Here is my Original Rumbelle post, precisely restored:
Rumbelle!!!!
I ship it.
I should now explain what this means. Of course, you people are likely more knowledgeable about the internet and terms used thereon than I am, and so you may already know what these mean, but I personally wouldn't have understood this statement not all that long ago, so for the benefit of people like me, I'll go ahead and explain my modern terminology. So, shipping is a term I learned from my friend. It's funny, because I never thought I didn't know what 'ship' means, but it's a modernized meaning of the word. I mean, hopefully, all native English speakers know that "ship" means to send or mail something, and also a boat or sailing vessel, but neither of those is the meaning of shipping we're dealing with here. This particular usage of 'ship' originates from the word 'relationship'. My friend was using it in a facebook chat with me, saying how she "shipped" Mary Murtle and Joe or something (not those two characters; that is an allusion to one of the inside jokes I share with said friend. I think she was talking about characters from some internet anime or something. I wasn't familiar with it and I don't recall the names.) and I replied, "you're shipping them where?" confusedly trying to figure out in what context she was mailing these characters. After joking with me a little, she explained that shipping is when you, "totally love and support the beautiful relationship of fictional characters", or something to those lines. (I went back in our facebook chats and looked for the exact quote, but I couldn't find it. It was some time ago.) I think this is a wonderful definition of the term, and it explains my current understanding of it.
Rumbelle is more of a specific term and so it is more probable that you aren't familiar with it, especially if you don't watch Once Upon a Time and/or read my blog regularly. I think it's a pretty common thing, though, to do a contraction of the names of a popular couple to make an easy and simple way to refer to them. Rumbelle is simply a contraction of the names 'Rumpelstiltskin' and 'Belle', and it refers to the relationship of those two characters and/or those two characters themselves. When I was explaining this term to my mom, I believe she referred to the famous example of "Branjelina" (I don't know how that's actually spelled), which even I've heard of in passing. It's two famous people. I think their names are like Brad Parsley and Angelina Jolie or something. Anyways. I don't know or care about them. This blog post is all about shipping Rumbelle.
So, why do I love and support the beautiful relationship of Rumpelstiltskin and Belle so very much? It's hard to pin it down. They're just so exquisitely beautiful together. I think it all started because I first liked Rumpelstiltskin, even before the episode introducing Belle came along. It's hard to say when I first started liking him. Rumpel's just so... quirky. He's fun. He has a lovely giggle ;). He's clever and mischievous and careful and dangerous but honest(-ish.) (Literally honest, but not, as Charming later points out, honest of heart, until he works on it. But he does warn people, all magic comes with a price). He always has complicated motives and a more complicated plan. He's witty in his interactions. He's amusing. Did I mention the giggle? I liked him even before he had a sympathetic backstory. Looking back, I think I started liking him circa episode four. (My mom and I have been re-watching Once on Netflix because it's such a great series it fully warrants re-watching.) I had gradually developed an appreciation for his character and thence a little crush on said character. He's just... the giggle. The clever, wittiness. The... Rumpelstiltskinness. He's fun to watch and you can't help but like his character. I suppose if you want to use another one of these modern terms, I'm kind of a "fan girl", like this little "quip" (to quote Rumpel) mentions.
hehehehehe :) 'tis true
(from http://weheartit.com/entry/48993327, found by google image searching Rumpelstiltskin and Belle)
Really truthfully, I can offer no logical or reasonable explanation as to why this is so attractive. Out of context, it probably isn't. But in the show, it just is.
(from... somewhere on the internet. I couldn't find the site again.)
Belle is even easier to like. I can relate to her and envy her. I am similarly a bookworm and I constantly attempt to relate things in the world to things I've read in books. Like her, I look for adventure and dream of seeing the world. I can't say I've ever agreed to go with a semi-malevolent "imp" to save my kingdom from the impending doom of Ogres, but I admired her bravery in this moment (though it's hard to say what I'd do in her circumstance, never having been in it). I once sang Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage" for my drama class. I was called brave for that (though it's hardly a comparable action). I also envy her hair. It's so beautiful. I've always loved red hair and I want my imaginary red hair styled like hers, too. I recently did an experimental sketch of one of my characters--the protagonist and first person narrator in Avgir Lys, who is not yet named, the excerpt from which I posted this Tuesday, as it so happens--and I couldn't help but model her hair (which I described as "scarlet" and wavy, long before I ever saw Once) on Belle's hair. While I was at it I gave her a coat based off of Belles' beautiful purple-blue coat (which I also want) that she wears in the scene when Rumpel is leaving on Hook's ship to go to Neverland. Like in these pictures:
here it looks bluer.
Don't ask me what the caption means 'cause I don't know. The ship is a good background for a kiss, though. They are soo cute together :)
here it looks purpler.
(both from http://whyweloveonceuponatime.tumblr.com/archive, a very nifty Once picture site)
I like that coat. And I love that scene. Even though he thinks he's leaving forever, she knows they will see each other again. Because that's one of the themes of the show--true love always finds a way. So even though they've made us think Rumpel's dead for now, he'll surely come back, because you just can't keep Rumbelle apart. This is still Belle's paragraph, though. She is a relatable book nerd, she is a girl looking for adventure, and she is a strong heroine who always sees the good. And of course, she is enviable in that she gets to be with Rumpel. When my little cousins watch movies, they often point to a character and say, "I'm that one!", and in this same way, if I was to be someone in Once Upon a Time, I would totally choose to be Belle without hesitation. She is epic, and she is the hero of book nerds everywhere. And when it comes to the two of them together, well... it's simply beautiful. Belle brings out the light in Rumpel. She helps him be good. He is filled with darkness--he is the dark one, for badness's sake (because goodness just doesn't work in this context)--and yet she knows there is still light in him, she sees it when no one else will, and she helps him see it too, and she helps bring it out. They are so beautiful because they make each other so much better. They are so very much deeply in love, and it's beautiful. They both needed to find love. Yes, Belle had Gaston, but like she said, she didn't really love him; she was only being forced to marry him by societal expectations. In a very ironic way, the man (or not man at the time, as he says himself he hasn't been a man for quite a long time, and he doesn't become a man again 'til the curse strikes) who locked her in his dungeon set her free and helped her achieve her dreams, to see the world (more or less, through the library, at least) and to have adventures and be a hero. They're so very cute together. He makes the weirdest little jokes and she laughs at them. They balance each other. They never forgot each other. Belle finally got to go on her adventurous quest and free a man from being a... whatever that fire-lion was called again... aha, the internet has reminded me that it is called a Yaoguai, and she still decided to come back for Rumpel. He still cherishes her cup.
Beyond the violet mist, we're romantics, and we're in love with our Rumbelle, and we've spent entirely too much time shipping it and now have run out of time to write this blog post.
TO BE CONTINUED
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