Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-26967699-20180703011455/@comment-25926288-20180703012911

Of course, the below is headcanon.

If you accept that they share the same Darkness, etc, the question is: Why did Wish Rumple die?

Wish People aren’t connected in life force (though they can be in other magical means). Wish Rumple crumbled to dust for no other reason than...he was completely consumed by darkness.

Once Wish Rumple lost both Bae and Belle, there was no light left in him, so he simply crumbled to dust. (Also, it’s just a show thing to not have a literal comatose-like corpse on the ground when you could use magic, akin to Serum Queen, who did as her heart did, though she reformed.)

So, to give another example, take Henry as Author. If he died, the Quil would move on to somebody new and not recognize Wish Henry (possibly). So, the Wish Quill (because they never said what happened to the real one) recognized Henry because magic crosses even these reality barriers.