Enchanted Hearts

"Now, it belongs to me. You see, when you take a heart, it becomes enchanted. Stronger than a normal heart. You're not hurting the beast. You're controlling it."

- Rumplestiltskin to Regina

Enchanted Hearts are magical items featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. They first appear in the seventh episode of the first season.

History
Rumplestiltskin, a powerful magic user, has a debt to settle with the pirate Killian Jones after the latter "stole" his wife Milah many years ago. However, Rumplestiltskin remains unaware Milah willingly ran away with the pirate until he meets Killian again by chance years later. As Rumplestiltskin moves to kill him in a duel, Milah approaches to stop the dispute and promises him a magic bean if he will both her and Killian's lives. They meet aboard Killian's pirate ship where a confrontation ensues. Rumplestiltskin questions Milah about leaving their son Baelfire. She admits to being a coward, and let misery cloud her judgment all those years ago by making the decision to leave him. Milah claims the misery was a result of never loving Rumplestiltskin. In his anger, he rips out her heart and crushes it, killing her instantly.
 * -|Before the Curse=

After Cora, the daughter of a miller, rises to power with the help of Rumplestiltskin, she asks him to teach her how to rip out the King's heart as a sort of revenge. After this, the two lovers agree to runaway together, but when she puts the plan into motion of taking out King Xavier's heart, he teaches her the phrase "Love is weakness". Deciding to choose power over love, Cora pulls out her own heart and stores it in a box. Tearfully, she tells Rumplestiltskin that she can't have love getting in the way as she climbs up in power. Without her heart, Cora resumes married life as the wife of a prince and becomes more controlling and power thirsty.

Many years later, Cora's daughter, Regina, falls deeply in love with a stable boy, Daniel. One night, they plan to run away together, but her mother catches them just as they are leaving. After a small struggle, Cora seems to understand the love Regina has for him. Cora and Regina reconcile, and make up with a hug. Cora embraces Daniel afterwards and speaks a few words of her own wisdom concerning how a parent always wants what is best for their child. Seconds after these words, she rips out his heart and crushes it; killing him. Regina is devastated and is forced into an arranged marriage to King Leopold.

Shortly following Regina's marriage to King Leopold, Rumplestiltskin teaches her how to rip out a living creature's heart and uses a black unicorn as the test subject. However, the skill itself only reminds Regina of how her mother ripped out Daniel's heart, leading her to refuse the method, so Rumplestiltskin tears out the unicorn's heart himself. Rather than do as he asks of her, Regina wants to know if resurrecting a deceased person is possible since she still longs for Daniel. He states magic cannot bring back the dead, yet Regina finds a scientist to use technological means to bring her true love back by using one of her mother's collected hearts. The experiment is a failure, leaving Regina devastated beyond repair, which causes her to change. She interrupts Rumplestiltskin's magic training session with a new apprentice, Trish, and rips out her heart to prove she deserves to be taught the dark arts. Impressed, Rumplestiltskin accepts Regina back as his protege.

After the death of King Leopold, the Queen sends guards to bring a Huntsman to her. She tasks him with the job of killing her stepdaughter, Snow White, and bringing back the girl's heart as proof. The Queen promises him large rewards, but the Huntsman cares for naught except the protection of the wolves. She accepts his terms, to which he begins to carry out her orders by disguising himself as a guard to gain Snow White's trust, but she sees through his facade. Snow White manages to get away from him, but only for enough time to write a last letter to her stepmother. She gives it to the Huntsman, who is overcome with emotion upon reading it. He decides to let her go instead and delivers a heart of a deer to the Queen as a replacement. However, when the Queen gains the heart and holds it up to put it in one of the boxes in her chamber of hearts, none of the containers open for it. Furious at his trickery, she rips out his heart as payment, declaring that he belongs to her now, and if he ever crosses her again, all she has to do is squeeze.

In her grand scheme to enact the Dark Curse and rain misery on all the inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest, the Queen sacrifices the heart of her most prized and precious steed. The curse does not work, so she goes to ask Rumplestiltskin, who is also the maker of the Dark Curse, what is actually necessary. He instructs her to take the heart of the person she loves most. The Queen leaves in a conflicted state as she realizes this means sacrificing her own father. She even informs her father what it would take for the curse to work. He desperately tries to help her see that she doesn't need to cast the curse, and they can start over and be happy as a family. She accepts his reasoning, but at the last moment, betrays her father and pulls out his heart. Then, she sacrifices the heart, prompting the curse to begin spreading throughout the Enchanted Forest.

After the successful activation of the curse, the Evil Queen's counterpart, Regina, rules the town of Storybrooke and its inhabitants. After two outsiders, Kurt and Owen, wander in, she befriends them and warms up to the idea of them staying permanently. When Kurt rejects the idea, Regina becomes desperate to stall their leaving. Still having the Huntsman's heart in her possession, she orders his counterpart, Sheriff Graham, to prevent them from leaving town by arresting Kurt for false drunk driving. However, Kurt accidentally witnesses this and attempts to make a speedy escape, but as he backs out of the room, Graham wrestles him to the desk. This swift motion causes the box containing the heart to hit the floor, drawing a pained reaction from Graham due to the direct impact, which allows Kurt to escape in his car with Owen. To protect his son, Kurt willingly allows himself to be taken in at the town border so Owen can flee.
 * -|During the Curse=

Emma, the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming, has come to Storybrooke after twenty-eight years. Not knowing the magic she possesses, it is triggered when Graham kisses her and he has flashbacks of his life in the Enchanted Forest. Graham becomes convinced he lost his heart, and begs Emma to help him look for it. Regina gains insight that Graham is beginning to regain some memories of his life as the Huntsman in the Enchanted Forest. After he turns against Regina, and she, having no further use for him now that he is not loyal to her anymore, takes his heart and squeezes it to dust. The result is Graham dies of a "sudden heart attack".

While Aurora, Emma, Mary Margaret and Mulan are away from the safe haven searching for a way to Storybrooke from the Enchanted Forest, Cora attacks the refugee survivors, steals their hearts and commands their corpses to rise. Several of the dead bodies head off into the forest to ambush the four women. In the midst of the corpse attack, Aurora is kidnapped and taken as Cora's prisoner. Unwilling to give up information to Cora, she is knocked out. While she is unconscious, Cora's accomplice, Hook, sneaks in and takes out Aurora's heart without her knowledge and she awakens to see him standing over her. Though her guard is up, Hook states that he is helping her escape to foil Cora's plans. Aurora does not believe him at first, but Hook sticks to his story and asks her to pass the message along to Emma that she should have trusted him. Aurora thanks him and runs from the dungeon. After she is gone, Cora apprehends Hook over letting Aurora go until she sees the heart. Later, Aurora meets up with her companions in the woods to break up a fight between Mary Margaret and Mulan. She tells them how she escaped with Hook's assistance. Unbeknownst to the group, everything Aurora is saying is via Cora's manipulation of the heart. The group make their way to Rumplestiltskin's old cell next to procure squid ink to defeat Cora.
 * -|After the Curse=

At the old cell, they find a mysterious parchment with Emma's name written repeatedly as well as a jar with no ink inside. Suddenly, compelled by Cora's grasp, Aurora throws a rock at a lever, trapping herself and her allies inside the confines of the enclosure. Cora steps out of the shadows to confirm Aurora's heart is now hers and squeezes it as a demonstration. She leaves with Hook to prepare for the journey to Storybrooke. While trapped, Mary Margaret discovers a solution in the parchment, which was written using squid ink. She blows the dust from the ink to melt away the cage bars, freeing them, though Aurora asks to be tied up and left behind since Cora is still in control of her heart. The remaining trio arrive at Lake Nostos to stop Cora and Hook. As they battle, a satchel containing Aurora's heart nearly falls into the portal, but is saved by Hook, who then throws it to Mulan. As Emma and Mary Margaret continue to defend themselves from their enemies, Mulan is allowed to depart back to the cell and successfully returns Aurora's heart.

Emma and Mary Margaret make it safely back to Storybrooke, though Cora and Hook eventually find another method for journeying there as well. Cora's presence in town is a game changer, pushing Regina to side with her mother, as they team up to search for Dark One's dagger to force Mr. Gold to kill everyone. The ultimate goal out of all this is for Regina to have Henry to herself. David and Mary Margaret catch word of their plan and discover the dagger hidden in the minute hand of the clock tower. Just as the two prepare to leave with the dagger in hand, Cora and Regina teleport in with Mary Margaret's beloved servant from the Enchanted Forest, Johanna. To compel Mary Margaret in handing over the dagger, Regina takes out Johanna's heart and begins to squeeze it and the life out of the owner. Unable to watch an innocent life be vanquished in front of her, Mary Margaret surrenders the dagger. Satisfied, Regina returns the heart as a relieved Johanna runs towards Mary Margaret's waiting embrace. Cora cuts off the reunion by flinging Johanna out the clock tower to her death. Johanna's death has a remarkably dark change in Mary Margaret, who is tired of being good, and pledges she will protect more people from dying by killing Cora.

Just as Mary Margaret is becoming more open to the idea of eliminating Cora for the greater good, Mr. Gold's life hangs in the balance due to a wound he sustained by Hook. He tempts her into using a candle on Cora's heart. From this, Cora will only die if the heart is placed back in her chest, so Mary Margaret tricks Regina into doing so. Afterwards, Mary Margaret feels horrible for her actions. When Cora regains her heart, she feels genuine love and happiness for the first time in a long while, but dies shortly after in Regina's arms. As a second part of the candle spell, Cora's death results in Mr. Gold's wound healing. Mary Margaret, now regretful, rushes in to stop Regina, but Cora is already gone.

In Neverland, while Mr. Gold begins a solo mission of rescuing Henry from Pan, he comes across a wounded Tamara in the jungle. He heals her as she apologizes for shooting his son, Neal, and causing his death. Mr. Gold does not forgive Tamara and exacts revenge by ripping out and crushing her heart to dust.

To settle a long-standing grudge, ex-fairy Tinker Bell kidnaps Regina and threatens to poison her with Dreamshade. Regina offers up her own heart and lets Tinker Bell decide what to do with it. Instead, Tinker Bell explodes in anger over how she tried to help Regina in the past by guiding her to true love, which the latter rejected. Regina admits to running away from true love due to fears of what she might become without all the anger inside herself. She exemplifies how dark her own heart physically looks is a direct result of her choice in picking darkness over light, and pleads for Tinker Bell not to make the same mistake. Eventually, Tinker Bell listens and hands back the heart to Regina.

Pan, who is losing his immorality, tricks Henry into believing Neverland's weakening magic will have a direct impact on everyone else. To "save" magic, Henry must give up his own heart, which will result in death. However, Henry himself is unaware he is going to die as Pan tells him the sacrifice for giving up his heart is never being able to leave Neverland. Additionally, the real reason Pan needs Henry's heart is to regain immortality by absorbing all the magic in Neverland. Despite Emma, Neal and Regina's attempts to prove that Pan is lying to him, Henry goes through with the sacrifice and dies.

After Pan flees the scene, Regina casts a preservation on Henry's body to last one hour. Back at the Lost Boy camp, she attempts to exert force against Felix while demanding to know Pan's whereabouts. When this fails, she threatens to take out his heart until Emma steps up to encourage the Lost Boys to tell them the truth. Emma wins them over by promising to take them off the island, to which they admit Pan is at his "thinking tree" in Pixie Woods. She, Mary Margaret and Regina head there, but are ensnared by the tree's vines. Pan tries to bring out guilt out of each woman so the tree, fueled by a mechanism to attack those who feel regret, will kill them. Only Regina regrets nothing, and breaks free of the vines to tear out Henry's heart from Pan's chest. They hurry back aboard the Jolly Roger where Regina places the heart back in time as Henry gasps to life. While Henry is resting comfortably in a room below deck, Regina uses magic to give him immunity from ever having his heart taken out. Afterwards, Pan materializes to Henry and tries to steal his heart, only to be blocked by the protection spell, and goes for the boy's shadow. This is stopped when Mr. Gold absorbs Pan into Pandora's Box, but not before the two youngsters secretly switch bodies.

Pan becomes a menace in Storybrooke after returning home in Henry's body by tricking Regina into taking him into her vault and stealing the scroll for the Dark Curse. As one of the last ingredients needed for casting the curse, he sacrifices the heart of his most loyal underling, Felix. Before doing so, Pan explains to Felix that though the scroll says the thing he loves most is needed for the curse, in fact, love doesn't have to be romantic of familial, and can entail loyalty. In a panic, Felix realizes that Pan is talking about him, and tries to resist in a useless endeavor as his heart is ripped out and crushed to dust.

Effects
The user of an enchanted heart can:
 * Crush it and kill the victim
 * Control the victim's actions and speech
 * Use the heart to reanimate the victim's dead bodies

Additionally, people with their hearts ripped out are unable to feel any true emotion until the heart is restored.

Ability To Take Hearts

 * Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold
 * Cora - Was taught the skill by Rumplestiltskin.
 * Evil Queen/Regina - Was taught the skill by Rumplestiltskin.
 * Hook - A special one-time enchantment the Evil Queen placed on his hook to have the power to rip out a heart.
 * Henry - Is the dubbed "heart of the truest believer" and Pan gave him the ability to take out his own heart.
 * Pan

Ripped Out Hearts

 * Valet (by the Evil Queen)
 * The Huntsman (by the Evil Queen)
 * Daniel (by Cora)
 * Milah (by Rumplestiltskin)
 * The Safe Haven's inhabitants (by Cora)
 * A unicorn (by Rumplestiltskin)
 * Trish (by the Evil Queen)
 * Aurora (by Hook)
 * Cora (on herself)
 * Johanna (by Regina)
 * Mary Margaret (by Regina)
 * Tamara (by Mr. Gold) 
 * Regina (on herself)
 * Devin (by Regina)
 * Henry (on himself)
 * Felix (by Pan)

Crushed Hearts

 * Sheriff Graham (by Regina)
 * Daniel (by Cora)
 * Milah (by Rumplestiltskin)
 * Trish (by the Evil Queen)
 * Tamara (by Mr. Gold) 
 * Felix (by Pan)

Currently Alive Without Hearts

 * Knave of Hearts

Restored Hearts

 * Daniel (by Dr. Whale)
 * Gerhardt (by Victor)
 * Aurora (by Mulan)
 * Johanna (by Regina)
 * Cora (by Regina)
 * Mary Margaret (by Regina)
 * Regina (on herself)
 * Henry (by Regina)

Appearances
Corazones encantadas Verzauberte Herzen Cuori incantati