Beast” stories.

[gch1995]

No one hates OUAT more than those of us in the fandom who actually watched it and/or followed it long enough to fully realize just how disappointingly awful, hopeless, and ridiculous the writing became in the piss poor excuse for canon the show devolved into the longer it went on, even though it was supposed to “be fun” and “give us hope.” At least all of its beautiful wasted potential became an outlet for far superior writing in our headcanons and fanfiction, though, no matter how shitty the actual show got.

I always feel so bad for newbies in the fandom who haven’t yet uncovered the horrific clusterfuck of bad writing this show ultimately devolved into. A part of me always feels like telling new fans to just spare themselves the pain, and to just quit watching after the Neverland arc. The majority of those of us in the OUAT fandom agree that the show’s writing ultimately devolved into a painfully biased, cheaply shocking, cheesy, wildly inconsistent, melodramatic, nonsensical, pandering, repetitive, and wildly ooc unsalvageable mess of bad writing that made us feel angry, betrayed, bored, and disgusted more often than not after that.

However, even after the show’s writing went completely off the rails beyond all salvaging, there were still those gold nuggets of wasted potential for characters, relationships, and storylines that could have and should have been amazing, if Kitsowitz and these writers actually had been able to be consistently competent and professional at their jobs. Particularly when looking back at the first two-and-a-half seasons of OUAT, I feel a great sense of disappointment at just how much beautiful and interesting potential they ultimately wasted in these characters and relationships in favor of blatantly biased, cheaply shocking, contrived, nonsensical, mutually toxic, wildly ooc, repetitive, and thus, character destroying magical soap opera melodrama.

There’s always this deep sense of disappointment in me over the amazing show that canon OUAT ultimately could have and should have been whenever I see all of those golden nuggets of tragically wasted potential Kitsowitz and these writers showed us in those moments when they were actually being competent show-runners and writers, particularly in S1-2A before they show got too distracted by the next big contrived magical thing to actually let the characters slow down, talk to each other, hang out with each other, and grow and react like in-character and relatable human beings. If only they were able to ultimately write and stick to a consistent, relatable, gradual, realistic, and organic course of character development that actually would have ultimately made these characters, happy endings, redemption arcs, and/or regression arcs actually feel well-earned and satisfying in the end.

Instead, they ended up erasing, minimizing, and/or outright romanticizing certain bad behaviors and choices of their characters at certain points and the negative consequences and/or effects they had in regards to those they hurt and/or victimized.

Instead, they ended up outright derailing most of their characters normally and/or consistently previously established complex, intelligent, and sympathetic characterizations and/or positive development at one point or another in order to rerail them over and over and over again more and more post S3 in increasingly abrupt, cheaply shocking, contrived, disappointing, flanderdized, horrifying, melodramatically toxic, and nonsensical ways that made them suddenly come across as uncharacteristically unsympathetic and stupid out of nowhere.

Instead, they created absurdities out of nowhere to inorganically force the characters to regress in ways that contradicted all previously established canon characterization, continuity, and previously established logic on the show.

Instead, they selectively bent, broke, and contradicted their own rules of magic with less and less fairness, rhyme, or reason as every season passed the first.

If only they had consistently and fairly stuck to their own rules and limitations of what magic could and couldn’t do. If only they treated their characters as complex and relatable human beings and equals with compelling, consistent, and realistic personalities, flaws, conflicts, regressions, redemptions, and resolutions that drove their stories consistently, gradually, organically, and realistically because of who they were and/or developed into as people, rather than because nonsensical asspulled twists and/or magical macguffins demanded that these characters suddenly become whatever they needed them to become a certain way to create cheap shock value, suspense, drama, and repetitive storytelling, regardless of all previously established characterization, continuity, development, and logic in their own canon.

Instead, they decided to cherry pick favorite characters and/or ships to frame as “redeemed” in the narrative, even though they may not have actually done anything to earn it and/or regressed without any negative consequences for doing so, just because Emma and the Charmings accepted them as “family.”

Instead, they ended up slapping increasingly biased, petty, meaningless, and shallow “hero” and “villain” labels on all of their characters, regardless of how objectively and needlessly harmful their choices, behaviors, and reactions may have been to others, in spite of being on the “right” side.

But we all ultimately sustained ourselves in the OUAT fandom by imagining just how amazing these characters, their relationships, and their storylines could have and should have been, trying to disregard the character assassinating bad writing in the piss poor excuse for canon that OUAT ultimately devolved into, taking Kitsowitz and these writers golden nuggets of tragically wasted potential for these characters, their relationships, and creating far superior works of art with those golden nuggests of wasted potential in canon with our headcanons and fan fiction.

OUAT isn’t a show that stuck with most of us because we were impressed by its writing in canon. In fact, most of us are fully aware that there were writing choices in the piss poor excuse of canon OUAT our favorite characters and relationships on the show that were inexcusably awful, biased, cheesy, cheaply shocking, gross, offensive, inconsistent, nonsensical, tone-deaf, wildly ooc, and/or repetitive at one point or another. Honestly, if the main character and/or relationship lasted past S3 in the main cast, then Kitsowitz and the writers destroyed your favorite character and/or ship with bad writing at one point or another.

After the writers unceremoniously killed off Bae/Neal, and resurrected Rumple from the show’s most consistently relatable, realistic, sympathetic, and well-earned two-and-a-half season redemption arc from S1-3A, it became clear thet they ran out of story to tell after wrapping up the Neverland arc, and had no idea where else they were supposed to go with Emma, Regina, Hook, Rumple, Belle, Snow, David, and even Henry’s individual characters or relationships anymore.

We know canon OUAT became a shitshow of inexcusably bad writing. We know it became horrifying and stupid. However, most of us didn’t actually remain in this fandom because we agreed with the writing on the show. We latched onto it so strongly because of its amazing main cast. We latched on to it so deeply because it showed us how to not completely fuck up amazing, relatable, and compelling individual characters, their relationships, and their storylines with biased, hypocritical, ableist, classist, homophobic, racist, sexist, petty, cheaply shocking, gross, wildly ooc, flanderdized, melodramatic, pandering, repetitive, and nonsensical lazy plot-driven writing. Granted, these problems were starting to show up in canon OUAT’s writing as early on as S1. However, after 3A, the show’s writing completely went off the rails for everyone in the remaining main cast that lasted past S3, and these characters and their relationships never fully recovered what made them at all coherent, compelling, magical, relatable, and enjoyable to watch and get invested in in canon from S1-S3, in spite of their obvious flaws.

Most of us have remained in the OUAT fandom because the show’s shitty writing choices and wasted potential inspired most of us to tell far better stories than Kitsowitz and their team of hacks ultimately did.

[grace52373]

Not really in defense, just more explaining things

I don’t speak for the fandom, let’s get that cleared up. I can only speak on what I have seen. I would never tell anybody not to block anything they might not like, find offensive, etc on their blogs. I have been blocked by a few people, I am not sure why but I don’t question it. My one thing on my blog is that my followers have a safe space to talk, debate, and find something to enjoy. My only rule is you must tag that way no one sees something they shouldn’t. For instance, I am pretty much anti-cs and cs bad apple fans but in respect to my followers who aren’t, I tag and I encourage other followers to tag as well. If you see something you shouldn’t and it appears untagged, feel free to come into my inbox and ask me even if anonymous. That said, don’t assume that because it is on my blog that I 100% agree with every poster. I just believe in free speech and I think that everyone, whether I agree or not, has a right to express their opinions freely as long as they are not a porn blog, or a violent hate blog. 

I am a fan of many different movies and shows and I am conservative and religious. I don’t care if you disagree with me on issues or agree with me, I just want to have a blog that is open to all kinds of opinions but you must tag or I will nag you about it or tag it for you! LOL! My followers and some of the people I follow can attest to the nagging part!

We all come from different backgrounds and share different opinions. What may not bother me, may bother you and vice versa. That is why I insist on tagging and please if you find something untagged that disturbs you, give me a chance to fix that before blocking but if blocking makes you feel better, than do it. 

One of the reasons I am addressing this is not only because of my real life views on politics and religion but for my fandom views on Rumbelle.

I have followers who see Rumple as abusive and Belle as abusive. I sometimes reblogged if something is said that I agree with, or I will like because even if I disagree, I support their right to an opinion and I won’t give them hell for it. If they ask for an opinion, I will give it. I have learned from my rookie tumblr mistakes and am trying to do better. 

My views on Rumbelle are this: i love them. From the moment the characters interacted on screen I thought these two are really bringing my favorite fairy tale to life and putting an even better, more realistic spin on it. I acknowledge that they have faults and I acknowledge that this is the writers doing and I refuse to hate a character they are deliberately writing oc! Rumple and Belle were oc for the first half of season 6 and they aren’t the only ones. Rumple and Belle are both guilty imo of unhealthy bordering on abusive behavior towards each other. Rumple locking her up on the boat, and his putting a tracking device on her was indicative of real life abuse and now before my pro Rumple fans jump down my throat, i realize that his actions were bad but do not make him abusive overall. He never treated Belle like that before and he always, always respected her autonomy. I believe Belle’s fears from her issues with Rumple, her being unsure of who to trust and her manipulation by the Black fairy through her son pushed her over the edge. She went into overprotective mommy zone without thinking of the consequences or thinking that she may be overreacting and really has no proof that Rumple will hurt the baby. I think it pushed him over the edge because he lost a baby, his new baby hates him and is separating him from his love and his wife is working with his enemies against him and threatening to run away with their son and he will never see them again, ergo, Rumple’s pain over Bae is being revisited and is pushing him to try to stop her from taking their son. I understand why both are reacting the way they are even if I don’t agree with it and want to say. sit down and talk already!

Belle on the other hand is no Milah 2.0! her language towards Rumple is similiar and is bordering on abusive. How do I know this? Because of what my followers who have been abused and because of what my cousin has told me. My cousin and some of my followers were abused and they heard in Belle’s lines, the same things their abusers said. I think the Milah comparisons are because like Milah, Belle called him a coward because she said his fear made him weak or too weak to be good. That is not something a person going through real life struggles, addictions, or illnesses needs to hear and I want to slap Adam and Eddie for including this line and using a well beloved and compassionate character to do it. if Hook said it or Regina, it would be dismissed but because Belle said it, people were hurt. The people I saw calling Belle abusive were not women haters in the least, they were abuse survivors who saw a character they love say things their abusers said. Disagree with them all you want but please don’t judge them so harshly. Her language towards Rumple and her begging him to spare his enemies including the one who killed his son along with having said enemies threaten to use Rumple’s dagger on him, and wanting to kill him while she stand by and does nothing, and her use of the dagger against him soured me on Belle as much as what Rumple did soured me on him too. I know Belle’s treatment of Rumple was coming from a place of distrust and deep betrayal. Even though I don’t agree with her throwing him out of town with just the clothes on his back, I understood her pain, I understood both their pain and my heart broke for both of them.

I can never forgive Adam and Eddie for doing this to my favorite couple, for making me a non shipper for awhile and for hurting their fans. i cannot forgive them for doing this and not making the time to fix it. Rumbelle needed real conversations! Belle needed to know what lengths including tlk that Rumple did to wake her. Both needed to apologize and talk to each other but no, we continue to get meaningless CS and Hook scenes to the exclusion of all else. The characters had no time to react or process or be angry and that was a disservice to them and the show and the fans. 

Bottom line, I won’t judge you for thinking Rumple or Belle acted abusively in seasons 4-6 even if I don’t agree with it as long as you tag it. I will fight those who say Rumple was an abusive spouse to Milah or that Belle was an abused wife or about Rumple choosing power over Belle because it never happened! To me there is a difference over unhealthy, toxic, reactions vs real abusive situations. Rumbelle became toxic bordering on abusive in season 6 but they corrected it and made strides to be healthier. real abusive relationships rarely if ever improve or become healthy. Maybe instead of abusive we can use unhealthy instead?

[emospritelet]

Once Upon a Time or Good Omens? Rumbelle or Ineffable Husbands?

Oh man...

I kind of have this love/hate relationship with OUAT. It led me to Rumbelle, which changed my life, and has some truly unforgettable episodes like Skin Deep and Desperate Souls. I care so, so much about some of the characters, but I can’t get past some of the bullshit: the treatment of POC, the treatment of Rumbelle, killing off Neal, the way Zelena’s entire story was handled, Hook - existing. I’m never forgiving the showrunners for some of that crap. Good Omens, on the other hand, just made me smile from start to finish, so in terms of show?

Look at them. This was one of the many times me and Mr Sprite looked at one another and went Awwwww!

However, in terms of ship

Always and forever. I will ship them until my dying day

[licieoic]

I don’t care what it ends up being, I’m never watching anything written, produced, or run by Kitsowitz again. Burn me once, shame on them, burn me twice, shame on me. Never again!

[worryinglyinnocent]

Why are you down in the dumps about OUAT?

I just feel like everything I read about it seems to be bringing us further and further from a happy ending for rumbelle, and sometimes I just wonder why I bother putting so much emotional investment into a couple that the showrunners obviously don’t give a flying fuck about. 

[rumpykamon]

Just some random yet accurate Rumbelle facts

[pissedoffatouat]

Remember when MRJ said that it's "bold storytelling"? I stooped ouat, but always hoped to watch it once the story gets back on track and we see some "bold stories" I actually had hope. 

How could MRJ call the trash that happened after 3x15 "bold"?

How dare he call it "storytelling"? 

[thatscarletflycatcher]

I’m here thinking of an OUAT remake, ten years from now, in which kitsowitz have no involvement whatsoever, Hook is given Rook’s storyline since the beginning, Neal doesn’t die, Abby Ross plays Emma and Tom Hiddleston plays Rumple.

[violetfaust]

GOD I want to see Kitsowitz’s new Disney/fairy tale show crash and BURN. I want it to be clear to the entire world that the only reason OUAT survived as long as it did was a) incredible casting and acting, and b) being built on Damon Lindelof’s foundation.

[celticheartedfangirl]

Heh ..... also 😛😛😛😛😛 ..... also 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[thestory812]

Still not over how organic and true to character Rumple’s death was in Going Home and how contrived and dismissive Belle’s death in Beauty was.

[gch1995]

I see you liking all my old OUaT and Rumbelle content and it's really validating to know people are still mad at A&E for destroying my dreams

LOL! You should see my posts here that I made about why OUAT became an enduring legacy, and my comment on the “Does anyone here support Rumbelle?” post. This show is such a legacy because it showed all of us in the fandom mostly how to not completely fuck up and waste potential for amazing characters, relationships, and storylines with absurd, biased, cliched, inconsistent, ableist, classist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, racist, cheaply shocking, contrived, inconsistent, hypocritical, gross, repetitive, and stupid characterizations, twists, storylines, and tropes. The main cast, and the fact that the fans did OUAT far better is why this show ultimately became such an enduring legacy.

As for Rumple, Belle, and Rumbelle, I’ll always love them, both individually and as a couple, as they were originally characterized and written from S1-S3 of the show, in canon-divergent/AU fanfic scenarios, and in my imagination and headcanons as the characters and couple they could have and should have been and remained on the show.

However, I don’t support any of the cheaply shocking, contrived, wildly inconsistent, wildly flanderdized, and wildly ooc cartoonishly evil, exceedingly cruel, exceedingly conniving, exceedingly deceptive, exceedingly distrustful, exceedingly manipulative, exceedingly desperate, exceedingly hypocritical, exceedingly self-righteous, exceedingly selfish, exceedingly reckless, exceedingly self-sabotaging, exceedingly single-minded, and ridiculously oblivious and gullible plot-driven behaviors, reactions, and mischaracterizations for either one of them on-and-off-again in the piss poor excuse for canon that OUAT devolved into after the first two-and-a-half to three ish seasons, either individually or as a couple. Really, the absurd, cheaply shocking, contrived, inconsistent, flanderdized, and ooc melodramatic toxicity and stupidity was on both sides of their relationship pretty badly in regards to each other from late 3B-S6 on-and-off-again, so I’m not going to take sides.

I don’t support the increasingly contrived, unfair, and ridiculous nature of Rumple’s regressions on this show in canon the longer it went on on-and-off-again, starting in 2B.

I just refuse to hold any of it against either of the individual characters or their relationship together. I refuse to let it ruin my enjoyment of the individual characters and the pairing because I still cherish bittersweet, beautiful, relatable, and complex Rumbelle we originally got from S1-S3, and me, and the Rumbelle fandom stick to that version in our headcanons and canon-divergent/AU fanfic. Also so many of the shitty and stupid ways in which they reacted to each other in later seasons in canon was due to cheaply shocking, horrifically, inconsistently, illogically, and wildly OOC badly written mischaracterizations and extremes they were forced to through being driven by Kitsowitz and these writers increasingly blatant favoritism of Hook/CS, hypocrisy, and their increasingly absurd, cheaply shocking, and contrived twists, magical macguffins, prophecies, and twists in the plot with little to no consistent, organic, logical, or relatable lead up. It was just for the sake of shock value, creator pet propping, and repetitive storytelling, so it wasn’t even worth hating on either of the characters or the couple for any of it. Much of their wildly ooc shittiness and stupidity didn’t make any sort of consistent, relatable, or organic sense post S3 ish.

I could understand hating on the characters for becoming shitty, illogical, and unsympathetic people if characterization, development, or regression in canon OUAT made any sort of consistent, gradual, organic, and relatable sense that made hating them for it feel well-earned. However, there had been less and less consistency and credibility of characterization, development, regression, and storytelling in OUAT for these characters and relationships, starting in 2B, and after 3A, it just went completely off the rails into unforgivably bad territory because they killed off their core theme of family with Neal, broke their own rules of not being able to resurrect the dead by bringing back Rumple, reframed the narrative (and most of the remaining main cast’s original characterizations) around Hook/CS, retconned the characters previously established development, and derailed everyone in increasingly awful, cheaply shocking, and ridiculous ways to rerail them all over again full circle back to the development they achieved at the end of the Neverland arc.

The characters went between being characterized as good to evil, evil to good, sympathetic to unsympathetic, kind to cruel, cruel to kind, intelligent to stupid, trusting to distrusting, distrusting to trusting, forgiving to unforgiving, unforgiving to forgiving, sane to batshit insane, batshit insane to sane again, and so on in the blink of an eye based off of whatever the writers wanted for them to be to fit their absurd, biased, cheaply shocking and contrived plots and twists as every season passed. By the time we got to the end of 5A, they often weren’t even bothering to stay consistent with most of the characters characterizations and motivations throughout a single episode, particularly not with Emma, Hook, Rumple, and Belle who were part of all this cheaply shocking, contrived, toxic, and silly magical soap opera romantic melodrama. They were definitely the characters who it was most difficult for me to get a clear grasp on because of this, though everyone’s characterizations and motivations were often baffling and confusing to me, which is why I finally quit watching after S5.

I love the original Rumple who was deeply loving, and the original Rumple who was learning to respect Belle’s wishes, make compromises and always allowing her personal space when she wanted it. I love the original Rumple who was learning to be honest with Belle. I love the original Rumple who would never ever recklessly threaten to physically harm Belle for personal gain with magic, not even in a panic. I love the original Rumple who cried when Belle asked him out for a hamburger date, and the original Rumple who adorkably flirted with her by joking with her about ketchup.

I love the original Rumple who had an actual storyline with a consistent motivation in trying to make amends with his loved ones, particularly Bae, rather than the one of later seasons who seemed more motivated by excessive self-interest, recklessness, and desperation, no matter the cost, that came out of nowhere whenever some absurd and contrived magical macguffin and/or cruel twist of fate with magic came out of nowhere to tempt him back to the dark side again.

I love the original Rumple who was clearly and consistently framed and written as sympathetic in the narrative, in spite of his flaws, and on a clear path towards redemption, while also not being whitewashed or excused for most of his crimes and/or bad choices from S1-S3, and in canon-divergent/AU headcanon and fanon scenarios.

I love the original Belle of OUAT from “Skin Deep” to S3 and in canon-divergent/AU headcanon and fanon scenarios who was brave, compassionate, intelligent, independent, and perceptive. I love the original Belle, who saw people for who they really were, and who refused to take anyone’s shit, not just Rumple’s. I love the original Belle who was a genuinely good person who generally practiced the beliefs and morals she preached about to other people, rather than contradicting them herself whenever it was convenient for her, only to mercilessly and self-righteously condemn and vilify Rumple for so much as considering not doing the same with little to no self-awareness in regards to her own hypocritical toxicity.

I loved the original Belle who wasn’t glorified in the narrative for giving Rumple ultimatums to do what she said in order for them to be together, but who actually had to realize that, while she couldn’t and shouldn’t just sit back and enable Rumple’s bad choices and stay with him, no matter what he did, she also couldn’t treat their relationship status together as a biscuit on a string held above his head as reward that she was willing to snatch away when he didn’t comply in order to force him to be good. I love the original Belle who had values of heroism that were actually based off of who she was at her core, a brave, kind, open-minded, empathetic, perceptive, intuitive, and intelligent young woman, who valued free choice, empathy, and mercy, rather than the Belle who’s “heroism” became more about a shallow desire to emulate caricatures from archaic fairytales about knight defeating dark sorcerers and rescuing people, and a desire to fit in with “the cool kids of Storybrooke” by being exceedingly anti-Rumple, no matter what he did, right or wrong.

I love the original Belle who treated everyone fairly, including Rumple, even if it meant she didn’t get to fit in with the cool kids of Storybrooke by not being anti-Rumple to the point of excessive cruelty and refusing to engage with him in later seasons, even when he did try to reach out to her honestly, kindly, gently, and make healthy compromises. Recklessly endangering Rumple’s life by forcibly exiling him out of town with nothing was really the height of this character assassination in her in canon. Rumple deserved to be dumped for deceiving Belle. Belle had no choice but to use the dagger to stop him from being shady and killing Hook when she caught him red-handed.

However, Rumple did not deserve to have his life recklessly endangered by his true love forcibly exiling him from their home with nothing forever, especially because it didn’t really even seem like Belle cared all that much about the town’s safety when she made that choice, anyway. It was more that she was pissed that he lied, and misguidedly believed that he loved power more than her. He could have died because she left him with nothing out in the middle of nowhere. He almost did die because she left him with nothing out in the middle of nowhere. In real life, this could/would be a charge against her for at least a misdemeanor of DV, and at worst, a felony of involuntary manslaughter, if he actually did die because she recklessly endangered his life by forcibly exiling him with nothing. Yet, she didn’t even seem to feel that bad about it at all.

That to me, was a horrible character assassination in canon of Belle in 4A when she never had to deal with any sort of negative repercussions for it with Rumple calling her out as wrong, and/or being framed as not completely in the wrong for being distrusting of her. If she had, then I could have forgiven it, but she didn’t, so it made me dislike her in canon, and it’s one of the main reasons why I finally quit watching S5. I guess she finally got it at the end of 6A when she told Rumple “What have we done to each other?” However, too much inexplicable character assassinating damage had been done to both her and Rumple at that point in canon for me to forgive anymore. I just felt disgusted by the wildly ooc, ridiculously oblivious, and overdramatically toxic extremes Kitsowitz and their team of hacks had reduced them both to for the sake of cheap shock value, contrived Rumple villainy, repetitive storytelling, and Hook/CS propping. I was glad they got their “happy ending” and “redemption arc” in a shallow manner at the end of S6 because it was the least they deserved on this badly written clusterfuck of a fairytale show where everyone had screwed each other over terribly by being abusive, being exceedingly cruel, being exceedingly manipulative, being exceedingly deceptive, committing murder unjustifiably, committing attempted child abduction, committing attempted kidnapping, committing kidnapping, committing child abduction, recklessly endangering the lives of others needlessly, working with each other’s enemies needlessly, threatening to harm each other, and/or actually harming each other at least once now, if not multiple times, and were still getting a “happy ending” and “redemption arc, anyway, so this badly written canon Rumbelle might as well, too.

But it didn’t mean I was okay with any of the wildly ooc, cheaply shocking, contrived, horrifying, and stupid character destroying angst and twists Kitsowitz and their team of hacks had been pulling on Rumple and Belle, both individually and as a couple, for roughly three seasons from late 3B-6A. The canon Rumbelle from S4-S6 (and even S7) was mostly not the same ship that I had signed up for and latched on to so strongly, either individually or as a couple, from 1x08-S3, and I’m forever bitter that Kitsowitz and their team of hacks wasted the potential of those beautiful, bittersweet, complex, and relatable characters and their relationship together with believable flaws and strengths, so that they could keep shoehorning Rumple back into the scapegoat on-and-off-again villain plot device role after bringing him back.

I think this contrived, inorganic, and nonsensical nature of Rumple’s regressions started showing up in 2B with that “The boy will be your undoing” prophecy, but then we were still being privy to a huge chunk of his POV in the main narrative, so he came across as much more sympathetic throughout the whole thing, which made it so it didn’t feel too terribly ooc.

That little twist at that end where Rumple was suddenly attempting to murder Henry right at the end of 2B was kind of OOC because he was doing it after vowing not to do it all throughout 2B in the present day beforehand to save his own skin, particularly when he found out that he and Henry were related, and he kept having terrifying nightmares of doing it. That was the first small moment on the show where Rumple was suddenly derailed into a nearly irredeemable corner out of nowhere after being consistently portrayed as sympathetic beforehand, and it wasn’t necessary to get him to the point he was at at the end of 3A either. It was just a ooc moment to cheesily create a moment of cheaply shocking suspense in the audience of “Oh no, I thought Rumple was planning not to do this horrible thing before. What if he does this terrible thing, and can’t be redeemed anymore?...Oh, thank god someone was there to give him information that caused him to reconsider doing the cheaply shocking horrible thing right in the nick of time before he went too far, and now he’s back on the track for redemption that we previously had established he was before we threw in that twist out of nowhere to make you think he’d actually fail.”

However, I let it go back then because not wanting to die and lose the chance of being with his son again is a sympathetic motive for committing attempted murder of someone, even an innocent, and even if the reasoning behind why is kind of bizarre, for plot reasons, and he did get back on the right track again a moment later after being told Bae was “dead”. Aside from that one wildly ooc moment at the last minute of 2B, though, Rumple had pretty clearly shown that he did not want to kill Henry, felt terrified about doing it, and then he went right back on track a minute later and decided not to do it when Snowing told him that Bae was “dead,” which ultimately culminated in him selflessly sacrificing his life to save Henry, Bae, Belle, and the rest of the town. Rumple’s character should have just stayed dead after that because, in spite of a few flaws here and there in the writing, it was a pretty relatively consistent, organic, beautiful, and well-earned arc, and there really wasn’t anywhere else to go up with him after having him do that, anyway.

Also, the Lacey twist was the first small instance contrived twist that took away Belle’s original sympathetic and intelligent characterization and agency in story that should have been about both her and Rumple, so that they could make Rumple look somewhat distrust-worthy and shady when he was forced to be somewhat dark/morally ambiguous to get Lacey’s attention to protect Belle from herself when he couldn’t get through to her by being the best version of himself that she fell in love with, and didn’t know what else to do. I didn’t get too worked up about it back then because it had only happened once, but yeah, I didn’t like the dubious consent issues that the whole Lacey/Belle twist created, or the fact that Belle’s agency was suddenly taken away to make Rumple look kind of shady. I didn’t like the fact that Belle was made to be uncharacteristically stupid and unsympathetic, so that they could use her as a plot device that put Rumple in a position where he felt either tempted and/or forced to be shady again.

I’ve seen canon-divergent/AU stories of Rumple’s resurrection and ultimate redemption stories done really well by the far superior creative writers in the Dearie/Rumbelle fandom, particularly by @toseehowthestoryends. But Kitsowitz and their team of writers lacked the desire and the skill to pull it off. They weren’t ultimately interested in writing consistent, organic, and relatable characterization development, or human reactions in their characters. They picked favorites. They kept shoehorning characters into “hero” and “villain” slots, even after all of these characters had become pretty inexcusably toxic to each other in one way or another, and either didn’t recognize and/or didn’t care to recognize, their own hypocrisy. They relied too hard on cheap shock value and contrived magical twists and macguffins to drive their story, even if it meant they felt they had to sacrifice their characters credibility and integrity.

Frankly, the entire show should have just ended altogether after the Neverland arc because that was clearly all the story for growth they had planned out ahead of time for Emma, Snow, David, Regina, Rumple, Henry, and even Hook, their favorite, too, anyway.

After that arc, Bae’s death, Rumple’s resurrection, and the promotion of Hook to the main lead, the Aesop’s Amnesia trope kept hitting all of these remaining main characters in increasingly cheaply shocking, contrived, wildly ooc, painful, flanderdized, ridiculous, and unsympathetic ways in order to force them to relearn the same lessons they already had learned to grow past relatively consistently, dynamically, and sympathetically throughout S1-3A. They brought the show back after they ran out of story, killed off their core theme of family with Neal, resurrected Rumple from the best done two-and-a-half season redemption arc to demonize him on-and-off-again as a foil for “hero” Hook, set up Hook as the romantic lead for Emma, ruined Emma for Hook, and derailed all of their remaining main characters to re-rail them over and over and over and over again.

The only one who remained mostly consistent, normal, and in-character post S3 was Regina, and even she was getting the character derailing Aesop’s Amnesia trope and idiot ball throughout S4-S6 sometimes in trying to find magical solutions to artificially absolve herself of her guilt from her past crimes, such as searching for the author in S4, and using the shears to split off her dark side in 5B and 6A. Just why? I get that you feel guilty about the crimes you committed Regina, but you’ve gained Henry, Emma, the Charmings, and the rest of the town’s forgiveness and acceptance by trying to be better before. Just keep trying to be better, take ownership of the crimes you’ve made in the past, admit that you were wrong, and move on by being content with the happy ending and redemption with the family you’ve always wanted earned here in the present day now, rather than needlessly and stupidly self-sabotaging by seeking out magical solutions to artificially absolve your guilt. If it’s really that hard for you to move on from the past by accepting personal accountability for your crimes, then I would recommend going to see Archie for therapy again to talk about, but don’t stupidly sabotage the good things you already have earned here and now with Henry and the Charmings acceptance and forgiveness to try to artificially absolve yourself of your guilt with magic.

Otherwise, Regina got her crimes whitewashed, she never really had any sort of resolution to the dumb choices with magic she made, and her character just fell flat after the Neverland arc because she never really learned anything new or grew any further after her attempted selfless sacrifice in 2B to save Henry and the town, and her selfless choice to let Henry go with Emma to save him at the end of “Going Home,” in spite of his memories getting erased of her in process once he crossed the town line. Regina never became the outright evil cartoon villain she was back in S1 whenever she backslid post S3, which is more than I can say for the writing of the other main villains on this show in canon whenever they regressed post S3, but she was still kind of falling back into old patterns and storylines with the Aesop’s Amnesia and idiot ball bad writing tropes in order to force her to relearn lessons that she already had back in S2-3A.

There was a particularly painful egregiousness to the character assassinations of Rumple, Belle, and Emma to prop up Hook/CS, though. Rumple was the only other morally gray male anti-villain on the show, and a huge part of Hook’s original introduction on the show was due to the fact that Rumple was the villain in his story when he killed Milah in an impulsive rage over her leaving Bae. Because they were lazy terrible writers, who didn’t want to put in any sort of effort to actually taking the time to believably and organically develop Hook into a redemptive anti-villain/antihero in his own right, Kitsowitz and these writers resorted to inorganically forcing the character to be the “redeemed” antiheroic main lead by setting him up in a contrived, creepy, and wildly ooc cheap Rumbelle rip-off romance with their main lead heroine (Emma Swan) that enabled rape culture and toxic masculinity in Hook’s aggressive stalker-ish pursuit of Emma, regardless of her feelings when they had her give in to his persistance, by killing off Neal to replace him with Hook, by breaking their own rules to bring Rumple back from the most consistently sympathetic, relatable, and well-earned two-and-a-half to three season redemption arc, so they could reduce him to an on-and-off-again demonized foil for “hero” Hook, by turning Emma into a codependent, cruel, violent, hypocritical, and selfish bitch to make Hook look better, by reducing Rumbelle to the problem couple of OUAT, both individually and as a couple, and by making Emma, Belle, Snow, David, and even Henry to be his enablers.

However, even Hook’s character was assassinated pretty badly in 5A when he had that heel-face turn into a flanderdized cartoon sociopath out of nowhere after he found out Emma brought him back as a Dark One against his wishes when he came up with that plan to get vengeance on her by killing her friends and family through attempting to send them all to the UW, and even after he was “redeemed” afterwards it felt lazy and unbelievable because all he did was clean up his own mess by deciding not to kill everyone at the last second, and afterwards, he was still reverting back to making old bad choices of seeking vengeance on Rumple, lying to Emma, and, at worst, continuing to be romanticized and whitewashed for still being a dick in his spare time whenever he found a good excuse to revert again, anyway, which had been the case since S4.

Tl;dr The show should have just ended with the Neverland arc. The problems in the writing that were already starting to show up enough as it already was throughout S1-3A were proof enough that Kitsowitz and these writers couldn’t handle more than two-and-a-half seasons of relatively consistent, dynamic, and satisfying characterization and growth because after that it fell into a deep, dark, and inescapable abyss of character destroying and repetitive bad writing that not even the sentiments of shallow “happy endings” and “redemption” arcs could make up for in the end.