on ouat theories

so there are a bunch of ouat theories out there that i’ve been reading since the last episode that seem to be focusing on rumplestiltskin knowing something more than someone normally would, on the potions being either part of the curse or not, and on snow and charming being the key in that their true love is what rumple was able to bottle. there’s also the timeline someone put together of the eps in chronological order according to the fairytale storyline (sorry, forgot where it is as i saw it right after skin deep). the point was made that in the chronological story rumple becomes more miserable and more of an alcoholic as the story progresses. i don’t generally put out my own theories on things, but i’ve been thinking a lot about these things…


i’m pretty sure that the chronology is correct, but that there is some issue with the skin deep episode since we don’t know exactly how long a period passed from when belle left and when the evil queen paid that heart wrenching visit to rumple. for all we know, it could have been a year that had passed. i think that the full story from the point of snow’s father being killed to the curse being enacted takes several years at least. there has to be enough time for rumplestiltskin to know that the queen can use mirrors to spy; for belle to have spent at least fall through spring at his estate; for snow to have changed enough from soft princess to forest-wise outlaw; for red to have learned how to use her curse somewhat; and for the sequence of the queen getting the curse from rumplestiltskin then trading it to maleficient and getting it back. (there are more reasons for it, but these stick out in mind at the moment.) there are so many things going on…and it takes time.

then there are the potions. i’m sure that some of them were easy to obtain and others progressing through various degrees of difficulty - true love being the hardest. i would assume that rumple went through many a try to get that one to work and it just so happened that it was snow and charming that were the perfect match. there are people who have asked why he didn’t just use belle and himself, and there are others that have said it wouldn’t work and given good examples of why. personally i think that it just never occurred to him. he was angry and proud…and then there’s the time factor again. he got rid of her. he obviously missed her. but then enough time passed and the queen told him that she was dead, so it is likely that death negated it.

but the question remains as to why he needs those potions. it surely is something beyond mastering those things. he says that you can do anything if you can bottle true love. it’s fervently stated. he has tried and failed, but must keep on trying. he hasto master it.

he doesn’t yet seem to be an alcoholic. he isn’t yet so bitter and angry.

the potions are likely all a part of creating the curse. he obviously wants the queen dead since he is so willing to help snow without any actual payment or deal. the question at this point is: does he know that the queen lied to him and that belle may still be alive? if so, she must be beyond his reach or he is not able to find her. i would assume that, by that point, the queen may very well have belle locked up and protected from him being able to find her.

so, he has schemed and spent his time creating the potions needed to create the curse. he just wants things to be as he wants them and screw the innocents. he wants his happy ending - or for belle and/or bae to have good lives compared to what they now have. all he needs to do now is create the curse…then either realize that he cannot cast it, or try to cast it and find out the price is one he is unable to or cannot pay. (we won’t go into the mechanics of the curse and how both he and regina can remember their former lives.)
at this point i think is where he started his descent into alcoholism and madness. the curse is inaccessible to him. he can’t create his own happy ending that way, so there has to be another way. that, or he will make sure the queen suffer for the pain she has caused him.

and then…he gives up. he knowingly signs the contract with cinderella and allows himself to be imprisoned. it could be that he just gave up, that he has ulterior motives for doing so, or that he has become completely self-destructive. whatever it is, i hope that we get to see the turning point. after all, what can drive rumplestiltskin - the most powerful being in the fairytale kingdoms - to the point that he is so desperate for more power and yet so depressed that he is this self destructive? he’s already a character driven by emotion rather than rationality, but what could have pushed him over that very delicate line to seemingly stop caring about his own best interests?

whatever it is, it seems to have broken him. maybe not all the way, but enough. we can already guess that whatever it was, it had something to do with bae or belle. i’m pretty sure that it will not be resolved by the end of this season. if it were that simple, it would be a major let-down. somehow i don’t think that he knows that belle is alive and/or accessible, so her appearance in storybrooke will be a shocker. it won’t matter if she remembers anything or not. it won’t matter how she ends up out of the hidden ward. it won’t matter if it is this season or not - in fact, if it is this season, i would think that it will be part of a season ending cliffhanger. regina knows that she has an ace in the hole - and she knows that she can use it to break mr gold at the right moment. especially now that she knows he remembers.

the tale is bigger than we know just yet. it’s longer than a simple handful of stories. there’s more going on. i refuse to believe that anything will be simple and straightforward - nothing really has been so far.

also, for all of those people who seem to forget it and assume that things like the huntsman coming back mean that graham will be back, please remember that the storybrooke timeline takes place after the fairytale land one. that means that the huntsman can show up in the fairytale storyline, but wouldn’t be in the storybrooke one as he has been killed. regina crushed his heart to dust. thus we must assume that she does have the power to end lives even with the town stuck in time without progression in resident’s aging (and thus possibly growth in all kids but henry). we don’t know yet if the curse will allow for characters to be alive that have died once it is broken. we don’t know the logic of it…after all, was cinderella pregnant for those 28 years until emma came to town???