Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-24846659-20140813193020/@comment-1894786-20141017033239

Hmcooper4 wrote: And as for why Rumple did no go himself, let's remember that he is addicted to power, and we know from Manhattan that he is powerless outside of storybrooke. So he would not dare go somewhere he is powerless. (at least not without some way of getting back).

We'll have to see how the story plays out, but I suspect that, just like Pinnochio, Bae, and Emma, the trip for the Snow Queen was One Way until the original curse was broken and Magic was brought to Storybrooke. In which case, she may have been stranded in the LWM until after Snow's curse, if she didn't get back to SB prior to Regina destroying her curse. She would've had to infiltrate Storybrooke well into the early days of Regina's curse. If she IS the woman who adopted Emma (Emma said early on in the series that she was adopted shortly after birth until the age of three when she was given back, which is where she got the surname Swan from) then Snow Queen would've lasted AT LEAST three years outside of Storybrooke, then she would've had to sneak into the town to be able to keep her youth, otherwise she'd be older than Cora by now.