snarkastic

With their luck it would lead them to whoever gave the ring to Hook instead of Hook himself.

It sounds like I Almost Do by ihearttvsnark ETA: nevermind! Wrong fic, still looking. ETA2: FOUND IT!! It's Wednesday by madj.

Oooh, you mean like Emma is about to kill Merlin with her magic, but that would turn her fully Dark, so he steps in between trying to save her from that? Oops.

I can kind of make it work if we go with each Dark One's power/soul going into the vault when they die, leaving the new Dark One fresh, at the same beginning levels as all previous Dark Ones. And then when Douchefire resurrected Rumpel, all the previous Dark Ones' powers/souls escaped with him. It can explain the swirling Darkness in the vault when Lance and Gwen went there was, why after all this time his super black heart was killing him, and the "all the voices in my head" that was attributed to Neal sharing his body, but could have been him dealing with all the previous Dark One's suddenly popping into his head as we saw with Emma when she took on the power. And wow, what a run on sentence. That's what happens when I try to apply logic to this show.

So, he waited until Mickey was old before making him immortal? Like, why not do it in the prime of his life. And he must have done it while he was in the tree, right? (Seriously, what was the point of putting him in the tree if he can still do everything?) Or else he was not treed until after bestowing immortality on Mickey, and then there's even less time between Nimue and Rumpel. And, yeah, so much for tethering the Darkness to a human soul as per last season's finale. I wish there was some evidence that the writers have watched their own show.

That's why I said WAS alive. ;) Basically, Mickey would have to have been at least 200 years old, which seems unlikely, and he clearly aged which rules out immortality. And, yeah, outside of Mickey's age, if they had said 1000 years ago, then 200 years later, most of the headaches would be solved, including why the heck there were so many Dark Ones.

Okay, let's pretend that Hook/Rumpel/etc. stories all happened only 100 years ago. Fine*. But if the Apprentice was a little kid 200 years ago, then an old man when Zoso was the Dark One (more than 100 years ago), it's implied that he is aging normally. So how was he still alive in present day??? Where did he get his sudden late-in-life immortality from??? *Actually, I don't have a problem with that. It makes sense for the Darling timeline, and it's still before the Geppetto fiasco.

Lady Gaga is on this season of American Horror Story.

To throw an alternative, Hook or whoever could be going willingly to the Underworld to get some item or info that can only be obtained there. Or help out with a problem in the Underworld caused by getting rid of the darkness. And I just want to say, we figured out Emma had no memories in season 3 because she was wearing plaid pants. I say jump to whatever conclusions, there's a good chance you ARE right.

shimpy, What are your thoughts on the change that Jaime and Brienne were at the wedding in the show but not in the book? I remember a lot of readers having opinions on that at the end of season 3.

It can be the "price" they pay for getting rid of the darkness for good.

Is the Nimue/Merlin flashback the same episode as the Hook jumping, holding Dark!Swan's hand? Because now all I'm picturing is Merlin/Nimue making the sword together but their bond not being true enough or something and it breaks apart. Then parallel to the future with CS putting the sword back together because their bond withstands the whole dark/light problem. And also Arthur may have just been interpreting the prophecies wrong and his role in the whole drama was just a catalyst and nothing more. OMG this is so perfect

Maybe it has to do with Gold finally becoming the Hero Dark!Swan needs. Like face your past and your actions determine what kind of person you now are.

I have a feeling it will be 6 week ago Camelot as the main story line, and the little arthur/gwen to big arthur/gwen/lance being the flashback part of the episode, and the present day as bookends. Otherwise, yes, that's a lot of different plots going on.

Two episodes in a row Belle gets to interact with characters not named Rumpelstiltskin and suddenly my enjoyment of the character increases. Coincidence? I think not. Why does Charming keep having unqualified people drive his truck???

Maybe they're cursed and have been throwing a ball every night for 30 years and time won't start again until Excalibur and the dagger are reunited?

I think the "price" Rumpel paid when healing nilly willy is basically the same price that Emma paid in that moment: letting the darkness take a little more control. For Emma the price was actually much higher because it seemed to be why she couldn't TLK Hook, too. (Although I agree with whoever said it upthread that the kisser breaks the curse on the kissee, not on themselves, so it was weird all around)

Dark Curse Version 3.6? (I don't actually know what we're up to here) Or the prophecy about the Savior/Dark One?

I suppose the Swan's could have 'adopted' Emma in Maine then moved to Minnesota and abandoned her there?

I do think it's interesting that y'all were just talking about death creating a Dark One and birth being the opposite of death. Maybe there really IS a Light One out there.

So I see time travel has now been mentioned a couple times. My theory is some kind of closed loop. Like, some time has passed in Storybrooke, then Dark Swan shows up, prompting everyone to travel back in time to Camelot when Emma was still not evil, but it's events that happen there that turn her dark. Or Dark Swan travels back and uses her knowledge of the future to try to stop them from keeping Emma light? (I thought they said no to time travel, wth) I feel like we've gotten most of the episode spoiled and I still can't quite make sense of the order it all happens.

?????? Kellog wouldn't look 60 years older because he's only supposed to be like 30 years older from what I recall. Didn't we see something with Brad's childhood last season? And he's certainly not 60 years older. Like, I thought the point of this alternate timeline was that bad stuff happened worse and quicker because of the initial time travel shenanigans. (I honestly can't remember since I only watched the episodes once when they aired but I think????)

Maybe she's still in Camelot wrecking havoc and that's why Arthur and the gang go to Storybrooke?

With my backwards timeline, I just figured she wasn't quite full on Dark!Emma yet that episode, so driving the sunshine mobile is another way to show it.

Re: makeup, my crazy theory now is that the Storybrooke scenes are airing in reverse order. Dark!Swan is fairly normal in 3.05 and gradually gets worse makeup backwards to 3.01. Re: Emma driving the bug, Rumpelstiltskin and Regina both drove their cars all the time, why wouldn't Emma?