‘Once Upon a Time’ season 4 spoilers: Another story for Emilie de Ravin’s Belle

We’ve always been a big-time Belle supporter when it comes to “Once Upon a Time.” However, if there was one reservation that we have, it’s that the character often gets a little marginalized outside of her relationship with Rumpelstiltskin … which we know is going to be in quite the awkward place when season premieres this September.

Luckily, we have some good news coming out now: There’s some other storytelling for Belle on the way! According to TVLine, we are going to flash back this season to before Belle even met Robert Carlyle’s character, which should allow us some further opportunities to really explore how she became the woman that she is today.

Of course, we personally find this to be a breathe of fresh air, and something that the Belle character really needs in order to get some other layers to her. We’d also like to see her be one of the people who has a past connection to Arendelle and some of the “Frozen” folk there, mostly because that honor seems to be traditionally reserved to just Rumple and Regina since they have such a habit of breaking promises and doing terrible things.

Now that we’ve said all of this, we are still very much rooting for Belle and Rumple to make things work, even though it is becoming increasingly clear to us by the day that this is not going to be the sort of relationship that is ever easy.

What do you want to see from Belle on “Once Upon a Time” moving forward? Let us know below, and head over here in the event you missed the latest Anna / Elsa photo! You can also sign up today in the event you want to catch some other magical TV updates right now via our CarterMatt Newsletter.

Photo: ABC