Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26901329-20150811185125/@comment-24674051-20150812172159

I agree with this as well. Spells seem to be the everyday, run of the mill magic. Things that the users can cast with minimal effort. Regina's Fireballs, Elsa's Ice, Emma's light blast, Mal's sleeping spell. Also, spells tend to have limited scope and duration. For instance, Mal's sleeping spell probably lastst like an hour or so.

Curses, as was mentioned, require more power, and more setup. The Sleeping Curse Requires a potion of some sort, and some method of delivery (an Apple or the spindle of a Spinning wheel), The Dark Curse requires (among other things) the heart of the thing the person loves the most. Also, Curses do not have a limited duration, they remain in effect until broken.

Also, Curses generraly have negative effects. I say that because potions tend to take on more of the characteristics of Curses, as their duration is longer, sometimes permanent, but are not always negative. And, from when we saw Rumple and Blue interact, there are also Blessings (which I don't think we've seen yet) which strike me as being the opposite of Curses.