Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27295021-20180515171739/@comment-31931060-20180515182608

According to Wish Rumple, then original Rumple will destroy the darkness, his power will also disappear, so they likely have power of the same darkness. It looks like it's not Wish!Rumple has his power, and Rumple has his, it's like the power of their darkness exists indipendently, and they both derive their power from it, but Wish!Rumple as the more willing to use it has better control, then his original counterpart. It's not about power, it is about control of it.

The same darkness was a concept in 5 season, then Hook was talking with the same Dark ones as Emma. We thought that they had different power, but it could already be the same source from which both of them derived.

And now, my theory: By this logic, the drinking from Holy Grail or killing by dagger does not give power, but it only gives a link to it's power. It's possibly infinite, but the number of power for one person is not - that's why all dead Dark Ones also had power - their links to Grail still existed. Then Hook destroyed them, he unintentionally had given their links to power to Gold, increasing his potential of energy he could get from Grail.

The control of power depend not only on basic link, but also on control of it and on experience. Receiving of link is like first level in computer game. The amount of energy received from Grail likely can be increased with experience. The use of magic also depend on experience. Control, as with all magic also depend on emotions. Merlin became so powerful because he was confident in his actions and because he had 500 years of experience, making him the strongest Holy Grail user. Then Rumple got powers of previous Dark Ones, he got their scores, giving him enormous potential, but he was limited by his emotional state and by his 200 years experience. That's why he didn't become as powerful as Merlin, even having potential to be stronger. When Rumle started being unwilling to use Darkness, his control of it decreased, and that gave Wish!Rumple with same experience, same source of power and will to use power of Darkness the gap.

It also explain why the power of Dark One is sometimes called the power of dagger - because it dagger, which is host of power, Rymple just use it. (It does not explain, why Weaver couldn't free Ella and Lucy from cristall ball, but anyway if Wish!Henry could use the Quill, which didn't choose him, the spell shouldn't differe both Rumple's. Maybe he just didn't try. Maybe he didn't know the spell. Maybe the breaking of the spell does not depend on person, but on some specially chosen key word, for example, and only Wish!Rumole know it)