Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20151203163126/@comment-27059745-20151204032505

The skin stems from Nimue as her skin turned after the killed Vortigan. I have two theories:

The first theory is that because Hook was made a Dark One via Merlin's magic and immortality he didn't inherit Nimue's skin, but he does have the Dark Ones in his head, so that could debunk my first theory. I think the magic from the grail is more gray than light or dark. I believe we are going beyond hero and villain into good and evil, and the fact that there is good and evil in us all.

My second theory on the skin is how the person becomes the Dark One. Nimue's first act of having magic was to kill someone. Once tethered to the Dagger the only way to kill her or any Dark One was to use the Dagger and inherit the magic much like catching a virus. Emma took the darkness in willingly, We also know that she has a large amount of light magic or good inside of her to act as a buffer to keep the darkness and skin change at bay. Hook became a Dark One by Emma's doing. He didn't go willingly, but he also didn't go the traditional way of killing the previous Dark One. So far as we know they are the only two Dark Ones to have taken in the darkness some way other than killing the previous Dark One which could make them both exceptions to the skin rule.