Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-3038174-20130304164737/@comment-6175354-20130304165402

If the Dark Curse was never created, Emma Swan would never have been born. Rumplestiltskin manipulated every event on the show, both seen and implied, so he could find his son.

Example: Snow White would have never eaten the Poisoned Apple, if Maleficent had not created the Sleeping Curse to use on the original Sleeping Beauty. Regina was the one who updated the method, from the spinning wheel to apple.