The Fallacy of ScarletBeauty

Back in November, I heard a strange rumor from a Oncer who was in Steveson saw a scene filmed between Emilie de Ravin (Belle Gold) and Micha Socha (Will Scarlet) involving their characters making out. At the time there was some concern because the dagger story was on the verge shown where it was only a matter of time before the disaster would show up. After the cruel finale in the winter with Belle banishing Rumpelstiltskin in a misguided attempt at being a hero, there was a belief the couple better known as Rumbelle would be over which didn't help matter as it later become known that this couple breaking up meant Captain Swan would continue to flourish. As the past few months with little spoilers coming out revealing about Rumpelstiltkin being now the big bad with Season 4B being the plot of Shrek III, a huge concern fans did ask is what is the status of Rumbelle and could it even be salvaged? After Friday's spoiler photos of the supposed rumor in November about Belle and Will being all but confirmed, there may be a high chance that Rumbelle will become like Barney/Robyn or Irene/Sherlock a ship were the pairing is each other's match in every way that you can't see them with anyone else but must be broken off because the demands of another fandom outweigh the idea of good storytelling.

I have given up on the show. There was an entire time travel plot wasted away to create a troubling love triangle when it could have been used to explain and fix the glaring plot holes during the last season. To add insult to injury, practically all the characters have gone to unlikeable territory where they either act like children or are the most flanderized tropes ever been put on screen. The ones who are still remotely likeable are Regina, Henry Belle and Rumpelstiltskin but you have to hate Rumpelsitltskin because he is the villain ruining the happiness of Emma and Hook; Henry is an annoying twat when the writers remember to put him in, Regina you know is never going to be punished and will have whatever she wants at some point so it's just Lana making a character who really should be universally hated if played by a man or a subpar actress into someone you are going to sympathize with no matter what and Belle is in the mixed baggage where she is starting to act rather sanctimonious but you feel more sorry for her because its really a product of bad writing rather than the character herself because Emilie de Ravin sells it.

With the photos of Will and Belle and the supposed rumor of a storyline between them being romantic there are now fans jumping on board the ScarletBeauty bandwagon. Many are anti-Rumpel fans who hate Belle but don't want to get rid of her, others are supposed Belle fans who want to see her with someone who is not Rumpelstiltskin as there were fans of Belle in the past that thought she was better with Jefferson or Ruby due to amazing chemistry or just an alternative universe idea that could have worked if Rumpelstiltskin was not declared her true love. Will admit that if I was not a Rumbelle fan, I would be a hardcore MadBeauty shipper because they have that mischievous personality to them but could see them best being siblings at best, Red Beauty is great and could have work not a problem at all I could see that happening totally. I have also seen CricketBeauty, HoodedBeauty, RegalGold and GoldenSwan being interesting and likeable concepts if Rumbelle had not existed. While those ideas work fine, Scarlet Beauty is a contrived mess where the concept itself screams disaster from the get go. I am going to tackle this not as a Rumbeller or a dearie but as a Belle fan where this idea would be not the best concept.

• Very little development: The idea of these two spending time together is that Belle had spend the past six weeks trying to move from her separation with Rumpelstiltskin. This is a woman who spent more than 30 years in love with one man where she nearly died for him that a betrayal would cause her to question her life and choices. She realistically would not be in any position to date anyone after maybe several months to years even in the case of a casual fling. Skin Deep works because we were never given a timeline for how long they were together but there was a sense that Belle and Rumpel were together for months learning to know one another that allowed their feelings to develop. Even after Crocodile and Child of the Moon, we don't know how long it was so you can make the argument that a romantic relationship would have been on the horizon for Belle and Ruby but not a long term affect towards what the fans are suggesting. For this idea to be considered going well, Will and Belle would literally have had to be together 24/7 and fucking each other every night so some amount of connection could be justified. 
• True Love has been established: Belle and Will already have established true loves, Rumpelstiltskin and Anastasia. Some theories have gone around  they are spending time together because Will is trying to find Anastasia which I hope so because from what I have heard by those that did see Wonderland; Will and Anastasia's romance was one of the few saving graces of that show. A couple so beloved, fans were genuinely heartbroken when everyone thought Anastasia died by Jafar's hand. The writers tend to do leeway on characters by giving them love interests and ambiguous romances in order to justify love triangles like Neal, Milah, Marion, Mulan, Daniel and Graham but it was stated in canon that whenever Belle and Will kissed their respected partners, something happened that gave magical possibilities. For Belle and Will to be established as a couple everyone must accept forgetting Rumbelle and ScarletQueen; they would have to be considered soulmates and the already established soulmates on the show GoldenHeart and OutlawQueen already have a dimmed reputation by the fans and rating standards. Also if they are soulmates, then what is the point of making true love the most important be all magic? It makes a lot of Snow and Charming's relationship pointless in the grand scheme of things, dwindling the importance of Emma and lose a lot of importance in the concept of characters fighting towards their destiny against the conventional norms if everything has always been planned and must be followed without any questions asked. 
• Out of characterization: What makes Belle one of the most beloved Disney characters is her ability to have this perception as seeing a different side to people that everyone is not able to see. She could see that the beast was someone who needed to be patient with rather than feared and renounces Gaston's advances despite the entire town saying he is God's gift to women. For her to hook up with Will would mean that she considers Rumpelstiltskin, a man she has not only married but knows what he is because she has seen him during his best and worst someone who is not worthy of fighting for. In The Outsider, she says to Regina that she will never stop fighting for Rumpelstiltskin because she knows he can still be saved despite what he and the whole world thinks. Moving to someone else makes her no better than Milah and Cora where because Rumpelstiltskin has not passed her standard of what is considered a "good man", she will find it in someone else without even trying to understand what is going on. In the development of Rumpelstitslkin, Belle is suppose to be "THE different woman" who sees through his faults and will still care and fight for him because of a deep love she has for him in contrast Milah and Cora that abandoned him due to finding a better opportunity for themselves. Even in a sense Baelfire abandoned him because while Bae wanted his father back, he never stopped to consider that perhaps his father was hurting as they were getting through together before taking the curse. For her to have this perception and have a romance with Will, the Belle we have all known cannot exist because then what it means she is always right about everything where no one can ever fit to her standards of superiority. While I love Belle, I will admit she is not a perfect person despite what has been said about her for nearly 25 years. She has faults like being hasty in her decisions both in the movie and show where she goes into the West Wing after being told not to and kissing Rumpelsiltskin without stopping to think there was something odd about the woman she met on the road being too helpful in this sort of advice. She is an oddball that would turn people off because her ideas of the world are not going to fit in the conventional norms but having her portrayed as a saintly figure who is always perfect will easily give up on those because they cannot fit to what she thinks is the standards of good does put her in the hypocritical position of those that has criticized her for not being placed in the standards of what is considered appropriate. 
• Fandom Pandering: Let's not beat around the bush, the only fans who would have to gain from the legitimacy of ScarletBeauty are Captain Swan fans. For this idea to work, Rumpelstiltskin must be out of the picture and the only other character in the show who really has any problem with him is Captain Hook. Since Quiet Minds, the writers have gone out of their way to make Hook the most saintly hero since Galahad to become the "be all" love interest for Emma which meant screwing over Rumpelstiltskin's character development in having a relationship with his son. This was due to the fact Neal was other guy who Emma had a chance to have a relationship with and also the entire Frozen arc you have Rumpelstiltskin turning into a mustache twirling villain who might have hypnotized Belle into marrying him and Hook is the poor man becoming corrupted in order to stop Rumpelstiltskin. Belle really isn't someone Captain Swan fans have a problem with but constantly make arguments she is in an abusive relationship where when reading a CS fanfic she is either portrayed as slave to Rumpelstiltskin or married to someone else because Rumpelstiltskin is usually in jail, or dead but ends up always being the villain. I can see this being a solution of criticisms relating to Rumbelle where they cannot work due to the age difference and giving her a younger man whose got Rumpel's personality would solve everything.  This show has now become a Captain Swan fanfic with all the absurdities in it that characters are now exaggerated to what they originally had been and stories are now reconned from Season 1 that what we have seen before with characters in the past come off like rumors at this point. It would be a way of getting rid of Belle into the background but having her be with another guy that fans are not enthusiastic of seeing all the time and it helps the writers in not having to do deal with fans that I suspect they find obnoxious for wanting to see their favorite pairing shine in the same level as Snowing did back in Season 1.

Perhaps I could be wrong and ScarletBeauty will be a friendship as Belle realizes the heroes are not great and finding a companion who helps her through this difficult time who is on the same boat as her since his true love was also dark at one point. Part of Will's appeal in the Wonderland miniseries was that he was a younger version of Rumpelstiltskin with the Scottish accent, lust for life personality and brooding angst that made you root for him as he was searching for his own redemption. So in a sense he would want to help Belle as he did for Alice and it create this bond that would allow them have a sense of hope over their loved ones when they see them again. Then again, I predicted last year that Killian or Regina would have the best chance of being killed off as it would serve purpose towards the story instead of Neal and look how right I was?? The fact that Once Upon A Time did jump the shark last year by killing off a character who did have story and character potential tying back to everyone just to make a couple with little development become the be all end all romance destroying established canon of other characters, couples and story scenarios already makes me weary at realizing that perhaps the beautiful ship  known as Rumbelle would serve as a painful reminder some things are just not meant to be put on celluloid.