Excalibur is a magical sword featured in the ABC drama fantasy series Once Upon a Time.
It is based on the item of the same name from the Arthurian legend.
Role in the series[]
To boost Snow White's confidence about facing the Evil Queen, Prince Charming constructed a fake version of Excalibur and planted it in a stone. When Snow pulled it out, believing it to be the real one, she was able to overcome the Queen based on this belief. Rumplestiltskin later destroyed the sword to prove that it was fake, and Snow is mad at Charming for lying to her. They make up, however, when she realizes that he did it to help her believe in something he already knew.
The real sword was shown in the fifth season. It was originally the Holy Grail that gave Merlin and Nimue their powers. Later, Merlin used the Flame of Prometheus to reforge it into the sword Excalibur when the threat of Vortigan arose and due to Merlin's desire to live a normal, mortal life with Nimue.
In a flashback, it was revealed that Excalibur was once attempted to be pulled out of the stone by Sir Kay. He fails and is disintegrated. When King Arthur pulls Excalibur from the stone, he finds that the tip of Excalibur is missing. It turns out that the tip had been made into the Dark One's Dagger. King Arthur seeks to unite both items in order to make Excalibur complete; this task has driven Arthur insane, and drove those he cared for away from him.
In present-day Storybrooke, Emma has Mr. Gold pull the sword out of the stone again. However, it's explained that it can be used to forever wipe out either light or dark magic.
Emma reunites The Dagger and Excalibur
Using the Promethean Spark obtained from Nimue's heart, Emma unites Excalibur and the Dark One's Dagger into one weapon. The manifestations of Rumplestiltskin, Nimue, and the other previous Dark Ones tempt Emma into using Excalibur. It is later revealed that Excalibur now bears the names "Emma Swan" and "Killian Jones", who are the current Dark Ones now. Emma sought to take the darkness out of both of them and put it in Zelena, who she forced to give birth sooner to avoid killing the baby so that no one would have any qualms with killing her to put an end to the Darkness' threat. Killian's name is on it because she removed Merlin's tethering that Zelena put on it, and tethered Killian to the sword instead, in order to keep Killian from dying from a cut that Excalibur inflicted on his neck, which Emma previously healed but was beginning to become undone.
Captain Hook later steals Excalibur from Emma to prevent her from using it as a way to prevent those that she knows from taken the temporarily-revived Dark Ones before her and Mr. Gold from taking their places on Earth. When Captain Hook fights Nimue's influence, he uses Excalibur to suck the previous Dark Ones into it. Upon Captain Hook's advice in order to keep the Darkness from escaping, Emma impales Captain Hook with Excalibur, which seemingly defeats the Darkness and kills all of the past Dark Ones, destroying Excalibur in the process.
However, a part of Excalibur may have survived, as Mr. Gold had used a magic potion to turn Excalibur into a conduit, transferring the Darkness back into himself to become the most powerful Dark One ever. In the process, a new Dagger of the Dark One was generated, which may contain some of the original Excalibur's powers.
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