Both he and Belle truly deserved it. Rumple's life has been filled with such pain, misery and tragedy, but in choosing love over power he freed himself up to be unreservedly happy. It's beautiful to see him able to express that happiness without any reservations...
I actually think that was also Bobby coming out in Rumple, he was THAT happy to be filming with Emilie. A friend of mine told me that her friend on set had said that that was the happiest she's ever seen him in her years of set-watching.
**One reason I think we saw so much of Bobby in Rumple's happiness is this shot from S2. That's Bobby smiling broadly - as he and Em were in the background, they were playing games...... Of course he's a great actor and he could "act" happy during a scene, but I don't think he was, much as he was not acting when he cried during Belle's death scene
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You find goodness in others and when it's not there, you create it. You make me want to go back, back to the best version of me...and that never happened before.