He would’ve died a hero, and we wouldn’t have had all this back and forth between him and Belle, and back and forth villain arc (one of the most outrageous parts of season 5 is when he gets his dark one powers again, even though he’s been good the whole season 🙄🙄)

They could’ve still had him appear in flashbacks, but honestly that would’ve been a lot more impactful and would’ve challenged the writers to give Belle actual good storylines and have her be independent of Rumple.