Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-5817180-20151225033308/@comment-25926288-20151225034915

No. It's Liiiiiiight magic!

Now, my personal thing is that magic is neutral and give into darkness and it is dark. MErlin never gave into Dark impulses, so it is not dark.

He was never a DO, but tethered like a DO. The powers DO and Merlin have are from the same source. Emma's dark One magic (the Dark Goop) tainted Merlin's magic and turned Hook into a Dark One.

Merlin has magic smoke akin to Regina and Cora, but it isn't color that determines light or dark, but motives. Regina has "light magic" as in the good side of magic, but she doesn't fully posses the flashy light powers Emma has. Emma has the same as Regina's except Regina's was once rooted in hatred and is something learned and inherited, while Emma has intense powers ingrained into her due to who she is: The Product of the Truest Love and Prophesied Savior.