Regina taking Snow's heart.
Heart-Ripping is the act of magically ripping out someone's heart, featured on ABC's "Once Upon a Time" and "Once Upon a Time in Wonderland".
Overview
The ability to rip out someone's hearts, by normal biological means, tearing one's heart out means instant death. However, the heart may be continued to be connected to the body via magic, and anything that happens to it afterwards will be afflicted to the owner's body.
Enchanted Hearts
Enchanted Hearts, created by Heart-ripping, are magical items used in many ways. The ripper has to reach inside the victim's chest by using magic to grab the heart. This shocks and induces very much pain to the victim, and the victim cannot oppose to the ripper. However, the ripper can also rip the victim's heart without enchanting it, which kills the victim upon heart removal.
The user of an enchanted heart can:
- Crush it and kill the victim.
- Control the victim's actions and speech.
- Use the heart to reanimate the victim's dead bodies.
- Split it in half to save a crushed victim of true love.
- Remove the Darkness from within the victim's heart using the Sorcerer's Hat to absorb it.
Additionally, people with their hearts ripped out are unable to feel any true emotion until the heart is restored. They can, however, perform true love's kiss. ("The Miller's Daughter", "A Curious Thing")
If someone commits an evil act of darkness like murder, the heart will begin to blacken, and if this heart becomes completely black, the person will die. They are also immune to the effects of the Boro Grove's enchantment and the Spell of Shattered Sight. ("Welcome to Storybrooke", "Who's Alice", "Shattered Sight")
The death of the person in possession of the heart won't cease the power of any command they have previously directed to the heart's original owner. ("The Final Battle Part 2")
Resurrection Using Enchanted Hearts
The action of placing a beating enchanted heart in the heartless chest of a dead person can bring them back to life. In some cases, this brings awful side effects: extreme violence and irrational thinking.
Known Users
- Apprentice
- Black Fairy
- Cora
- Emma Swan (as the Dark One)
- Evil Queen
- Killian Jones (as the Dark One)
- Nimue (as the Dark One)
- Peter Pan
- Regina Mills
- Rumplestiltskin (as the Dark One)
- Zelena
Gallery
Trivia
- Heart ripping is based on the fairytale Snow White, where the Queen commands the huntsman to rip out Snow White's heart as proof that he has assassinated her.