Magic, Enchantments, and Curses: Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo

[Camera One]

They might as well all put their hearts in a blender, make lasagna with it, give every deserving person in the Underworld a spoonful, and they could all come back with the crew at the end of their vacay in hell.

[InsertWordHere]

I think Emma was planning on giving half her heart as payment to get Hook out of the Underworld, but shouldn't that be half her soul not half her heart?

[Camera One]

A&E&J: Heart, soul, what's the diff.  

[Curio]

Soulmates, True Loves, potato, potahto.

 

Hey, maybe Emma does plan on giving half her soul to Hook. If his soul accepts, then we can consider their souls mates. Soulmates. Eh? (Sorry.)

[Delphi]

Ay, soul, mates.

Sorry bad pirate humor.

[Curio]

If Hook doesn't say, "We're soulmates, mate" at some point before the series ends, it'll truly be an unfortunate lost opportunity.

[KAOS Agent]

I was sort of wondering if Emma wasn't making up the heart splitting thing and her real plan is to ditch Rumpel there in place of Hook. Her family might frown on that idea, but I can see Emma coming up with some stupid magical plan of action that her parents would buy while she does not believe for a second that it will work.

[RadioGirl27]

I think the writers had (have?) no idea of the way they were going to save Hook, and the heart split thing was a last second idea while they think something even more contrived and that makes even less sense.

Edited December 9, 2015 by RadioGirl27

[PixiePaws1]

I think the writers had (have?) no idea of the way they were going to save Hook, and the heart split thing was a last second idea while they think something even more contrived and that makes even less sense.

after what Rumple pulled...I am thinking Emma's got no issue in dumping his sorry carcass in the UW as a trade in for Killian. it would be so nice if Mr Super DO got screwed over for once.

[RadioGirl27]

I hope Emma's plan is to trade Rumple for Hook (that's what I would do), but that makes way to much sense for this writers. Between logical and contrived, they always choose the second option.

[Camera One]

You can tell a story without the Dark One, but the writers can't create an original threat to succeed it at this point. Basically they would have to one-up Rumple with someone even darker than the darkest people who ever lived. More than likely this would entail Greek mythology 

 

I think they could have told a story without the Dark One.  The problem is they don't know how to write a story for RUMPLE without the Dark One.  

 

They should have had Hook succeed at getting rid of the Dark One.  Another problem was there was no clarity about whether the Dark Ones personified ALL darkness in the universe, and what would have happened if Emma had succeeded to do what Merlin wanted.  I doubt it all darkness would have disappeared... it's not like the Dark Ones were the ONLY people around, and there was already evil in the world before Nimue.  

 

I guess after Hook destroyed the Dark One, the Gods of Oympus could conspire to release some darkness in some other form to mess with the humans.  Or they could have just had evil entities from other realms entering the Enchanted Forest and the World Without Magic... big baddies on the level of Sauron, Voldemort or Darth Vader.

[Rumsy4]

I think they could have told a story without the Dark One. The problem is they don't know how to write a story for RUMPLE without the Dark One.

Boom. That is exactly the problem. They can't seem to get his story out of the rut of an infinite cycle of Rumple sadface--hint of remorse--reconciliation with Belle--deception--evil plan gets discovered--plan is thwarted--gains the upper hand at the last minute.

They should have had Hook succeed at getting rid of the Dark One.

Yes. It is profoundly unsatisfying, and especially annoying, that the writers are overdoing it with the superlatives with this DO thing. What makes Rumple worse than he was before now that he is apparently the Greatest Dark to ever Dark?

I will be pissed if Emma and Hook are not the ones to finally defeat Rumple, no matter when that happens. But it's TSTW. So, I'm not holding my breath.

Edited December 10, 2015 by Rumsy4

[Selina K]

A&E&J: Heart, soul, what's the diff.  

 

"Heart and soul, I fell in love with you heart & soul ..."

 

That song really becomes literal on this show.

 

I feel like there will be some price to pay to get Hook out of the Underworld.  You couldn't leave through the Hat with more people than went in it.  I would think there is a similar mechanism for the UW.  I would love to see Emma and Hook use Rumple as magical payment for Hook's release, but I can't see the show going there.  I'm sure the contrivance fairy will show up to get them out of it and then they'll bring back a magic lamp inadvertently and whoops, there's Jafar, season 6 big bad.

[KingOfHearts]

TLKs are still as confusing as ever. Why didn't Emma and Hook's kiss in the finale count as a TLK? There was nothing holding either of them back from their love for each other.

Edited December 10, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[Shanna Marie]

After rewatching, I'm still trying to parse what happened with the sword and the Darkness and how Emma's going to be able to save a dead Hook. What it seems to me is that Hook sucked all the Dark Ones into the sword, and then the plan was to use it to kill him, thus dragging all the Darkness into the Underworld. I would have thought it would have been pulled out of Emma, too, before she stabbed him, but she didn't change until after the stabbing. But Rumple siphoned the Darkness off into himself. I guess that meant that Hook didn't actually have to die to save everyone else because the Dark Ones were gone and no one would have had to go to the Underworld, and that's what has Emma so pissed. If they'd known what Rumple was doing or if that was even part of the plan, would Hook still have had to be stabbed for Emma to be saved? Would Hook have still been a Dark One, or would all of it have gone into Rumple? Would Hook still have died when he lost the Darkness, due to the Excalibur wound?

 

Now, where is the rest of Excalibur? We saw it disintegrate, and Rumple now has the dagger end again, but is the rest of the sword out there? I had a crazy idea that it would form into a kind of Grail instead of a weapon -- not the full-scale Grail, since part of it is missing, but maybe a lesser one that can heal the wound without granting magic and immortality. Maybe that would work if the only thing that killed Hook was the fact that it was an Excalibur wound, if it wouldn't have been a mortal wound otherwise. But would that still work on someone who's been dead and in the morgue for a while? (Assuming that's what they did with the body.)

[Camera One]

Looking at "Swan Song":

 

RUMPLE: Do you honestly think that you can hurt me? I now have the combined power of every Dark One who ever lived including you.

 

I think it's BS if Rumple could access Emma's Light Magic now.   Why do they feel the need to overpower Rumple like this?

 

As fate would have it, a small vial of magic was close at hand.  One sprinkle and I knew I could get it all back.

 

They didn't even try to explain ,did they...

[Curio]

As fate would have it, a small vial of magic was close at hand.  One sprinkle and I knew I could get it all back.

 

They didn't even try to explain, did they...

 

As stupid as the deus ex machina gauntlet was last year, the writers at least applied some magical rules and boundaries to it. It reveals a person's biggest weakness. Okay...glad you explained that at the last second. But with this "vial of magic," they didn't even bother explaining what it does. Is it a super convenient vial of magic where its sole purpose is to transfer Dark One magic from one magical source to another? Is it a vial of magic that grants the user any wish without any price attached to it? Why wasn't there a price attached to this huge swap? (The price better be Rumple's life at the end of 5B.)

 

What would have been a better twist is if they decided to incorporate the Once Upon a Time in Wonderland canon. Rumple could randomly find Jafar's magic bottle, and one of Rumple's wishes could have been that the power of the Dark Ones would transfer to him when Killian (or I guess Rumple was thinking Emma at this point) sacrificed himself. At least that isn't a complete ass-pull at the last second. I mean, it still would have been at the last second, but at least there would be magical rules and continuity tied in.

Edited December 16, 2015 by Curio

[KingOfHearts]

The convenient portal jumping wouldn't be so grating to me if the show accepted how easy it is. For the first two seasons, it was a big deal and a focal point. S3 comes along with shadows, more beans, tornados, silver slippers and user friendly curses. In S4, we get contrived door portals, baby banishment, a wishing star and a bizarro world book that opens through any illustrated keyhole. Now in S5, there's even more magic beans (the very LAST one, we promise!), a tornado wand, and another curse that doesn't even require the recipe.

So... can't we just get a permanent Arendelle portal, a magic bean farm, or a new magic hat? If it's a taxi service, call it one. Don't pretend the options are so rare then bibbidi bobbidi boo into any universe that looks fun. I don't have a problem with world hopping, just the contradicting narrative.

Edited December 24, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[KAOS Agent]

This little gem came out of the most recent interview with the showrunners:

 

Was the story Killian’s father told about being under a sleeping curse and awoken by true love’s kiss true?
Horowitz: Yes.

 

They really do know how to diminish True Love if two people who've never met can have True Love while one is in a coma. Why would you even create a curse that could be broken so easily? How did Rumpel miss all of these True Love couples? Also, everyone assumed Snow was dead after eating the apple. Henry was assumed to be dead as well. How would anyone know that Hook's dad wasn't dead? And why would they care for him for centuries? I was okay with the story when I thought it was just a lie. Now I'm kind of pissed off at just how little True Love really means in the Once universe. 

Edited December 25, 2015 by KAOS Agent

[Camera One]

That is so true.  They keep adding stuff that diminishes what came before.  

 

Would True Love's Kiss would be a form of light magic?  What if two villains had true love?  

[Rumsy4]

Why would someone under a sleeping curse even have a nurse?? Wait--don't answer that. 

[KingOfHearts]

Sleeping curse victims have always been able to hear and think while cursed. Snow says in the pilot, "Honestly, the glass coffin gave me a pause", so she had to have been conscious to some degree. For that reason I believe Brennan's story kind of works.

What weirds me out is that Henry was still "alive" for an hour or two before appearing to be dead. Plot demanded it, but the only explanation is "magic works differently here". A concept we don't see again after 2x02(?). I'm kind of surprised Regina didn't try to TLK him or mention the possible solution. But I guess she was afraid of the dark curse breaking.

Edited December 25, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[KAOS Agent]

 

Sleeping curse victims have always been able to hear and think while cursed.

 

Sure, but the nurse found True Love with what was essentially a corpse. That's not normal.  Also, why the hell was this nurse kissing her comatose patient? The whole story is creepy as hell. 

[Jul 68]

Why would someone under a sleeping curse even have a nurse?? Wait--don't answer that.

To prevent bed sores? Sorry. I HAD to answer it.

[Camera One]

One would think whoever is "sleeping" would be pretty distracted by the flames to be able to fall in love with a voice.   How would she be able to make him see the errors of his ways?  How would she know his personal history?  Considering the true love's kiss would have occurred near the end of his century of sleep.  

[KingOfHearts]

Sure, but the nurse found True Love with what was essentially a corpse. That's not normal. Also, why the hell was this nurse kissing her comatose patient? The whole story is creepy as hell.

That is strange. Maybe if she knew him before he was cursed it would be believable. How Brennan got cursed raises questions as well. It had to be Maleficent's doing since she invented the spell and Regina hadn't been born yet.

Edited December 25, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[YaddaYadda]

What weirds me out is that Henry was still "alive" for an hour or two before appearing to be dead. Plot demanded it, but the only explanation is "magic works differently here". A concept we don't see again after 2x02(?). I'm kind of surprised Regina didn't try to TLK him or mention the possible solution. But I guess she was afraid of the dark curse breaking.

 

I thought the reason Regina bought into Henry dying was because there was no magic, never mind that it worked differently. But Emma is the Savior, and we've seen her have spurts of magic even though she had no clue, so she could TLK Henry out of his coma.

 

I already thought the whole TLK had been completely cheapened by the writers, now, with Brennan, it's just sad.

[KingOfHearts]

Emma asked Regina what was going to happen to Henry, and Regina replied, "I don't know. Magic here is... unpredictable."

[Shanna Marie]

Yeah, I thought Maleficent invented the curse, and it was apparently complicated enough that Regina had to trade the Dark Curse to get it. Though how, then, did Regina manage to curse Snow's horse earlier? Or was that a different spell? So that's one problem with the Brennan story.

 

Then there's the issue of having a nurse. Didn't they think Snow was dead -- that's why she was in a coffin? David knew about the TLK being able to cure things before that, but I didn't think he was rushing to wake her from a curse, but rushing to see her before the funeral. They were taking Henry off life support. Only Regina and Emma were aware that it was magic. The doctors thought he was dead. That seems like the real horror of this curse -- unless you knew that there was a possibility that it was a curse and not just death, then there was a good chance the person might be buried alive and conscious. The only hope was if the person had a true love who wanted to give them a good-bye kiss between the time they went under and the time they were buried. If someone wasn't buried, I suppose they'd realize that the body was just in stasis and not rotting, but then why would you keep a body lying around? Brennan's enemies might have kept him around as a trophy, but why would this body have a nurse a century later?

 

And then there's the "true love" issue. Okay, maybe if he heard her talking to him, he might have fallen in love with her, but how could she fall in love with what was essentially a corpse? All she would know about him was how he looked, which makes her love pretty shallow if she fell in love with an attractive body without knowing anything about the kind of person he was, and at that time, he was actually a lousy person. He may have changed his mind and heart from her talking to him, but does that count if he hasn't put any of it into action? At that time, before he woke, he was still a man who sold his children into servitude to save his own skin. If she knew anything about him (from records, or a note left pinned to his blanket, or whatever) that's what she would have known, and she would have had no way of knowing he'd changed. If it was just a general altruism where she loves mankind and would love and help anyone in need, does that count as "true love"? And if so, then it would seem like a person like that could be used as a general-purpose spell breaker. Either way, it's a rather weak interpretation of "true love."

[snarkastic]

One would think whoever is "sleeping" would be pretty distracted by the flames to be able to fall in love with a voice.

There wouldn't be flames. Just a room of emptiness and... mirrors? I think? The flames come after. Wait. Does this mean Snow and Brennan COULD have met in the burning room?

[Camera One]

Eventually, so many people would be under the Sleeping Curse they could have a Funhouse Mirrors party in there.

[Jul 68]

That seems like the real horror of this curse -- unless you knew that there was a possibility that it was a curse and not just death, then there was a good chance the person might be buried alive and conscious.

This is giving me nightmares just thinking about it. Now I have to change my living will. I no longer want to be cremated!

Edited December 27, 2015 by Jul 68

[KingOfHearts]

Have the characters never thought of bringing the dagger over the town line and destroying it?

Edited December 31, 2015 by KingOfHearts

[Shanna Marie]

I was pondering the curse in another thread, and it's one of those things that really isn't helped by thinking about it.

 

The initial curse seemed to consist of three key elements:

1) Punching through the barriers to the World Without Magic, creating Storybrooke, and physically transforming the Enchanted Foresters into people who fit into our world (Snow's hair got shorter, Archie was human again, the dwarfs looked human, Rumple didn't sparkle, etc.). This seems to be the core of the curse, with everything else being an addition, since it's what happened with curse 2. Curse 3 just seemed to be about the transportation, since Storybrooke already existed and everyone was already in their transformed state. Curse 3 seems to have been entirely unnecessary, as travel between worlds was already possible. I suspect that the main purpose of curse 3 was the shock value of Hook ripping out and crushing Merlin's heart. We know that this aspect of the curse was the real reason Rumple wanted it cast, and it seemed as though this was a lot of what Regina wanted, as a way around the spell that kept her from harming Snow in their home world (though she didn't end up really doing anything to Snow once they were in a world where she could harm her). This aspect of the curse wasn't actually "broken" until Regina uncast the curse ahead of Pan's new curse.

2) The memory spell that gave people fake memories of fake identities and stopped them from knowing who they really were. Based on what Regina said before undoing the original curse, this part was optional. It hasn't happened with subsequent curses, and it doesn't seem as though those who were in curse 2 but not 1 got any kind of memory download even without having their identities erased. This part was a lot of Regina's punishing of her enemies, making them be the opposite of their nature (in some cases), keeping them away from their loved ones, and forced to live under her rule. This was the part broken by Emma with the true love's kiss with Henry.

3) The frozen time, trapping everyone in a Groundhog Day type existence. I'm really not sure why this part was in the curse because Regina was trapped in the same unchanging existence, and there was no reason Rumple needed it since he's immortal. I suspect this was purely for outside purposes, nothing inherent in the story -- they wanted Emma to be an adult, but they wanted her parents to still be young and attractive and recognizably Snow White and Prince Charming. This one broke in both worlds, including the Coradome, when Emma decided to stay in Storybrooke.

 

The more I think about the curse, the more it seems like most of it was for writer reasons rather than story reasons. They wanted to put the fairy tale characters in our world (although they've done very little with that culture clash). They wanted their identities to be something of a mystery in some cases because they wanted the surprise of finding out who they were in flashbacks and they wanted Emma to interact with her parents without them knowing what their relationship really was. And, as I said above, they wanted all the characters in both generations to be young and attractive. Leave it to Hollywood to find a way to have multiple generations, with everyone played by attractive 30-somethings. Within the story, while it's a really clever scheme for Rumple to use someone else to get to his son, it makes no sense for Regina as a revenge scheme. Her enemies didn't even know that they were suffering or why, and she was almost as miserable as they were. Even with Rumple, some of the additions seem contrary to his aims, like the time lag and the memory issues.

 

As I mentioned on the other thread, it's starting to irk me that the memory part of the curse was broken by Emma kissing Henry. I can see where they were going with it, but both of them were outside the realm of the curse, so why would an action between them change anything? Two people unaffected by something acting on each other shouldn't then change things for everyone else. There's fairytale precedent for breaking a curse on everyone by breaking the curse on one person who's affected. The spell on the Beast's castle in most versions of the Beauty and the Beast story affects all the servants (in a lot of the fairy tales, they're invisible, and in the Disney version they're animated furnishings, since invisible characters are boring in animation), and the curse is broken on all of them when the Beast's curse is broken. Likewise, with Sleeping Beauty, waking Aurora wakes the whole kingdom. But Henry isn't cursed. Really, it should have been a kiss between Emma and Snow, mother and daughter, since Snow was the focus of the curse. Emma could have saved Henry from the sleeping curse, but it doesn't make a lot of sense for that to also wake the whole town, unless maybe it had something to do with Emma using her innate magic busting things open, but then it doesn't take magic to use a TLK.

[legaleagle53]

I was pondering the curse in another thread, and it's one of those things that really isn't helped by thinking about it.

 

The initial curse seemed to consist of three key elements:

1) Punching through the barriers to the World Without Magic, creating Storybrooke, and physically transforming the Enchanted Foresters into people who fit into our world (Snow's hair got shorter, Archie was human again, the dwarfs looked human, Rumple didn't sparkle, etc.). This seems to be the core of the curse, with everything else being an addition, since it's what happened with curse 2. Curse 3 just seemed to be about the transportation, since Storybrooke already existed and everyone was already in their transformed state. Curse 3 seems to have been entirely unnecessary, as travel between worlds was already possible. I suspect that the main purpose of curse 3 was the shock value of Hook ripping out and crushing Merlin's heart. We know that this aspect of the curse was the real reason Rumple wanted it cast, and it seemed as though this was a lot of what Regina wanted, as a way around the spell that kept her from harming Snow in their home world (though she didn't end up really doing anything to Snow once they were in a world where she could harm her). This aspect of the curse wasn't actually "broken" until Regina uncast the curse ahead of Pan's new curse.

2) The memory spell that gave people fake memories of fake identities and stopped them from knowing who they really were. Based on what Regina said before undoing the original curse, this part was optional. It hasn't happened with subsequent curses, and it doesn't seem as though those who were in curse 2 but not 1 got any kind of memory download even without having their identities erased. This part was a lot of Regina's punishing of her enemies, making them be the opposite of their nature (in some cases), keeping them away from their loved ones, and forced to live under her rule. This was the part broken by Emma with the true love's kiss with Henry.

3) The frozen time, trapping everyone in a Groundhog Day type existence. I'm really not sure why this part was in the curse because Regina was trapped in the same unchanging existence, and there was no reason Rumple needed it since he's immortal. I suspect this was purely for outside purposes, nothing inherent in the story -- they wanted Emma to be an adult, but they wanted her parents to still be young and attractive and recognizably Snow White and Prince Charming. This one broke in both worlds, including the Coradome, when Emma decided to stay in Storybrooke.

 

The more I think about the curse, the more it seems like most of it was for writer reasons rather than story reasons. They wanted to put the fairy tale characters in our world (although they've done very little with that culture clash). They wanted their identities to be something of a mystery in some cases because they wanted the surprise of finding out who they were in flashbacks and they wanted Emma to interact with her parents without them knowing what their relationship really was. And, as I said above, they wanted all the characters in both generations to be young and attractive. Leave it to Hollywood to find a way to have multiple generations, with everyone played by attractive 30-somethings. Within the story, while it's a really clever scheme for Rumple to use someone else to get to his son, it makes no sense for Regina as a revenge scheme. Her enemies didn't even know that they were suffering or why, and she was almost as miserable as they were. Even with Rumple, some of the additions seem contrary to his aims, like the time lag and the memory issues.

 

As I mentioned on the other thread, it's starting to irk me that the memory part of the curse was broken by Emma kissing Henry. I can see where they were going with it, but both of them were outside the realm of the curse, so why would an action between them change anything? Two people unaffected by something acting on each other shouldn't then change things for everyone else. There's fairytale precedent for breaking a curse on everyone by breaking the curse on one person who's affected. The spell on the Beast's castle in most versions of the Beauty and the Beast story affects all the servants (in a lot of the fairy tales, they're invisible, and in the Disney version they're animated furnishings, since invisible characters are boring in animation), and the curse is broken on all of them when the Beast's curse is broken. Likewise, with Sleeping Beauty, waking Aurora wakes the whole kingdom. But Henry isn't cursed. Really, it should have been a kiss between Emma and Snow, mother and daughter, since Snow was the focus of the curse. Emma could have saved Henry from the sleeping curse, but it doesn't make a lot of sense for that to also wake the whole town, unless maybe it had something to do with Emma using her innate magic busting things open, but then it doesn't take magic to use a TLK.

 

I suspect that Emma's innate magic is precisely what enabled her to break the curse that way (remember that she also broke it individually for Graham just before he died, even though I seriously doubt that that was really a TLK; Emma and Graham really hadn't known each other long enough for that to be more than just a True Infatuation's Kiss).  Rumple knew she would have innate magic as the product of Snow and David's True Love, which is why he wrote the Savior Clause into the original curse with her specifically in mind as the Savior.  Regina knew this as well, which is why she (a) tried to have Emma killed as an infant and (b) tried everything she could to get rid of Emma in Storybrooke, including making the poisoned tart that Henry ate which put HIM under Regina's sleeping curse (which she had originally intended for Emma).

[KingOfHearts]

I'm confused about how Merlin, Rumple and the Apprentice didn't interact hardly at all. Wouldn't Rumple want to burn down Merlin's tree so he wouldn't be equaled? Why the heck were Merlin and the Apprentice not working on using the hat to contain the darkness? It seems like there should be a power struggle between the Dark One and Team Merlin, but there seems to be a gap between Nimue and Emma. Besides the gauntlet trade, Rumple really didn't give a crap. I suppose it's possible he didn't see Merlin as a threat because he was stuck in a tree, but I always thought he was pretty paranoid.

Edited February 10, 2016 by KingOfHearts

[YaddaYadda]

This is like last season when Rumple didn't even interact with Anna in Storybrooke. Anna was this huge threat to him, he was worried about her, and nothing came from it.

[Camera One]

Half an arc later, and we have no clue what the hell Merlin and the Apprentice were doing for all those years with all those counterproductive things they had going on.

Edited February 10, 2016 by Camera One

[Curio]

And we still don't know what the deal is with Merlin's mansion that randomly appeared out of no where. Is it his mansion?? Did everyone just assume wrong?

[Camera One]

And why would there be random portals there?  

[KingOfHearts]

 

And why would there be random portals there?

And why would he leave his super dangerous hat, containing the Chernabog, sitting out in the open on an end table? (After years of protecting it from Rumple, too.)

Edited February 10, 2016 by KingOfHearts

[Camera One]

Don't forget the key to the Author's Door.  

 

It's not like The Apprentice was out of town or anything in 3B.  He could have... I don't know... hidden those things a little better?

Edited February 10, 2016 by Camera One

[justcris]

This thread depresses me. So many good questions that we'll never have the answers for.

[Curio]

Maybe I'm overthinking this...

 

But how was Regina able to kill Graham by crushing his heart if Storybrooke didn't have magic in Season 1? We now know that taking a person's heart and crushing it requires magic, so wouldn't crushing his heart in a land without magic just look all bloody and mushy? Why would it magically turn to dust? And how was that separate heart in the vault able to control his actual human heart and give him an "aneurysm"?

[KingOfHearts]

Probably because the heart was enchanted, meaning it had its own magic keeping it alive.

[Curio]

If that's the case, then why wasn't Regina or Rumple proactive before the spell was cast and brought along a bunch of "enchanted" items? Regina could have had a whole slew of it-just-so-happens-to-work-here-in-the-real-world magical items like Zelena's shapeshifting pendant, a locating spell, magical potions, etc.

Edited February 15, 2016 by Curio

[KingOfHearts]

Regina did (including a ring from Daniel), but as time went out her vault went from fully stocked to nearly dry. In 3x10, when Henry was a baby, she had all kinds of potions and trinkets. After using an enchanted object too much, maybe it loses its magic. The heart vault might have had preservative properties.

Edited February 15, 2016 by KingOfHearts

[Curio]

I must have blocked out the part where Regina actually used magical items and trinkets on the regular in Storybrooke. Was her vault stocked like a grocery store, or was it just a few items here and there? 

 

And can we have just one writer on the show who can specifically outline the magical rules and properties for each magical item they use? If they were actually organized about this, they could have had a fun tie-in book where they explain all their magical potions and spells. Instead, we have to head-canon everything or just assume that mostly everything is a deus-ex-machina.

[KingOfHearts]

 

I must have blocked out the part where Regina actually used magical items and trinkets on the regular in Storybrooke. Was her vault stocked like a grocery store, or was it just a few items here and there?

 

Here's the scene. She seemed to have plenty for potion making.

[Curio]

Ugh, I hate monologuing so much.