Heck it even worse than Snow pulling out “Fake” Excalibur, because the point of the story of oz that you don’t need any kind of symbol to brain, courage or heart that the individual always had it within them the entire time. If anything I can see some sort of psychological damage being done, but having magic be the cause feels like a cheat.
But they still *have* those things. Zelena took a token that represents those traits, not the actual trait.
Beside I had to put my money on anyone being these character it would be Rumple, because he actually believes himself believe he a coward, he deserve not to be loved, and now we are seeing him loose his mind. If it isn’t Rumple then they should be their own character they are popular enough for it.
I don’t disagree and for a long time I thought Rumple would be the Cowardly Lion, but out characters aren’t actually the Oz characters. She’s just taking the reverse traits we associate with them. And no one is braver than Charming, the consummate white knight.
Rumple inhabits all those traits from Oz and really so does everyone. But I think she needs Rumple for something else.