After allowing Baelfire to fall through the portal, Rumple has a confrontation with the Blue Fairy (1.19). She (accidentally?) lets slip that a curse would be a means for him to follow Bae, but warns him that,
"It can't be done, not without a great price."He is not dissuaded by this argument, and devotes the next several centuries to devising the means to carry out the plan.
"I've already paid a great price."
"So you'd be willing to sacrifice this world for the next? Because that's how great the price is."
"You created the curse for me" says Regina to Rumplestiltskin (1.19), though she apparently never thought to ask why, and it appears (4.12) that Rumple actually acquired it or perhaps only a major component of it from Bald Mountain, where it was guarded by the Chernabog.
In S6 it was put about that the Dark Curse was actually the creation of the Black Fairy (6.16).
At some point, Regina decided that she didn't want the Dark Curse after all and traded it to Maleficent in exchange for the sleeping curse (1.02). Maleficent prophesied that casting the Dark Curse would leave "an emptiness inside you, a void that you will never be able to fill."
Casting the curse at this point requires not only the physical scroll on which the curse is inscribed, but ingredients: "a lock of hair from those with the darkest souls" amid Regina's supporters, and the heart of the thing she loves the most (her father). All but the final ingredient appears to have been rendered unnecessary by ret-conning at this point.
Once cast, the curse appears as a thick, quick-moving fog accompanied by thunder, heavy wind, and green lightning (1.01). On the LWM side, the appearance is similar (2.17).
"We will lose our memories, and became a slave to her darkest desires" (Blue Fairy, 3.11)
The effect of the curse is to move everyone within a substantial square mileage to the LWM. Although Regina says (2.05) that the curse brought only the living, that was not true; she also brought her father's tomb along, and Daniel's body, under a preservation spell. Back in the Enchanted Forest, Snow's castle is ruined, but Regina preserves the Summer Palace with a spell (3.12).
The curse creates an entire town out of nothing, right down to inventing local holidays such as Miner's Day (1.14). The curse seamlessly handles details like hairstyles, clothes, connection to the electrical grid and phone systems, even though presumably no one in Storybrooke ever pays their bills, because time does not pass normally within the curse zone for 28 years.
"Everyone in this down does exactly what I want them to" (Regina, 2.17).No one subject to the curse ages (Henry does, as he is from outside). Days repeat themselves with little variation. Everyone has a plausible set of false memories sufficient to get through daily activities, but there are gaps and thin places -- no one remembers meeting one another, only that things have always been the way they are. Personalities are different, sometimes in subtle and sometimes in dramatic ways.
Anyone other than Regina or Henry who attempts to leave Storybrooke suffers an apparently-coincidental accident sufficient to keep them from doing so. The implication is that some of these are fatal.
The setup maximizes low-grade misery -- Marco has to fix the same sign every day, Granny and Ruby have the same quarrel, Leroy has the same hangover -- but I think the important thing is that no one has love. Couples and families are broken apart and given false memories that drive them away from each other.
Regina clearly had fine control over the curse results. She was able to promise Rumple the "good life" he asked for, to place key people in strategic town positions, to keep Jefferson's original memories intact (1.17) as punishment, to keep Belle a prisoner. It is noteworthy that even while there was no magic in Storybrooke, Regina was still subject to the "please" compulsion Rumple asked for, and Maleficent remained a dragon.
The curse's treatment of physical objects is inconsistent. Sometimes they remain with their owners (Ava has her father's compass); sometimes they end up at the pawnshop (Snow's tiara). Three locations from the Enchanted Forest have direct Storybrooke cognates:
- the toll/troll bridge
- Lake Nostos/the well
- Regina's vault, including her father's tomb, and the the cavern under the clock tower (which contains oddities such as Snow's coffin and the curse fail-safe, and which is connected in turn to the mines). In 2.20 Regina mentions that "there's a powerful spell [on the cavern] that sustains [Maleficent] in whatever form she's in."
Breaking the Curse
By using some of the True Love potion he created from her parents' hair on the curse parchment, Rumple ensured that a) Emma would be able to break it, and b) if she was to be killed, the curse would break automatically (1.21). The Dark Curse is highly sensitive to Emma's actions and those of selected others after she arrives in Storybrooke, hence my theory that curses are semi-intelligent:
- Emma's decision to spend the night restarts normal time within the curse zone. (1.01)
- Emma putting on her deputy's badge results in a partial collapse of a mine that is part of the system linked to Regina's vault. Her assumption of authority does direct damage to the symbolic heart of Regina's power. (1.05)
- Crickets return to Storybrooke when Archie stands up to Regina (1.05)
- Charming starts to recover some true memories but is sidetracked by Gold, and ends up with just the David Nolan version (1.06).
- Graham's memories start coming back, along with his wolf (which does not appear to be magical per se, just uncanny). His memories return in full when he kisses Emma, but he doesn't have a chance to tell her anything useful before he is killed. (1.07)
- Rumple has his real memories (1.12), which he apparently regained upon hearing Emma's name (http://officialouat.tumblr.com/post/97730792287).
- Regina's apple tree begins dying; the apples rot on the branches. (1.21)
When she kisses Henry as he lies "dead" under the curse, a prismatic light pulses over town, a whooshing sound occurs, and all memories return. The Blue Fairy identifies her action as True Love's Kiss. (1.22)
After the Curse
It has never been made clear whether or not the curse was completely broken. Storybrooke remained in existence, everyone still had their fake memories as well as their real ones, and a magical border remained around the town; anyone who passed beyond the town boundary lost their Enchanted Forest memories (2.02).
It later eventuates that Regina created a "fail-safe" or self-destruct trigger related to the Dark Curse (2.20) in the form of a black diamond. If used, Storybrooke will disappear as if it never was, and everyone in it be killed. The trigger is stored in the Maleficent-guarded vault beneath the clock tower. It must be struck with a dwarf pick, upon which it becomes surrounded by faint blue light, levitates, hums, and begins to release energy as a much brighter light. Trees grow through the buildings of Storybrooke. There are earthquakes.
Regina is able to slow but not stop the release of energy in a way that looks very similar to what she did at the well when she turned against Rumple. When Emma joins the effort, their combined abilities are sufficient to stop the process. Everything returns to normal (2.22).
Dark Curse 2 (Pan's Curse, Interrupted)
After leaving Neverland in Henry's body, Pan acquires the Dark Curse (3.10) and decides to use it himself. "Everyone will forget who they are; time will stand still. And Felix, we will be in charge. And when we're done with it, it's going to be the new Neverland" (Pan, 3.10). "They'll be slaves to this new land we're making, with no idea who they once were. Death is final, Felix; their suffering will be eternal" (Pan, 3.11). He uses Felix's heart for the sacrifice (3.11). The mist is green this time.
"It is possible to stop it, by using the scroll itself.... It can only be undone by the person who used the scroll" (Rumple, 3.11, as the ret-conning becomes downright ludicrous). Regina must destroy the scroll; that will undo both her curse and Pan's. "There will be a price, a steep one" (Rumple). When she takes the curse scroll from Henry, a white flash of light occurs and Regina collapses (3.11).
"I have to say goodbye to thing I love the most. I can never see [Henry] again" Regina (3.11).The destruction of the curse sends everyone back to the Enchanted Forest and renders travel between the two realms impossible. Storybrooke is gone as if it never was. Emma is immune to this effect because she is the Savior, and Henry because he is not an Enchanted Forest native, but neither of them will remember anything of Storybrooke (see Memory Curses in the Other Curses entry). Regina destroys the curse; lightning shoots from her hands, which turns the green curse smoke purple (3.11).
Dark Curse 3 (Snow's Curse)
After Glinda tells them that only Emma has light magic powerful enough to defeat Zelena, Snow, Charming, and Regina enact the Dark Curse to bring everyone back to the LWM (3.19). Snow uses Charming's heart, but then gives him half of her own.
Zelena adds memory-loss potion to the cauldron before the curse takes hold. The memory-lass component is broken when Regina kisses Henry.
As with Regina's curse, even after this one was broken (?) a magical effect remained on the town line. This time it prevented anyone who left the town from returning, unless they had access to a magic scroll created by the Apprentice.
Dark Curse 4 (Killian's Curse)
After Hook becomes a Dark One, “Rumple” convinces him to use the curse to get everyone back to Storybrooke from Camelot (5.10). He uses Merlin’s heart to do it, because as a Dark One he’s kind of Nimue, too. Emma adds a memory-erasure component, since she’s hoping to somehow fix everything by herself.
This curse has never been broken at all, but since it was used purely for transportation, it's difficult to know what would be involved. Emma returned everyone's memories via dreamcatcher. The town line effect as of the end of S5 is that anyone who crosses without use of a magical protection turns into a tree.
This is no longer the case -- in S6 a simple protection spell a la S1 replaced the tree spell, and was then removed by Regina (6.16) -- perhaps because Killian died.
No comments:
Post a Comment