I know some people try to use Killian’s quick turn into becoming a full dark one as proof that he’s a horrible person but if you watch the first episode of season 5, you can see that if Emma’s family (including Killian) hadn’t shown up so quickly she would have fallen just as hard into darkness within a day. Emma was literally about to crush Merida’s heart. Yes Emma was fighting but she was ultimately losing. And the fact that we can see her literally repeating the words of the fake Rumplestilskin shows that it was the darkness controlling her. While we don’t see Killian repeating the dark one’s word the same way, this gives us insight into how the darkness works and that it manipulates and controls the people who have it. Because the darkness truly does control and manipulate the ones who have it. Any Dark One does not have complete control over their actions. Yes Emma is able to hold off the darkness for 6 weeks while Killian only lasts a few hours but their changes to the Dark One are VASTLY different. It’s not just Killian being weak. His circumstances when he became the Dark One had him set up to fail from the very beginning while Emma had just the right circumstances to resist. Even when Rumple became the Dark One he was set up to fail because he had only had a slight idea of what he was getting into, though he did take the mantle willingly. Rumple getting his dark powers back after Killian’s death doesn’t count. Rumple knew more than anyone what he was getting when he took on the mantle a second time and therefore no longer falls under poor manipulated person. He choose the darkness again even though they could have rid the world of it forever. So let’s look at the differences:
Emma:
1) Emma knew what she was getting into and made a WILLING sacrifice. She saw Regina in danger and decided to take on the darkness to protect another person.
2) Emma may not have know that she would literally be able to talk to previous Dark Ones but she knew she was going to be consumed by darkness and was prepared for a fight. She’s had years of being told she’s the Savior and the epitome of light magic. She’s got the right mindset to resist a fight she knows is coming.
3) Despite her best efforts, Emma was failing to resist the darkness. She was letting her fears consume her. Fear of hurting her family, fear of the darkness winning, fear of going too far if the darkness wasn’t stopped sooner rather than later, fear of losing the people she loves. This fear allowed the darkness to take over and she was willing to crush Merida’s heart.
4) Her family shows up as she’s about to do something horrific. Snow may have been about to use the dagger, but KILLIAN is the one to step up and tell Emma that she can fight the darkness. He reminds her of who she is and that he believes in her. Knowing that Killian believes in her and is willing to believe in her, Emma makes the right choice and doesn’t commit murder.
5) Emma is then immediately given the dagger, but knowing how close she just came to committing murder, Emma WILLING chooses to hand over the dagger to Regina as a safety precaution.
6) Emma ultimately does give into the darkness when the one person who believed in her above all others was dying. Because Killian was the only one who gave her support and encouragement in the exact right way for her to be able to overcome the darkness for so long. Everyone else would have bungled it long ago if Killian didn’t keep swooping in and getting Emma back on track.
Killian:
1) Knew exactly what he would be getting into and was terrified. He was dying but could make peace with that. He didn’t want to have the darkness put into him. He begged and pleaded for it to not happen. Instead of making a choice, he was violated against his will and forced to take on a mantle he explicitly stated he didn’t want.
2) Killian was trying to resist but he was in a bad mental space already when he became the dark one. Killian went into this already thinking he was weak, afraid he would be consumed. Between the betrayal and the fear, Killian wasn’t prepared to put up a fight against something so strong. He’s had years of being the villain, why would he think he could be a hero?
3) Killian was probably the oldest person to ever become a Dark One. Rumple and Emma both had their fair share of tragedies to deal with but they were also regular human age. Killian had many more years to gain even more tragedy, heartbreak, and other traumatic emotions. As far as anyone who had become a Dark One, Killian had far more initial baggage for the previous Dark Ones to manipulate than anyone who had come before.
4) Killian was trying to fight but all of his fears were consuming him from the beginning. He went into this terrified and already convinced he was going to lose. He was reeling from the person he trusts most ignoring his own dying wishes and committing what is to him, the ultimate betrayal. Even when Rumple became the Dark One he had more control over his emotions because he was trying to save his son and decided to take on the darkness willingly. Emma went in willingly. Killian is the only Dark One we see who had literally nothing but negative emotions as he was consumed and became dark against his will.
5) Killian was struggling and then Emma showed up. He could see that she had obviously fallen into the darkness but she was there, telling him everything was okay. That she believed in him and that he could fight the darkness and win. He was afraid and desperate and so he clung to her words despite how badly she had just hurt him. He thinks she believes in him, that he had the strength and that’s enough in that moment. Only moments later, he realizes that she has Excalibur and is ready to control him. This is the complete opposite of how Killian treated Emma. His faith in her never wavered. Even when he saw her crushing Merida’s heart, he held everyone else back and gave Emma a choice. Even giving Regina the dagger was Emma’s choice. But Emma shows up and doesn’t give Killian even the courtesy of letting him know she has Excalibur and is willing to use it. Instead she immediately lies and says she believes in him while holding the one thing that can control him behind her back. Now he doesn’t know if he resisted the darkness because he’s strong or because she commanded him to. Within an hour the woman he loves has horribly betrayed him. Twice. And if she doesn’t believe he can beat the darkness, why should he?So he runs off to lick his wounds and be manipulated by the darkness without her support. Then she uses the sword to control him, multiple times, when he NEVER used the dagger against her. She does eventually give him the sword but more out of guilt than trust. By then the damage to has been done and Killian has lost hope that he can be saved. Centuries of hurt are bubbling back to the surface and Emma has only hurt and betrayed him more. Not to mention he sees that Emma has given into the darkness, so what chance does he have of resisting? Unlike Emma who was given so much support and love, Killian is given heartbreak. No wonder he falls so quickly.
6) No one, but especially Emma, handled Killian the way he needed in order to fight the darkness. He gave Emma everything she needed to fight. Emma wanted so badly to save Killian’s life that she trampled over him and basically shoved him into the darkness herself.
7) Both Killian and Emma speak of Killian and who he is as the dark one as separate people. They are both Dark Ones and understand the darkness better than anyone else at that time. Since neither one sees Killian as himself, it’s obvious that he’s not.
In the end, the differences between Emma and Killian were the reason for each one’s success and failure. But when it truly counted Killian truly saw the pain he was causing, it was actually Regina who reminded him of who he wants to be. It’s actually poetic because Emma tried to rely on Regina to keep her from becoming dark but Regina was never the right person to help Emma keep from falling into the darkness because Emma has never known that darkness herself so Regina couldn’t relate. Emma needed Killian’s particular brand of support to keep her focused, while Killian needed Regina because she knows what it’s like to fall into darkness and decide to fight for your happy ending anyway so she sees that pull in Killian and can connect with that part of him that no one else understood in that moment. So Regina was able to help a dark one when she gave Killian that push to fight for what he ACTUALLY WANTS not just what the Dark Ones want. And what he truly wanted was to protect his loved ones. He just needed to believe he could.
Not a single person blames Killian for what happened. They know he was being controlled by the darkness even when he was trying to kill them. They know that in his right mind he would never harm any of them. They understand that he was betrayed when he became the Dark One, putting him in the worst possible mindset which primed him to be controlled against his will. But despite the entire deck being set against him, Killian still managed to push back the control of the darkness long enough to destroy it (he truly believed that’s what he was doing. Not his fault Rumple lied).
Feral on the floor for this perfect breakdown
