This is such an awesome piece of work! Very well written and it really conveys the depth of this character.

very good

OOOH. Love it. well done.

Nice!

Wow. Pretty accurate, I'd say, and I like how you added the Neverland and the Zelena parts. And well written, too. I also like how you got into Rumplestiltskin's mind so well.

This is so good...and at the end it's so heartbreaking. Good job.

Oh my goodness, this was a piece of art, I think you understand Rumplestilskin so well, or at least I share your thoughts. He and other people might have labeled him a coward back then... but he just couldn't let his son fatherless when he chose to hurt himself!

Now this Rumpel angst is more my speed. I love how you pieced together his timeline up to this point. You may have gone a little overboard with the whippings after he broke his ankle, but not setting the bones made sense. I'd actually be interested to read a revised version of this story that factors in Rumpel taking Bae's spirit inside himself; I'm still not exactly sure how that worked.

I love this piece. A very detailed character study of Rumple while staying within the bounds of his character. Not too heavy on the Rumbelle either, which is how I prefer it. I hope you write more like this!

This is so beautiful! It was so raw and heartfelt. Amazing job as usual! I love your work!

This was amazing to read. You’ve perfectly captured the complexities of this wonderful character and I could feel his hurt, desperation, rage, guilt, and hope at various points in the story. I think you give great insight into why Rumple is the way he is in general, but also why he seems to go slightly… off when he’s been imprisoned.

Oh... Wow. Just wow. Poor Rumple...
This is spectacular. I actually had to take a break in the middle of it because my emotions couldn't handle it all at once, but let me try to write something readable review.
I loved the way you tied the 'I don't want you anymore' around. When you wrote that at the beginning, with Malcolm leaving Rumple, my brain immediately went to what Rumple told Belle when he kicked her out. It's like he felt like he had to make her leave, so he took the most painful thing anyone had ever told him and put it to her, hoping to drive her away with it.
And Milah. The bits about Milah. Oh. My. So much perfection there. Pretty sure that you've created a head-cannon for me in what happened to him between the time he broke his ankle and when he got home. I can't see it any other way now. The way you littered Milah through, though, was perfect. No matter how much he spins, he's never going to forget the pain that she caused. Sure, it hurts less as time moves on, but it'll never be gone. The comparison of how she told him he was nothing while Belle told him she loved him had me smiling and almost crying. Such a beautiful comparison.

So... You think that Rumple would have taught Zelena after Regina, not before?

One of my very favourite parts (because you know how much I love the father-son bonding) was the idea of Rumple and Bae sitting at his spinning wheel and talking. They get so little time between Neverland and when Pan comes back that I'm so happy you put that part in. They deserve some time with each other when they're not fighting for their lives.

This was sooooo beautiful. Extreamly sad yet well written! Really loved it! Seemed you put a lot of time in this work.

This makes me want to sweep Rumplestiltskin up in my arms and hug him. Not that he'd know what to do with that, of course. He'd turtle away.

But I still want to.

This piece is one of the saddest things I've read in a long time, and it is utterly perfect. Thank you for it!