Twisted dreams.
[7x19] : "Baelfire, at a time, finally realized that all magics weren't necessary bad. Gold asked himself if, one day, Gothel would realize that all humans weren't monsters." Gold knows Gothel's story, and makes a parallel between her and his son.
Baelfire once dreamed of a world without magic.
Gothel was dreaming of a world without humans.
(Except the one with magic, of course.)
Gold would have never thought that he would one day compare his son to this crazy bitch that Gothel was (and became because of the humans, yes, he got it, but he himself became bad because of dark magic, but it had been still his choice, in the end. As it had been hers) but he couldn't deny the fact that in a way, they had similarities.
The way they perceived things, and also the fact that their life had been destroyed because of something.
Something that now they hated.
Baelfire's life and family (not just his father, but the one he had with the Darlings) had been, according to himself, destroyed by magic, dark magic, the one which destroyed his father too, while Gothel's life had been put into pieces because of the humans' action, it was something he knew now.
He remembered his son, now dead, who wanted him to give up his magic, who tried to make him go in this world, a world that had been created despite Gothel's actions, despite what she herself wanted.
He understood her, as he understood his son's desire to live in a world where magic wouldn't separate them.
It didn't mean they were right about it.
Baelfire just saw the worst side of magic, while Gothel had just been confronted to terrible humans, the one who hated magic, and who paid the price for it.
(Because yes, they deserved to be punished, but maybe not to be killed.
Maybe they could have learned.
Or not.
Maybe it was supposed to happen.)
Just as it happened with Zelena, Ingrid, and himself too.
He perfectly knew what it was to be feared by other people, because of his magic.
But at least, he himself had dark magic, so, it was easy to understood others' fears.
At this time, Gothel didn't deserve people's hatred.
And now she did.
(Good job people. Really, good job, and now they were going to pay for the actions of some people who lived thousand years before them, and who already paid for this.
He must have done something awful in another life, to deserve such a fate.
Oh, wait… right, he did it, in this life.
Maybe he deserved this, after all.
But the other didn't.
Henry and Ella didn't.
Lucy didn't.
Alice didn't.
Well, Facilier certainly did, but it was another subject.)
But she wasn't like his son, because Neal just wanted to destroy magic and the darkness within, as he thought at a time that magic was always bad.
And maybe he wasn't entirely wrong, just as Gothel had been right, in a way, when she thought humans were monsters.
Some of them were.
The one she met, when she was still innocent, they were.
It didn't mean all of them were, even if he wasn't himself a good example of what could be called a "good" humanity, it was even the contrary.
And at least, Neal changed his mind, after some times.
Baelfire, at a time, finally realized that all magics weren't necessary bad.
That there was good and dark magic, and that, maybe, dark magic could be used for good, at some moments.
That it could help, and be useful.
Without it, his father wouldn't be alive, after all.
Gold asked himself if, one day, Gothel would realize that all humans weren't monsters.
Apparently, she wouldn't.
Not after all that happened.
Not after her world (her home, her family, everything she cared about) was entirely destroyed by humans.
And the worst was coming now, because of her, because of the humans who once thought they could destroy magic and not face the consequences of it.
She hated humans, she was doing everything she could to destroy them, and in return, humans hated her too.
Hatred could just create hatred, and Gold was pretty sure it wasn't going to stop.
Not if they didn't stop Gothel before her and her precious witches destroyed everything they themselves cared for.
They weren't going to destroy the world, oh no, and in their twisted minds, they may seen it just as the complete contrary.
They were going to erase humanity from the entire world.
And it just meant one thing for them.
They were going to save it.
Or so, they thought.
§§§§
Baelfire used to hate magic, but when he needed it, he didn't hesitate to use it, and to, in the end, recognize (kind of), that magic was helpful (even if it was sometimes to fix something that had been created by magic itself. Even Gold could recognize it).
It was the same with Gothel.
She hated humans but she kept looking like them (after all, she never looked like a dryad after her world was destroyed. She always looked like humans, or so Gold thought she did.) and sometimes, she used them.
She used Hook at a time, to have her daughter, and to escape, and she was trying to use her daughter too, so magic would come in Seattle (a thing Gold still didn't know.)
She was becoming like the monsters who once tried to destroy her, and Gold was sure of this : she was aware of that. But she didn't care, for sure, the only thing which would ever care for her was her desire to rebuild a world with no humans.
A world where she would be happy. With her sisters, and her "family", and where she would be the mother she should have been since the beginning of the story.
And maybe that the former Rumplestiltskin would have kind of agreed with this, with the idea that all humans were monsters (he used to be a Beast, after all), and would have wanted to fight on her side.
But he didn't agree with her anymore.
She once told him that all humans were monsters, but they weren't.
Now, he was thinking about Emma Swan, about Belle, about Henry, his own grand-son, and about Lucy too.
All these one, who certainly didn't deserve to be killed.
Gothel was wrong, just as Baelfire had been, even though they were both right too.
They too had twisted dreams, once upon a time, and if Baelfire finally abandoned this one, the idea of destroying magic (just as Henry himself did), well it wasn't Gothel's case.
And the thing was this, even though he understood all her hatred, he wasn't going to let her win.
Never.
He hoped that, maybe she would understand that she was wrong, as Baelfire did.
Or as he did himself.
Because the truth is, Gothel wasn't the only one who committed mistakes and crimes.