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nym_wibblyI can’t quite remember. I do know I gave it a fair bit of thought – about how Rumple sees himself at that point in his life as the Dark One, and about what Belle is seeing when she looks at him as a stranger. I’ve always found the use of ‘beast’ on the show a bit forced, to be honest, with the exception of Sir Maurice using it to express his disgust way back in Skin Deep. It’s not a good description of what Rumple is and does – of why he’s anathema, or of how he causes harm and fear in others. He’s not bestial even at his brutal worst – he’s refined, intelligent, elegant, with exquisite self control. The ‘wounded animal’ element with him is entirely metaphorical.
The fairytale/trope Beast is more animal than man, sub-human, wild, untame, and that’s not Rumple’s struggle at all, beyond the superficial level of not looking quite human. That was Belle’s assumption in Skin Deep – that he thought he was ugly and needed to be reassured. We’ve seen no evidence that she was right about that, although at the time (and when I wrote the early chapters of A Bed of Thorns) it seemed a perfectly reasonable assumption, so I went with it. But the things he’s done are monstrous, and have made him into (from the perspective of his victims, certainly) a monster.
I think it just seemed nearer the mark when I first wrote it, and it evolved into their ongoing code to describe that side of Rumple’s nature, the way the show uses ‘beast’ to condemn it. Rumple is precise in his use of language, so it was an important distinction for A Bed of Thorns.
The fairytale/trope Beast is more animal than man, sub-human, wild, untame, and that’s not Rumple’s struggle at all, beyond the superficial level of not looking quite human. That was Belle’s assumption in Skin Deep – that he thought he was ugly and needed to be reassured. We’ve seen no evidence that she was right about that, although at the time (and when I wrote the early chapters of A Bed of Thorns) it seemed a perfectly reasonable assumption, so I went with it. But the things he’s done are monstrous, and have made him into (from the perspective of his victims, certainly) a monster.
I think it just seemed nearer the mark when I first wrote it, and it evolved into their ongoing code to describe that side of Rumple’s nature, the way the show uses ‘beast’ to condemn it. Rumple is precise in his use of language, so it was an important distinction for A Bed of Thorns.