Adam Gold,, Rumplestiltskin

Let's start with the darker parts of the Dark One's personality, shall we? Rumple can be completely cruel and not even bat an eyelash at it, unless of course his love of his life calls him out on it, if she knows. He is not unwilling to bluntly state the evil that has to be done in order for the light to prevail. He doesn't care if the good or bad win, he just cares that in the end, he wins. Holding a grudge for a long time, Rumple can be very vindictive towards those he does not like, or those who have broken a deal with him. Scared of being a coward and losing his power and becoming the same man that his father was, drives him to protect his power and dagger with every fiber of his being. Rumple enjoys the power as well, as it makes it so he doesn't have to be afraid. He doesn't have to worry about someone being able to kill him or take something away from him, because he can protect it himself. He doesn't have to rely on anyone but himself, which is a flaw in itself, seeing as Rumple doesn't trust anyone with his life. He doesn't trust the word of those who make deals with him, always preparing a backup plan in case they fail to live up to their end of the bargain.

However, Rumple will never break his word. If he makes a deal he will live up to his end of the bargain. However, he is very careful in the deals he makes, ensuring that even if he holds up his end, he always comes out on top. In order to do that, Rumple has become a very good judge of character. He can't offer too much, but he can't offer too little. He has to find the deal that is just right. This judge of character, however, doesn't extend to everyone and cover them completely, as he tends to underestimate a certain book-savvy woman who he fell in love with and now believes is dead. With such great powers, Rumple also tends to be childish, taking such enjoyment out of tricking people, giving them what they think they want, and it turning out they don't want it, striking another deal with him to take the gift away.

Rumple has a quick trigger. Hurting those who he loves. Part of the reason he loves power so much is so that he can protect those he loves, and in essence, protect himself from heartache again. For example, Hook took his wife away, so Rumple killed her to take Hook's love away from him, in an eye-for-an-eye fashion, as Hook stole his love from him. Ever since he lost his son to the World Without Magic, he has had a hole in his heart, which his at first prisoner, now seemingly dead, Belle had began to fill, only to to be ripped away from him once more. Which is why Rumple is quite closed off to most people, never allowing his true feelings, other than angry, show, because he believes that no one could ever truly love him, and if they did, he was cursed to lose them. Part of the reason he believes no one could love him is because of his first wife who ran off with Captain Hook. She told him she never loved him, and he had made her so miserable that she had to run away from their family they had together. So he killed her in a fit of rage.

But Rumple is not a terrible person. When Belle was around he showed restraint, compassion. Before Belle he would make deals to help protect people, for information in return, or in one case, a caretaker in return, Belle, herself. He didn't kill the disguised Robin Hood, because Belle convinced him not to. He will give people what they think they need, even if at a price, but is not against using this against a person who later decides they don't need it and wants whatever he did reversed, at another price.

To start from the beginning, he was the son of a coward and a cheat. He gambled and played games with people (find the shell with the ball under it), and no one respected him. Rumple lived with a pair of wool spinners while his father went out and cheated people of their money. Rumple thought he would change, and his father kept saying he would, coming home almost every day penniless. Rumple was given a magic bean by the wool spinners, and tried to convince his father to escape from this land and start anew. He agreed, and they end up in Neverland, where his father abandoned him to become a kid again, taking his straw doll who he named Peter Pan. He was raised by the spinner ladies.

Many years later, Rumple married a woman who he loved dearly. And then the ogre war came. Rumple wanted to prove himself different than his father, but as he guarded a Seer who said his actions in this war would leave his unborn son (wait, his wife was pregnant?) fatherless. While at first he didn’t believe the Seer, he grew to believe her and injured himself so he could go home to his family, giving him a limp he wouldn’t lose ever, really. This, however, drove his wife to believe he was also a coward and did not respect him, believing he should’ve died in the war instead of return as a coward.

Over the next several years, his wife abused him with words, continuing to call him a coward. But Rumple still loved her. His wife suggested that they leave, that they move somewhere else to escape his reputation as a coward. Rumple did not agree. And the next day, he received word that she was kidnapped by pirates. After refusing a duel to free his wife, Rumple went back home to his son without his wife. More years pass. Another ogre war comes around and children are being recruited. Rumple and his son fled to escape his son being recruited, bullied by some soldiers and end up being helped by a mysterious old man who suggested that he steal a magical dagger that would help save his son from being recruited. Rumple stole the dagger with the hope to use the power for good and protect his son, Baelfire. However, Rumple was terrified of the Dark One, who the dagger was bound to, who then infuriated him, causing him to stab the entity with the dagger, who turned out to be the one who led them to steal the dagger in the first place. Rumple then became the Dark One himself, his name appearing on the dagger.

Relishing in his new power he killed the soldiers who bullied them while his son watched. He used his power to end the wars and save the kids from being recruited, specifically his son, but also everyone else. That had been his plan. To save people with his powers. However, it corrupted him. Rumple did not allow Baelfire out of the house, as he was afraid his enemies would kidnap him. Baelfire ran away at one point, and Rumple forces the boy back home, causing a rift between the two. He promised they could be a real family. And so he tried being the envoy of peace, doing good deeds, but the power of the Dark One continues to corrupt him and he can’t help but find joy in the pain he brings others, and want, need, more power. Baelfire wants him to give up his power, but he believes the only way is to die. Baelfire tries to find a way to rid his powers without killing him, and Rumple agrees he would do it if there was possibly a way. The Blue Fairy gives him a way, a bean, a portal to another world one without magic, but as Baelfire activates the bean, Rumple cannot bring himself to join his son. Rumple immediately regrets it and swears that he would find his son again, no matter what. The Blue Fairy lets slip that he will see him again, because of a dark curse. Rumple set on a journey to make that curse so he could find his son again.

Rumple then saw the Seer again, who said that a boy would be his undoing, this boy the key to their reunion. More time passed, and he encountered the pirate who stole his wife away. This time Rumple did not flee from the fight. He nearly kills the pirate when his wife pleads him not, and he discovers she ran away from him, from her son, from their family to go off with this pirate. Rumple asked about her choice to leave them, which she says she felt guilty for, but she was so miserable and she didn’t ever even love hi- and so he ripped her heart and crushed it. After chopping off the pirate’s hand that held a bean he was attempting to procure, he left. Later, he discovered the bean not in the chopped off hand.

After having a vision of the future, Rumple meets with a woman named Cora who agreed to give up her first born child in return for teaching her to spin straw into gold. And then she falls in love with Rumple. Agreeing to run off together, Cora requests that he teach her to pull out a heart so she can have revenge upon the king, and so he does. Then she returns with a heart that is not the king’s, but her own, leaving him on his own.

Again later, Cora’s daughter now born but young says his name from her mother’s spell book. Rumple would then take the daughter under his wing as his student. Then he met the true first born of Cora, who was incredibly powerful, but also incredibly jealous, eventually rejecting her as his student, returning to his first choice of Regina. He tested her over and over, and still taught her despite the bumps all over the road.

More years pass…

Rumple is summoned to protect a town from ogres, and so he makes a deal, the daughter of Sir Maurice, Belle as his caretaker who would remain in his castle forever, for protection. Despite her father’s disagreement, she agrees and the deal is struck.

Life with Belle was quite annoying at first, though him trying to muffle her crying did lead him to catch a thief who tries to kill Rumple, but failed, and is taken prisoner and tortured. After leaving the castle for some business, his caretaker had apparently let his prisoner free. So he brought her with him so she could see him kill the man she had just freed. However, after seeing the man had a wife who was pregnant and Belle pointing out he would be leaving the child fatherless, Rumple spared the thief. Over time, they grow closer, Belle being the only one who seems to be able to get the best out of him. And before he knows it, he falls in love with her. Denying it, fearing that the love would break the curse of the Dark One, paranoia of her working for Regina set in, and after she kissed him, he sent her away. Not too long afterwards he was told by the Evil Queen Regina that she had committed suicide (a lie). He was incredibly distraught, and increased his efforts for the curse.

As things turn out, Rumple engineers the Dark Curse, and for Regina to cast the curse, while he also had visions of a savior who would free them from the curse. He knows that this curse would be the catalyst to reunite him with his son thanks to the Seer and the Blue Fairy...

Once cursed, he became Adam Gold, a man known as Mr. Gold to everyone.  Mr. Gold owns the town. Yes, he collects rent, he controls everyone in a way, he collects deals, he will get you something if you really need it for the right price. Otherwise, his history is fairly vague. Up until he saw Emma when she came to town, he had no memory of his previous life, though he procured the savior's son my a stroke of fate for Regina when she asked for a child.  He played his part to try to get Emma to break the curse, and he knew it was just about to break, he sent Emma to get his True Love potion hidden inside of Maleficent.  The curse was broken, and he brought magic back. 

Now all he has to do is get out of town, and he'll start his search for his son.