Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4519633-20141022032431/@comment-25926288-20161205175718

Rumple lacks the experience and feats of Merlin.

Merlin creates portals easily, while Rumple still meanders about and uses the Sorcerer's wand.

Technically there should be nothing in that wand given that Merlin's dead and Rumple has all the HG magic. That's why I created my theory that Dark Ones only use the dark half og the Holy Grail magic, so at best, Rumple has nearly equal raw power as Merlin, but he lacks Merlin's experience and feats.

Anyway, I think all the magic users are closer together than we think. I believe it's more like the difference between 89 and 100, than between 22 and 97.