Board Thread:Wiki-Related Discussion/@comment-25375217-20170205022236/@comment-1916997-20170205043640

I think the Dark Curse is more of a template for a spell that takes people to the Land Without Magic. The key ingredient you need is the heart of the person you love most, which may explain why it is "the dark curse", as killing the person you love most is a very dark act. We always see this part of the curse, which is why I think it is the key. Regina sacrificed her father Henry, Pan sacrificed his most loyal lost boy Felix, Snow sacrificed her husband David, and Nimue (through Hook) sacrificed her lover Merlin. You can "spice up" the basic template with things to add effects to the curse. Regina obviously added alot in DC1, which we kind of saw. Things like hair from the darkest souls (the hag, the ogre, the gnome, etc.). She created a town, wiped everyone's memories, gave new fake identites and memories, etc. so lots of added effects. I can't remember if Pan added things to the well, but if he did, it was because he was trying to alter the town to a Neverland like place. Snow did less with the DC2, she just wanted to recreate the town. Zelena added the memory wipe of the past year, to screw them up. Finally, for DC3 Nimue just wanted to go back, to a place that was already existed, so it wasn't a big deal. Emma added the dreamcatcher to do a memory wipe so that know one would remember that Hook became a Dark One. The reason that the different memory wipes work differently is because they are caused by different things. Regina used who knows what, Zelena used a potion, and Emma used a dreamcatcher. Like cooking or chemistry, different ingredients or chemicals can cause something to be somewhat different, but still yield a similar end result. For instance, there is more than one posion you can add to a food that will kill someone or more than chemical you can add to a mixture that will cause it to explode. The end result is still the same, even though the way to that result was different. That's my two cents, I still agree with Lady and Esk that it is tricky to add "cursed" to the characters, because they weren't really cursed in an easy to point out way, like with DC1 and DC2.