I got a comment on AO3, that I’m inclined to dismiss b/c of the ranty tone. But it got me thinking that maybe not everyone views the Golden Queen interactions in 6A the same way I do.
So, informal poll– what was the GQ relationship in 6A about? Love? Sex? Power? Something else? Also, with the assumption that Regina and the EQ will re-merge eventually, what do you think Regina’s and Rumple’s interactions will be like afterward? What will Regina’s and Belle’s interactions be like?
The split!Queen and Rumple’s relationship was a can of worms I never really got into on tumblr when it was happening. However, I had a couple of anon’s hit up my 6A fix-it fic Right Kind of Wrong with questions about it. I replied on AO3 and never copied those comments over. Anyway, I don’t know if you wanted such a long answer but it’s what I’ve got.
GoldenQueen? Not quite.
Well first off I think calling it GoldenQueen is a mistake. That wasn’t Rumple and the Evil Queen, that was Rumple and the split!Queen which is different. The Evil Queen was a whole person – was Regina. This split!Queen is only half of a person, just as Regina at the moment is only half a person. So the Evil Queen on the show right now, isn’t the Evil Queen we know from flashbacks. The split!Queen made choices that Regina if she was whole, would never have made and it’s not about darkness either.
The split!Queen is a construct of magic. She’s not just Regina’s darkness because it has to be more complicated than that. Take Jekyll and Hyde as an example. Emotions that lead to darkness can’t be split, there’s still darkness in everyone. Jekyll split out the qualities he didn’t like in himself, but he kept negative qualities that he didn’t mind, like possessiveness which is what led to his darkness. The split!Queen is likely power-hungry, and vengeful, so the power of the Dark One would be like a siren calling. However, it’s not something that would call to Regina if she was whole.
So what was the Golden Queen relationship about?
split!Queen perspective
I didn’t like Regina’s statement that she and Rumple had always had a certain amount of chemistry. It was something that really bugged me. I know I probably shouldn’t say such a thing (people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones) but it was lazy writing. They wanted everyone to learn about Rumple and the Evil Queen, and they couldn’t think of a way to do it, so instead Regina just amazingly “knows.”
However, having said that. I did think about it quite carefully and I think that it’s possible that back in the day, when they were mentor and student, Regina could have had a bit of a crush on Rumple. Rumple had a lot of power, he was honest with her even if he wasn’t always kind, and he was giving her a way out of the life she hated – he was giving her back control. I think they probably flirted a bit as part of power plays but that’s as far as it went.
It’s been confirmed several times that they never had anything between them back in the day. Regina said “nothing happened” and the Evil Queen said the same to Zelena when they were at the spa. Anyway, from the split!Queen’s perspective she was once drawn to Rumple. There’s also the fact that what the split!Queen (and indeed Regina) have always struggled with is being alone. The split!Queen is the wounded part of Regina, who hungers for love and lashes out to make the world hurt, the way she hurts.
The split!Queen doesn’t want to be alone, and Rumple as the Dark One has power which could help her with her vengeance, and also help keep them safe. It’s his power that saved her in the past after all.
Rumple’s perspective
Self-destruction basically. Rumple had a lot of issues to begin with, but Neal’s death and his enslavement for a year at Zelena’s hands pushed him to the edge. Ever since then he’s lurched around, desperately trying to grab onto things that can save him – the hat, the author etc. but no matter what he does, it’s like he said in the season 5 finale “intentions are meaningless” – no matter what he does, he always loses. He tried to be a good man for Belle, he pulled Excalibur from the stone, he fought Hook with honor, and she still left him. Now, Belle had her reasons for that, and I’m not blaming her. Both Rumple and Belle bear responsibility for what happened to their relationship and I support them both. What I’m just saying, is from Rumple’s perspective it’s always lose/lose.
Now, he’s faced with being a father for a second time. He’s already buried one son and it has all but destroyed him. I do wonder if part of him isn’t purposefully self-destructing, so he’ll never have an opportunity to hurt this second child. I did wonder if maybe at first Rumple was hoping to make Belle jealous, to try and provoke a reaction to see if she still cared. To be honest though I don’t think he’s really thinking at all. There was clear evidence, that his mind is so full of panic and fear, that he’s not thinking logically in 6.04.
Rumple screwed up repeatedly in that episode, because he couldn’t see further than whatever answer he’d jumped too, which is a common problem for people with acute anxiety. He believed he was thinking everything through, but really he wasn’t. In many ways the split!Queen relationship is another stick for him to beat himself with. That being said I think a good part of him convinced himself that he was using the split!Queen to his benefit.
Basically I think he kept trying to keep on playing the game being – “Rumplestiltskin, the great dealmaker, the almighty Dark One” because if that’s how people see him, then they don’t see the defeated man he truly is deep inside. His reputation is like a mask and it’s all he has left. His repeated referral to himself in the third person backs this.
In terms of any pre-existing ‘chemistry’. In all honesty I don’t think Rumple would ever have actually been attracted to Regina, even pre-Belle because of Cora. I think Rumple did have genuine feelings for Cora and Cora hurt him badly. Regina was Cora’s daughter, and she followed in her mothers footsteps, he would never have allowed her to get so close.
Regina’s perspective
Regina has been where Rumple is right now, she hit rock bottom during season two. Her curse had been broken, she had lost Henry who had become what mattered most. It wasn’t just that she’d lost her son, it was that she had to watch him with Emma, sort of really twisting the knife – she’d been replaced. When she got to that point, Regina was very susceptible to manipulation – Cora came and twisted everything around until Regina was working with her mother.
It’s the same with Rumple, he’s lost everything that mattered to him, and it is being held just out of reach. In fact Belle is staying on the same ship, with the man that Rumple’s first wife ran off with. He is very vulnerable right now and he is very alone. Regina also knows what a massive self-loathing streak Rumple has. She has witnessed Rumple self-sabotaging himself before. Therefore it’s not a big leap for her to suspect that her Evil side would be drawn to Rumple, and then Rumple will be too beaten down to put up much of a fight.
Rumple refused the Evil Queen’s advances several times before he gave in, and Belle had crushed him with several very well chosen comments before he finally did give in. Now, I’m not blaming Belle for that, she is hurting and lashing out as much as Rumple is. Those two really need to talk with one another, rather than continuing the spiral of pain. I’m just saying Rumple is in a vulnerable place and Regina knows that.
Assuming a merge
what happens with Rumple and Regina then?
To be honest when it comes to this show, I expect that we won’t see any consequences on screen. It’ll be glossed over and they will all move on like it never happened.
In terms of the characters to be honest they are both adults and they both understood why it occurred, I think that they might launch a few barbs at one another over it and leave it at that. I don’t think things would be incredibly awkward or anything, they’ve both been through too much for that.
what about Belle and Regina?
Head and heart don’t always agree. I think Belle would try and be reasonable about it. Rumple and Belle were separated at the time and with everything that happened between them, they had no claim on the other. Belle told Rumple that, which I think was the opposite of what he wanted to hear, but in terms of their situation it was basically the truth. I reckon Belle would start off saying she didn’t care, and didn’t want to know, but in the end she would have to know the details and I think she would go to Regina for them.
Regina would be highly uncomfortable about it, and tell Belle what she really wanted to know, which was that it had been what her split self, and Rumple needed at the time, but that it hadn’t been true love. It had just been two lonely self-destruction souls seeking out the other. Knowing Regina she might then say something sarcastic like Rumple is a good kisser or “what’s one more tangle on this family tree?” or something. Then it’ll be over.
They’ve all gone through so much in Storybrooke, and committed countless crimes against one another. This is a more normal mess, but if they can move past all the other stuff, then they’ll move past this.