Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20151203163126/@comment-33328098-20170110184436

I always thought the skin change happened because the person embraced the darkness. We haven't seen Zozo become a Dark One and Rumple didn't even fight the darkness, he loved the power as soon as he got it. Emma took the power to save Regina and tethered Killian to Excalibur to save his life. They both became a Dark One by not killing the previous Dark One. Also, I think because Killian's life was tethered to Excalibur, his skin didn't change. Merlin's skin didn't change but he still kept his powers. Now Merlin was practically filled with the water from the holy grail so that might have helped but also, Killian was only tethered to the sword. Whatever the reason, I don't really mind. I mean Killian as the Dark One was so sad but it is just fantasy. Maybe they did just "luck out" as Emma says. And sorry if I confused anyone, I just prefer calling Colin's character Killian instead of Hook. Killian just sounds nicer, like he's the good guy he always wanted to be.