While most of Once Upon A Time deals with magical fairy tale characters, occasionally it brings in people from the "real world," generally in relation to Emma. Sometimes the show will even bring in fictional characters with no relation to fairy tales, like the casts of Frankenstein and 101 Dalmatians (1996), who come from literary worlds that exist independently of the real times and places they're based on. This page covers all of these types of characters and other normal people sucked into the world of magic, like Alice from Alice in Wonderland, the Darlings from Peter Pan and Dorothy from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
The other pages are:
- Main CharactersClick to expand
- Storybrooke CharactersClick to expand
- Enchanted Forest CharactersClick to expand
- Seattle CharactersClick to expand
- "New" Enchanted Forest Characters
- Magical Lands CharactersClick to expand
- Lands Without Magic Characters
- Mythological CreaturesClick to expand
Beware! Only spoilers from the current season (six) are hidden with tags!
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The Land Without Magic / Earth
Owen Flynn/Greg Mendell
Owen Flynn/Greg Mendell
Greg Mendell: "I'll find you, Dad. I promise, I'll never stop looking."
Played By: Ethan Embry, Benjamin Stockham (child)
Centric Episodes: "Welcome to Storybrooke"
A man from Pennsylvania who crashes his car in Storybrooke and stumbles upon the truth involving the residents of the small town.
- All for Nothing: He made it his life's goal to return to Storybrooke to find his father only to learn Regina killed him only hours after he escaped the town as a child.
- Bait the Dog: First he was likeable, then he was sympathetic, and then he was just plain creepy.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Tamara in the last quarter of Season 2, though they both work for the Greater-Scope Villain, Peter Pan.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Like his partner and lover Tamara, he tends to appear more pleasant than he really is.
- Broken Masquerade: As his map covered with pins demonstrates, it's like they're not even trying to uphold the masquerade.Owen: This town is lousy with magic.
- Cape Busters: Claims to be part of an organization that destroys magic.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Straps Regina down and electrocutes her for some information.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: He gets killed by having his shadow ripped out of him.
- Disappeared Dad: Thanks to Regina.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: A major villain in Season 2... killed in the first episode of Season 3.
- Evil Counterpart: Could be considered a grown-up, dark version of Henry. A formerly sweet kid, who is highly resourceful, incredibly savvy and had his entire life turned upside-down by Regina's actions... sound familiar?
- He Who Fights Monsters: He considers magic to be an intrinsically evil thing because Regina used it to keep his father from him. At the end of Season 2, he has no qualms about blowing up the entire town, which includes children.
- I Will Find You: He's spent twenty-eight years looking for his father.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: After Regina finally admits to killing his father because he ran away and gloats that she dumped the body in the middle of the woods, Owen remains (mostly) calm and collected... at least, until he uncovers the body and just freaking snaps.
- Killed Off for Real: As of the Season 3 premiere, he dies via shadow-snatching.
- Knight Templar: Is willing to commit mass murder if it means getting rid of what he perceives as an evil force.
- Mage Killer: As Regina finds out the hard way.
- Muggle: He's a normal human. No magic in him.
- Outside-Genre Foe: Played with; after a season and a half of witches, dragons, and traveling between worlds, who expected a random guy from Pennsylvania to just crash into town and potentially break the barely-there masquerade? Except it turns out he already knew about Storybrooke after all.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog:
- His search for his father. Turns out Regina killed him shortly after he ran away.
- His whole mission turns out to be as well, as his mission to destroy magic was really just him being manipulated the whole time to deliver Henry to Peter Pan, and he then gets killed for his troubles.
- Spanner in the Works: Ruined Hook's plans for a grand getting-killed-by-Rumple with his car, not to mention how he could mess up the lives of everyone in Storybrooke.
- Tragic Keepsake: He still has the boondoggle his father gave him 28 years before, now on his key chain.
- Tragic Villain: Fails to rescue his father and gets killed after outliving his usefulness.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Peter Pan.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In "Welcome to Storybrooke".
- Walking Spoiler: His backstory is... surprising.
- The Witch Hunter: He and Tamara are out to destroy all magic they can find.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: He honestly has no issue with carrying out his mission, even if it means killing every man, woman, and child in Storybrooke. Particularly not after learning what happened to his father.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: An anonymous secret organization out to destroy all magic in the world by using science? Yeah, no such thing exists on this show: A well known fairy tale icon has to be behind this charade.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The reason he is killed.
Tamara
Tamara
Tamara: "Unlike you, we believe in something. We have faith in the sacredness of our cause."
Played By: Sonequa Martin-Green
Centric Episodes: "Selfless, Brave and True"
A woman residing in New York and Neal Cassidy's fiancée.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Greg in the last quarter of Season 2, though they both work for the Greater-Scope Villain, Peter Pan.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Seemed perfectly nice when she was introduced. "Selfless, Brave and True" showed us just how untrue this was.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: Immediately after Charming and Snow clear her of suspicion by claiming Greg was the only one they found torturing Regina, she immediately reveals herself as his co-conspirator to Emma and Neal (though she would likely have been revealed soon after Regina regained consciousness regardless).
- Cape Busters: Claims to be part of an organization that destroys magic.
- Dark Action Girl: One who holds her own against Emma in a fight.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Right when The Dragon is about to reveal his true power, Tamara kills him with a taser.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: A major villain in Season 2... killed in the first episode of Season 3.
- Evil All Along: Neal's exceedingly-friendly fiancée? Oh yeah, turns out she's really a magic-hating psycho with plans to destroy an entire town of innocents.
- Hero Killer:
- She mortally wounds August in "Selfless, Brave, and True".
- Shoots Neal in "Second Star to the Right", and he is presumed dead by everyone after he falls into a portal in this state.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Upon realizing that Pan and the Lost Boys have played her, she urges Henry to escape and winds up taking an arrow to the back. After Gold arrives, she fills him in on what's happened, and he crushes her heart in retaliation. Before he does this, Rumple lets her know that her excuses carry absolutely no weight with him, and takes his time crushing her heart while she watches helplessly. He wants her to know she's about to die and there's nothing that's going to change that.
- Killed Off for Real: In the Season 3 premiere, Rumple saves her from a near-fatal arrow wound, only to pull her heart out and crush it to dust.
- Knight Templar: To her, magic is "unholy" and must be disposed of at all costs.
- Mage Killer: Cunning enough to avert Transformation Is a Free Action with The Dragon in Hong Kong. Also, unlike most real-world Muggles who only see what they want to see, she can see the true effects of magic.
- Manipulative Bitch: To August and Neal especially.
- Meet Cute: Met Neal when she bumped into him, spilling her coffee all over her. She did this deliberately to get close to Neal while spying on him and Pinocchio.
- My God, What Have I Done?: She's very remorseful after learning what she's done for Peter Pan, but it isn't enough to save her from Gold's wrath.
- Outside-Genre Foe: A Muggle from our world, of all things.
- Pet the Dog: She may be evil, but she seems sympathetic toward Greg/Owen in his Disappeared Dad plight.
- Shock and Awe: How she kills the Dragon... and later critically injures a wooden August.
- Static Stun Gun: Carries a taser gun around. Later revealed to be her weapon of choice.
- Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Works for an organization that acquires and analyzes magic for the purpose of destroying it.
- Unwitting Pawn: To Peter Pan.
- Walking Spoiler: "Neal's fiancée" is pretty low on the list of her reveals.
- The Witch Hunter: Tamara has been hunting true magic in the real world for years for an, as of yet, undisclosed reason. This is what led her to seek out The Dragon in Hong Kong, to tail Pinocchio to New York, and to start a romance with Neal.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: An anonymous secret organization out to destroy all magic in the world by using science? Yeah, no such thing exists on this show: A well known fairy tale icon has to be behind this charade.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Although unlike Greg, she survives long enough to tell Gold what's happened. He then finishes her off.
The Dragon
The Dragon
Dragon: "You haven't met me. At least not the real me."
Played By: Tzi Ma
A healer based in Hong Kong who offers magical antidotes for otherwise incurable diseases.
- Deal with the Devil: His modus operandi, though his prices are way less harsh than Rumple's.
- Dragon Hoard: Implied to have one, since he asks for a personal keepsake in addition to $10,000 dollars.
- My Greatest Failure: He claims to have once had a daughter, whom he lost due to his own ignorance.
- Unexplained Recovery: After his little encounter with Tamara in Hong Kong he turns out to be alive and well in New York City's Chinatown in the Season 5 finale; him being "resilient" is the only explanation.
- The Unreveal: Was about to reveal his true form when Tamara killed him. Only not really.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: As his name implies his true self is that of a dragon. It's not till the Season 6 episode "I'll Be Your Mirror" that his real form of an Eastern dragon is finally shown onscreen.
Wendy Darling
Wendy Darling
Wendy: "You said magic was bad and you were right, Bae. It's going to destroy my family."
Played By: Freya Tingley
A girl in historical Victorian London (as opposed to the contemporaneous fictional one that Alice is from) who befriends Baelfire.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: She originally wanted to go to Neverland because there were no adults and now she's been stuck there for at least a century.
- Big Sister Instinct: Towards John and Michael, naturally, but also to Bae, whom she considers a sort of adoptive brother. She even traveled to Neverland to get him back.
- Brainy Brunette: She's quite insightful and precocious for her age, though her hair has lightened considerably during her time as Pan's prisoner.
- Cool Big Sis: To her younger brothers.
- Growing Up Sucks: She wants to go to Neverland because there are no adults there.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Which is completely faked.
- Nice Girl: Sweet and caring, even to people she's just met, like Baelfire or Henry.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Her belief in Neverland caused the shadow to come to her home in Victorian London and attempt to take one of her brothers to Neverland. Though Baelfire allowed himself to be taken to Neverland in her and her brothers' place, Peter took her anyway at a later point and then forced her brothers under his service by using Wendy's life as his bargaining chip.
- Older Than They Look: Due to being trapped in Neverland for a century.
- Pajama Clad Heroine: The majority of her scenes show her wearing a white nightgown.
- Youthful Freckles: They emphasize the fact that she hasn't aged for a century.
John and Michael Darling
John and Michael Darling
Wendy's younger brothers, who also become close friends with Baelfire.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Michael
- Anti-Villain: They've been Forced into Evil by Pan.
- Brainy Brunette: John
- Forced into Evil: By Pan holding Wendy hostage.
- Growing Up Sucks: Mainly because they grow up as Pan's slaves.
- Nebulous Evil Organization: They're the founders of the anti-magic group that Greg and Tamara belong to, which is an elaborate cover for Peter Pan and the Lost Boys' true plan.
- Nerd Glasses: They're John's trademark.
- Really 700 Years Old: They're over a century old.
Isaac Heller/The Author
Isaac Heller
Isaac: I think folks are sick of heroes getting everything in these classic fairy tales.
Played By: Patrick Fischler
Centric Episodes: "Sympathy for the De Vil", "Operation Mongoose Part 1"
The Author was a position handed down through the generations meant to magically record the many stories throughout The Multiverse. Eventually, a man named Isaac Heller became the Author, and began to write the stories of the people of the Enchanted Forest, creating the Once Upon A Time storybook that Henry loves. However, he mysteriously disappeared shortly before the Dark Curse was cast.
His identity is the Driving Question of Season 4, motivating Regina, Henry, Rumplestiltskin, the Queens of Darkness and Emma alike to learn of his whereabouts.
- Ambiguously Jewish: Mentions having had a bar mitzvah. Carries Dramatic Irony given his implied predecessor's rumored views.
- And I Must Scream: The Apprentice trapped him inside his own book for a whole twenty-eight years for playing God. Considering the nigh-sentient behavior of the book, that may well have been Isaac consciously assisting the protagonists.
- Brought Down to Normal: An Author loses their title and power to change reality if they write their own happy ending. Isaac gladly gives up his power to write his own in "Operation Mongoose."
- Clothes Make the Superman: Without a magic quill he can't write anything or change reality to fit his needs.
- Cool Car: He owned an Excalibur Series IV (at least during his time in 1920's England) which he gifted to Cruella.
- Creator Cameo: An in-universe example where he inserts himself into Snow and Charming's story as the peddler they meet on the road.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: He was that random peddler Snow and Charming met on their way to Maleficent, and manipulated the whole situation to torture the heroes.
- The Dragon: To Gold/Rumple. He is the only one of Gold's associates who blindly follows Gold's plans, rather than forming his own plans and goals. He also ends up being the most loyal to Gold, with the Queens all gone and Zelena captured.
- Dragon-in-Chief: He is way more powerful than Gold, having the ability to literally write someone out of existence. However, he never forms his own goals or plans and simply does whatever Gold wants.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's horrified by Cruella's cruelty, and uses his magic quill to take away Cruella's ability to kill. For all the things he did just for the sake of creating a better story and being the one who granted her animal persuasion powers, he did the universe a great favor by doing so.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": "The Author" is just a job title. No one ever refers to him by name. Justified in that there have been many Authors over the ages (we do know that one was named Walt).
- Faux Affably Evil: Isaac is polite and chummy with people, but he's hiding a self-centeredness and a disregard for any of the people whose stories he records.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Before being tapped as the next Author, he was just a salesman at a 1960s department store... and apparently not a very successful one.
- The Ghost: The Author is referred to throughout Season 4 and only appears in the last quarter of it.
- God: Regina assumes the author of Henry's storybook must be the ultimate being responsible for their fates. Turns out the Author is only supposed to record events, and the current one is no benevolent god, having abused his powers to better "the story."
- Greater-Scope Villain: In the Enchanted Forest. He's indirectly responsible for Maleficent losing her child to the land without magic, thus causing her Roaring Rampage of Revenge in Storybrooke, all for the sake of a better story. When he is released from the page, Gold finds him and he's Demoted to Dragon. However, after Maleficent leaves, Isaac fills her role in the Big Bad Duumvirate with Gold.
- A God Am I: Isaac abused his position to make a "better" story. The first thing he does after being returning is to try to fashion himself a new magic quill so he can continue manipulating events.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: One of the rules of being an author is that you can't write your own happy ending. Once he did do that, he was Brought Down to Normal and Henry became the new author undoing everything inside the Alternate Universe.
- It Amused Me: His reasoning for manipulating stories rather than simply recording them is he found it would make them more interesting if he forced the heroes to do horrible things.
- Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: Isaac began playing God when he first met Cruella in another "realm of story". At first he thought she was a Broken Bird and fell in love with her. Then he quickly and painfully learned she was a genuine Sociopath who loved to kill people. So he wrote that Cruella could no longer kill anyone. Then it all went downhill from there.
- Kick the Dog: Isaac not only makes the heroes miserable in their lives in his Alternate Universe book but he also gloats about how he did it and how it can't be undone.
- Lack of Empathy: He made everyone in the Enchanted Forest his Cosmic Plaything, all for the sake of a "better" story.
- Legacy Character: The Sorcerer and Apprentice have chosen multiple ones throughout the years to record history.
- Moral Event Horizon: He crossed it In-Universe by manipulating events to make a "better" story. The final straw was when he manipulated Snow and Charming into sacrificing Maleficent's baby for the sake of Emma, and had the Apprentice banish her to our world. A very pissed off Apprentice then trapped him in his own book.
- Rage Against the Author: His arc revolves around the disgruntled villains trying to find him so the book can be rewritten to give them happy endings. Turns out they're justified... to a certain extent.
- Reality Warper: The quill gives the Author the ability to manipulate reality simply by writing it, though even it's limited by being unable to revive the dead or decide the consequences of battles between strong magical forces.
- The Resenter: Isaac's true motivations to make villains win is because Snow and Charming remind him of a successful boss long ago and other people he encountered who had happy lives.
- True Art Is Angsty: His subscription to this philosophy compels him to force otherwise wholly good characters into acting morally gray for the sake of a more interesting story.
- The Watcher: The Authors are meant to merely travel to the many Lands and record the stories of the people they're using their quill. However, the current Author violated this rule a few times too many and has been missing ever since.
- Would Hurt a Child: Just ask Henry, who the Author tries to sic Rumplestiltskin on.
Chad
Chad
Played By: Kip Pardue
- Disposable Fiancé: Played with. Although Kelly regained her memories as Zelena and wants to help Regina against Drizella and Gothel, she still has memories of her life as Kelly, and thus still loves Chad, so whether or not Zelena will marry him is unknown. This is touched upon in "Chosen".
- What Happened to the Mouse?: His state by the end of the series is unknown.
Isla
Isla
Isla: "Now you can grow your roots in some other land far away from us because whatever thing you are, you don't belong in our world."
Played By: Emily Tennant
The first human that Mother Gothel meets who turns her heart black.
- Alpha Bitch: She has this personality type. Acting as the leader of a group of pretty rich girls who pretend to accept and want to be friends with an outsider only to humiliate her later. Then she also massacres said girl's home and family.
- Badass Normal: She murdered all of the tree nymphs, who are all magical creatures and are of eternal nature.
- Beauty Is Bad: She's very beautiful, but is also The Sociopath.
- Dirty Coward: After everything she's done to Gothel she still begged for her life, showing no regret for her actions.
- Expy: She is loosely based on Chris Hargensen from Carrie. Though she could be considered worse than Chris because she actually murdered people.
- Fantastic Racism: It doesn't matter to her that Gothel was at the time a good person whose magic was only used to grow plants, she still saw her and her kind as abominations that didn't belong in her world and even went as far as to exterminate them.
- Hate Sink: A despicable fantastic racist who despised magical beings to the point of committing genocide against all of them, taking advantage of Gothel's innocence to not only humiliate and psychologically abuse her, but also to steal the key of her home and invade it, destroying the enchanted grove and killing all the beings that lived in it, including Gothel's family, leading she to villainy, creating the Earth without magic and being responsible not only for Gothel's acts, but also for almost all the woes that occurred in the series.
- Humans Are Bastards: She is the definition of this trope and she instilled this belief in Gothel.
- I Just Want to Be Special: She tells Gothel this, though none of this is elaborated upon, especially since she says this while pretending to be Gothel's friend.
- Jerkass: Is a huge one towards Gothel, humiliating her and killing her entire family/species.
- Kick the Dog: Not only did she pretend to be interested in magic to get Gothel close to her just to hurt her for no reason whatsoever than to be cruel, but she also massacred her entire family and mocked her later for it. Needless to say she got what she deserved when Gothel killed her.
- Lack of Empathy: See The Sociopath.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Her murder of the tree nymphs except Gothel.
- Rich Bitch: Oh yes, not only did she pretend to be friends with Gothel just to humiliate her but she also killed her entire family.
- Small Role, Big Impact: She only appears in one episode, but to call her impact "big" is an understatement: she's the reason why the Land Without Magic is that way.
- The Sociopath: The fact that she murdered an entire family of tree nymphs (even worse in that all of the tree nymphs refer to each other as family and aren't biologically related) just for being different and then mocked the last remaining one whom she personally humiliated beforehand before ordering the guards to kill her says a lot.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her cruelty towards Gothel not only turned her against humanity and got Isla killed, but it also made Gothel determined to eliminate all humans on the planet.
- White Hair, Black Heart: She's blonde and is a sociopath.
Fictional Kansas
Dorothy Gale
Dorothy Gale
Dorothy: You will never defeat me, Zelena, because I have the most powerful weapon of all - the love of the people.
Played By: Teri Reeves, Matreya Scarrwener (younger)
Centric Episodes: "Ruby Slippers"
A young girl from a fictional version of Kansas who was transported to Oz by a cyclone.
- The Chosen One: The witches ended up believing she was the girl who arrived by cyclone to defeat a great evil.
- Demoted to Extra: She was the protagonist of the book and movie, but she only appears in two episodes of the series. Her first appearance is more the obligatory Oz reference for Zelena's backstory. It's only in her second that she has any development or focus.
- Expy: Of Bandit!Snow. Both were harmless young girls before taking a level in badass, they both have a close relationship with Red, their enemies are powerful witches (who are half-sisters), they're a beloved figure in their respective lands, they were put under a sleeping curse and woken up with True Love's kiss, and even their clothes are similar. The only difference is that Snow uses a regular bow and Dorothy uses a crossbow.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: At first, due to Zelena faking her own demise by water. She then becomes a real one.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Even after being declared a hero by the witches of Oz, all she wanted to do was go back to Kansas.
- Second Love: She becomes this to Ruby in Season 5.
- Spanner in the Works: An accidental one as well since all she wanted to do is go home. Unfortunately, while she managed to get home, she set Zelena back on the road to evil.
- Team Pet: Not her, but her dog Toto serves as one to her, Mulan and Ruby when they team up.
- Took a Level in Badass: In her first appearance, all she does is act scared and accidentally kill a Wicked Witch. The next time we meet her she's a Folk Hero who gives Snow White a run for her money.
The Wizard of Oz / Walsh
The Wizard of Oz / Walsh
Played By: Christopher Gorham
Walsh: It's all part of the act, but what I peddle is real!
Emma's boyfriend from New York, who proposes to her at the beginning of the second half of Season 3 after the Time Skip. A Nice Guy, and definitely not a shapeshifting monkey sent to keep an eye on her. But he wasn't always a monkey...
- Adaptational Name Change: His real name from the books Oscar Zoroaster Diggs is never mentioned.
- Adaptational Villainy: He's the Wizard of Oz himself. Although given he was changed into a flying monkey by Zelena, how willingly he does her bidding is up for debate.
- Bait-and-Switch: He seems like a normal guy but he actually works for Zelena. As the Wizard of Oz, he seems like he has real magic power, but he doesn't; he just has access to powerful magical artifacts.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing:
- He acts nice to Emma and Henry to keep them from returning to Storybrooke. Though it's actually Zelena's spell.
- Played with as the Wizard. He seems to be a benevolent and powerful figure, but is really a manipulative con artist trying to stay in power... but he also does sincerely want to help people like Zelena and uses his position of power to do so.
- Brutal Honesty: He's quite blunt about the truth of Zelena's heritage considering she's threatening his life.
- Composite Character: The Witch's head flying monkey is actually the Wizard of Oz himself. It turns out he was the very first flying monkey the Witch created.
- He also combines traits from two different versions of the Wizard: being young like the one in Oz the Great and Powerful, and making the Wicked Witch's life worse even when he is sincerely trying to help her like the one in the musical Wicked.
- Disney Villain Death: Falls from a great height, and poofs into smoke. This likely didn't kill him, though.
- Then again, he doesn't appear afterwards, and Zelena is defeated, so he's probably gone too.
- Fallen Hero: As the Wizard of Oz he dedicated himself to helping others by providing them with magical artifacts that could solve their problems, albeit for a reasonable price. After Zelena turned him into a flying monkey, he began to serve her, though how willingly is ambiguous.
- Love-Interest Traitor: To Emma. It's Zelena's spell.
- Man Behind The Curtain: Played with. The form he shows himself to Zelena is actually a shadow behind the curtain.
- Stage Magician: Like his literary counterpart. However he does have access to real magical artifacts, he asks for them in exchange for help.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: He's a flying monkey who can turn into a human. Subverted in that Zelena turned him into a monkey to begin with; the first one, in fact.
Fictional Victorian England
Alice
For Alice's sheet, see here.
Edwin
Edwin
Played By: Shaun Smyth
Edwin: I sent her away when I should have believed in her. Kept her safe. That is my great sin.
Edwin is Alice and Millie's father.
- Henpecked Husband: One wonders if Alice would have been sent to the asylum otherwise.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He asked Alice to let him die and spare a wish to save Cyrus. She didn't listen.
- The Mourning After: He was saddened by the death by childbirth of Alice's mother and blamed the latter for it. It's implied that he doesn't love his second wife as much as his first.
- My Greatest Failure: Not believing Alice and helping her when she needed him is for him "his greatest sin", and he insists he does not deserve Alice's forgiveness for it.
- Parental Abandonment: He let his wife put Alice in an institution and never went to visit her.
- Real Men Love Jesus: He says grace before eating, even in jail.
Dr. Lydgate
Dr. Lydgate
Played By: Jonny Coyne
Dr. Lydgate: We have a new procedure that can take away your pain. Make you forget whatever... or whomever you're holding on to.
Dr. Lydgate first appears in Once Upon a Time in Wonderland as the head of the insane asylum where Alice was staying. Doesn't believe a word of her tales about Wonderland, and mostly wants to use her as a test subject for his new treatment. He later reappears in Season 6 of the parent show Once Upon a Time in flashbacks to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde's backstory.
- Dr. Jerk: He seems all too eager to deride Alice for her so-called delusions.
- Flat-Earth Atheist: He's terrified of the White Rabbit, since he doesn't fit into Lydgate's view of the world.
- Later we see that he was so determined to hold on to this view that he took to taking laudanum (opium) and blocked out any memory of Alice existing, and breaks down again when Jafar shows up with the White Rabbit in tow.
- Meatgrinder Surgery: His 'suggestion' to Alice, heavily implied to be a lobotomy.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: He is a horrible psychiatrist, from making no effort to hide his scorn for Alice's "fantasies" to pushing her towards a dangerous treatment. Justified in that he's a Victorian-era psychiatrist, which was not exactly a high-water mark for the profession or medicine in general.
Dr. Jekyll
Dr. Henry Jekyll
Played By: Hank Harris
Centric Episodes: "Strange Case"
Dr. Jekyll: Now that I'm separated from that monster, I can make a fresh start of my life in your Storybrooke.
A scientist who created a formula to separate his good and evil sides. Hails from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- Adaptational Villainy: Turns out he is the truly villainous one, not Hyde. Also ziggaged, see Truer to the Text.
- Adaptational Wimp: In Stevenson's original novel Henry Jekyll is described as "large, well-made, smooth-faced man of fifty with something of a slyish cast". Here he's played by a disheveled Hank Harris and wears an oversized brown coat to emphasis his weak physique.
- Age Lift: As is often the case, Jekyll is portrayed as younger than fifty. If one goes by his actor's age at the time, he is as least thirty-seven.
- Ambiguous Situation: Of being Hyde's "good half". Hyde is a real piece of work but Jekyll only agrees to help the heroes when they've been caged by Hyde and can't say no to the doctor's help. There's also the fact he lied, saying "I don't know where the Warden is" when the Warden is HIS other half. Wherever Jekyll is, Hyde is there as well. It's later made not so ambiguous when Jekyll shows his true colors.
- Ambition Is Evil: He's evil because he wants more power and he wants Mary, so he frames Hyde.
- Blood from the Mouth: How he dies.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Jekyll is portrayed as requiring glasses, something that Stevenson never specified about him in the original story.
- Dogged Nice Guy: He was to Mary Lydgate in his home world, and he flipped his lid when she chose his "bad" alter-ego over him.
- Evil All Along: He's worse than his counterpart.
- Gadgeteer Genius: In addition to being a doctor he can build a weapon powerful enough to take down his evil alter-ego from a pile of scraps in less than a day. Even Regina is impressed.
- Genre Refugee: Quite literally. He serves as our introduction to the Land of Untold Stories, home of seemingly every legally available fictional character that wouldn't fit in the fantasy world of the Enchanted Forest, with Hyde himself coming from an oppressive incarnation of Victorian London.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He dies on the business end of a harpoon.
- Killed Off for Real: Dies four episodes into Season 6.
- The Jekyll Is a Jerk: Season 6 reveals that Jekyll is the real villain — "all mind, but no heart", as Hyde says at one point — and driven to rage and murder, the latter of which he frames Hyde for. Hyde, in contrast, is villainous in that he's willing to allow innocents to die for his vengeance, but also displays actual emotions — mainly, he's still mourning the woman he fell in love with and who loved him back until Jekyll killed her because she'd rejected him in favor of his Hyde personality.
- The Lost Lenore: He wants to kill Belle as revenge on Rumplestiltskin, whose encouragement of Hyde resulted in his love Mary's accidental death.
- Lovable Nerd: In contrast to his alter-ego's large and intimidating A Man of Wealth and Taste appearance. He's the school nerd to Hyde's playground bully. But as it turns out, he's not at all so nice deep down.
- Mad Scientist: Though a rather sympathetic one, in keeping with the original.
- Motor Mouth: Gives a quick monologue that he can build a weapon the same as the orderly's to defeat Hyde as it's the only thing Jekyll has seen him hurt by. It's so quick some viewers had to rewatch the scene to catch what he's saying.
- Never My Fault: He accidentally kills his love Mary by grabbing her in a fit of jealous rage and making her struggle, but solely blames Rumple and Hyde for what happened rather than accept responsibility for it.
- Non-Action Guy: He gets manhandled twice in his debut episode. And when he reveals his true colors, he doesn't do so well against Hook.
- Shrinking Violet: A rare male example. He gives this impression when the heroes first meet him trying to runaway and starts stuttering once they get him speaking.
- Truer to the Text: Despite a large amount of adaptation portrayed Jekyll as an Angel and Hyde as the Devil. In the original story, Jekyll was no saint, he created the Serum that made Hyde because he want to indulge in his base desires without consequences and didn't think about the consequences of his actions until it became an inconvenience for his public image.
- Would Hit a Girl: Or rather, would kill a girl. Although he sent Mary to a Destination Defenestration accidentally in a jealous rage, he doesn't hesitate to try and kill Belle the first chance he gets to take revenge on Rumple.
Mr. Hyde
Mr. Hyde
Mr. Hyde: Storybrooke is mine now.
Played By: Sam Witwer
Centric Episodes: "Strange Case"
The personification of Dr. Jekyll's dark side, released by his potion. Hails from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
- Abled in the Adaptation: In the original story, Hyde was described several times as a dwarf. This portrayal of Hyde, like others, shows no signs of dwarfism.
- Adaptational Badass: This version can use magic. He can also take on the main cast barehanded without any trouble.
- Adaptational Heroism: While he still does some underhanded things, Hyde is the among the villains that Once makes into Anti Villains. He is also more likely to be the good half of Jeykll.
- Affably Evil: Despite being the tortuous warden of his hospital, almost killing the main cast on his own, invading Storybrooke with the inhabitants of the Land of Untold Stories, and being part of a Big Bad Duumvirate with the Evil Queen, Hyde is surprisingly polite when he wants to be. This is yet another clue that he's the better half of Jekyll.
- Ambiguously Evil: While he's certainly at absolute best a very dark Anti-Hero who's willing to allow innocents to die for his vengeance, he's turns out to be the more sympathetic half of the Jekyll-and-Hyde combination, and that makes everything ambiguous.
- Anti-Magic: Perhaps. So far magical attacks has no effect on him yet he himself has the knowledge of how to use magical tools.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: He wears a very classy outfit when doing his evil.
- Big Bad: Of the Season 5 finale. He then continues this role in Season 6 or so it seems - he's actually a Disc-One Final Boss who gets killed off four episodes in.
- Blood from the Mouth: How he dies.
- Enemy Without: He uses a refined version of the potion to become a separate being from Jekyll.
- Evil Sounds Deep: As usual for Sam Witwer.
- Genre Refugee: He hovers in the same place as Victor Frankenstein as a character that does not come from a fairy tale, but rather from an early tale of science fiction.
- Killed Off for Real: He dies as soon as Jekyll does.
- The Lost Lenore: Mary, same as Jekyll. In fact, Hyde loved her even more than Jekyll did, and she returned the feeling.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: His brutishness is offset by a gentlemanly appearance and demeanor.
- Meaningful Name/Punny Name: Rumplestiltskin says that he's the aspect of Jekyll that Jekyll wanted to hide from everyone.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His eyes occasionally take a red glow. Normally, one of his eyes is disgustingly bloodshot.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The first part of this trope is downplayed, since he was an antagonist to the main cast from the end of last season. However, when he dies alongside Jekyll four episodes into the following season, not only does his role as main antagonist end, but the extent of his Enemy Without connection to his counterpart is revealed; to kill the doppelganger, the original must be disposed of, which is the answer to how the main cast could possibly rid themselves of the Evil Queen.
- Super-Strength: The form of someone's dark side brought to life by the potion is shaped by their subconscious. Jekyll was so frightened of his evil side that it gained superhuman strength.
- Troll: He simply loves to mess with people and jerk them around.
- Then Let Me Be Evil: Since he took the fall for Jekyll when it came to Mary's murder, this is ultimately the reason why Hyde is as evil as he is... though ultimately not as insane as Jekyll himself.
- Worf Effect: In the Season 5 finale he's set up as a main baddie, presumably taking Gold's place as Storybrooke's "landlord" since he traded information to Gold for the town. Zelena, a witch powerful enough to wield the Sorcerer's wand, can't hurt him. He shrugs off a backstab inflicted by Hook. Emma and Regina's powers combined don't dent him. He gets taken out by an electrical weapon Jekyll makes a little over half-way through the Season 6 premiere, and dies for good four episodes later.
Mary Lydgate
Mary Lydgate
Played By: Elizabeth Blackmore
"Things like passion and desire are little more than...contaminants to be eliminated. I need someone who wants to bathe in their passion and give in to desire."
Friend of Dr. Jekyll and daughter of Dr. Arthur Lydgate, who falls in love with Jekyll's counterpart Mr. Hyde. She is loosely based off the character Mary Reilly.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Mary is attracted to Hyde, whom she finds exciting, and not to Jekyll, whom she considers a cold fish, and she disparages his and her father's work taming the passions of the human mind.
- Cynicism Catalyst: Her death is mainly used as a reason why Hyde became an Anti-Villain, why Jekyll is revealed to be the villain, and even Rumplestiltskin saw her death as "proof" that Hyde was the "bad" alternate.
- Destination Defenestration: After Jekyll wakes up to realize that Mary and Hyde spent the night together, he and Mary have an argument that results in him pushing her out of a window, killing her.
- The Lost Lenore: To Jekyll and Hyde, though she only reciprocated these feelings of love for Hyde.
- Statuesque Stunner: She's a pretty girl, and also a lanky one. She's 5' 9".
Fictional 1920s England
Cruella De Vil
Cruella De Vil
Cruella: "Some people struggle not to be drawn into the darkness. But ever since I was a little girl, I've said... "Why not splash in and have fun?""
Played By: Victoria Smurfit, Milli Wilkinson (young)
Centric Episodes: "Darkness on the Edge of Town", "Sympathy for the De Vil"
A young woman who originated from a world out of time styled after 1920s England. Seemingly trapped by an abusive mother she sought out the Author's help in escaping. From this she gained the ability to control animals and afterwards somehow made her way to the Enchanted Forest, where she teamed up with Maleficent and Ursula.
- Adaptational Badass: From a fashion designer with no magic powers to The Beastmaster. Though this actually is more in line with her portrayal in the original book.
- The Alcoholic: "Cruella! Thought I caught a whiff of desperation and gin."
- Anachronism Stew: A rare Justified example: while her wardrobe choices really stand out in the Enchanted Forest, "Sympathy for the De Vil" reveals that she's originally from a version of England in another world where it's always The Roaring '20s (like Alice's Victorian world).
- Arc Villain: One of the main antagonists of the Queens of Darkness arc.
- Ax-Crazy: Cruella's portrayed more like a serial killer than a witch, and it's apparent she personally killed the dogs she used to make that fabulous coat of hers.
- The Beastmaster: Her only magic is power over animals.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: In Season 4, with Gold, Maleficent and Ursula. Cruella is recruited by Gold and Ursula to help him find the Author so that they can achieve a Happy Ending for all villains. But unbeknownst to Gold and the others, Cruella actually knows the Author, whose name is Isaac, and he is the one who took from her what she loves the most: the ability to kill. Cruella kidnaps Henry and holds him hostage in the woods until Regina and Emma do as she says. But Henry escapes to a cliff, where Cruella grabs him and Emma shows up as well and knocks her off the cliff to her death.
- Big Bad Wannabe: She may act high and mighty, but she literally can't kill anyone, thanks to Isaac writing away her ability to take a life. Maleficent even points out to Gold that Cruella and Ursula are simply a means to an end for herself and Gold - something he doesn't deny.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: In "Sympathy for the De Vil", she acts like a poor abused woman to manipulate the Author into giving her the power to kill her mother. She does, however, show her true colors when he comes home and she's finished making her new fur coat.
- The Bus Came Back: She returns as a dead soul in the Underworld in the second half of the fifth season and the DVD bonus "Tales From The Underworld: A Knight With Cruella", which takes place fifty years after "Last Rites".
- Butt-Monkey: Mary Margaret knocks her out with a frying pan in "Poor Unfortunate Soul" and in "Best Laid Plans", the flashbacks to the Enchanted Forest show her getting knocked out by sleeping dust and sucked into a portal to the Land Without Magic. She's also the only Arc Villain of the season to die, and a Disney Villain Death at that. Oh, and she can't kill. Period.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Rather uniquely among the show's major villains, she's just plain evil and owns it, without any kind of tragic backstory to explain her actions until "Sympathy for the De Vil". And the backstory pretty much explains that she was a child sociopath, who poisoned her biological father and two stepfathers For the Evulz and was locked in the attic by her mother to circumvent this.
- Cool Car: Her classic Excalibur Series IV, complete with "DEV IL" vanity plate.
- Cruella to Animals: Naturally. After bewitching her mother's Dalmatians to kill her, she killed them and turned them into her trademark coat.
- Deadpan Snarker: Cruella manages to out snark Rumplestiltskin... by asking him if he wants a step stool so that he can look her in the eyes when he threatens her.
- Disney Villain Death: Her final fate, blasted off a cliff by Emma.
- Enfant Terrible: As a child, not only did she have a troubled mind, she murdered her own father, much to her mother's heartbreak.
- Evil Feels Good: It's a recurring theme in the series that evil is not born, it is made. Cruella is the only true exception to that rule. She absolutely relishes in acting evil, and has no qualms in manipulating, betraying and killing people. She killed her own father and the two other husbands of her mother while still a child, and as a young woman killed her mother by making her dogs eat her alive and killed the dogs to wear their fur as a mantle. And she would not have stopped there. For all that he did wrong, the Author did the universe a favor by magically making her unable to kill anyone. You know that this woman is thoroughly evil when her wish and her idea of a happy ending is to be able to kill again.
- For the Evulz: In a series whose motto is "Evil's not born; it's made," she acts as the sole exception. She was a narcissistic sociopath from the day she was born, and she has no qualms, remorse, or guilt in indulging her vices.
- Harmless Villain: Part yes, part no. Move being a born sociopath and ruthlessness aside, she is not a powerful villain. She had to team up with the Blind Witch to stop the main characters from leaving the Underworld. Sure, her animal control power may have made Maleficent fall asleep as a dragon and animals attack her opponents, but it's underwhelming compared to other people powerful in magic, and there aren't always animals near her. Sure, while some fans think the other villains' background stories are too sympathetic and find it refreshing to have a villain cruel for the stake of cruel, it creates little development and power for the character. Oh and let's not forget her inability to murder making her a less intimidating villain. But she still manipulated and terrorized others with such unique style and satisfaction.
- Genre Refugee: Cruella is a cruel murderer from a Roaring Twenties world that seems to have more to do with murder mysteries than any of the fantastical fairy tales of Once Upon A Time.
- Gold Digger: How she gets by in the real world.
- Karma Houdini: Downplayed. While she does die and gets sent to the Underworld, she achieves temporary victory and the only actual punishment she receives aside from death is being just another lush in the local bar.
- Killed Off for Real: Emma ends up blasting Cruella off a cliff to save Henry's life, unaware that the Author had made it impossible for Cruella to kill anyone. This is actually the first version of the character to actually die.
- Large Ham: Smurfit isn't quite at Glenn Close's level, but chews plenty of scenery in her own right.
- Locked into Strangeness: Her hair and eyebrows are the result of getting a face-full of the Author's magic ink; she was originally blonde.
- Lonely Funeral: The only attendants to her funeral are Gold and the Author. For all of Cruella's... cruelty, it's a bit sad.
- The Mole: She and Ursula pretend to be reformed to get into Storybrooke.
- Pet the Dog: Surprisingly, she has a brief one at the end of "Tales From The Underworld: A Knight With Cruella", in which she wishes her new friend Mordred a happy anniversary.
- Playing the Victim Card: She's able to escape her mother by convincing the Author to rescue her from her attic. It's only much later that we find out he should have left her there.
- Pretty in Mink: Taken straight from the original.
- Redemption Rejection: Cruella is the type of person to be cruel for the sake of being cruel, and unable to resist her darkness. Her willingness to destroy others for her own personal gain, without any growth or atonement, renders her a very one-dimensional character.
- When her mother Madeline tries to get her to behave and come home, a young Cruella tells her "You can't make me".
- In the Underworld, when Sir Mordred suggests that they make up for their past misdeeds and move on to Mount Olympus, Cruella refuses, saying that "Cruella De Vil solving crimes in a windbreaker really isn't the thing".
- Remember the New Guy?: She's only introduced halfway through Season 4, but not only did she play a big part in helping Rumplestiltskin get his hands on the Dark Curse, she and Ursula share some deep, dark secret with Snow and Charming.
- Retired Monster: She's revealed to have become this in "Tales From The Underworld: A Knight With Cruella". Fifty years following the events of "Last Rites", she's no longer committing evil deeds and even celebrates Arthur's anniversary as ruler of the Underworld, but still has no desire to redeem herself.
- The Roaring '20s: She's originally from a realm stuck permanently in this era.
- Self-Made Orphan: She killed not only her father, but her two stepfathers as well, prompting her mother to imprison her in their house's attic. After she escapes years later, and after the Author grants her power over animals, she turns her mother's Dalmatians on their owner, and then skins them.
- The Sociopath: Completely and utterly. And as confirmed in her flashback episode, she's been one since she was a child.
- Terms of Endangerment: Calls other people "darling".
- Thou Shalt Not Kill: Invoked. The Author used his magic quill to make her unable to kill anyone, no matter how much she wants to.
- Token Evil Teammate: The only unsympathetic member of the QOD.
- Troll: When David pretends to be James, Cruella's Underworld boyfriend, Cruella understands the deception... yet still flirts with David.
- Unwitting Pawn: Rumplestiltskin's plan is for her to be killed by Emma while threatening Henry, which would send Emma on a path towards darkness given that Cruella's actually unable to hurt anyone and it's an empty threat.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: When the Author meets Cruella, she's an isolated young girl who merely wants to experience the wonders of the world away from her dogmatic mother. Now, she's a murderer who allies with the darkest characters she could find. Subverted, in that her childhood innocence was an act to get the Author to help her escape her mother.
- Verbal Tic: She tends to call people "darling".
- Villainous Cheekbones: Not as exaggerated as her animated counterpart, but still prominent.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Cruella? And look how she turned out...
- Would Hurt a Child: She'll happily hold a child at gunpoint and abandon a newborn baby in the woods.
Fictional 19th Century France
Count of Monte Cristo
Count of Monte Cristo
Played By: Craig Horner
Centric Episodes: "A Bitter Draught"
Count of Monte Cristo: "I am prepared to spend my entire life avenging my love."
- Adaptational Wimp: The book Count was The Chessmaster and a Magnificent Bastard that would make Rumple proud, getting revenge on all those wronged him, gaining a vast wealth going from peasant to noble, and got away with it all. The OUAT version of him is a In Name Only character who dies in the same episode he's introduced and is manipulated and used by the season's Big Bad in the process.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: He falls in love with the nurse Charlotte.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How Regina manages to kill him. Also how he kills Baron Danglars.
- One-Shot Character: He only appears in one episode, apart from being mentioned in a later one.
- Revenge Before Reason: He spent nearly a decade plotting revenge on those who wronged him and murdered one of the conspirators in a room full of people only to reveal after he doesn't know the names of any of the others.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: How he intended to kill Snow White and Charming.
- Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Subverted. He manages to throw his sword at Regina, she however stops it with magic in an Arrow Catch style.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He's killed in his first and only episode.
The Land Without Color
Victor Frankenstein/Dr. Whale
Victor Frankenstein
Played By: David Anders
Centric Episodes: "The Doctor", "In the Name of the Brother"
A scientist in a gothic world without color based on 19th century Austria who longs to find the cure for death, despite his father's desires.
See Dr. Whale in the Storybrooke character page.
Gerhardt Frankenstein
Gerhardt Frankenstein
Played By: Chad Michael Collins
Centric Episodes: "In the Name of the Brother"
Viktor's war hero brother who becomes his first successful test subject after his death.
- Came Back Wrong: As can be expected given his brother's infamy, he's reborn with his mind mostly gone, barely able to speak, and his body in constant agony. Unlike Daniel, he's not as violently insane and even seems desperate to die in order to avoid hurting anyone, but Viktor refuses to let him.
- Parental Favoritism: He's their father's favorite to Viktor's Un-Favourite, though he doesn't let it get to his head and often defends Viktor's research.
- Patricide: He ends up beating his and Viktor's father to death in a twisted attempt to save Viktor when their father angrily berates him for reviving Gerhardt in such a state.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Viktor can't bring himself to kill his resurrected form, declaring he'll instead find a way to fully restore his mind. However, he seemingly abandons his goal upon accepting that he's unable to return to his original world, and the series never makes it clear if he ever takes it up again.
