Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4962906-20151001101413/@comment-26159109-20151001173446

I rather that he didn't have magic and we could finally see him dealing with problems like a normal human being who doesn't have an easy way out. I think it's more interesting character development than having him with light magic and just throw random magic at Emma (That is Regina's job). Rumple's main problem was that he always took the easy way out and magic (not just dark magic, but magic in general) enabled it for him to do so, so now let's see him handling his problems (psychological, relationship with Belle) without the thing that made it easy for him.