I always feel like the saying is Rumple’s way of warning the person he is talking to not to make the deal with him. But this is also part of my bias toward feeling like Rumple is genuinely good at heart. I think he greatly regrets turning to the Dark One to try to save his son because in the end it caused him nothing but pain (and he lost him son anyway) so he tries to warn everyone he deals with that ultimately the magic won’t be worth it. The problem is that the Dark Side of Rumple gets in the way from truely allowing him to tell whoever he’s dealing with that it will only cause them problems so instead it just comes out as a quick little warning that over time just became his trademark saying.
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