Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24138799-20131206223837/@comment-1437661-20131210234012

Lygarx wrote: Rumplestlikin wasn't all that evil. He was corrupted by the dagger, but always loved his son. Out of all of these villains, he is the one who is not so evil. his son grew up with his father when he was still a good, but cowardly man who was only afraid of abandoning his son like his father did and sacrificed his humanity to save his son's life. even if he lost his way, he tried to do the right thing by making amends and trying to look for his son again. the reason why neal wasn't evil even though he was the son of the dark one was that deep down rumple was just trying to do what he thought was right by being a super evil over protective father. he just wanted to never let his son feel the same way he felt as a child, although he failed the feelings he had were conveyed to him. I agree with you, but this could be nuanced since Rumple's villainous attitude remained during the curse, during which he wasn't directly affected by the dagger's influence (since there wasn't any magic in SB during 28 years), though he probably wasn't the most evil of them all.

People often say Cora is more evil that Regina, but I really think it is not easy to class the characters's evilness on the show. Cora was certainly a very horrible person, but this came mainly because she didn't have her heart. Though she certainly had inherent darkness, she said she wasn't able to take the King's heart because her own heart was stopping her, and she ripped it out to get rid of her scruples. Regina sent children to be devoured by a blind witch and massacred an entire village including children with her heart inside her, all because she was heartbroken (though I personnaly tried to explain her evilness by thinking she was also corrupted by the use of magic, as was Rumple). Not excusing this characters at all of course, but just saying we can't really class their evilness.

Even though, I personnaly think Peter Pan is the most evil character on the show until now since he abandoned his son and was even ready to sacrifice his great-grandson's life, only to preserve his youth, which makes him incredibly selfish.