Gideon's time on Once Upon A Time may have been short, but it was certainly memorable, especially because of all the questions fans were left with over the character. In a world where fairytales are reality and magic is the norm, Once Upon A Time calls for suspension of belief for almost every aspect of the show. Be that as it may, sometimes the beloved fantasy-adventure series took things a little too far. Such was often the case with Gideon, the son of Belle and Rumplestiltskin.
Gideon started out as a villain, and he'd become quite the bookworm and scholar by his last appearance in season seven, with a lot of confusion in between. While his redemption arc wasn't as intriguing as that of the Evil Queen, it called lots of things into question.
His Age
Time is complicated in Storybrooke, and, most often, this impacts the characters' ages. Gideon was no exception. At the time of his birth, Belle was technically still in her first trimester. The Evil Queen sped up her pregnancy, bringing Gideon into the world before his time.
To protect him from Rumple, Belle asked the Blue Fairy to take Gideon away. Things didn't go as planned, and the Black Fairy captured and kidnapped Gideon, then raised him in another realm where time was even more complex. By the time he returned to Storybrooke, a few days after his birth, Gideon was 28 years old.
His Grandmother Is His "Mother"
The family dynamics in Storybrooke were convoluted to the point of being hilarious and ridiculous in some cases. Gideon's family was no exception. When the Black Fairy kidnapped him, she raised him as her own, and he grew up referring to her as "Mother." It wasn't a big deal until the identity of the Black Fairy was revealed.
Fans later discovered that the Black Fairy was Rumple's mother. Since Rumple was Gideon's biological father, that meant Gideon was calling his grandmother "Mother."
His Mission
Gideon's first appearance in Once Upon A Time was in Emma's visions as the hooded figure who stabbed her to death. When he revealed himself to Belle and Rumple, he told them he'd come to kill Emma so he could get her powers and become the new savior.
However, along the course of season six, the purpose of his mission changed quite a few times. At one point, he wanted to kill Emma to get her powers so he could liberate his realm from the cruel reign of the Black Fairy. At another, he insisted killing Emma was simply his fate. Later, in the episode "A Wondrous Place," he told Emma he wouldn't kill her if she helped him kill the Black Fairy.
His Willpower
The ripping out of hearts in Once Upon A Time is as common as breakfast at Granny's, one of Storybrooke's beloved characters. Gideon's heart was no stranger to the phenomenon. For most of the season, the Black Fairy had his heart in her possession and was controlling him with it. Belle begged her son several times to give up his mission and choose to be good. Later, the Black Fairy arrived in Storybrooke and commanded him to destroy the pixie flowers needed to break the curse on Snow and Charming's heart. He obliged, but he secretly defied her by leaving one flower untouched.
Some fans argued that it didn't make sense that Gideon couldn't fight the Black Fairy's control when she was in another realm, but she managed to when she was standing right next to him. "The Final Battle Part 1" even showed that the Black Fairy didn't need to be holding his heart in her hand to control him and he had no choice but to oblige whenever she gave a command.
His Arrival Into Storybrooke
The world of Once Upon A Time has many realms. Gideon grew up in a realm that Rumple described as a place of immense, dark power where time ran differently, nothing made sense, and anything was possible.
Throughout the show's seven seasons, traveling from one realm to another could only happen by using a magic bean, the dark curse, a portal from the Mad Hatter's hat, and other magical means. However, it wasn't clear how Gideon traveled from the Dark Fairy's land. This was especially curious because the Dark Fairy could only enter Storybrooke through a portal opened by harnessing Emma's powers.
His Resistance To The Memory Potion
To save his son from darkening his heart, Rumple gave him the memory potion in "Ill-Boding Patterns." The memory potion was used before by different characters, including Rumple himself. In all cases, the potion would erase the memory of the one who took it—or parts of it, to be more specific.
Oddly enough, the memory potion had no impact on Gideon, which didn't make sense. His only explanation for his immunity to the potion was that he'd been raised by Black Fairy, which was hardly an explanation at all.
His Powers
Since he was raised by the Black Fairy and trained in magic, it's no surprise that Gideon had powers. He could transform people into something else like he did to the Evil Queen when he turned her into a caged Cobra. Like his father, he also had telekinetic and teleportation—within the same realm, that is—abilities. The most impressive power he had was Glamour; the ability to disguise himself as someone else as he did when he impersonated David in the episode "The Black Fairy."
While Gideon was hardly comparable to the other villains and heroes with regards to powers, his invulnerability to certain things was confusing. For example, the memory potion that took away the memories of powerful villains like Regina and Rumple was as good as a glass of water to him.
His Morpheus Impersonation
In his first appearance to Rumple in Belle's dream world, Gideon identified himself to Rumple as Morpheus, the god of dreams. When Rumple woke Belle up, he revealed his true identity as their son and encouraged his mother to shun Rumple.
He explained that he wanted Belle to keep him away from his father because he'd bring harm to them. It made more sense for them to stick with Rumple because he was the Dark One, a powerful creature and their best chance against someone like the Black Fairy. If Gideon had warned his mother because he'd seen the future, he would've known that convincing Belle to keep him away from Rumple was what led to his capture in the first place.
His Entire Storyline
Once Upon A Time has complex plots often explained away by magic. For most of the main characters, the complicated story arcs were fleshed out over the show's seven-season run. For example, the series showed how Regina evolved from the Evil Queen into one of the most loved characters of the show.
While a bit of Gideon's backstory is shown in "Mother's Little Helper," a lot of questions went unanswered. Besides season six, Gideon appeared briefly in the season seven episode "Beauty." The episode switched between Hyperion Heights and a flashback to Belle and Rumple's final moments together. Gideon appeared in the episode as a baby, then later as an 18-year old, and again some years after that when his mother was buried. There's no mention of whether Gideon remembered anything of his life under the Black Fairy's control, even though the show has proven that the characters retained memories of their cursed lives once the curses were broken.
His Return To Baby Form
After his last battle with Emma in the season six finale, Gideon disappeared and later appeared as a baby in the mines where his mother and father were searching for his heart. The explanation was that the Black Fairy's curse on him had been broken, but this only brings up more questions.
In earlier episodes, Gideon's quick growth was attributed to the realm where the Black Fairy had taken him, not a curse. When the curse on his heart broke, it would have made more sense for him to remain as his full-grown version instead of turning back into a baby. But, alas, the only explanation given for that was "fate."