Rumplestiltskin

"Becoming the Dark One was the act of a coward, but I'm no longer that man. You are. And that weak coward will not be the Rumplestiltskin the world remembers."

- Weaver to Rumplestiltskin (Wish Realm)

Rumplestiltskin, also known as Rumple, the Dark One, and the Crocodile, later known as Mr. Gold, currently known as Weaver, and briefly known as the Savior and the Light One, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the first episode of the first season and is portrayed by starring cast member Robert Carlyle and guest star Wyatt Oleff. He is the main reality version of Rumplestiltskin.

Rumplestiltskin is based on the character of the same name from the fairytale "Rumpelstiltskin", and the Beast from the fairytale "Beauty and the Beast" and the Disney film Beauty and the Beast. He is also based on the Crocodile from the story "Peter Pan" and the Disney film Peter Pan and takes the place of the Fairy Godmother from the fairytale "Cinderella" and the Disney film Cinderella.

Mr. Gold is an allusion to Carl Fredricksen from the Disney/Pixar film Up.

Trivia

 * -|Character Notes=

Etymology

 * His name, which was given by his father, represents the hideous incident that he caused.
 * Contrary to the original fairytale, his name is not "Rumpelstiltskin" but "Rumplestiltskin".
 * Mr. Gold's name is a reference to both the original fairytale and Mr. Gold's Enchanted Forest persona. In both, Rumplestiltskin is able to spin straw into gold.
 * Rumplestiltskin is known as Mr. Gold since long before the Dark Curse was cast. He is referred to in this way in the contract she has Anna sign and the one Fendrake the Healer gives him.
 * On Twitter, episode writer Jane Espenson stated a first name has never been established for Mr. Gold.
 * The name "Weaver" is of Old English origin derived from the word "wefan" that means "to weave". It is a reference to Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold's habit of weaving straw into gold with his spinning wheels.

Character Notes

 * Rumplestiltskin appears in the title card for "In the Name of the Brother".
 * There have been a few hints about Rumplestiltskin's age on the show. According to Robert Carlyle, Rumplestiltskin is three-hundred years old by the time the Dark Curse is cast. However, the show itself has hinted that Rumplestiltskin is just a couple hundred years old: In "Going Home", his father says, "What are you now? A couple hundred?". In "Family Business" and "Murder Most Foul", Hook (who knew Rumplestiltskin from before the latter became the Dark One) refers to himself as two hundred years old.
 * According to Adam Horowitz, by the time of the "Operation Mongoose Part 2", Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold has been the Dark One for a little bit less than two hundred years.
 * Rumplestiltskin treats names as important, and describes them as his "stock and trade". In many cultures and some beliefs about magic, to know someone or something's "true name" gives you power over that person or thing.
 * Mr. Gold has a noticeable limp and walks with a cane, much like he did before he was cursed with the Dark One's abilities. Being in a Land Without Magic, Mr. Gold is unable to use his powers to placate his disability. However, once magic was brought to Storybrooke, he no longer needed it, but chose to keep using it. After he returns from Neverland, he rejects the cane in order to move on from his past self.
 * According to Granny and Ruby, Mr. Gold "owns" Storybrooke. This is due to the fact that he made a deal with the Evil Queen to "have comfort and a good life" and to "be rich".
 * Mr. Gold has a few gold teeth.
 * He greatly dislikes nuns, as he does their counterparts, the fairies. According to Mr. Gold, "Wherever there's injustice in the world, there's always a fairy".
 * Mr. Gold is a licensed attorney, a quality which allows him to broker many of his Storybrooke deals. He alludes to having enough legal experience to represent Mary Margaret in a criminal trial.
 * Like his son Neal and his grandson Henry, who both collect clocks, Mr. Gold is also a collector and his pawnshop is filled with them.
 * Rumplestiltskin once transformed a butcher into a pig.
 * Before he was imprisoned, Rumplestiltskin fought Cora and won. It is implied Cora came close to winning.
 * During his lifetime, Rumplestiltskin owned some sheep dogs.
 * According to his son, Neal, Rumplestiltskin always believed in fate. He used to tell his son, "There are no coincidences. Everything that happens happens by design and there's nothing we can do about it. Forces greater than us conspire to make it happen.".
 * He once made a deal with Don Juan.
 * According to Hades, Rumplestiltskin killed more than Regina over the years to the point he's called the supplier. Additionally, Hades implied that Rumple is his favorite Dark One.
 * Rumplestiltskin speaks French, something that he briefly demonstrates for the Count of Monte Cristo.

Storybook Notes

 * Henry's storybook contains a retelling of a scene from "Desperate Souls":


 * -|Production Notes=

Production Notes

 * The role of Rumplestiltskin was written specifically for Robert Carlyle.
 * Rumplestiltskin's voice is inspired by Robert Carlyle's son. According to Robert, his son was wandering though the house making high-pitched voices and sounds. The actor thought this voice would fit Rumplestiltskin, because there is a childlike quality to the character, and Rumplestiltskin enjoys gleefully tricking people.
 * According to Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, every time we meet Rumplestiltskin in Fairy Tale Land, he is in a slightly different time period, and therefore Robert actually uses a slightly different voice every single time.
 * Originally, Rumplestiltskin's iconic phrase was supposed to be "Magic always comes at a price", but Robert said it wrongly and it stuck that way.
 * For his part of Mr. Gold, Robert Carlyle wears heavy eye make-up to make his eyes look similar to his Enchanted Forest counterpart, Rumplestiltskin. It is meant to be the one, single visual connection between the two characters.
 * The reason why Mr. Gold cuts his hair in "Strange Case" is that Robert Carlyle cut his hair short for his role in the movie Trainspotting 2. For the first episodes of Season Six, he wore a wig.
 * According to Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, Weaver looks "menacing" before adding that "there's always that element of menace and mystery, and [Weaver] is involved in many of the goings-on in this neighborhood in Seattle. It's a lot of fun and it's another layer and color for Bobby to play".
 * During the filming of "A Pirate's Life", Robert Carlyle decided to change the accent of Weaver to make him more different from Mr. Gold. After that, he had to re-record all of Weaver's scenes from "Hyperion Heights" via automated dialogue replacement.


 * -|Cultural References=

Disney

 * When Regina visits Mr. Gold Pawnbroker & Antiquities Dealer in 1983, Mr. Gold is polishing a teakettle, a reference to Mrs. Potts from Disney's Beauty and the Beast.
 * During their honeymoon, Belle and Mr. Gold dress in similar clothes as their counterparts in the dance scene from Beauty and the Beast. They also dance to an instrumental version of the title song.
 * The broomstick that Mr. Gold uses to locate the Apprentice looks similar to the one Mickey Mouse enchanted and used in Fantasia.
 * Gold says regarding August, "Let's see if we can pull this puppet's strings." This references the song "I've Got No Strings" from Pinocchio.
 * The eyeball used by Mr. Gold to see the present, is similar to the one the Fates used to see the past, present and future in Hercules.

Lost

 * When traveling to New York City, Henry, Emma and Mr. Gold take an Ajira Airlines flight, an airline that appears on Lost. The total time of their flight is 42 minutes; a recurring number on the show.
 * As the trigger is destroying Storybrooke, Mr. Gold pours himself and Belle a glass of MacCutcheon Scotch Whisky.
 * Cruella De Vil, Mr. Gold and Ursula go to a Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack restaurant, a famous fast food franchise on the show.
 * The Toll Operator charges Mr. Gold 15 dollars, a reference to the third Lost number.

Fairytales and Folklore

 * During their first meeting, Hordor mockingly guesses Rumplestiltskin's name as Spindleshanks, Threadwhistle and Hobblefoot. These are some of the names the miller's daughter guesses in the original fairytale.
 * When Tilly tries to remember Weaver's original name, she also guesses the name "Spindleshanks".
 * Gold has been called an imp many times in reference to the Rumpelstiltskin fairytale.

Popular Culture

 * The scene where Rumplestiltskin teaches young Cora to spin straw into gold is an homage to the famous clay sculpting scene between Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in the movie Ghost.
 * He once made a deal with Don Juan, a legendary, fictional libertine.
 * In the library, Mr. Gold quotes Sir John Lubbock's famous utterance, "We may sit in our library and yet be in all quarters of the earth" from his book The Pleasures of Life.
 * According to Mr. Gold, his father taught him a sleight of hand called "Follow the Lady"; a gambling card game of Spanish origin.
 * The "professor" (aka Mr. Gold) who translated a spell for Belle is supposedly from Oxford, a reference to the famous British research university.
 * The poem that Mr. Gold recites for his unborn child is a Scottish poem called "Sleep Well" by Murdoch Maclean.


 * -|Set Notes=

Props Notes

 * The car Mr. Gold drives is a 1990 Cadillac Brougham. The car's license plate number is 34K6 EX.
 * The box that Belle opens in Hook's ship contains gold coins and a bell.
 * The car Weaver drives is a 2015 Dodge Charger LD. The car's license plate number is V6834T.
 * The letters XMT also appear vertically before the plate number. Typically plates that are marked with XMT signify a vehicle belonging to the Washington State Patrol, as well as an exemption from licensing fees.

Set Dressing

 * Among the numerous pictures and cut-outs pinned to the wall in Henry's room are:
 * An illustration by the English artist and book illustrator Walter Crane, from the illustrated picture book Beauty and the Beast (1874). There are two different cutouts in Henry's room. The first one appears next to Henry's mirror in "The Thing You Love Most" and pinned to the wall at a 2 o'clock position over Henry's cuckoo clock in "We Are Both", but it is blurred and far away. It is seen more clearly in a Flickr set photo from Season Two. The other version can be seen clearly on Henry's wall in "Page 23" and "Is This Henry Mills?", although Beauty has been cropped off.
 * A cover illustration from the children's picture book Beauty and the Beast (2002) by the American children's book writer and illustrator Mercer Mayer. Note that the picture can barely be seen; it is clearly seen in a Flickr set photograph for Season Two.
 * The hotel that Mr. Gold is staying at in New York City is called Hotel d'Or, which is French for "Gold Hotel".

Costume Notes

 * For the "Pilot", Rumplestiltskin's costume was originally going to be a medieval costume with an elaborate hood. However, Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis felt that he needed to look more sexy, like a rock star, so the costume was redesigned with crocodile skins, high boots and tight pants, an evil rock star kind of look.
 * It takes approximately two hours to dress Robert Carlyle in Rumplestiltskin's costume, twenty minutes of which is spent on his boots. It takes about one hour to remove the costume.
 * The necklace Mr. Gold procures out of thin air and gives to Lacey is the same necklace from Belle's nightmare in "The Crocodile".
 * The tie worn by Mr. Gold in "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter", at the sheriff's station in "Desperate Souls", in "Heart of Darkness", and when he is reunited with his "son" in "The Return", is the same tie Henry puts on when he becomes Mr. Gold's assistant.
 * The robe Rumplestiltskin is wearing during his mission to get the Dark Curse is decorated with a Chinese dragon.


 * -|Goofs=

Goofs

 * In "Skin Deep", when Gaston knocks on the Dark One's castle door, there is a close up on Rumplestiltskin's face, in which his left eye's contact lens is missing.
 * In "Heart of Darkness", when Emma goes to Mr. Gold to ask for his help, he is wearing a wedding ring on his left hand. While Robert Carlyle was filming the scene, he forgot to take off his own wedding ring.
 * In "Devil's Due", on his contract with Fendrake the Healer, Rumplestiltskin's name is misspelled as "Rumpelstiltskin", and he is mistakenly referred to as "Mr. Gold".


 * -|Other Notes=

Script Notes

 * In the original script for "Skin Deep", Mr. Gold was supposed to own The Rabbit Hole.

Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale

 * As the elevator inside the clock tower stops, Mr. Gold tells Emma that Regina had him take over for her. Unlike the events of "A Land Without Magic", Regina is not tied to the chair by Mr. Gold, and instead she runs off to the hospital to watch over Henry.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.