Not only in the beginning…I think the DO told him to kill/hurt her until the last second (I mean the last scene in season 4 finale). That only makes me have more respect for Rumple as a character because he fought the darkness every single second since he met Belle.
This literally changes everything I thought I knew about their relationship.
What if the dark one kept telling rumple “she doesn’t really love you” the whole time and that’s why he kept telling Belle “no one could ever love me”?
OH MY GODDDDDD MY HEART
hELP MEEEEEE
See this is another reason I love the Dark Swan arc. We can have all these new angsty head canons about Rumple.
I mean, he gave in pretty quickly. I imagine the voice was just telling him Hordor and his men were going to kill Bae and he had to protect what was his and kill them first. And he did. But I wonder if when Belle popped up and he had a True Love and the DO was threatened if it popped up again. And definitely told him over and over that Belle didn’t really love him. No could ever love him. His own father didn’t want him why would Belle etc.
YES THAT’S THE THING HE WAS FIGHTING IT THE WHOLE TIME THAT’S WHY HE WAS SO QUICK TO PUSH HER AWAY AND NEVER BELIEVED SHE LOVED HIM UNTIL THE VERY END BECAUSE HE WAS JUST A SPINNER FIGHTING THE DARKNESS AND YES PEOPLE ARE GETTING IT NOW!!
I think the dark one kept telling him she only wanted to steal his power and when the curse was almost broken that one time after the evil queen told her how to break it, he snapped back to being the dark one and forced her into the dungeon and took away her library for a bit because he thought his suspicions were confirmed. So yeah, the dark one WAS telling him that she never loved him and that she only wanted his power the entire time.