Syndrome

"Let's play."

• Peter Pan's famous quote

Peter Pan, born Malcolm, is a major antagonist in the series Once Upon a Time. He serves as the Bigger Bad of the second half of Season 2, the main antagonist of the first half of Season 3, a supporting antagonist of the second half of Season 5, and a minor antagonist in Season 6 (in flashbacks).

Unlike his Disney fairytale counterpart who is slightly pompous but is otherwise heroic, this version of Peter Pan is totally evil and heartless (relating to a role thought by J.M. Barrie in the early drafts of the original book).

He was portrayed by Robbie Kay as Peter Pan/Pied Piper, and Stephen Lord as Malcolm.

Family

• Wife: Fiona the Black Fairy (deceased)
• Son: Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold (deceased)
• Daughters-in-law: Milah (deceased), Belle French (deceased)
• Grandsons: Baelfire/Neal Cassidy (deceased), Gideon
• (Unofficial) Granddaughter-in-law: Emma Swan
• Great-Grandson: Henry Mills
• Great-Granddaughter-in-law: Cinderella/Jacinda Vidrio
• Great-Great Granddaughter: Lucy Vidrio

Personality

"Careful. He may look like a boy, but he's a bloody demon."

• Hook.

"Henry's trapped in Neverland with Peter Pan -- who is, hands down, the nastiest person I've ever met."

• Neal

As Malcolm, Peter Pan was sneaky, childish slacker, wanting nothing more than to gain freedom and a life of no responsibilities by flying. After granted youth, he was sadistic, self-centered, arrogant and truly evil. His reputation was fearsome as Captain Hook calls him a demon and the most treacherous villain he's ever encountered (cautioning Emma, Regina, Snow, and David not to take him lightly)  and his grandson Baelfire labeling him the nastiest person he ever met, despite their respective experiences with Rumplestiltskin, the Dark One. He is also a very intelligent schemer and manipulator, prying on Henry's desire to follow in his maternal family's footsteps and be a hero.

Peter Pan is one of the most evil Once Upon a Time villains (alongside Cora (before her death), Jafar, Cruella De Vil, Hades, and the Black Fairy). Unlike other villains; such Rumplestiltskin, Regina Mills, Greg Mendell, Ingrid, Ursula, and Maleficent, he clearly showed no love for his family. He gave up his son Rumplestiltskin for youth (mocking the latter about it) and showed no remorse for sacrificing his great-grandson Henry just to keep it, almost killing the boy out of desperation. While he seemed to care for Rumple when he was Malcolm, he revealed to Felix he never loved him. He later confirmed this in confrontation with Rumple, telling him face-to face that he saw him as nothing more than a burden weighing down his hopes and dreams. While he did offer Rumple a chance to join him in Neverland when he came to save Henry, this only led to him imprisoning Rumple in Pandora's Box. To spite his son, he tried to kill Belle and Baelfire.

Along with his lack of value for family, he also showed no care for the Lost Boys, whom he forcefully brought to Neverland and punished cruelly if they so much thought of leaving Neverland, and summoned his Shadow to gruesomely murder them by removing their shadows if they tried escaping. While he claimed that he considered them as his friends, he had no problem convincing Henry to show no mercy while attacking Devin, and even crushed the heart of his most loyal Lost Boy, Felix, to activate a curse. After manipulating Greg and Tamara into bringing him Henry with false agendas of cleansing magic from the Land Without Magic, he authorizes the Shadow and Lost Boys to kill them gruemsomely.

He put on a charming facade to manipulate Henry and earn his trust. He also seems to enjoy playing mind games with his victims such as offering Hook a way off the island with Emma if he killed Charming before the poison did, causing a brief fight to occur between them until Hook saved Charming's life. He also was shown to be very cruel to Wendy and keeping her in a cage, threatening her life as leverage over her brothers, and only letting her out to manipulate Henry.

Powers and Abilities

Peter Pan was one of the most powerful villains ever faced, so powerful that even his son, Rumplestiltskin, the dark one was scared of him (although he may have just feared him so much because he was his father). He was even able to freeze several people, including Regina and Emma (the evil queen and the savior) in place, and may have been able to remove Zelena's heart despite the powerful sorceress placing an protection spell on it. In fact, he was so powerful that the only known way of killing him was the Dark One using the Dark One dagger to kill him, at the cost of his own life.

• Nigh-Immortality:: Pan never ages and cannot die by any normal means. The only weapon powerful enough to kill him is the Dark One Dagger (which ironically ends up in the hands of his son Rumple). His immortality and youth, however, can only last so long before the magic fueling them runs out. But, this can be made permanent with the heart of the truest believer (that of his great-grandson Henry), which Pan proves he will do anything to get.
• Accelerated Healing Factor: It has been stated that he is virtually indestructible, thereby implying that he always rapidly regenerates from fatal wounds, as after dying & coming back, he shows no scars.
• Omniscience: Pan is acutely aware of everyone and everything in Neverland in precise detail.
• Flight: By using pixie dust combined with the heart of the truest believer, Pan can fly anytime for as long as he desires.
• Magic: Pan is an immensely powerful sorcerer whose power and knowledge of magic is only matched and exceeded by that of his son Rumple, the Dark One, and the Sorcerer Merlin. His power originates from Neverland itself and is rooted in belief and imagination. This affords him a wide range of magical abilities such as:
  • Teleportation
  • Telepathy
  • Pyrokinesis
  • Telekinesis
  • Biokinesis
  • Reality-warping
  • Apportation
  • Psychokinesis
  • Clairvoyance
  • While in Neverland or indeed any area infused with magic, Pan is more powerful than any other being; however he is clearly surpassed in all areas by his wife Fiona the Black Fairy, their son Rumplestiltskin and the god Hades.

Quotes

"Peter Pan never fails."

• Peter Pan's second famous quote.

"Rumple, please. You can stop this. Remove the dagger. We can start over. We can have a happy ending."

• Pan (as Malcolm) to Rumple before he kills them both.

Trivia

• The name "Peter" is of Greek origin rooted in the word "petros", meaning "stone". Since this incarnation of Peter Pan is stony-hearted, it's quite fitting.
• The name "Pan" is of Greek origin derived from the same word meaning "shepherd" and it is the name of the half-goat/half man god Pan in classical Greek mythology.
• In the episode "Lost Girl", Hook remarks, "On this island, I am not the bad guy", and Emma says that "Pan is not supposed to be one either". Peter Pan was in fact the villain in the first draft of J.M. Barrie's play; Captain Hook was only introduced later as a theatrical device to help stagehands change scenery.
• The casting call describes him as "in his teens, and is a mischievous and devious Lost Boy".
• The casting call name for him was "Rufio", a name of a protagonist character in the 1991 fantasy adventure Hook.
• He has often been compared to Joffrey Baratheon from Game of Thrones, except Pan is infinitely more dangerous as a solo threat and has power to back up his words and threats.
• It has been stated many times in Season 3 that Rumple cannot kill Pan unless he (Rumple) dies as well, elaborating how powerful Pan is.
• Peter Pan is the Bigger Bad towards Rumplestiltskin, not just because he's his father, but because his abandonment of his son in exchange for eternal youth led to Rumple becoming the Dark One in the first place. This makes him a Bigger Bad to the series as a whole.
  • He is the unseen Bigger Bad in the second half of Season 2 because he was using Greg and Tamara to lead the heroes to him so that he could enact his sinister plot to turn Storybrooke into the new Never Land.