Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20161114015927/@comment-24674051-20161115180135

Emma's magic is natural, not learned. Look at the Scene with Ingrid at the Fairgrounds. Look at Henry's birth. She was exhibiting her magical abilities in a land without magic. She had no control over them (other than possibly her random plot-induced super power), but she still had it.

Only after she is in Storybrooke and had a little proper exposure to trained magic (and Dark Magic) is she able to begin to control her power. We see one piece of evidence on that when Emma and Gold are travelling to NYC to find Neal. When Gold has to release his talisman to go through airport security, Emma is semiconsciously using her magic to help Gold maintain his identity until he can reclaim the talisman, and we all know that the effort was successful.

Tieing that back onto the current topic, Emma really should have been able to use her magic. That whole question was one of my "are you serious?" moments. Particularly when the Dragon changed form. Although, tbf, does a dragon need magic to change forms?

Another thing, someone mentioned Sydney being capable of magic in the World behind the Mirror? When was that ever shown?

Going to the Emma leaving question, we have absolute confirmation about the barrier. When Emma (with David and Snow) tried to cross the town line in "A Bitter Draught", the car hit the border and bounced. And afterwards, both Emma and Regina inspected the magic and confirmed that they were trapped. Either a definite continuity issue, or an off-screen resolution that removed the barrier again. Either of which is a problem, making the town-line border a plot-induced issue.