Just hopping in for a quick note-
I don’t think Peter and Rumple are brothers. The interaction with the doll especially made me feel like that was a Rumple-only backstory, and the doll itself is just part of a mind game Peter is playing with Rumple, trying to weaken him as he did with Emma.
But RG, you asked an interesting question. Who *did* remove Peter’s shadow?
What if it was Rumple? He seemed to know just what to do with the dagger and was able to remove the shadow quickly, maybe indicating that he’s done it before? Perhaps we’ve looked at this in the wrong direction. Peter isn’t the original Dark One (as the idea has been floating around) but perhaps Rumple created Peter? Perhaps Neverland and Peter’s evil are all part of a bargain gone wrong? I’m wondering if there isn’t a scenario where Rumple made a bargain to have Peter’s shadow seek out Bae (since it could travel to our world) but perhaps Peter twisted that bargain around, thereby creating some of the animosity between them. After all if Peter was the one that caused a deal to go sour, it would explain why he was friendly and cordial and Rumple was furious. Peter lost nothing and has no reason to be mad as he “won” in a bargain against the Dark One.
I could also see this being a situation that mirrored the Hook-Bae relationship. Perhaps the young and not-evil Peter was befriended or quasi-adopted by Rumple, or at least trusted. Perhaps this is just after losing Bae, when Rumple wasn’t the hilariously evil baddie we love and know- his trickster persona having not been fully developed yet. If the two met, and Rumple trusted him, it’s possible he may have shared the story of his own upbringing with a still-human-not-yet-immortal-and-evil Peter.
Just a thought from a different angle.
"Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him."
