Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-25926288-20160723224038/@comment-24674051-20160803161407

If you watch the dialogue between Gold and Emma in Season 2 (I think it was in "The Cricket Game") Gold confirms that he had nothing to do with Emma's magical ability, or anything else about Emma for that matter. It's only the Savior aspect that Gold manipulated (and being the Savior in regards to the DC did not require magical abilities).

And honestly, even with regard to the Savior aspect, I don't think Rumple manipulated anything. Gold just understood what Emma was (as the product of True Love), knew her potential, and used (or more likely abused) that knowledge to further his own ends. I mean, let's face it, Rumple is powerful, but I don't think even he can change the nature of what a person is, only help or hinder their efforts to become the person that they are intended to be.

Although, maybe Savior is a title (kinda like Author), in which case, I can see the argument where Rumple was able to manipulate the situation to insure that Emma was accorded the title (and responsibilities) of Savior.