I also don’t quite get the mechanics of Rumple (Dark One) stabs Pan (eternally young) with the Dark One dagger…. thus killing them both.
Like I get that it’s supposed to be you stab the Dark One with the DO Dagger & you become the new DO; but Rumple *is* the DO and he’s stabbing someone who isn’t the DO….
and that’s where I get confused. Why the magical effects? Is there something we don’t know yet (but have spent much time theorising) about Pan’s pixie dust shadow transformation to a perennial teenager and the Dark One curse?
And what are the mechanics of the Dark One dagger? You stab someone, anyone with the DO Dagger and you become the DO, *or* you stab the current DO with the DOD and become the new DO? It’s obviously an object closely tied to blood magic. But whose? Does it require the spilling of blood (in which case, Rumple is most likely still alive and with all his DO powers!) or does it require the spilling of the current DO’s blood? (in which case…. I have no idea what that means for Rumple).