Board Thread:Spoilers!/@comment-25733960-20161205025332/@comment-31231929-20170222220745

DatNuttyKid wrote: Here's something to keep in mind: both seasons with a major death, death was on everyone's minds leading up to it.

Season 3: Rumple has more-or-less come to accept that the prophecy where he's going to die will come true. Emma and co. think that Rumple is going to kill Henry to stop it from coming true. In the end, Neal dies.

Season 5: Emma wants Regina to kill her if she goes too far into darkness. Belle is concerned that Rumple is dying. Emma stops Hook from dying and wants to kill Zelena to get rid of the darkness. All of the heroes go to the realm of the dead to revive Hook. In the end, Robin Hood dies.

Season 6 has similar themes in terms of death. We have another prophecy predicting a main character's death. David's hunting his dad's murderer. Regina wants Emma to kill her if the Evil Queen goes too far. The only thing that's missing is that one of the main characters needs to actually die (like Rumple and Hook did) before someone else takes their place (like Neal and Robin did, Robin less literally than Neal), but those characters have always died before the winter break (more specifically, in the midseason finale), which we're already past. Unless someone dies in 6x11, but since the episode has already been screened, I would think we'd know about that :P Following that reason, it would make sense for someone to die. My vote is for Rumple.