Prince Charming

"No matter what you do, I will always find you."

- Prince Charming to Snow White

Prince Charming, also known as David and alias Prince James, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. He débuts in the first episode of the first season. He is portrayed by starring cast member Josh Dallas, and is the Enchanted Forest counterpart of David Nolan.

Prince Charming is based on the Prince from the fairytale "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and "Rapunzel" as well as the Pauper from the novel, The Prince and the Pauper.

History
Prince Charming is born with the name David, to a poor peasant family, as a twin. Rumplestiltskin comes to their farm when he is an infant and tells his parents that the barren king and queen of their country need a child, and they will be paid handsomely if they give one of the twins to them. The parents choose to give away Prince Charming's twin James, who becomes a prince, while David is kept and raised to be shepherd. Many years later, Rumplestiltskin comes back to persuade David into being a replacement prince for his deceased brother James, and in return, the farm will be saved. He agrees to the plan for his mother Ruth's sake. As Prince James, he has to kill a dragon for King Midas. While meeting knights who will be accompanying him on the journey, David learns they will slay the dragon so he can take the credit. Atop of the dragon's lair, all but one knight perishes. David manages to save him while tricking the dragon and cutting off its head. Afterwards, King Midas is so pleased with the results that he offers up his daughter Abigail's hand in marriage. As David moves to reject the notion, Prince James' adoptive father King George pulls him aside to threaten to harm the farm and his mother if he does not comply. King George wants the alliance as well as the lands and riches it will bring, so David must agree to the marriage. David returns to inform Ruth of the change of plans, which sadly means he has to continue living the ruse of Prince James and marry Abigail, so it's not possible to see his mother ever again. As a parting gift, she gives him her own wedding ring, so that he can give it to the woman he loves. Returning to his role of Prince James, he and Abigail take carriage ride on the scenic route towards King Midas' palace to begin the wedding preparations.
 * -|Before the Curse=

During the travel, David is quickly getting a dose of how difficult Abigail is to please. She hates the bumpy road, which was his idea, but he distractedly stops paying attention to her prattling. Then, the ride is halted by a fallen tree on the road. He leaves a pouch containing his mother's ring inside the carriage while exiting to examining the tree damage. David recognizes the marks on the trunk was someone's deliberate action to bring the tree down, and is suddenly alerted to Abigail's scream as a thief escapes the carriage with his pouch. After chasing down the thief on horseback, he wrestles the bandit to the ground and flips him over, only to find out he is actually a she. He lets down his guard in surprise, to which the woman hits him with a rock and flees on his horse. David vehemently shouts that he will find her again as she back to give him a smirk. Later, he discovers the woman is Snow White, a wanted criminal the Queen has been seeking. He also sets a trap outside Snow White's makeshift home and captures her in a net. While he laughs at her predicament, she sarcastically dubs him "Prince Charming". He threatens to turn her into the Queen, but won't if she gives back his ring. Snow White admits to already selling the ring, but left little choice, she agrees to help him. On their way there, he snatches away her vial of fairy dust, which she was planning on using on the Queen. When questioned about her wanted status, she alludes to having destroyed the Queen's happiness. At a stream, Snow White requests a sip of water, but when he allows it, she clocks him and runs away. He catches up in time to save her from one of the Queen's knights. In gratitude for the rescue, she agrees to the Troll Bridge and get his ring back. Once there, she tries to bargain for a refund, but the trolls are too suspicious. From fishing through Prince Charming's things, they see the wanted poster and attack. He distracts the trolls while Snow White flees, but is unable to escape. She returns to throw fairy dust on the trolls, transforming them into bugs, and they leave with the retrieved ring. Finally, they reach an intersection where they must part. Snow White hands back his ring, but jokingly tries it on for a moment, though she states it's not her style. With the terms of their agreement satisfied, they both leave in opposite directions.

A few days after, the engagement party is held, but Prince Charming retreats into his room in a restless and brooding mood. His behavior does not go unnoticed by King George, who is aware Prince Charming is in love with someone else and threatens to burn down the farm if he does not marry Abigail. Despite the severe warning, Prince Charming writes a letter to Snow White, declaring his genuine feelings for her and asks that, if she feels the same, to meet him at the castle so they can run away together. When they finally meet in person, Snow White affirms she does not love him, and it would be better if he is with someone like Abigail who could.

Although heartbroken, Prince Charming cannot bear to marry a woman he does not love and runs off from the impending wedding. During this, he is accosted by some henchman, and believes they are King George's men until being set free by them. In actuality, Abigail sent soldiers after Prince Charming, as she wanted to get to him first before King George. She, too, does not wish to marry him. When he inquiries about her reason for helping him, Abigail takes Prince Charming to a shrine with a golden statue of the man she loves, Frederick, who became immobile after being touched by her father's curse. Her many attempts at true love's kiss have failed, though there is the magic water of Lake Nostos rumored to restore something once lost and is guarded by a ghastly creature. He decides it's in his own best interest to change the wretched circumstances so Abigail and Frederick can be together. She protests against this, but Prince Charming claims succeeding will lift Abigail out of her own misery, and if not, then the misery of failure will be his own. They go together to the entrance of the lake and come across an shrine that people have used to ask for the creature's mercy, but he ignores this and goes straight in alone. As he is scooping up some of the water, a Siren in the form of a beautiful woman rises from below the surface. Prince Charming is not tricked by her alluring appearance until she turns into the one person he desires most—Snow White. Though nearly seduced, Prince Charming shakes out of the stupor upon realizing this carbon copy of Snow White is no replacement for true love, to which she tries to drown him. Underwater, he grabs a dagger and stabs the Siren to death. With the mission complete, he goes back to an ecstatic Abigail and gives her the water. She pours it over Frederick's head as the gold melts off and the long-separated couple joyfully reunite. Abigail introduces the two men to each other as Frederick offers Prince Charming his utmost gratitude. In return, he receives a horse from them and uses it to find Snow White's newest hideout. Instead, Prince Charming meets Red Riding Hood, who explains Snow White went to meet with him and never came back. He professes determination to reach Snow White and convince her that they belong together. This doesn't make sense to Red Riding Hood, as she clearly remembers Snow White left intending to break up Prince Charming's wedding because of her love for him, unless something changed. He realizes King George ruined everything just as the man himself arrives on horseback to close in on them. Prince Charming and Red Riding Hood flee for safety.

They camp out for the night, but are found by King George's men. While Prince Charming escapes, Red Riding Hood stays behind and takes care of the soldiers by shape shifting into a wolf. Continuing with the search on his own, he comes across a nude soldier who claims that Snow White stole his armor from him in order to kill the Queen. Prince Charming doesn't believe this, but investigates the matter after hearing Snow White recently was at Rumplestiltskin's palace. He is too late since she just left to kill the Queen, though Rumplestiltskin swears that only true love's kiss can break the curse on Snow White. Prince Charming agrees to give Rumplestiltskin his cloak in return for Snow White's location and arrives in time to see her preparing for the Queen's assassination. He tries to use true love's kiss on Snow White, to no avail, and then is knocked out and tied to a tree. The next day, he is freed of the binds with the help of Jiminy Cricket, and rushes to take the hit of the arrow as Snow White fires her aim at the Queen on the road. Prince Charming asserts that he would rather die than see her become evil. Touched, she kisses him, and returns to her normal self. They have a brief reunion just as King George's men capture Prince Charming, though she promises to rescue him.

Prince Charming is brought out for an execution on King George's orders, which is stopped by the Queen. Rather than let him die, the Queen gives King George the gold he desired from the transaction with King Midas, and she takes away Prince Charming as a prisoner. The Queen comes into his cell to show him a cursed apple that she will make Snow White willingly eat and fall under a Sleeping Curse. He attempts to chase after her, but the cell door slams shut as she walks out. Through a mirror, Prince Charming sees Snow White break into King George's dungeon. When Snow White approaches him, only then does she realize Prince Charming is now in the Queen's hands. They place their hands against opposite sides of the mirror and converse, longing to be together, until the Queen interrupts to ask Snow White for an in-person meeting. Later, he feels bodily pain, and recognizes something bad must have happened to Snow White, but can do nothing.

As two guards haul him out for execution, Prince Charming breaks free of them and flees, but is apprehended in the hallway by another one of the Queen's underlings. Surprisingly, the man shoots the remaining guard instead of Prince Charming, and then takes off his helmet to reveal himself as the Huntsman. He returns Prince Charming's sword and provides him with some provisions and a map out of the castle. The Huntsman explains how he gave up his own heart when disobeying the Queen's orders to kill Snow White, and asks that his sacrifice not be in vain. Prince Charming makes it outside, but is entrapped in the Infinite Forest by the Queen. He encounters Rumplestiltskin, who steals his ring and magically enchants it so the closer Prince Charming is to Snow White, the brighter it will shine. Prince Charming tries to take the ring back by force, but Rumplestiltskin bests him in a duel until he agrees to a deal. Rumplestiltskin hands him a bottled vial of true love encased in an egg to hide in the body of a beast. After wandering into a castle, Prince Charming is caught off guard when he meets a witch, Maleficent, who then turns into a ferocious dragon. While hiding behind a pillar, he throws the egg into the dragon's ear flap and jumps out the window into the sea. By the time he makes it to shore, Rumplestiltskin hands over the enchanted ring, magically transforms Prince Charming's clothes into something more befitting a prince and bestows him with a horse for the journey to Snow White.

The ring takes him directly to his beloved, though she is already dead and her body rests in a glass coffin as the seven dwarves are in mourning. He pleads for a chance to at least say goodbye, which the dwarves allow by lifting the coffin cover. Prince Charming gives her a farewell kiss, unintentionally triggering the effects of true love's kiss, and awakens Snow White from the curse.

Afterwards, they walk the beach coastline together. She asks him how he found her and Prince Charming flashes his mother's ring. At the same time, he sinks to one knee and proposes to her. She happily accepts and the two begin to form a plan to take back the kingdom together.

Putting the plan into full-swing, Prince Charming and the seven dwarves go with Snow White to a local village where she rallies all the people together and exposes to them the truth about the Queen’s evil ways, including the murder of King Leopold and her own plight under the Sleeping Curse. The townspeople all agree the Queen's reign of terror has gone on for far too long, but fall silent when Snow White asks them to fight alongside her for the throne. They scatter when the Queen makes a surprise appearance, to which Prince Charming and Snow White draw their swords. The Queen magically binds up Prince Charming and offers a peace deal. Prince Charming tries to warn Snow White against listening, but he is promptly gagged. She wants Snow White to give up her claim to the throne and go into exile, as the real satisfaction isn't killing the princess, but taking everything that belongs to her. When Snow White challenges this, the Queen threatens the life of a young peasant girl. Prince Charming is freed from his binds after the Queen teleports away from Snow White's sword attack. She materializes again to set a time limit of until sundown tomorrow for an answer, and promises for every day Snow White refuses, one of her loyal subjects will perish. Spitefully, the Queen also calls her once a princess, but never a queen. Later, Prince Charming pushes Snow White to fight for the throne, but her mind is made up about submitting to the Queen's request. The dwarves block Prince Charming when he attempts to follow Snow White as she walks away, and interrogate him about being a gold digger. Seeing as the dwarves won't help him, he goes to Rumplestiltskin with a request to make Snow White remember who she really is. Rumplestiltskin asserts that he cannot make someone believe something and true belief must come from within the person. Left without a deal, Prince Charming forges the legendary Excalibur sword from the land of Camelot. After placing it in a stone, he tells Snow White that only a person worthy of ruling the kingdom can pull it out. After she takes the sword, they meet with the Queen the next day, and Snow White announces her refusal to back down from the throne. True to her threats, the Queen begins suffocating Grumpy, which Snow White reacts to with panic, until being reminded by Prince Charming of what Excalibur symbolizes. With her confidence renewed, she charges at the Queen, who dissipates and reappears, just as the sword cuts her. Then, Snow White declares her intent to not go down without a fight; forcing the Queen to retreat. Directly after, the dwarves finally accept Prince Charming just as Snow White storms up to indignantly affront him for his lie about the sword. Prince Charming explains that never doubted she is the proper ruler of the kingdom, but simply wanted Snow White herself to show the Queen the kind of courage he always knew was there. The two make-up with a kiss.

With the Evil Queen out of the way, Prince Charming and Snow White begin laying down further groundwork for gaining back the kingdom. Receiving gets news from Red Riding Hood that King George has hired a powerful hit-man, Prince Charming offers to stay behind and hastens Snow White to run away to his mother's cabin. After the fight, he arrives at the cabin shortly before King George's army arrive to capture him. Although he emerges victorious, Ruth, worried about his well-being, runs outside and is shot by a poisoned arrow. Once Snow White and Lancelot rejoin the mother-son pair, they travel to Lake Nostos to find the cure for the wound caused by the poisoned arrow. However, the water have dried up some time after Prince Charming, came to the lake in the past and killed the guardian of the lake. Lancelot is able to find a small portion of water and brings it over to Ruth. She drinks it, but it has no effect. Knowing death is near, Ruth admits her only regret is not seeing her son get married to Snow White. Honoring her wish, Snow White asks Lancelot to perform a marriage ceremony. During the ceremony, Snow White drinks from chalice rumored to give eternal life while Ruth dies peacefully following the union. While lighting a candle to honor her, Prince Charming finds comfort in the fact though his mother is gone, he and Snow White can have a family one day. He shows her his mother's necklace, which has the ability to predict the gender of a person's future child. Unknown to him, King George previously cursed Snow White with barrenness, and as she begins to break the news to him, the necklace sways, proving the curse is broken. This is a result of Ruth's secret sacrifice of switching out the lake water into the ceremonial chalice for Snow White.

Prince Charming and Snow White wage war against the Evil Queen and King George's forces. After King George's army falls, Snow White lures the Evil Queen into a conversation. The Blue Fairy freezes the Evil Queen with fairy dust and the war ends with her capture. In a discussion with the war council, they decide the Evil Queen's fate. Though Snow White is against killing the Evil Queen, but she is outnumbered, as the others believe death is a fitting punishment. At the execution, Regina gives her last regards to the public with a sorrowful speech, which turns into a vehement declaration as she is only sorry to have not caused more pain. As the executioner's arrows are fired, Snow White cancels the punishment at the last moment. While Prince Charming is adamant that Regina is simply too dangerous and will never change, Snow White believes there is still some good left in her. To prove it, Rumplestiltskin enchants a knife, incapable of harming the princess or Prince Charming, for Snow White to have when she goes to see Regina. The ex-Queen attempts to kill Snow White with the knife and is banished from the kingdom with the warning that harming anyone again will result in a death sentence.

With peace restored, Prince Charming and Snow White begin residing in the castle and hold a formal wedding ceremony as the kingdom's citizens gather in attendance. The Evil Queen crashes into the room just as the couple are joined in matrimony. As she walks up to them, Snow White shows no fear and unsheathes Prince Charming's sword as a threat. The Evil Queen announces her intent to have revenge on everyone by destroying their happiness. As she strolls out, Prince Charming chucks his sword at her, only for the Queen to disappear in puff of smoke.

Following this, Snow White belligerently expresses anger at how the Queen ruined their wedding. Prince Charming convinces her to let it go, and she suggests they go to the old Summer Palace for their honeymoon. Once there, he attempts to have some romantic alone time with her, but she has other ideas. Armed with the suspicion Snow White still wants to take down the Queen, he leaves the room and later blocks her on the road as she is sneaking off. She explains to him about on a being called Medusa who lives in a nearby cavern and has the ability to turn whoever looks into her eyes into stone. She wants to cut off her head and use it on the Evil Queen. Together, they venture into Medusa's home. While Prince Charming goads the creature to come towards him, Snow White readies her blade. The effort is absolutely ineffective, and her sword shatters upon contact with Medusa's neck. Then, Prince Charming himself turns into stone when Medusa forces him to meet her eyes. He is freed when Snow White tricks the monster into gazing into her own reflection and becoming a stone statue. That night, Snow White finally decides to stop fretting about the Evil Queen and wants to try having a baby with Prince Charming.

As a married couple, Snow White and Prince Charming a neighboring kingdom's royal wedding of Cinderella and Prince Thomas. During the wedding party, Prince Charming briefly dances with Cinderella and wishes her a happy marriage. While Cinderella is pregnant, he hears of her previous deal with Rumplestiltskin, which has resulted with the wizard demanding her first born child as payment. With the Blue Fairy and Grumpy, they hatch a plan to create an inescapable holding prison for Rumplestiltskin and have Cinderella paralyze him with a red quill infused with squid ink. Success follows, to which Prince Charming and Grumpy begin securing him in a cage for the journey to his prison when Cinderella runs up pressing Rumplestiltskin for answers about her missing husband. Rumplestiltskin gleefully acknowledges that Prince Thomas disappeared due to Cinderella's refusal to pay for their original deal, even though Prince Charming consoles her with a promise to find her husband.

In a few months, Snow White becomes pregnant with their first child. While nearing the end of the pregnancy, the Evil Queen's threat at their wedding still causes worry. Willing to do anything to ease Snow White's mind, Prince Charming agrees to let her meet with Rumplestiltskin. She makes a deal to gain information about the Evil Queen's revenge, which Rumplestiltskin extracts from using foresight. He states that there will be a curse cast by the Evil Queen, and their only hope to break free of it is Snow White and Prince Charming's unborn child. Rumplestiltskin dubs their child the savior, who will save them all in twenty-eight years. Though Prince Charming was under the impression their child is a boy, Snow White knows it's a girl. As payment for the information, she gives Rumplestiltskin the name of the child, Emma. Through much discussion with the war council, a decision is reached when the Blue Fairy presents them with the last enchanted tree in the land, which can be carved into a magic wardrobe and protect one person from the curse. They settle for sending Snow White, while she is still pregnant, into the wardrobe to another land and wait twenty-eight years for the prophecy of the savior to come true.

As Geppetto and Pinocchio set out to carve the wardrobe, Prince Charming listens in as his wife questions the Blue Fairy for more details on the Dark Curse. The Blue Fairy tells her to have faith their plan will work, and if not, the curse will take them to a new land where their memories are erased and they will be slaves to the Queen's will. Snow White is also concerned exactly how the savior will know what to do. The Blue Fairy stresses in more vague terms that when the time comes, the savior will learn of their story. Just before leaving, the Blue Fairy requests to be trusted as she herself has the one thing they all need, which is hope. Snow White is crushed that she and Prince Charming can never be a family with their child and begins agonizing over their grim future due to the curse. He believes the unknown isn't always bad and life is full of twists and turns just like the curse. Prince Charming is sure that even though their chance to be a family is gone, it doesn't mean they can't have a different future together. To this, she affirms her decision to choose hope and believe things are going to work out for them.

As time runs low while they await the Evil Queen's curse, Snow White can't come to the terms with the fact she will be away from her husband for twenty-eight years after going through the wardrobe. Prince Charming has faith they will eventually be reunited. They kiss, to which Snow White pulls away abruptly as she is having contractions. On the same day, the curse approaches. While Snow White is labor, Prince Charming attempts to move her to the wardrobe, but Doc advises against it. After birth, he and Snow White have a shared moment with Emma until realizing that their child must go through the wardrobe alone or all is lost. Prince Charming fights his way through many of the Queen's knights, while cradling Emma in one hand, to place her in the wardrobe. Once he does, Prince Charming sustains a grievously injury by the Queen's knights, but before passing out, sees them break open the wardrobe, which is now empty. Later, Snow White tries to bring him back with true love's kiss, which fails, and she has a confrontation with the Queen as the three of them are engulfed by the curse.


 * -|After Undone Curse=

After Regina takes magical preventive measures to undo Pan's casting of the Dark Curse, all the inhabitants of Storybrooke pay the price by returning to the Enchanted Forest and reverting to their prior personas. In a group, they manifest in the land of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip where Regina mentions in passing that her old palace is still standing due to a preservation spell. Regina agrees to comply with Snow White's plan to travel there altogether as a strong front to ease the other inhabitants' minds. Prince Charming is informed by Grumpy, who was told by Jiminy, that fifty inhabitants landed in the Enchanted Forest two miles away. He tasks the seven dwarves with the job of spreading the word that everyone else should head for same destination as their group. Prince Charming is disappointed that Hook decides not to come with them and instead the pirate goes off looking for his ship. Baelfire wishes to stop off by his father's old castle, but Prince Charming persuades him that even if there is some way of reaching Emma and Henry, they wouldn't remember him. During the trek to the palace, Snow White searches for a missing Regina. The two women come back with three of the Merry Men, Friar Tuck, Little John, and Robin Hood, who accompany the group. As they near the palace, Regina discovers a protection spell, cast by whoever currently residing inside, is keeping them out. For the time being, Robin Hood suggests everyone can take shelter at Sherwood Forest.

As the group depart for Sherwood Forest, Regina proposes to Prince Charming and Snow White that she sneak into the palace through underground tunnels and deactivating the shield to allow entry. Suddenly, a flying monkey attacks, though the creature is quickly disarmed when Regina turns it into a stuffed animal. In a group discussion, Belle shares knowledge about the flying monkey's origins in the land of Oz, so Regina determines the person in the palace is the Wicked Witch. A plan is set up to wait for Regina to bring the shield down and then mobilize the whole group into the palace. Once night falls, Grumpy gives the signal when he spots the dissipating barrier, meaning Regina was able to lower it, so Prince Charming orders for everyone to begin heading to their destination.

Trivia

 * Strictly speaking, "Prince Charming", in Disney canon, refers to Cinderella's prince, while Snow White's prince is credited simply as "The Prince". Both are variations of the stock character in fairy tales.
 * The name "James", which is a variant of Jacob, can mean "follower" or "supplanter". A supplanter is someone who takes the place of another person, place, or thing. This is fitting, as Prince Charming supplanted his twin James.
 * The name "David" is of Hebrew origin derived from the word "dwd" that means "beloved".
 * He is the first character to appear in the series. The opening scene of the pilot features him rushing to meet Snow White.
 * Prince Charming was originally supposed to die in the first episode in the first season.
 * His flower crest is exactly the same as Emma's wrist tattoo.

Appearances
Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.
 * Prince Charming appears in Henry's storybook in "Pilot", "The Thing You Love Most", "Snow Falls", "What Happened to Frederick", "Queen of Hearts", "Selfless, Brave and True", "Lacey", "The New Neverland" and "Going Home".
 * Prince Charming's name appears on the list Tamara has in "The Evil Queen".