Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24942479-20170609084337/@comment-25926288-20170609093816

What? You don't mean that Rumple wasn't going to wear the big wizard hat across the townline? XD

Rumple theorizes that if he breaks the tethering spell, he'd be free from it and can cross the townline. Is it nonsensical? Nope. In the LWM, magical items tend to work; however, we know that in the LWM, the dagger doesn't work. So.....

Dagger no work = Rumple no magic

I always theorized that the dark magic simply made DOs weaker than Merlin, but perhaps it's the tethering spell whcih limits them.

Rumple has more power, but Merlin's enchantment will still hold. Merlin was stronger than Zelena but all he could do for that time was resist the protection spell and didn't break it, otherwise Hook would have never become a DO.

Now, could he have used the OC to cleave him of his dagger? Well, possibly. Howveer, his focus was on Belle. Plus, if you can just have the crystal nearby, you'll never need to cleave yourself. (It's likely just because he didn't think of it, before that crystal was vamooshed.