She was supposed to be the endgame. The big bad. The shadow looming over every curse, every heartbreak, and every puff of purple smoke we’d seen since the pilot aired in 2011. But when The Black Fairy OUAT fans finally got to meet Fiona in the flesh during Season 6, things got... complicated. Honestly, they got a bit messy.
Once Upon a Time thrived on the "wickedness isn't born, it's made" trope. We saw it with Regina. We saw it with Rumplestiltskin. So, by the time Jaime Murray glided onto the screen with those jagged obsidian wings, we expected a backstory that would rip our hearts out. We got that, sort of, but we also got a villain whose motivations felt like they were shifting under our feet every single episode.
The Origin Story Nobody Saw Coming
Fiona wasn't always a monster. She was a mother. That’s the kicker that Once always loved to twist. Born a regular human, she became so obsessed with protecting her newborn son—who we later find out is Rumple—that she basically broke the laws of magic.
She found out her son was the "Savior" and was destined to die in a final battle. Most moms might bake cookies or over-prepare a college fund. Fiona? She decided to transform herself into a fairy, invent the Dark Curse, and try to rewrite the laws of fate itself. It’s wild when you think about it. The entire premise of the show—the curse that brought everyone to Storybrooke in the first place—wasn't even Regina’s idea. It was Fiona’s.
But here’s where the writing gets a little shaky. To "protect" her son, she eventually gets banished to the Dark Realm, a place where time moves differently and everything is miserable. She spends centuries there stealing children. It’s a massive jump from "I love my baby" to "I am now the essence of all evil and I’m going to kidnap kids from across the multiverse."
Why the Black Fairy OUAT Revisionism Divides Fans
If you talk to anyone deep in the OUAT fandom, mention Fiona and you’ll get a lecture. Some people love the symmetry of her being Rumple's mother. It explains why he’s so messed up, right? Abandonment issues are basically his entire personality.
Others hate it.
🔗 Read more: Rump: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin Book and Why the Fairytale Was Always Wrong
The issue is that for five seasons, we were told Rumple’s father, Malcolm (Peter Pan), was the primary source of his trauma. Adding Fiona into the mix felt like a retcon that softened Malcolm’s impact. Suddenly, Rumple wasn't just a man who made bad choices; he was the product of two cosmic-level villains. It makes the world feel small. Like, is everyone in this family a god-tier sorcerer? Apparently, yes.
The Power Scale Problem
Let's talk about her magic. Fiona was hyped as being more powerful than the Dark One. She created the Dark Curse using "crushed fairy crystals" and the darkest parts of her own soul. In the Dark Realm, she was a god.
Yet, when she actually got to Storybrooke, she spent a lot of time standing in the back of the pawn shop or lurking in the mines. The "Final Battle" she was supposed to lead felt more like a psychological skirmish. She used Gideon—Rumple and Belle’s son—as a puppet, which was cruel, sure, but lacked the visceral punch of Peter Pan’s shadow-ripping or Zelena’s time-travel schemes.
The Jaime Murray Factor
Can we just appreciate the casting for a second? Jaime Murray is the only reason this character worked as well as she did. She has this specific way of delivering lines—whispering them like a secret that’s also a threat—that made Fiona genuinely unsettling.
She brought a cold, regal detachment to the role. Even when the script was doing backflips to explain why she was suddenly "The Great Evil," Murray played it with a straight face. She made you believe that Fiona truly thought she was the hero of her own story. That’s the hallmark of a great Once villain. They don't think they're bad; they think they're right.
The Final Battle That Wasn't Really a Battle
The "Final Battle" was the marketing hook for the end of Season 6. We were promised a war. What we got was Emma Swan in a coma-like state fighting a mental battle while Fiona tried to destroy the realms of story.
It was high stakes, but it felt disconnected.
In the end, Fiona wasn't defeated by a grand sword fight or a massive blast of light magic. She was killed by her own son. Rumple finally chose his "other" family over the mother who abandoned/tried to "save" him. He used her own wand against her, turning her into dust. It was poetic, I guess, but it happened so fast. One minute she’s the master of the Dark Realm, the next she’s a pile of glitter on the floor of a dusty shop.
What We Can Learn From Fiona’s Arc
Looking back at The Black Fairy OUAT arc, it serves as a bit of a cautionary tale for long-running fantasy shows. When you keep upping the stakes, you eventually hit a ceiling.
- Motivation matters more than power. Fiona was scary because she was a mother gone wrong, not because she had "darker" magic than everyone else.
- Don't over-explain the mystery. Knowing the Dark Curse was invented by a specific person actually made it feel less legendary and more like a piece of faulty software.
- Family trees can get too tangled. By Season 6, the family tree looked like a plate of spaghetti.
If you’re rewatching the series, pay attention to the small moments in the mines during the "The Black Fairy" episode (Season 6, Episode 19). There’s a specific look on Fiona’s face when she realizes she can’t "fix" Rumple. It’s the most human she ever gets.
To really understand the impact of the Black Fairy, you have to look at how she changed Rumple's trajectory. Before her, he was a man struggling with his own cowardice. After her, we realized his cowardice was practically a genetic inheritance. It adds a layer of fatalism to the show that’s actually pretty dark for a Disney-adjacent property.
If you’re looking to dive deeper into the lore, start by re-watching "The Miller's Daughter" from Season 2 and then skip straight to Fiona's introduction. The contrast between the early-season world-building and the late-season cosmic stakes is jarring, but it shows exactly how the writers' ambitions grew. Focus on the theme of "sacrifice"—Fiona sacrificed her goodness to save a child, but in doing so, she became the thing the child needed to be saved from. It’s a perfect, tragic circle that defines the best and worst parts of the show’s legacy.
To get the most out of this storyline, watch for the subtle parallels between Fiona and Regina's early seasons; both characters demonstrate how "good intentions" are often just the first step toward a very dark path. Digging into the deleted scenes from Season 6 also reveals a bit more about the Dark Realm's mechanics, which the broadcast episodes unfortunately rushed through. Focusing on these character beats rather than the confusing "Final Battle" logic makes the experience much more rewarding.
👉 See also: Chris Stapleton Tennessee Whiskey Video: Why This Performance Still Matters
Practical Next Steps for Fans
- Watch Season 6, Episode 19 ("The Black Fairy") specifically to see the flashback sequences; they are the strongest part of her narrative.
- Compare Fiona's "Dark Curse" to Regina's. Notice how the motivations change from revenge (Regina) to a twisted form of protection (Fiona).
- Analyze the Blue Fairy's reaction. One of the great "what ifs" of the show is why the Blue Fairy didn't do more to stop Fiona earlier, which remains one of the show's biggest unanswered questions.