Rumpled by Rumplestiltskin

So if anyone is reading this and hasn’t seen all of “Once Upon a Time” season one, SPOILER ALERT! 

You have been warned.

Moving on. So, in ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” Rumplestiltskin is this evil little dude who plays the grand master of bad magic in fairy tale land. Right now I’m not sure whether or not Rumple is a sorcerer or some odd magical creature. I tend to think of sorcerers as being human and having fantastical magic abilities. However, Rumplestiltskin was human before he had magic. It was only once he killed a man to obtain magical powers that he became this kind-of half human beast.

Generally what I am pondering is the definition of a sorcerer or wizard or warlock. Does someone/thing like Rumplestiltskin fall under the category of warlock if the magic he has is the thing that is altering his humanity. What does a sorcerer look like? I’ve already touched on this a bit with witches –who I think of in terms of Halloween. A witch is green skinned and has warts and is ugly, but is definitely some kind of human woman.  Is a sorcerer always going to be human in appearance?

 I think that a sorcerer has to be human in the sense that the only thing separating them from the average Joe is their magic. For Rumplestiltskin though, his magic is the only thing separating him from a man, but it alters his appearance to the point where he doesn’t really look human anymore. He actually takes on that Halloween witch green skin and warts. Is the way a conjurer looks important in terms of separating them from a superhero or god?

If Rumplestiltskin is a sorcerer, then he also reaffirms what I believe about sorcerers drawing magic from the realm rather than being a source of magic for it. So far, in everything that I’ve read the sorcerer gets his power from the magical beings around him. This is true for Rumple in fairy tale land. In order to have power, he needs to strike new deals with the beings of the realm and trick them into giving him things to fuel his magic. One excellent example of this is when he uses hair from Prince Charming and Snow White to bottle true love (which is the most powerful…yadda yadda). Something like a fairy –say the blue fairy from this series- does not need to do this. She gives magic to the realm. 

If I was going to write a book about vampires and say that they are magical creatures, I wouldn’t need to include any other magical creature but the vampire in my book. This is not the pattern that I am seeing with wizards. They come with other magical creatures included. I think it might be necessary for them to draw power from the greater power of a realm of magical creatures.