Speculation WITHOUT Spoilers: Lalalalala! I can't hear you!

[ParadoxLost]

If Rumple wants to be the Dark One again, it means he has to kill Emma, in which case , I can very easily see someone ending him. I don't think it was a coincidence that his hero self in the AU was not only knight hero, but also someone who had magic.

That being said, I think they're rebootin Rumple to redeem him.

 

I think the existence of the Egg spell to move potential for darkness exists to subvert the need to kill the Dark One to become the Dark One.  They made Emma the Dark One so Rumpel could sacrifice himself and his love for Belle by becoming the Dark One again to save Emma to redeem him.

[YaddaYadda]

They made Emma the Dark One so Rumpel could sacrifice himself and his love for Belle by becoming the Dark One again to save Emma to redeem him.

 

Do you really think that's the reason?  Because I don't really see it, personally.  Rumple will not be sacrificing anything if he becomes the Dark One again.  I just don't think he loves Belle as much as he claims (but they also have minimal screen time, so that might be the issue there).  I think he wants to have those things with her, like children and a marriage, but I'm not sure he loves her enough to ever put her first.  

 

Him becoming the Dark One is just going back to something he actually loved being and I don't see it as a redemption for him.  Even in the AU, he managed to abuse his magical powers when Emma was kicking his ass in that sword fight.  He resorted to magic to get her off his back.

 

Rumple may not be the Dark One anymore, but I wonder how much he will have changed.  We caught a glimpse of him during the time he didn't have magic and I have to admit that he did really well for himself.  He was very resourceful.  And on Once, you don't have to be born with magic to have magic, see Cora and Regina.  

 

Also, I'm very biased right now because I so very much hate Rumple and everything he has done, so I don't want him to be redeemed and if he died, I'd have a party.  So maybe my brain had decided that Rumple does not deserve a happy ending and is closed off to the possibility of one.

Edited May 17, 2015 by YaddaYadda

[Souris]

If Rumple wants to be the Dark One again, it means he has to kill Emma, in which case , I can very easily see someone ending him. I don't think it was a coincidence that his hero self in the AU was not only knight hero, but also someone who had magic.

That being said, I think they're rebootin Rumple to redeem him.

 

 

I'm almost sure Emma as the Dark One wont' be full-season, but I guess it's quite possible that the halves will be more connected than random Queens of Darkness after Elsa and co. I think by the midseason finale, Emma will either get rid of her darkness or otherwise suppress it (or maybe somebody steals it (if Lily becomes a regular, my money's on her) and then they'll have to fight this person). So, overall, I think it's the Dark One curse that will be the subject of the season, hopefully with all that it entails (please, tell us about fairies! Please!)

 

 

I think the existence of the Egg spell to move potential for darkness exists to subvert the need to kill the Dark One to become the Dark One.  They made Emma the Dark One so Rumpel could sacrifice himself and his love for Belle by becoming the Dark One again to save Emma to redeem him.

 

I think it depends on RC's contract and whether he's continuing after S5. If he's leaving, they'll redeem Rumple at the very end, because it's TS, TW. If he's continuing on for later seasons, I think they'd have him become the Dark One again but not be redeemed yet.

 

He wouldn't have to kill Emma to release the Dark One. There are many ways the DO energy could be released: the darkness-transference egg baby spell, a TLK, pulling it out with the hat (like the Apprentice tried), or anything they might have Merlin be able to do with his magic (they did establish he could link it to a person). All Rumple would need after that would be possession of the dagger to tie it to him once again. Or Merlin could do it without the dagger -- thereby CLEAVING the Dark One from the dagger.

 

But my money is also kind of on Lily becoming the Dark One at some point.

[Camera One]

For a moment in the finale, I actually thought the blackness would go into everyone, and they would all become the Dark One.  

[ParadoxLost]

For a moment in the finale, I actually thought the blackness would go into everyone, and they would all become the Dark One.  

That was what I was hoping for despite being spoiled.  The tweet A&E had put out made me think it might be possible.  It was this one "It's probably a little more reminiscent, in a way, to season one, where a condition [was set out] that magic is coming, versus having a new villain of the year or a journey to a different world."

 

That really isn't true with Emma as the Dark One.  Its just not.  It would have fit much better and frankly been more fun if they'd made Storybrooke infected with Darkness.  They could have set up that even the smallest dark spot in your heart, which every one has, is a crack for the Dark One to influence.  But you've got clear hearted Rumple who is immune.  So someone pulls him out of stasis because they are being driven by whatever Dark demon that wants to wake him to get at his knowledge of the Dark One to amass more power.  Then something happens that to make Rumpel use some convenient magical device that can block the Dark One influence from one person which would have to be Emma (cause Savior).  Then they have put themselves back into season 1 style.  Two characters teamed up to save the town that has been cursed to act as if they are different people.  Voila.

 

I don't know what the aversion is to re-cursing the town for an extended period of time since season 1 was their high water mark.  They could have done an extended shattered sight spell.  Didn't.  They could have had the amnesia after 3A make people not know each other instead of just erasing the one year off.  Didn't.  They could have played in the alternate story book for all of 4B.  Didn't.

 

They could have so much more fun with this show than they do.

Edited May 17, 2015 by ParadoxLost

[YaddaYadda]

The Apprentice: The sorcerer is the only one with the power to destroy the darkness once and for all before it destroys everything.

 

From the Quotes Thread.

 

So if Merlin is able to destroy the darkness, why didn't he do it before?  Is it because he didn't know and attaching the Dark One to a person was his immediate solution to the problem until he figured things out?  Or was he just being a lazy hack?

 

Also, I wonder what kind of role is Lily going to play in this mess, because I think she has a role in all of this since apparently, according to Merlin's voice, the lives of the two girls were always entwined, before the eggnapping.

[ParadoxLost]

From the Quotes Thread.

 

So if Merlin is able to destroy the darkness, why didn't he do it before?  Is it because he didn't know and attaching the Dark One to a person was his immediate solution to the problem until he figured things out?  Or was he just being a lazy hack?

 

I presume there is some consequence the Apprentice didn't know about or mention...but you can't destroy the darkness without destroying the light so Merlin just shackled it.

[KingOfHearts]

I believe Emma will be whatever Rumple was going to be after the darkness overtook his heart. Since his darkness was completely removed and his heart is "white" now iirc, Emma's not just getting the Dark One curse. She's getting Rumple's years of evil too. It might be safe to say that she'll be a monster, but she'll be so suppressed underneath the Dark One persona that there will be no question as to who's causing the problems. I'm going the "ghost possession" route.

[Rumsy4]

Crushing hearts seems to be the debut for evilness in this Universe. I just hope DarkOne!Emma doesn't go there.

[Mari]

I think it depends on RC's contract and whether he's continuing after S5. If he's leaving, they'll redeem Rumple at the very end, because it's TS, TW. If he's continuing on for later seasons, I think they'd have him become the Dark One again but not be redeemed yet.

If Carlyle does leave after  five years--and there's a sixth--would they heroically kill him, or send hi off to live happily?

 

And, would they keep Belle?

 

If he stays, and chooses being the Dark One over Belle, again, is there a remotely plausible future for that relationship, or will they move on?

[retrograde]

As the spoiler thread is closed, I guess I'll put this here for those who are interested: apparently filming starts again on July 8. 

[Souris]

I believe Emma will be whatever Rumple was going to be after the darkness overtook his heart. Since his darkness was completely removed and his heart is "white" now iirc, Emma's not just getting the Dark One curse. She's getting Rumple's years of evil too. It might be safe to say that she'll be a monster, but she'll be so suppressed underneath the Dark One persona that there will be no question as to who's causing the problems. I'm going the "ghost possession" route.

 

UGH. It's going to be exactly like this, isn't it? I guess each Dark One gets not only the curse but also all the darkness & evil of the previous Dark Ones, too. So Rumple was really a hero for keeping all that evil at bay as much as he did. Meanwhile, Emma will be So Much Worse Than Rumple because she's just not nearly so awesome and heroic.

 

I do not want this. Do. Not. Want. 

[FurryFury]

Meanwhile, Emma will be So Much Worse Than Rumple because she's just not nearly so awesome and heroic.

 

I don't think so. For all its faults, the show has never really tried to show Emma as somebody not heroic enough. Yeah, she got outshined by Regina in a lot of bullshit moments (White Magic in 3B, Savior in 4B) but it never really made her any less awesome.

 

That said, I could definitely see a retcon about The Dark One's curse being used to prop Rumple, because right now, it's really hard (well, impossible) to root for him after everything he's done in season 4.

[Serena]

On the other hand, if they know RC will not sign up for S6, they can do a "Rumple wants his magic back" storyline, and show him trying to get back the DO curse by killing Emma. His ultimate defeat would be the finale. Belle can date Ruby.

[KAOS Agent]

I guess each Dark One gets not only the curse but also all the darkness & evil of the previous Dark Ones, too. So Rumple was really a hero for keeping all that evil at bay as much as he did. Meanwhile, Emma will be So Much Worse Than Rumple because she's just not nearly so awesome and heroic.

 

I don't think this is where they're going at all. They made a point in the AU of showing non-Dark One Rumpel still making the same wrong choices even though he was not under the influence of the "darkness". The so called Light One was willing to kill a child to maintain his life as a "hero". As the Dark One, he was holding back a massive malevolence, but while his actions may have been negatively influenced by it, he is still responsible for his actions and choices. And we saw that without that influence, he isn't a great hero or even someone who would make the right choice. Placing Emma in this role leaves her with choices too. Showing her struggle to maintain her humanity in the face of overwhelming evil is an infinitely more interesting story than mindless monster Emma. It also allows for lots of parallels between Dark!Emma and Dark!Rumpel and drives Rumpel's attempts to regain his humanity in the present.

Edited May 18, 2015 by KAOS Agent

[Shanna Marie]

There are a lot of differences between Dark One Rumple and Dark One Emma.

 

Even before he was the Dark One, Rumple had tendencies toward cowardice and selfishness, and hints of cruelty (didn't he get the seer's prophecy by refusing to give her water until she would talk, or something like that?). He committed murder and double-crossed Zoso to become the Dark One because he wanted the power. Emma is selfless to a fault, always putting other people's happiness and well-being ahead of her own. She became the Dark One as a sacrifice to save others, full of faith that the people she loved would be able to help her, and the last thing she did before making that sacrifice was express her love to Hook.

 

Rumple was powerless without being the Dark One and craved power. He desperately wanted to hang on to the power he had because he couldn't give it up. Emma already has great power that she's given up once to save a life and was willing to give up to keep the people around her safe. There's nothing really in her character that would make her cling to the Dark One power once they found a way of getting rid of it, and she would have nothing to lose (from her perspective) in giving up the Dark One power, even if it meant giving up her own magic. She'd be okay with being powerless if that's what it took to keep people safe.

 

However, it might make a difference that she already has power. Her light magic could counteract the Dark One power, or the Dark One power could feed off her existing power. It might also matter that she got all of Rumple's darkness that had accumulated over his lifetime. We don't know if all that darkness is normally passed on to the new Dark One or if it's just the Dark One essence. But Emma is supposedly without darkness of her own and with great light.

 

In short: It's pretty much impossible to predict how it will play out, and they've got a lot of room to work with and not have it contradict anything "known." But I would cry foul if Emma immediately becomes a horrible villain because even Rumple didn't do that and he was a jerk to begin with. It seems more likely that Emma would be more afraid of being dark than she actually was dark.

[KingOfHearts]

I really don't trust them with Dark Swan no matter what the outcome is, to be honest. Either she's going to be an over-the-top, unbelievable member of Evil Sisters of the Cleavage, or she'll be a good person struggling with darkness who is demonized for everything little thing she does. If this were any other show, it would be a great way to propel Emma's character into new areas, as well as seeing the people around her dealing with it. Alas, it's TS,TW, which means more killing people in self defense being equal to human sacrifice.

 

It's a freaking good setup that's ready to blow into a ridiculous follow-up.

Edited May 19, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[Souris]

I had a thought that also worries me -- it looks like the obvious cure for this is the True Love's Kiss, which seemed to start to work on Rumple with Belle, until he stopped it. But if tethering this darkness to a person so it could be controlled was the point, would it have been bad for the TLK to work? Would that have just set the darkness free so they'd be back at square one, where Merlin started all this? And does that mean that Rumple pulling back was actually a good thing? (Not that he gets credit for that, since he didn't do it to save the world from darkness but to hold on to his power.) And would this mean that Hook and Emma don't dare kiss now for fear that it would free her from the darkness but then also set it free? Maybe that's why they went so heavy with the forehead lean in the finale, with no kisses. That may have to become their way of kissing for a while.

 

That's exactly what I think, too. Either they'll ignore that a TLK could break the curse, or, more likely, they'll show that Rumple was being heroic to keep the TLK with Belle from releasing the Dark One. Because they're all about the villains actually being heroes. Emma won't allow Hook or Henry to TLK her in order to keep the Dark One tethered and not on the rampage. Now, Rumple was able to keep the TLK from working, and he and Belle have kissed since then, so clearly there must be some sort of way to allow kissing, just not TLKing. But I imagine the show will make it a no-kissing policy for CS, simply to up the angst even more.

[pezgirl7]

But I imagine the show will make it a no-kissing policy for CS, simply to up the angst even more.

 

Boooooo! I don't like that idea. Although, as Jen has said, "You don't have to kiss to be intimate."

[kili]

Now, Rumple was able to keep the TLK from working, and he and Belle have kissed since then, so clearly there must be some sort of way to allow kissing, just not TLKing. But I imagine the show will make it a no-kissing policy for CS, simply to up the angst even more.

 

Maybe they can attribute it to a motive thing. Rumple was able to stop the TLK effects because he wanted to retain his power and find his son. Basically, he's saying he loves other things more than Belle which caused the True Loveness to be lessened so it was no longer effective. Meanwhile, if Emma refuses to kiss Henry/Hook, it is because she loves them and the enire world so much, she doesn't want to release the Dark Spirit on the world. So, it has the opposite effect and she can't stop a TLK from working?

 

I wonder if the Dark One was originally in Pandora's Box, but all the evilness has increased and he no longer fits in there. It was interesting that Rumple could be contained within it, though.

[KingOfHearts]

 

 I wonder if the Dark One was originally in Pandora's Box, but all the evilness has increased and he no longer fits in there. It was interesting that Rumple could be contained within it, though.

That's a nice theory. It's strange that Pandora's Box is strong enough to keep the Dark One inside, yet the hat isn't. The hat is supposed to be this super powerful ancient object that every Dark One tried to get their hands on. The box was just sitting around Gold's shop.

[Shanna Marie]

It's strange that Pandora's Box is strong enough to keep the Dark One inside, yet the hat isn't.

That may have something to do with it being tethered to a person, which keeps it contained. The Dark One (the person) can be controlled with the dagger. The Darkness (free floating entity) may not be containable, and that's why they had to tether it to a person in the first place.

 

I would dearly love if this were used to really show the difference between heroes and villains, with Emma taking it on as a sacrifice rather than double crossing to get it out of a lust for power, then having to avoid any risk of a TLK because of her love rather than because she doesn't want to lose the power, and with her willingly trusting Hook or her parents with the dagger to ensure that she doesn't hurt anyone while knowing they won't do anything to hurt her, as opposed to Rumple giving Belle a fake dagger. And maybe they are capable of doing that, since they showed that even when written as a hero, Rumple was still selfish, plus, bless Robert Carlyle, I don't think he'd go for whitewashing Rumple and making him a real hero. But then again, it's this show, and you know that even if Emma does prevail, they'll find a way to give the same plot (probably watered down and with no real set-up) to Regina eventually to show that she's just as good.

 

I had a weird dream last night in which Emma was still being good, but with an edge, so that she was getting a bit high-handed with her goodness, using her power for good and to help, but not necessarily consulting people on how they wanted to be helped. One of the things she did was restore Hook's hand, which he wasn't entirely opposed to, he was just a little shocked because she just did it, and then she said it was because she needed to be able to hold both his hands and she was clinging to him like he was her anchor, and it was all angsty, and then they went on a quest, and he had the dagger hidden somewhere on himself in case he needed to use it, but he kept telling her he wouldn't need to. There was lots of forehead leaning since they couldn't kiss for fear of releasing the darkness. And this is what happens when I don't take my allergy medicine at night and don't go to sleep quite so quickly.

[Watt]

Oh my god is Emma gonna go all sparkly and giggle a lot. Do not want. Terrible thought. Make it go away

[Shanna Marie]

Oh my god is Emma gonna go all sparkly and giggle a lot.

I hope not. Rumple doesn't do that in Storybrooke, and he didn't revert to sparkly when they went to Neverland.

 

On the other hand, the de-sparkling seems to be an effect of the curse, transforming everyone into a form that fits into our world. Emma isn't cursed and wasn't transformed, so would she be all sparkly to start with? Maybe that's something we'll learn after seeing the ComicCon promo video.

[Camera One]

Oh my god is Emma gonna go all sparkly and giggle a lot. Do not want. Terrible thought. Make it go away

 

I think that would be hard to do without making it cheesy. Plus it would be a lot of pressure for Jennifer Morrison to replicate that.  If she's forced to do it, I hope she's able to put her own spin on it, like Snow's version of the Evil Queen.

[Mari]

They have left themselves room to go another way--Zoso didn't seem to be a sparkly giggle machine.   Plus, if they're staying in Storybrooke, glittering up Morrison for pretty much every single shoot is a lot of make-up to commit to. 

 

I'm expecting some physical changes, because I think they're going to want to go for the drama, but I'm not convinced they'll go full Imp.

[Watt]

I just have these flashes of terrible things they might do, just for the hell of if. Thankfully I have you guys to talk me off the "oh god how are these writers gonna fuck it all up" ledge.

[KingOfHearts]

(I keep jumping threads with this, but...)
 

 

I just have these flashes of terrible things they might do, just for the hell of if. Thankfully I have you guys to talk me off the "oh god how are these writers gonna fuck it all up" ledge.

See, Sparkly Emma (or whatever super evil persona they could go with) is more marketable and up A&E's alley. A woman struggling with inner darkness while remembering her loved ones is boring! What's so fun about that? It's much more flashy to welcome the newest member to the Evil Sisters of the Cleavage with snarky deliciousness and crazy makeup. But wait - there's a twist! You're telling me the Hero of Heroes is now super evilz? How cutting edge and conceptual! Never been done before! Be sure to tune in for Once Upon a Time S5 - #BlondeIsTheNewBlack

 

This is why we all should be very afraid...

Edited May 21, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[RadioGirl27]

The crazy hair and make up, and the cleavage are a given.

[kingshearte]

They have left themselves room to go another way--Zoso didn't seem to be a sparkly giggle machine.   Plus, if they're staying in Storybrooke, glittering up Morrison for pretty much every single shoot is a lot of make-up to commit to. 

 

I'm expecting some physical changes, because I think they're going to want to go for the drama, but I'm not convinced they'll go full Imp.

She'll just start hardcore raiding Hook's eyeliner stash. And, of course, as mentioned above, invest in a really good push-up bra.

[Souris]

My sleeping subconscious did it again. Given that Rumple's heart is white, I think Emma got all his darkness on top of the Dark One. Rumple's darkness loathes and wants to kill Hook. My guess is that the secret scene they filmed to be shown at Comic Con is Hook summoning Emma with the dagger and trying a TLK on her. But it doesn't work because she hates him now and tries to kill him. She pulls back at the last second because there's just enough of Emma in there not to, but there's your way of keeping a TLK from breaking the curse. As for Henry, maybe now that he's the Author, he can't affect the story anymore -- so he can't TLK Emma.

 

I'll show myself out.

 

[Camera One]

Oh boy, a half-season of Emma trying to get Hook alone in order to kill him.  That would certainly be... interesting.

 

As for Henry, maybe now that he's the Author, he can't affect the story anymore -- so he can't TLK Emma.

 

 

 

On top of that, I can assure you that now, being the Author will be absolutely useless and of no help whatsoever.

[FurryFury]

Well, Emma also has her parents who truly love her. As much as the show hates Snowing, no way would it take this away from them. There should probably some plot defense from TLK built in next season, otherwise, it would make no sense (which is of course something I've come to expect from this show).

[YaddaYadda]

I think it has been mentioned before, but if a TLK doesn't destroy the Dark One, but merely frees the person from it, then it will be no dice in Emma's case until they find Merlin and figure out a way to destroy the thing.

 

I'd like to point out that it seems that Emma was powerful enough to pull the goop out of the Apprentice, so her powers combined with Merlin might actually destroy the Dark One, although I'm thinking that she might be powerful on her own to do it and that she was just following the Apprentice's instructions and might have had no clue how to do it.

 

So, I'm thinking that A&E might be somewhat ripping off Sailor Moon this go around.

[RadioGirl27]

I'm pretty sure that, at some point next season, Emma is going to hurt Hook, by accident or on purpose, I don't know, but it's totally happening.

[YaddaYadda]

I'm pretty sure that, at some point next season, Emma is going to hurt Hook, by accident or on purpose, I don't know, but it's totally happening.

 

And if that happens, I'm sure he won't care.

[KAOS Agent]

I can assure you that now, being the Author will be absolutely useless and of no help whatsoever.

 

I've seen people wanting to "explore" Henry's new role as the author and I wonder if we're watching the same show. They spent an entire half season exploring the author mythology and wrapped it up with a giant bow in the finale. The author records what he sees and if he does anything other than that, bad things happen and the Author is a villain. Henry is simply now a 12 year old shoved into a lifetime role of watching other people live their lives and recording on it while he's not allowed to do anything other than observe. I don't like Henry and I think that's a shit life to dump on him. Not that I think anyone in the writers' room looks at it that way, but that's pretty much how they screwed Henry.

 

On the Evil!Emma topic, I just don't think they really thought this storyline through. Emma the Saviour was incredibly powerful. Combine that with the Dark One and she's essentially invincible. Anything she wants to do can be done with a wave of her hand, so what's the story there? You can't have incidents occur in every episode as someone talks her down (I really, really hate the yellow crayon thing from Buffy and I especially hated Dark!Willow, so I have no time for this kind of plot). And again, what does she want? You could bring in another villain, but Emma can destroy them easily, so that's out. Are they seriously going to spend an entire half season talking Emma down and/or controlling her with the dagger while staring at books in their effort to find Merlin? What is driving this plot?

 

I think there's a reason that the showrunners didn't give a post finale interview and it's because they didn't know where they were going with this. My guess is that there was also some word from on high that they run the season out as filmed, but some serious audience analysis was going to take place before Season 5 could be plotted and written. When a show loses 50% of its audience in one season, something needs to be reevaluated. 

Edited May 24, 2015 by KAOS Agent

[Camera One]

On paper, Dark Emma should be invincible, but they will make up some mumbo jumbo reason for why she'll have limited abilities or limited control of her abilities.

 

Maybe they just won't have any villains in 5A, but a larger villain will be revealed for sure by 5B.  Then, 5A will likely be the protagonists finding a way to get to Merlin, or finding magical objects that can somehow help them siphon the darkness out, while Emma deals with her new state and the other characters adjust to the changes.  Maybe they'll do a Frodo-and-the-ring thing where eventually Emma doesn't want to give up the darkness, so someone will need to get through to her.  I'm guessing Regina will be her Sam, and maybe Rumple will be the Gollum who tries to grab it in the last moment and hopefully fall into the fires of Mount Doom.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Camera One

[kitticup]

I am sorry but if Regina and not Hook and Snowing are the most key to Emma's rescue, I am truly done with this show. The back half of season 4 barely held my interest. I am not signing up for a Regina Emma buddy show.

Emma's relationship with Hook, Snow, charming, Henry and Lily interest me far more than Regina and Emma. I would rather see Snow with Emma and not sucking up to Regina. I hate that most of Snow's flashback boil down to Regina. Regina and Snow might be interesting if the show and characters really acknowledge all the crap Regina did to Snow. nothing Snow did remotely comes close to Regina's acts against Snow, including murdering her father with malicious intent and not in self defense.

I would rather see Regina interact with Rumple, Hook and Charming, because they are all willing to remind her of her past acts, even if they are willing to work with her. Regina snarking Charming for the egg knapping and Charming firing back about how she stole Emma's childhood from them.

I am so split on robin. I like Sean as a person, but I feel Robin is so bland and i don't understand his thought processes. I hope Zelena baby story and her stolen title of mayor keeps Regina in StoryBrook. The first part should be Belle, Henry and maybe Hook researching a way to Merlin. I liked the Belle hook scenes. I think Belle and newly minted author Henry could be good way to go. Then they figure out how to find Melrin, so Hook ( since he seems to be a portal magnet; too bad Rumple didn't work with his ex-wife to find Bae) and Snowing.go to find Emma/ Merlin or they could split team to find Emma and Merlin.

[YaddaYadda]

Emma should be equal parts dark and light since she had no darkness in her to begin with.  I guess she was the Light One to Rumple's Dark One.  Rumple tried to kill Emma, tried to turn her, so what if that's what the Dark One inside of her tries to do and it's not so much about Emma trying to control her new powers, her doing hooooorrible things or whatever, but about saving her life period.

 

That's how things turned out for Rumple in the end, he had done so much horrible things that the man in him was going to die out and that's the reason the darkness was pulled out of him, to save his life.  Emma is different from Rumple, she was born with magic and it's as light as it can get (as per Regina), so what if the Dark One decides to just kill her to just take possession of the body.

 

Why didn't Merlin tether the Dark One to himself since he's all powerful and defeated the Dark One oh so very long ago?

[RadioGirl27]

I am sorry but if Regina and not Hook and Snowing are the most key to Emma's rescue, I am truly done with this show. The back half of season 4 barely held my interest. I am not signing up for a Regina Emma buddy show.

I think you should get ready for this. A lot of fans are expecting season 5, at least 5A, to be about Emma, Hook, Henry and Snowing, but I think they are in for a big disappointment. The only way Regina is not going to be heavily involved in "Save Emma" is if Lana decides to leave the show during the hiatus. And we know that's not going to happen. So, yeah, Regina is going to be the one who saves Emma from the darkness, or, at least, an integral part of saving her.

Regina is A&E favourite character and her fans are the rudest and loudest on the internet, the only place that the producers seems to use to get feedback. If Lana wants Regina involved in this storyline, she would be involved. It wouldn't be the first time A&E bent to her demands.

At this point, the only thing I want for season 5 is some screentime for Hook.

Edited May 24, 2015 by RadioGirl27

[Camera One]

If they really want to go for a parallel, they will have Henry fall through a portal in early 5A, and Emma will enact the Dark Curse to get to him in the 5A finale, despite everyone pleading her not to.  This would result in a reset for 5B.  Then, the parallel to Rumple would be complete.

[YaddaYadda]

Whose heart will she crush for that?

[Camera One]

If they want to clear the main cast to give room for more interesting characters, they could have Emma murder Snow and Charming in the season premiere.  That would give two extra slots (three, once Henry falls into the portal), so maybe we can have Cora's mother, Robin Hood's brother and Rumple's long-lost evil but bold and audacious sister become major players in Season 5.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Camera One

[RadioGirl27]

Camera One, stop giving A&E ideas!!!!

Edited May 24, 2015 by RadioGirl27

[FurryFury]

I actually hope they'll do it. After that, we will be free of this crap. Also, I'm sure they'd get so much crap for it their ratings will plunge to fractionals.

[Camera One]

I just had another horrible thought.  What if Henry being the Author is supposed to show that Regina will have someone to record her good deeds?  And Henry will have to learn the tough lesson that he will need to write negative things about Dark Emma because that's now his job?  Maybe Merlin will punish him for showing favoritism towards Emma and he will be fired.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Camera One

[Mari]

I just had another horrible thought. . . .  Maybe Merlin will punish him for showing favoritism towards Emma and he will be fired.

That is a horrible thought.

 

But, we're going to have to have a personality shift in Henry to make him show favoritism to Emma.  He's barely acknowledged her existence recently.

[Camera One]

I guess that's mutual.  Emma apparently couldn't care less he was working for his homicidal grandaddy, which I refuse to believe.  I'm really curious the discrepancy between quality Henry/Emma time vs. Henry/Regina time in Season 4 as a whole.  It was obvious they were careful to keep it balanced in "Operation Mongoose" over the two parts, but it was very imbalanced the rest of the season, and apparently that's not a problem to them?

Edited May 24, 2015 by Camera One

[Mari]

I'm really curious the discrepancy betwene quality Henry/Emma time vs. Henry/Regina time in Season 4 as a whole.  It was obvious they were trying to keep it balanced in "Operation Mongoose" over the two parts, but it was very imbalanced the rest of the season.

It was, but I think it's because of the way the characters were being used.  With Regina being kept mostly separate from the Frozen stuff, it meant Henry was one of the characters she could regularly interact with, so lots of Henry time. 

 

Since they were making Emma "dark" the second half of the season, and Henry is something Emma sees as a good thing in her life, it would mean minimizing her Henry time.  By the time Operation Mongoose actually happened, they didn't need to worry about it.

 

There didn't really seem to be a lot of Henry in the second half of the season--maybe they were saving his screentime for Operation Mongoose? 

 

I think the Henry/Emma time in season 5 is going to depend on what direction they take Dark One Emma.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Mari