Belle (Once Upon a Time)

Season 1 & 2

In the Enchanted Forest, Belle is the daughter of Sir Maurice and his wife Colette. She is the true love of Rumplestiltskin.

During the Ogre Wars during an Ogre attack Colette protected her daughter at the expense of her own life. Belle does not remember this and to get back her memories she travels to Arendelle where she meets Princess Anna, and is partially responsible for her being caught by the Snow Queen. When her father's realm is again threatened by the ogre wars, Rumplestiltskin offers to protect it in exchange for Belle becoming caretaker of his estate. Belle accepts the deal and the pair form a bond until Rumplestiltskin mistakenly believes that Belle is working for Regina and forces her to leave forever. Belle later joins an expedition to hunt the Yaoguai, a monster terrorizing a distant kingdom. Using her knowledge of books, she teams up with Mulan to defeat the beast, which turns out to be a cursed Prince Phillip. She then intended to return to Rumplestiltskin, though the Evil Queen captures her, even as Belle defiantly tells her that she will never keep her apart from Rumplestiltskin. Then, the Evil Queen falsely claims to Rumplestiltskin that Belle committed suicide, devastating him.

In Storybrooke, Belle is kept beneath the town's hospital for 28 years by Regina. She is later released by Jefferson and finds Mr. Gold (Rumplestiltskin), professing her love for him when the curse is broken and standing beside him as he brings magic to Storybrooke. When Gold finds a way to leave Storybrooke without losing his memories, Belle is shot by Captain Hook, causing her to fall across the border and lose her memory again. Belle later "remembers" her cursed self as a scantily-clad barfly named Lacey, who encourages the darker urges in Gold. Gold later finds a potion that returns her original identity, after which she does not use the name "Lacey". As Mr. Gold, along with Emma Swan, Mary Margaret, David, Regina, and Captain Hook travel to retrieve a kidnapped Henry from Neverland, he gives Belle a protection spell to cast around Storybrooke.

Season 3 & 4

Rumplestilskin encounters a form of Belle frequently in Neverland as an illusion to act as a crutch to his cowardliness; she is later revealed as his father Peter Pan's shadow in disguise. The two are reunited when the group return to Storybrooke after retrieving Henry, though Gold sacrifices himself to kill his father. However, Pan's curse remains and Belle, along with the other inhabitants are sent back to their original worlds. In the Enchanted Forest, Belle and Neal travel to the Dark One's vault. To the disapproval of Belle, Neal unlocks the vault, resurrecting Rumplestiltskin but sacrificing himself. Belle is returned to Storybrooke when Snow and Charming enact a new curse to stop Zelena, the Wicked Witch of the West from taking their baby. Upon his freedom, Mr. Gold proposes to Belle after trusting her with his dagger (unknown to her, it is a replica) and the two are married. Belle eventually learns of his deception, banishing her husband from the town. Gold manages to return to the town, only to find Belle in a romantic relationship with Will Scarlet. As Gold's condition worsens, being consumed by the Dark One's powers, Belle confesses to him that she does not love Will. The Apprentice removes the darkness from Gold's heart, though he remains in a comatose state whilst the darkness is taken in by Emma Swan.

Season 5

With the other residents, Belle transports to the Enchanted Forest, taking Emma to Camelot in order to find Merlin and remove her darkness. However, weeks later, they return to Storybrooke with missing memories as to how they failed. During her time in Camelot she helped Mérida win back her kingdom while helping the others stop King Arthur and the previous Dark Ones from taking over Storybrooke. After her memory is restored, Belle remained in Storybrooke but is unaware that Gold, who traveled with Emma to the Underworld to rescue Hook, has reclaimed the powers of the Dark One, and is unaware that she is pregnant with their first child, which is tied to a contract that Hades is using due to Rumpelstiltskin having made a deal with a healer back in the Enchanted Forest in exchange for saving Baelfire. Unfortunately, after she is sent through a portal along with Zelena and her daughter, Belle learns the truth from Gold about his reacquired powers and her pregnancy as well as the contract, putting her life and that of their unborn child in jeopardy once again. Motivated by Hades, Gaston moves against Rumplestiltskin with plans to kill him, reuniting Belle with her ex-fiancé. After confronting Gold about his murder of Gaston decades earlier, Belle intends to help Gaston move on, only to learn that Gaston blames her for his death. In an attempt to rescue Rumplestiltskin, Belle inadvertently pushes Gaston into the River of Lost Souls. Consumed with guilt over what she did to Gaston, Belle places herself under a sleeping curse, believing it would give Gold time to protect their child from Hades. Before falling under, Belle makes Gold promise to return her to her father. It later turns out that Gold's kiss of True Love cannot break the spell; Belle had begun losing faith in him again.

Season 6

Belle remains in the sleeping curse she put herself in to protect her child. Rumple enters her dreamworld to try and wake her, but fails in doing so. Her son wakes her instead, and she once again rejects Rumple. She is then seen with the "heroes", and briefly stays on the Jolly Roger. Rumple casts a spell forbidding her to leave the boat due to a serious threat from Mr. Hyde. However the spell puts her in danger when she cannot flee from a true threat. This further deteriorates Rumple and Belle's relationship. In the episode Changelings, the evil queen speeds up Belle's pregnancy and Belle gives birth to Gideon. She gives her son to the blue fairy, fearing Rumple will try to take the child. But the blue fairy is ambushed by the black fairy, Rumple's mother. Gideon is taken to dark realms where he grows up very quickly and develops a terrifying darkness. In the mid season finale, Gideon is shown confronting his mother and father in Gold's shop.

Character development and reception

The producers had planned to make the Belle character a recurring role in the series, but after sporadic appearances in the first season, she was promoted to a series regular in the second.

Had de Ravin not accepted the Belle role, she would've gone on to star in a television series called Americana; ABC decided to pass on the pilot in 2012.

de Ravin's fellow co-star on Once Upon a Time, Keegan Connor Tracy (who plays The Blue Fairy/Mother Superior), also played Belle in the 2015 TV movie Descendants.