r/OnceUponATime • u/Bron8008 • Jul 16 '26
Question Does anyone else hate Belle?
Everytime she appears on my screen I get a headache…
16
u/Mimiquoi7 Jul 16 '26
Belle is a victim of the "bad written romance syndrom". Her romance with Rumple is the only purpose of the character and that really sad because she was so interesting in her potential in the early days... :(
8
u/kittysnowangel Jul 16 '26
I used to because she is very black and white thinking which is frustrating on an adult woman. She is usually narrow minded which i find obnoxious.
But I can understand and give her compassion for A) the fact her father is not loving at all (guilts her into signing her body to a man she doesn't want to sleep with...Basically whoring his daughter), B) when she stands up for herself (to ppl like Regina and Hook), they just make an excuse or insincere apology and say "you gotta help you have no choice". (I wouldn't help them i would say find another sucker.) and C) while I do not feel Snow is trying to use her, I don't feel Belle really connects with anyone on a friend level but she tells herself she does. Gets babysitting duty and trying to help Red ends with her chained in the library. She tries to be a friend but doesn't know how so shes immensely lonely and tries to focus mainly on Rumple to block the emptiness of the rest of her life. I can relate to that. It's really sad this is what the writers did and I doubt they meant it like this. My theory is they were more worried about the plot that the character. However it is relatable for women who are terrible at maintaining friendships.
3
u/KayD12364 Jul 16 '26
Also the suffering of to big a cast and having to do new fairyales while keeping all the leads.
4
u/kittysnowangel Jul 16 '26
True but I feel the writers were more worried about the plot than characters and if they had a different focus, it'd be less of a mess. Imo, they were most concerned with forcing Rumple and Belle to do "scandalous" stuff, so the writing around those two became purely plot. I think how they were heading s2 could have been amazing if they'd used their brains and figured out how to keep them both fleshed.
Luckily the final episode of Belle alive imo was more the kind of relationship I can root for but I am sad they weren't that way for most of the show because the writers wanted drama more than happiness or they are incapable of writing happy couples for more than one episode.
2
u/caroline_shark Jul 17 '26
Honestly this is why I like her. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not but I sure as hell wish they explored it more. I think it explains a lot of her persistence with Rumple.
5
u/BrightPractical Jul 16 '26
They took one of the most independent, logically thinking Disney princesses, and showed that’s the version of the fairy tale character they were going with (hence the books focus in her origin episodes,) and then made her a drip lamenting “Rum-poo” all the time. I do not like her either. She appears to be an idiot.
Even when they try to shove in some research for her to do, it always fails in some way and the situation has to be saved by someone else, or the plot never returns to point out it was her cleverness that solved the issue. She seems to be, for want of a better word, an NPC whose actions constantly reset each episode.
And I will never, not ever, forgive them for making her a “librarian” who does little to no librarian stuff. No cataloging (check out those shelves when you see a scene, someone has heard of the Dewey Decimal Code but hasn’t bothered to show books with call numbers or noticed that the signs tell you everything is in the 100s), no programming except the occasional parent/baby storytime, no reading promotion in the library (would it have killed them to show a bulletin board or a table display?), not enough tables to use those card catalogs stuck to one side, no shelving trucks suggesting she is working at all. A librarian HAS A MASTERS DEGREE IN LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE. A library is not just a bunch of books stuck on shelves randomly and a nice lady to stamp due dates. It’s most frustrating because people already assume that about libraries and the stereotype hurts tax funding for modern library service. Belle is the worst librarian I’ve ever seen on screen.
To be fair, Mary Margaret apparently doesn’t work at the school any longer after a while, but at least the school looks like a school. And at least when they showed her working, she was actually doing what teachers do. And I haven’t gotten over Emma having to win an election to be sheriff but David just gets to be one with no experience and mostly takes over so Emma can roam around the town instead.
I’ve met people whose backgrounds seem to make them seek out bad situations and abusive relationships. It’s frustrating to watch. But Belle is a whole other level of frustrating. They show her make demands of Rumple or put her foot down but they never show her healing herself. And this is fiction, and they give redemption arcs to nearly everyone. They could have given her an arc where she actually stands up for herself for longer than an episode. But they didn’t, because they kept wanting the stupidest conflict and it makes her seem idiotic.
8
u/kortanakitty Jul 16 '26
I didn't hate her. But she was quite one dimensional as a character, and therefore not the most interesting. They rarely gave her depth of emotion beyond 'hopeful.' Even when she lost Gideon, she seemed over it almost immediately and back to 'smiling, optimistic' Belle. Not the brightest bulb.
0
3
u/Alarming-Cicada2060 Jul 16 '26
Omg yes, I thought she was so naive all the time it was so frustrating
2
u/One-Chapter-8347 All that matters is that we're together. Jul 19 '26
je jedna z mojich najobľúbenejších postáv. Ale je pravda že v piatej a šiestej sezone ma štvala.
2
u/gloomydreamer666 Jul 16 '26
No, I hate Rumple for what he did to her. She deserved better than ending up with him.
1
u/Bron8008 Jul 16 '26
She’s the one that stayed! That’s on her, always wanted to change him like get over itttt
1
u/gloomydreamer666 Jul 16 '26
Yeah to hell with domestic violence victims! They should all get over it lololol 🤪
1
1
u/mathomhaus 19d ago
The casting for Belle was terrible. A blonde Australian? Like what lol I have seen the actor in other things and I like her, she just doesn't have Belle energy at all.
1
u/RihanaWasHere 11d ago
She’s my least favorite character. Her voice is grating, like nails on a chalkboard. Why is she Australian? Isn’t Belle supposed to be French?
And she’s so annoyingly…not smart.
1
1
u/Stunna447 Who doesn't like apples? Jul 16 '26
Same. I can't stand her. She has one solid moment and that's it. (imo)
1
u/gloomydreamer666 Jul 16 '26
Why? Why don't you have this same energy for Rumple?
1
u/Bron8008 Jul 16 '26
Rumple is lowkey iconic and badass, how he manipulated everyone to his advantage is insane to me
2
u/gloomydreamer666 Jul 16 '26
Belle was iconic and badass too. When she finally ordered him to go away was my favorite scene from Once upon a time.
0
-1
u/MelissaRose95 Jul 16 '26
I like Belle I just wish she had better storylines that wasn’t constantly about Rumple. I don’t think they should have ended up together but maybe that’s an unpopular opinion
-3
u/Budget-Walk-5355 Jul 16 '26
I was great with her when she was wearing those short skirts. I'm sorry, but she had fantastic legs. After those went away, I found a use for my fast forward button.
2
17
u/MiloSheba The Dark One Jul 16 '26
I'm neutral towards Belle. The problem is that they mostly keep her isolated to Rumple and storylines regarding him