I have a question and maybe this has been asked before, but I was remembering that scene way back when, where Regina tells Belle about true love’s kiss and that it can break any curse. Then she goes to Rumple’s castle and kisses him and he almost changes back to a normal man. So how come, out of all the kisses they’ve shared since then, none of them broke the Dark One curse?
We wish we knew.
I’ve come up with a plausible headcanon.
Because this is no ordinary curse, but the Dark One’s curse, I think it takes two things: the ultimate sacrifice, and then TLK. You cannot break the curse if you do not have one without the other.
So in Skin Deep, Rumple had not yet made the ultimate sacrifice, even though he had TLK.
In S3B he has made the ultimate sacrifice but he has not yet had a TLK from Belle.
So I think that before this half is out, we’ll see a TLK and a breaking of the DO Curse