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You must destroy the scroll. Both yours and his curses shall be ended.

Mr. Gold to Regina src


Curse Scrolls are magical items featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. They first appear in the second episode of the first season.



History

Before First Curse

Afraid of a prophecy that foretells her newborn son will die by the hands of a newly born Evil, recently-turned fairy Fiona goes to the Sacred Fairy Vault to create a powerful curse that will banish everyone to a Land Without Magic where they can't hurt him. Before being banished by the Blue Fairy into a dark realm, Fiona manages to write the curse's scroll. ("The Black Fairy")

Many years later, the Black Fairy's son, Rumplestiltskin, successfully locates the Dark Curse scroll deep under Bald Mountain, protected by a series of traps. He summons Ursula and Cruella De Vil to the Forbidden Fortress, where he convinces them and Maleficent to help him retrieve the curse, claiming that it will grant them their happy endings. Selecting them due to three deadly traps in Bald Mountain, Rumplestiltskin takes them to the location. There, each woman uses her magical ability to defeat an obstacle and Ursula finally grabs the scroll, which is stored inside a glass orb, with her tentacles. This triggers a small quake as the Chernabog, a demon guarding the curse, awakens to attack the intruders. Rumplestiltskin admits using the women for his own gain and escapes with the scroll, while the women are forced to fight off the beast on their own. ("Darkness on the Edge of Town")

At some point, Cora acquires a scroll for the Curse of the Empty-Hearted, a curse that tricks the user into believing she or he is loved by another person. ("Welcome to Storybrooke")

From combining the hairs of Snow White and Prince Charming, Rumplestiltskin makes a true love potion, and he adds a drop of it onto the curse scroll. By doing this he ensures that after the curse is cast only someone born from their true love can break the curse. ("A Land Without Magic")

Since one of the main ingredients for enacting the curse is the heart of the thing someone loves most, Rumplestiltskin cannot cast it himself and will need another person to do it. He gives the scroll to Regina, the Evil Queen, but instead of casting it, she exchanges the curse with Maleficent for the sleeping curse to use on her stepdaughter, Snow White. Maleficent store's the curse inside an orb on her staff. ("The Thing You Love Most")

The Evil Queen eventually decides to cast the curse and goes travels to the Forbidden Fortress. Regina finds Maleficent unwilling to part with the scroll, so she duels her and forcibly takes it from her. Although her fellow witch heeds that casting the curse will put a void within which can never be filled, Regina doesn't care. ("The Thing You Love Most")

After First Curse
While mourning Cora's passing, Regina's hatred for Mary Margaret reaches a boiling point, as the woman is responsible for Cora's death. Wile rummaging through her mother's things, she finds a scroll for the Curse of the Empty-Hearted. Believing the curse will give her both the death of her worst enemy and the love of the son she lost, Regina quickly gathers ingredients to form the curse. However, Regina later finds Henry at the wishing well, where he is attempting to destroy magic, which he blames for making Regina evil. Henry reasons that magic has made good people do bad things, and he begs her to help him destroy magic. Regina refuses, however, she destroys the curse scroll, deciding not to cast it. ("Welcome to Storybrooke")

Before Second Curse
Peter Pan secretly switches bodies with Henry. Once in Storybrooke, he wreaks havoc by stealing the Dark Curse scroll from Regina's vault. With intentions of recasting it, he dumps all the ingredients into the wishing well and lastly sacrifices the heart of his most loyal underling, Felix, as the curse takes the form of a green smoke. Since Regina is the original caster of the curse, she must be the one to destroy the scroll and therefore nullify Pan's curse. Mr. Gold uses a Black Fairy wand to return Henry and Pan to their bodies. Then, Henry himself hands over the Dark Curse scroll to Regina. She passes out after touching it and awakens with knowledge of the price for halting the curse. Pan accosts the residents by freezing them in place and stealing the scroll back. Mr. Gold finishes Pan off by stabbing him, as well as himself, with the Dark One Dagger so both of them perish. After they vanish, Regina picks up the scroll. After seeing Henry and Emma off at the town line, Regina tears up the scroll, sending everyone in Storybrooke back to where they're from. ("Save Henry," "Going Home")

After Fifth Curse
After defeating Wish Rumplestiltskin, Roni finds a Dark Curse scroll in the Wish Realm version of her old palace. She tells the others that she wants to cast one last curse, but instead of taking the heart of the thing she loves most, she'll take a piece of everyone's hearts to help bring all of them together. ("Leaving Storybrooke")

Trivia

Props Notes

  • When Peter Pan holds the curse scroll for the Dark Curse, it is written in cursive characters from the Latin alphabet; however, the writing is flipped, to make it look more exotic. Flipping the image, however, does not reveal anything interesting. The text is gibberish. ("The New Neverland")

Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.