Was Rumpelstiltskin a malevolent entity who regularly makes deals with mortals of dubious morality? Or was he simply a mercenary of sorts who just wanted to collect on what his client agreed to pay him?
For that matter, what did he want with the queen's child?
Of course, his little chant, "Today I'll bake; tomorrow I'll brew," lets some readers suspect he intends to eat the baby.
While it's unclear if this is Rumpelstiltskin's intenion, stealing the king's first-born son would naturally bring about a succession crisis.
Notably, the "Three Spinners" variant portrays the helpers as unambiguously good, only wanting to help the heroine. In some versions, the helpful spinners are angels or souls from Purgatory the heroine prayed for.
Some see Rumpelstiltskin as a Designated Villain, finding his offers to the Miller’s Daughter kindly aid in exchange for minor trinkets, the third time asking for her firstborn child. Despite the agreement, Rumpelstiltskin allows the Miller’s Daughter three nights to guess his name, and he’ll allow her to keep her child. It’s worth pointing out that in the original German story, Rumpelstiltskin is mentioned as being a männlein — essentially a type of Germanic male fairy who appear in fairytales to help people, particularly young women, and gave them powerful blessings in return for kindness. In fact, one researcher pointed out that what Rumpelstiltskin was doing was part of a similar theme in fairytales/mythology, where the Faery figure asks for the child that would eventually be produced from their magical aid — one noteworthy example of this is Merlin requesting that King Uther give him Arthur, as Merlin’s magic was vital in the conception of the boy. Essentially, Rumpelstiltskin was from a race of the masculine equivalent of Fairy Godmothers.
Rumpelstiltskin is made more clearly villainous in several adaptions. Especially the 1995 horror film adaptation where he actually kills people and steals babies so he can have their souls.
Fridge Horror: The miller's daughter is threatened with death and ordered to complete an impossible task. If she reveals that her father was telling tall tales, he'll probably be killed. After three nights of this psychological torture, she is forced to marry and bear children for the king, the man who kidnapped her, threatened her with death, and locked her up for days. She then spends the rest of her life petrified that the king will find out that she and her father are liars. (Lying to the king is an act of treason, and the punishments for treason were pretty nasty back in the day.) With Rumpelstiltskin’s aid gone, what happens when the king's treasury is low and he asks his wife to spin more straw into gold?
Nightmare Fuel: One telling of the story uses some pretty freaky imagery to compensate for the limited animation. Any time the king threatens the girl with death, we get the sight of something morbid suddenly appearing around him as if by magic (a hangman's noose, the moon turning into a skull, a ring turning into a snake). Then when Rumplestiltskin is singing his name out in the woods, he suddenly and without warning pulls his own face off.
The Scrappy: Good luck finding anyone who does not wish to see the miller run through the wringer for the dangerous position he put his daughter in with his absurd lies.
The Woobie: The miller's daughter, even though she is now the queen, put up with a lot.
The 1995 film:
Complete Monster: The titular Rumpelstiltskin is portrayed much more evil than in the fairytale. Lacking a soul, Rumpelstiltskin made a deal with a miller's daughter, spinning hay into gold for her in exchange for her firstborn son, so he could suck out his soul and make it his own. Foiled in his attempt, Rumpelstiltskin is turned into a jade figurine, and freed centuries later to continue his goal. After being inadvertently freed by Shelly Stewart and having sex with her while disguised as her dead husband, he begins targeting her infant son John, killing everyone he comes in contact with along the way. He slaughters an entire police station to get to John in an attempt to steal his soul.
uses some pretty freaky imagery to compensate for the limited animation. Any time the king threatens the girl with death, we get the sight of something morbid suddenly appearing around him as if by magic (a hangman's noose, the moon turning into a skull, a ring turning into a snake). Then when Rumplestiltskin is singing his name out in the woods, he suddenly and without warning pulls his own face off.