Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4519633-20141022032431/@comment-27213286-20160601124648

Eskaver wrote: This topic is about being the most powerful, not being the best fighter. Skill and expertise can help a bit, but at the end of the day, name of the game is power.

The Dragon using magic in the Land without Magic shows he's at least very skilled. He also seemed capable of almost creating a portal which Regina and Zelena can't even try to do without the Sorcerer's wand.

Merlin, Dark Swan and Dark One are technically all close in power, but Merlin gets the boost up because he's experienced, Emma had extra raw power and was the most powerful Dark One (before Rumple absorbed all the power) and then there's the usual Dark One.

The list is power, skill and experince can help, but they don't really change to much how powerful someone is. I'll give an example.

Regina has more raw power than Cora, but I think Cora makes up the difference with experience.

Likewise, the Apprentice might have more expertise and skill than most Dark Ones (as he was taught by Merlin and existed longer than them), but he's not more powerful than them, even if he'd probably beat them, but that's speculation. I don't think that is just speculation, back when Rumple first tried to steal the hat from the Apprentice didn't he say almost every DO before Rumple had tried and failed to get it. Meaning the Apprentice had beaten most DOs before Rumple. I agree DOs are more powerful than the Apprentice, this would just be an example of experience beating raw power.

Also you say many times experience and skill do not have an effect on one's raw power yet you say Merlin gets a bump over DOs because of his experience. That is being contradictory. You can't give Merlin a bump for experience but refuse to do the same to Cora or Regina.

I think the way it would go without thinking about skill and experience is

New DO Rumple=Merlin+DO and Merlin=DO

DO would include Dark Swan, Old Dark Rumple, and Dark Hook

Merlin and DO have same raw power as they received magic from dame source, HG and Rumple put the power of both inside himself when he became the DO again.

Also the Dragon being more knowledgeable about how magic works in LWM does not show an indication to his raw power. Every time a magical user goes to a new realm where magic works differently they have to figure out how to use their magic in that realm and the Dragon has just been in LWM for a longer time. Henry along with random Yankees created a portal to another land from LWM but that does not mean they are more powerful than Rumple because he couldn't do it. We have not seen enough of the Dragons powers to be able to properly rank him.