Rumplestiltskin (Once Upon a Time)

"All magic comes at a price"

- Rumplestiltskin's catch phrase

"Evil isn't born dearie, it's made"

- Rumplestiltskin

Rumplestiltskin is a major character on Once Upon A Time. He débuts in the first episode of the first season. He is played by starring cast member Robert Carlyle, and is the fairytale identity of Mr. Gold. Rumplestiltskin is one of the most feared beings in Fairytale Land and is notorious for his deals. He is the supporting protagonist/anti-hero in the first three seasons (he becomes the secondary antagonist in the second half of season three while under Zelena's control), but gradually becomes the secondary antagonist in the first half of the fourth season after reverting to his dark and power-hungry nature, and the main antagonist in the second half, being the leader of the other primary villains and the one who orchestrated the plot.

Rumplestiltskin is based on the titular character from the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin and takes the place of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast and the Crocodile from Peter Pan.

Before the First Curse
Rumplestiltskin was born in The Enchanted Forest to Malcolm and an unknown woman. Sometime after his birth, his mother either died or left, leaving Malcolm to raise him alone. Young Rumplestiltskin constantly lives his life with his criminal father who tries to swindle people out of their money. While Rumplestiltskin is with two spinners, they teach him to spin and give him a Magic Bean, which they say will take them to another world where they can start a new life. After talking to Malcom, they open the Bean Portal and go to Neverland. Malcom explains that when he was a child, he would come here in his dreams, and that anything can happen in Neverland if you just believe. However, when he tries to fly, his belief does not give him flight. He takes Rumple to a grove of trees containing Pixie Dust, but as Malcom is in a tree, he is visited by The Shadow, who explains to him that he cannot fly because he is an adult, and Neverland is a place for children. Malcom wants to stay in Neverland, so he has The Shadow take Rumple back to the Enchanted Forest as he transforms into a teenage boy, as a child cannot have a child (because that would be weird). As he flies away, Rumple drops a doll given to him by Malcom. The teenage Malcom takes the doll and takes upon himself the name Rumple gave to it: Peter Pan. From then on, Rumple is raised by the spinsters.

Years later, Rumple is an adult, and married to a woman named Milah. He tells his wife that he will join the army to fight in the Ogre Wars to prove that he is not a coward. At camp, Rumple hears his name called from the wagon that contains the captain's so-called "secret weapon". Peeking under the sheet, he sees a red-haired girl with stitched up eyes. She says she is a Seer, and will predict his future. She holds up her hands, which have blue eyes embedded in the palms. She predicts that they will ride cows into battle, he will have a son, but what happens the next day will make his son fatherless. Rumple lowers the sheet, unimpressed, until he sees that they will be riding cows, by which that means the leather saddles on horses. Rumple is horrified to see he will be on the front lines, and, believing that the seer was saying that he would die in battle, rushes back to the wagon to talk to her again, but she has disappeared. Frightened, he takes a hammer and smashes his leg in order to be sent home. When he arrives home, he sees Milah with their new son, named Baelfire. She asks if it was true that he injured himself in order to be sent home. He denies it, and asks where she heard it from. She replies that news travels fast on the battlefield, and that she would rather be married to a man who died in battle.

Rumple is now the village coward, and he and Milah grow apart. One day, he sees Bae has been left home alone, and finds Milah in a bar flirting with pirates. He tries to get her to come home, but she refuses until Bae asks her. Later that night, Rumple asks Milah if she really wanted him to die in the Ogre Wars. She says that what she wanted was for him to actually fight. He wakes up and can't find Milah, and is told that she was kidnapped by the pirates. He finds the pirate who she was flirting with, Killian Jones, and asks for Milah back. Jones says he will giver her back if Rumple can beat him in a sword fight. Rumple is scared and doesn't even pick up the sword, so the pirates make fun of him. He asks what he will tell Bae. Jones suggests the truth: his father is a coward.

About ten years later, Rumple witnesses the fourteen year old daughter of a neighbor carted off to the army. Rumple fears for Bae, who will soon be fourteen. He flees into the night with Bae, but they are found by Hordor, a captain in the army. Bae is unafraid, calmly stating that he will be fourteen soon, to Rumple's horror. Hordor then tells Bae how Rumple practically deserted the army for fear of being killed, scaring Rumple even more. He then says he will take Rumple away, unless he kisses his boot. Rumple, ever the wimp, does so, and then is kicked to the face by Hordor. An old man finds them and takes them home. While Bae sleeps, the old man tells Rumple about the power of the Dark One. Rumple had previously seen the Dark One when the girl was taken. The man tells Rumple that the Dark One is controlled by a magical dagger, and whoever possesses the dagger can command the Dark One. He tells Rumple that if he can get the dagger from the Duke, its current owner, and kill the current Dark One with it, he can become the Dark One and be invincible. Rumple steals the dagger, setting fire to the Duke's castle as a diversion, and goes into the woods to summon the Dark One. After the Dark One appears, he asks Rumple's bidding. Rumple stabs the Dark One, then looking into his hood, sees the face of the old man, who had tricked Rumple in order to be free from the grip of the Dark One. The next day, Bae is fourteen, and Hordor arrives to collect him. Then, without warning, the Dark One appears. Hordor, believing it to be the old man, bows to him, then sees Rumple's face. Rumple asks Hordor to kiss his boot. Shocked, Hordor bends down to do so, but then Rumple snaps his neck and slays the other soldiers with the dagger. Bae is horrified at what his father has done, though Rumple tells Bae he no longer has anything to fear, as he goes to collect the fourteen year olds and bring them home.

Later, Rumple is master of the town, and collects payment from the villagers. After offering Bae a trinket he received as payment from a villager, Bae says he wishes he had friends to play with, but Rumple says that he doesn't let Bae play with the other children because he think if Bae leaves, he might not come back. Then when he returns one day, he sees Bae is not home, or anywhere in town. He searches the area, eventually hearing in the city of Hamelin that a man in pied robes led away their boys in the night by playing on a pan flute that only the boys could hear. Now knowing where his boy went, Rumple vows to find this "Pied Piper". In the dead of night, he hears the Piper's tune, and follows it to a bonfire in the woods, where many boys in masks dance about. He picks out Bae and the Piper, then the Piper removes his own mask, revealing, to the utter terror of Rumple, that the Piper is his father, Peter Pan. Rumple pleads Pan to let Bae come home with him. Pan then says that the decision is completely up to Bae. Before Bae can choose, Rumple grabs him and teleports them both home. Bae is angry that Rumple didn't let Bae choose. Rumple said he thought he might choose to go to Neverland with Pan instead of returning with Rumple. Bae says that he was going to choose Rumple over Pan if he had the choice.

Bae is tired of his father's overdoing everything, like brutally murdering a cart driver when he almost hit Bae. Bae refuses to let Rumple magically heal a cut he got, saying he is done with magic in his life and wishes for Rumple to get rid of the power of the Dark One, but Rumple explains that he can only lose the power if he dies. Not wanting this, Bae says he wants to live somewhere where there can be no magic. He makes a deal with his father that if Rumple finds away to remove his magic and live, he must do it. As Rumple attends to some business, Bae tries to play with the other children, but they think that his father might kill them and run away. One girl remains, telling Bae of the Reul Ghorm, who can help Bae get what he wants. Bae calls out for Reul Ghorm, and it appears, revealing itself to be the Blue Fairy. She says she will help Bae as he has good intentions, and gives him a magic bean, the same kind the spinsters gave to Rumple. Bae shows Rumple the bean, and they open the portal, however, as Bae tries to pull Rumple through, he stabs his dagger into the ground and holds on, saying he does not want to part with his power. Livid, Bae calls Rumple a coward and lets go, falling into our world alone. Rumple, immediately regretting, digs where the portal was, but to no avail. The Blue Fairy appears to him, saying that Bae is in a world without magic now, and as Bae had used one of the last magic beans, Rumple must use a curse to get there. Rumple vows to get the Dark Curse.

Later, Rumple runs into Mr. Smee, who says he will give Rumple a magic bean in exchange for eternal life. Rumple agrees and lets Smee go to get the bean. He then sees Jones, the pirate that took his wife many years ago. He reveals himself to Jones, and, with his new confidence, proposes a sword fight at dawn. When the sun rises, they fight, and Rumple is about to kill Jones when he hears a woman shout to stop. He turns, and is shocked to see Milah. She says that she married Jones, and offers him a magic bean in exchange for letting them live. They go to the ship to get the bean, and he and Milah argue. It ends with Milah saying that she never loved Rumple. Mortified, he removes and destroys her heart, killing her. Jones then grabs a rope hook from off a wall and stabs it into Rumple's chest. Rumple says that doesn't even hurt him, then slices off Jones' left hand, which had the bean in it. He returns home, and sees that the hand has no bean, and Jones had pocketed the bean at the last minute. Jones recruits Smee to his crew, and attaches the hook to his wrist as a reminder to get revenge on Rumple, and earning him the nickname "Captain Hook", before he uses the magic bean to take himself, his ship and his crew to Neverland.

Later, Rumple meets the Seer he had discovered in the wagon many years earlier. She is now a grown woman. He compliments her on her prediction, as his action of running away eventually led to Bae falling to another world and being fatherless. He asks her if they will be reunited. She confirms, but it will take the Dark Curse and lots of waiting. Rumple asks for more revelation, but she says that her power has limits. Thinking she is just refusing to say more, he transfers her powers into himself. He sees the future, but says it is just a jumbled mess, as she thanks him for relieving her of her burden of being a Seer. However, the extraction of power drained her energy, and as she dies, she makes one last revelation: that there will be a boy who stands in the way of the reunion. Rumple is not troubled by this, as he says he will just kill the boy.

Much later, after he builds his Dark Castle, he is visited by Jiminy, later to become Jiminy Cricket, who drops off some things Rumple asked for earlier. Rumple gives Jiminy a reward of gold thread, spun out of straw. As Jiminy leaves, Rumple asks what it is he really wants. Jiminy gushes about how his parents don't let him move out, and keep him so he can pickpocket for them during their puppet shows. Rumple, eager to "help", creates a potion, telling Jiminy to give it to pouring it on his parents or put it in their food or something, and Jiminy will be free. He price is that Jiminy allows Rumple to collect them afterwards and keep them. Jiminy accepts the potion and leaves.

Rumple appears to a maiden named Cora, the future Queen of Hearts and mother of the Evil Queen Regina, who had previously bragged that she could spin straw into gold. King Xavier places her in a tower filled with straw so that she may refill the royal treasury or be put to death. As she considers suicide, he stops her and teaches her magic so that she may do the feat, in exchange for a new child from her with him. She is set up to marry Prince Henry, son of King Xavier. However she is in love with Rumple. She asks if he can make her happy, and he replies that he can only make her dark, so she marries the Prince. She returns to Rumple and requests to learn how to extract hearts, so that she may kill Xavier after he publicly ridiculed her, then she will meet him outside and marry him. However, when they meet, she says she changed her mind and did not murder the king, and will stay with Henry. He asks who she really loves, and she says she really loves herself, and will do whatever she wants. He says that's breaking the deal. But she says no, as she is not going to have children with him, as the contract didn't say she had to, and the only children she will have will be with the prince.

Years later, Rumplestiltskin is visited by Ingrid, future queen of Arendelle, and her sisters, Helga and Gerda. Ingrid wants Rumple to cleanse her of her ice magic. He tells her ice magic is quite uncommon, and offers to give her lessons to become a powerful witch. Ingrid is unshaken and demands her magic gone, so he gives her a pair of magic gloves that will prevent her magic as long as she thinks they can, and as a failsafe, he gives her a magic urn (in the case of a chilly emergency, open jar and direct at ice witch). The sisters start to leave, but he asks for the ribbons they wore since childhood, as a symbol of sisterly love. They sadly give him the ribbons.

His next deal is with some peasants, who offer one of their twin sons, James, brother of David, to him in exchange for a farm. He ends up giving the baby to King George, who has an infertile wife and desires and heir.

Regina, the daughter of Queen Cora, who had been forced into a marriage with King Leopold, Snow White's father, steals one of her mother's spellbooks, knowing a powerful wizard gave it to her. She reads the name, and Rumple appears. She tells him that she desires to not marry Leopold. He offers to teach her magic to get her out, but she declines, he then gives her a spellbook just in case and a magical looking glass, telling her to give it to Cora, and when she looks in, to push her. The plan works out until Cora sees Regina coming at her in the mirror. She freezes Regina with magic and begins to lecture her, but Regina's anger fuels magic that lets her break out of the spell and shove Cora, sending her Through the Looking Glass and banishing her to Wonderland, where she becomes the Queen of Hearts. Rumple then persuades Regina into taking magic lessons, so that she won't have to take orders ever again.

As Rumple begins to teach Regina, he sees that she is not that good yet. One day, he is happy to see her successfully summon a rock, but then she transforms into another woman. She introduces herself as Zelena, real firstborn daughter of Cora. To test her truthfulness, he plucks a strand of her hair and places it in a bottle. It glows green in confirmation. She asks that he help her harness and grow her magic. He sees her great potential and agrees. He blindfolds her in the woods and requests that she catch him with magic. He tells her to think of something that makes her angry. She thinks of how Regina was the favored daughter of Cora, and how she was abandoned. She then realizes that she is now holding on to his arm. He reminds her to think of something happy to control the anger. She asks what happy thing he thinks of. He says he thinks of the meat pies the spinsters made for him, because they made him forget his awful father and be glad. She makes him a meat pie as a thank-you, but he says he must be off to teach Regina. She is shocked that he is still teaching Regina when Zelena has much more potential. He then warns her to not be so envious, as it is now literally turning her skin green. She charges into Regina's room and tries to murder her with a knife, but she turns into Rumple (lots of people impersonating this gal), who says that she has just failed her test and will not cast the Dark Curse, as doing so requires destroying what matters most to the caster, and she just proved that the thing that matters most to her is Rumple. Desperate, she says she can give him what he wants most. He says unless she has a way to transport between worlds, she can't. She then displays her silver slippers, given to her the the Wizard of Oz, and that they can take the wearer to any world. He takes back everything in an attempt to get the slippers, but she gives him a "Nice try, but no", and stops him from killing her with the magic he taught her. She then taps the slippers to go back to her homeland of Oz, where she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West and plots her revenge. She returns to the Enchanted Forest to enviously watch Rumple teach Regina magic, and muttering to herself how she could do better, maintaining her sickly green color.

Rumple, with help from the Mad Hatter Jefferson, visits the Land Without Color to watch Viktor Frankenstein do his work. He then appears to Viktor directly and makes a deal: Rumple gets to know how the magic of science works, and Viktor's experiments are funded by Rumple. When Rumple returns to the Land Without Color, Viktor's brother, Gerhardt, has been shot and killed by a guard while Viktor was digging up a body. Rumple strikes another deal: Rumple will supply Viktor with a magic heart to help bring his brother back to life, in exchange for Viktor coming to the Enchanted Forest and pretending to reanimate Regina's dead lover, Daniel, and pretending to fail. He does so, and Regina's unhappiness in maintained so she will still cast the curse. Regina is then angry enough to successfully extract and crush a heart performing it upon one of Rumple's other students. The two men now both get what they want.

Relatives

 * Malcolm/Peter Pan (father) †
 * Milah (first wife) †
 * Belle (second wife)
 * Baelfire/Neal Cassidy (son) †
 * Henry Mills (grandson)

Allies

 * Cinderella (briefly)
 * Jiminy Cricket
 * Mad Hatter
 * Victor Frankenstein
 * Pongo
 * Wicked Witch of the West,Cora Mills (formerly) †
 * Ingrid †
 * Cruella De Vil †
 * Maleficent

Enemies

 * Emma Swan
 * Belle
 * Evil Queen
 * Snow White
 * Prince Charming
 * Blue Fairy
 * Sheriff of Nottingham
 * Wicked Witch of the West
 * Cinderella
 * Prince Thomas
 * Captain Hook
 * Greg and Tamara
 * Cora
 * Hordor
 * Sir Maurice/Moe French (formerly)
 * Mr. Smee
 * Gaston
 * Fairy Godmother
 * Maleficent

Species
Human/The Dark One

Powers and Abilities

 * Immortality: As the Dark One, Rumple does not age, and can only be killed by the Dark One's Dagger.
 * Knowledge of Magic: Rumpelstiltskin has been shown to be more knowledgeable on the topic of magic than any other known character.
 * Magic: Due to his status as the Dark One, Rumpelstiltskin is the most powerful wizard in any known realm, wielding powers including but not limited to teleporting(himself, others, and object to and from locations), shape-shifting, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, transmutation of straw into gold, and the casting of many spells.
 * Resurrection: If a Dark One kills himself, there is no successor, so the power has nowhere to go. To avoid dissipating, the magic transports the Dark One to the Vault of the Dark One, where he can be resurrected with the sacrifice of another life.

Weaknesses

 * The Dark One's Dagger: The Dark One is magically bound to obey the commands of whosoever holds the Dark One's Dagger, and, it is the only weapon capable of killing them, however, whosoever kills the Dark One, becomes the new Dark One, with all the immortality, magic, and being bound to the Dagger that that entails.
 * Lack of Magic: Both the Dagger's and the Dark One's powers are useless in an area with no magic in it, rendering the Dagger a worthless knife, and the most powerful wizard a mortal man. During the first half of season four, Rumple attempted to cast a spell that would allow him to keep his powers and immortality, and lose the weakness of the Dagger in such a place, but his plan was stopped by Belle.
 * Magic: Despite being the most powerful wizard in any known world, if he's caught off guard, the magic of others can be used upon Rumpelstiltskin to, among other things, stop him from using his powers, however, it cannot kill him.
 * The Price of Magic: Even the Dark One is subject to the Price of Magic, one of its most fundamental laws.
 * Limits of Magic: Rumple cannot change the past, revive the dead, or make someone fall in True Love.
 * Limited Power: Despite being the most powerful wizard in the world, even the Dark One has a limited amount of power, though it is a god-like amount.

Trivia

 * His true love is Belle and he takes the place of the Beast from the fairy tale, "Beauty and the Beast" and the Crocodile from "Peter Pan".
 * He is the second known (and most prominent) Dark One.
 * Both he and his counterpart have been captured and locked in prison cells.
 * Rumplestiltskin is given a deadline of three days to save his son from becoming a soldier in the Duke's army. In the original fairy tale, Rumplestiltskin gives a girl a deadline of three days to guess his true name, or else she must forfeit her firstborn child.
 * He is seen spinning gold out of straw in various episodes. However, gold is worthless to him; he does it to forget what he has lost.
 * Like most curses, Rumplestiltskin's can be broken with a kiss of true love.
 * He is a potion-maker, and once claimed to have a potion for every magic in existence, except for true love--a potion that he later crafted from intertwined strands of hair from Snow White and Prince Charming.
 * While still human Rumplestiltskin looked normal. During his time making deals, his voice become higher-pitched and his skin became more gray and reptilian-like.
 * In the traditional fairytale, Rumplestiltskin was an imp, who spun straw into gold for a girl in return for her firstborn child. The girl was told she could keep her child if she could guess his name. When she finally did, Rumplestiltskin destroyed himself.
 * He has the habit of calling people Dearie.
 * In the Season Three episode It's Not Easy Being Green it is revealed that Rumplestiltskin has the ability to shapeshift as in one scene he took the form of Regina to test her half-sister Zelena. In the Season 4 episode Enter the Dragon, he takes the form of Hook.
 * Being under Zelena's control in season 3b spurred his goals for season 4a.
 * In the overall story of Season 4, Rumplestiltskin is the main antagonist, which would make Ingrid the secondary antagonist in the 1st half, Cruella, Maleficent and Ursula the secondary antagonists in the 2nd half (although Maleficent is probably the main antagonist alongside him), Isaac the tertiary turned true main antagonist in the 2nd half, and Zelena the quaternary antagonist in the 2nd half. Rumple is the main villain of the entirety of Season 4 because he had bigger plans than anyone else, although Maleficent becomes his partner in the 2nd half.
 * Rumple's goals in season 4 are similar to those of Prince Charming: They both want their happy endings and enlist a group of fairy tale villains to get it.
 * Replica of the Dark One's dagger can be bought here.
 * According to his portrayer Robert Carlyle, Rumplestiltskin was 300 years old by the time the Dark Curse was cast.