Perhaps Rumple will Try to Kill Emma

I could only see that happening if his heart returns to a strong enough form to take on the darkness again AND he believes it’s necessary to protect Belle/Henry from Emma. He took on the DO powers to protect Baelfire, not because he was hungry for power. He was desperate, afraid, and, he believed, powerless before, and he’s since sought to escape ever going back to that state–but the only time we’ve seen him make a grab for power just to have the power is with the Hat in 4A (and, knowing how close his heart was to going dark, it’s arguable that he believed it was necessary to protect Belle and Henry as well as himself…but his speech at the town line suggested otherwise. However, it was also an opportunity that the show indicated ANY Dark One would be tempted by, and his actions were more opportunistic than carefully orchestrated).

His attempt with the author was an attempt to escape the price of his power…but he was also trying to escape having the DO unleashed. He tethered it for centuries by tying himself to the deals he made, and I’ve believed since S1 that this was an intentional move to keep himself in check as well as to escape part of the price of his magic (and build up his power and influence). We have seen him use other means to keep himself in check, like not healing his leg once he had magic in Storybrooke–he kept the limp until he needed to be free of it to save Henry, because it was a link to his son, a reminder of why he had done all the things he’d done.

Removing the “Dark One” from Rumple, I’m guessing, only resets him to his previous form. He will be the weak coward, hungry for power, and willing to do all the wrong things to get power. I think he will attempt to get the dagger and kill Emma with it, thus regaining his powers as the “Dark One”.

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I expect him to struggle.  Addicts always struggle, you can’t go clean overnight; that’s just not realistic.

But…

If Rumple wakes up from his magically induced hat sucking coma and all he wants to do is regain all his power, I am 100% done with his character. He CANT DO THIS again; not after his talk with Belle on the pawn shop floor.

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I’m with @rumplesgirl. Him trying to steal his power back from Emma would be ridiculous.  I was done with his character a long time ago, but this would further cement my hatred for him.

I think he’ll still have that selfish/greedy streak in him, though.

He’s a coward, afraid to be powerless because he’s experienced it and how it can take away everything he loves.

Every time he chose power over those he loved, he repented and was pretty severely punished. And every time he’s done it, it was because he was afraid–afraid of being unable to protect himself and losing his son/Belle, afraid of something worse happening.

It’s not power that drives Rumplestiltskin. It’s fear. Power is what he believes will stop the fear. He’s wrong, and we as the audience recognize that, but the core motivation for just about everything Rumple has done is fear. And his greatest fear is that he is unloveable.