I still think it's difficult to address Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold as a true coward with all of the psychological/emotional trauma that he has been through, his addiction to power, and the fact that he is cursed. I mean, if you think about it the fact that he took back the curse didn't even seem to be about power or choosing power over love with Belle out of the picture, but a rash decision at the thought of being traumatized by his demons in Hell again. I think it was a PTSD meltdown because he did not seem all too happy about being the Dark One again, and when Belle came back it seemed like he was about to tell her the truth before she kissed him. He also looked guilty when Hook killed himself with Excalibur, like he wasn't expecting it...I'm assuming that his heart is mostly pure still, just with the film of the curse covering it again. because Otherwise, he would have collapsed and died, like he almost did back in 4B. Also, it seems really OOC that he would just take off to the Underworld without giving Belle some sort of good explanation. Rumplestiltskin is this genuis manipulator why give in to Emma's threats of blackmail when he was terrified to go to the Underworld again in the first place enough to take the curse back? This is even more OOC than the Hook blackmail thing back in S4 for Rumplestiltskin.
I still think it's difficult to address Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold as a true coward with all of the psychological/emotional trauma that he has been through, his addiction to power, and the fact that he is cursed. I mean, if you think about it the fact that he took back the curse didn't even seem to be about power or choosing power over love with Belle out of the picture, but a rash decision at the thought of being traumatized by his demons in Hell again. I think it was a PTSD meltdown because he did not seem all too happy about being the Dark One again, and when Belle came back it seemed like he was about to tell her the truth before she kissed him. He also looked guilty when Hook killed himself with Excalibur, like he wasn't expecting it...I'm assuming that his heart is mostly pure still, just with the film of the curse covering it again. because Otherwise, he would have collapsed and died, like he almost did back in 4B. Also, it seems really OOC that he would just take off to the Underworld without giving Belle some sort of good explanation. Rumplestiltskin is this genuis manipulator why give in to Emma's threats of blackmail when he was terrified to go to the Underworld again in the first place enough to take the curse back? This is even more OOC than the Hook blackmail thing back in S4 for Rumplestiltskin.
Do I really have to have one?