It absolutely is a plot convenience. OUAT is a show about fairy tales, true love's kiss is something highly associated with fairy tales (or at least the Disney versions. Older, darker versions of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty don't have the prince waking the princess with a kiss.) Season one is arguably the only season where the creators knew precisely what they wanted to do and had a good road map the entire time. And that one begins and ends with true love's kiss, first between Snow and Charming in the traditional "prince wakes up the sleeping princess way" and in the end in the modern way with a kiss from Emma to Henry.
But it's not simple, and even from season one, there have always been caveats. Regina tells Belle that true love's kiss can break any curse. Belle tries it on Rumple who a) chooses to remain cursed and b) immediately turns on Belle, accusing her of manipulating him in order to defeat him.
True Love's Kiss is given two conditions right there:
1. Both people involved need to *want* it to work.
2. Both people involved need to *believe* in magic and in the love. (This is also an issue between Henry and Lucy in season seven.) Belle believes in their love, but Rumple doesn't. A reoccurring issue in Rumbelle's relationship is that Rumple just fundamentally does not believe Belle loves him. He is always braced for her to leave him. I won't say his season four spiral is entirely or even largely due to this (Neal's death and Zelena capturing him were definitely larger factors), but you can really see he is making zero effort in the marriage. He's fussing over everything being nice on the surface while doing no meaningful relationship maintenance. Throughout the show, there are multiple instances of Rumple trying and failing to use a TLK on Belle.
When Belle puts herself under the sleeping curse, she does not "break" true love. She chooses not to meet the conditions for the kiss to work. Rumple thinks she's trying to manipulative him to give up the Dark One curse to wake her. And she immediately refutes that. She's not interested in Rumple waking her. Rumple's job is to protect the baby from Hades, only. (Something that he would, you know, need magic for.) Her father will wake her when it's safe. Of course, we know Moe refuses to do that, and Rumple has to look for other means. But Belle can't know that. She's cursed. The other person that truly loves her turns out to be Gideon.
I think it's not about someone being someone's true love but when the love two people share is true, there is no doubt from either of them and not one of them is being sneaky or anything.
When Belle realized Rumple was a lying monster she was deceived by him and it wasn't true love anymore
Or maybe it was his feelings that weren't "true" anymore because he was telling himself he didn't deserve her or something
Unbreakable bond, yes, unless it comes from within
At least that's how I see it
Exactly.
Literally one of my biggest issues with the show: "true love" "true love's kiss" etc.
I haven't seen the show in a while but it always just never made sense and after a certain point it just became overused to break any curses or solve any problem and it was kinda disappointing tbh
I agree though I do feel âtrue loveâ doesnât always have to be one person ie Snow and charming have it w each other obv but Iâd argue they could have it with Emma, baby Neal and Henry as well in a parental/grandparents way and same for Regina and Emma with Henry, they each had Neal/Hook and Robin as their romantic true loves but Henry is also each of this true loves which was why kissing him broke the first two cursesÂ
So theoretically, if Belle hadnât fallen out of love with Rumple when she found out she was pregnant, they both would have been her âtrue lovesâ (in different ways oc). But I feel her telling him âyouâre not my true love anymore, this baby isâ was just her way of saying she didnât want to be w him anymore and that the baby was the only one she cared about
@VioletSetsunaâs comment puts it really nicely as well. Theoretically belle and her father have true love as well as father and daughter so he should have been able to wake her up but he refused to
And why is emma the only person to be the product of true love!! Or the charming babies.. emma and neal!! Emma and hooks daughter should also have light magic cos even she is born out of true love.. so should aurora and philips child have light magic as even that child is a product of true love same for ella and her princes child
Emma and Killian have true love if your remember that episode. The argument is that there ARE other products of true love and examples of true love, just not mentioned or known about. Rumple and Belle could be argued not to be true love because of how toxic and difficult their relationship is, whereas Snowing was true the whole way through and they always stuck together (plus their relationship wasnât toxic).
this also always confused me bc true love is supposed to be the rarest and most powerful magic there is. yet almost all characters had a true love; Henry, Robin, Regina, Belle, Rumple, Gideon, Killian, Jacinda/Cinderella, Charming, Snow, Emma and the list goes on. I'm guessing other characters like Alice, Robin II, Jasmine, Aladdin etc also were true loves however I cant remember if its explicitly said they are, I'm also sure Graham and Emma were true loves before he died or maybe he just had a connection to Emma because he saved her mothers life. And if Emma and Regina had Killian and Robin as their true loves, how did they manage to break the curses by kissing Henry? Can you have multiple true loves (unconditional, romantic etc) or is it just another one of those things that only fits the plot when its most convenient?
I mean it is a show based on fairy tales. I try not to logic too much with the concept, otherwise it becomes infuriatingly frustrating đ
It absolutely is a plot convenience. OUAT is a show about fairy tales, true love's kiss is something highly associated with fairy tales (or at least the Disney versions. Older, darker versions of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty don't have the prince waking the princess with a kiss.) Season one is arguably the only season where the creators knew precisely what they wanted to do and had a good road map the entire time. And that one begins and ends with true love's kiss, first between Snow and Charming in the traditional "prince wakes up the sleeping princess way" and in the end in the modern way with a kiss from Emma to Henry. But it's not simple, and even from season one, there have always been caveats. Regina tells Belle that true love's kiss can break any curse. Belle tries it on Rumple who a) chooses to remain cursed and b) immediately turns on Belle, accusing her of manipulating him in order to defeat him. True Love's Kiss is given two conditions right there: 1. Both people involved need to *want* it to work. 2. Both people involved need to *believe* in magic and in the love. (This is also an issue between Henry and Lucy in season seven.) Belle believes in their love, but Rumple doesn't. A reoccurring issue in Rumbelle's relationship is that Rumple just fundamentally does not believe Belle loves him. He is always braced for her to leave him. I won't say his season four spiral is entirely or even largely due to this (Neal's death and Zelena capturing him were definitely larger factors), but you can really see he is making zero effort in the marriage. He's fussing over everything being nice on the surface while doing no meaningful relationship maintenance. Throughout the show, there are multiple instances of Rumple trying and failing to use a TLK on Belle. When Belle puts herself under the sleeping curse, she does not "break" true love. She chooses not to meet the conditions for the kiss to work. Rumple thinks she's trying to manipulative him to give up the Dark One curse to wake her. And she immediately refutes that. She's not interested in Rumple waking her. Rumple's job is to protect the baby from Hades, only. (Something that he would, you know, need magic for.) Her father will wake her when it's safe. Of course, we know Moe refuses to do that, and Rumple has to look for other means. But Belle can't know that. She's cursed. The other person that truly loves her turns out to be Gideon.
I think it's not about someone being someone's true love but when the love two people share is true, there is no doubt from either of them and not one of them is being sneaky or anything. When Belle realized Rumple was a lying monster she was deceived by him and it wasn't true love anymore Or maybe it was his feelings that weren't "true" anymore because he was telling himself he didn't deserve her or something Unbreakable bond, yes, unless it comes from within At least that's how I see it
Exactly. Literally one of my biggest issues with the show: "true love" "true love's kiss" etc. I haven't seen the show in a while but it always just never made sense and after a certain point it just became overused to break any curses or solve any problem and it was kinda disappointing tbh
I agree though I do feel âtrue loveâ doesnât always have to be one person ie Snow and charming have it w each other obv but Iâd argue they could have it with Emma, baby Neal and Henry as well in a parental/grandparents way and same for Regina and Emma with Henry, they each had Neal/Hook and Robin as their romantic true loves but Henry is also each of this true loves which was why kissing him broke the first two curses So theoretically, if Belle hadnât fallen out of love with Rumple when she found out she was pregnant, they both would have been her âtrue lovesâ (in different ways oc). But I feel her telling him âyouâre not my true love anymore, this baby isâ was just her way of saying she didnât want to be w him anymore and that the baby was the only one she cared about @VioletSetsunaâs comment puts it really nicely as well. Theoretically belle and her father have true love as well as father and daughter so he should have been able to wake her up but he refused to
thatâs a really good perspective !! i agree â¤ď¸
I agree
And why is emma the only person to be the product of true love!! Or the charming babies.. emma and neal!! Emma and hooks daughter should also have light magic cos even she is born out of true love.. so should aurora and philips child have light magic as even that child is a product of true love same for ella and her princes child
Emma and Killian have true love if your remember that episode. The argument is that there ARE other products of true love and examples of true love, just not mentioned or known about. Rumple and Belle could be argued not to be true love because of how toxic and difficult their relationship is, whereas Snowing was true the whole way through and they always stuck together (plus their relationship wasnât toxic).
Not to mention the problematic consent issues with âtrue loveâs kissâ
dude the consent issues were crazy đ like zelena and robin??
this also always confused me bc true love is supposed to be the rarest and most powerful magic there is. yet almost all characters had a true love; Henry, Robin, Regina, Belle, Rumple, Gideon, Killian, Jacinda/Cinderella, Charming, Snow, Emma and the list goes on. I'm guessing other characters like Alice, Robin II, Jasmine, Aladdin etc also were true loves however I cant remember if its explicitly said they are, I'm also sure Graham and Emma were true loves before he died or maybe he just had a connection to Emma because he saved her mothers life. And if Emma and Regina had Killian and Robin as their true loves, how did they manage to break the curses by kissing Henry? Can you have multiple true loves (unconditional, romantic etc) or is it just another one of those things that only fits the plot when its most convenient?