The age of Baelfire

My wife and I are big fans of ABC’s Once Upon a Time. I have a theory about Baelfire that I wanted to voice. Specifically, his age. There will be some spoilers. And I am also going to to assume that if you are reading this, you have watched the show and know what is going on. And this is a little long, just to explain all my thinking. Consider yourself warned.

For this theory, I’m pulling information from these episodes:

  • 01×01 – Pilot
  • 01×08 – Desperate Souls
  • 01×18 – The Stable Boy
  • 01×19 – The Return
  • 02×02 – We Are Both

We know that the curse has been in place for 28 years. In the Pilot, Rumpelstiltskin says that the savior (Emma) will find them on her 28th birthday. We also see that she is born and sent to our world just before the curse happens. We have not been introduced to Baelfire yet, but we do know that he is now at least 28.

From Desperate Souls, we learn that Baelfire is 14. This is before he is sent to our world (in The Return). So, if he was 14 when he was sent to our world, then he would now be 42 (28 + 14).

I will say in advance that now I will be fudging numbers a bit. For this part of my theory, I’m guessing at time. Don’t worry, it’s still a valid argument.

For the next part, we are guessing at Snow White/Mary Margaret’s age. When she and Regina meet (The Stable Boy) Snow is young. I’m going to say 12 at the oldest. When the curse is enacted, Snow is older, married and just gave birth to Emma. While I think she is older (she and Emma look the same age), I am going to say that Snow is now 22. For the sake of this theory, we will say that 10 years have passed.

The last bit comes from this weeks episode, We Are Both. We have learned that Rumpelstiltskin and Regina met before she was married to Snow White’s father. Baelfire was not with Rumpelstiltskin, and I believe that he has already entered our world by this point. So, taking this into account, Baelfire is now 10 years older, at 52 (28 + 14 + 10).

So we are looking for a middle-aged man. Probably close to Mr. Gold/Rumpelstiltskin’s age, actually. That means the man we saw in Season 2’s opener, Broken, can’t be Baelfire. He’s too young.

Now to address the 2 arguments that will come up. First, yes Baelfire has aged. Everyone who was under the curse (Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, the Mad Hatter, etc) remained the same age. Time was stopped for them. Everyone who was not under the curse aged. This includes August Booth/Pinocchio, Emma, and Baelfire.

The other argument is that my math is off. I completely agree. If anything, I’m being generous and Baelfire is older. It could be argued that young Snow White is 10, and when the curse is enacted she is around 30. This would now be 20 years, making Baelfire not 52, but 62. I would say that he’s probably not much older than that.

Why is this important? For the other theory that Baelfire is Henry’s father. It’s a popular one among fans, and I like it myself. Even if the only reason is for the plot. It would mean Henry’s grandfathers are Prince Charming and the Rumpelstiltskin. That idea is great in itself!

Emma has implied that Henry’s father was married. Henry was born when she was 18. Baelfire could be anywhere from 42 to 52 in my theory. Old enough to be married and having a mid-life crisis.

So, that’s my theory. I don’t believe we will have to wait long. This season will be telling us about Baelfire, and Henry’s father, if rumors are correct. So, what do you think?

10 thoughts on “The age of Baelfire

  1. Wow, I’d never thought about his age! You’re right, though, now that I think about it, since he came to our world a long time before anyone else. A lot of it depends on how close in age Baelfire and Snow are/how much time passed between him leaving and then the curse.

    • I re-watched We Are Both last night, and I might need to revise this. Rumple mentioned that he knew Regina when she was a baby. That means he is a lot older than I thought at first, and could add another 20 years to the theory. The question really comes down to time. How long has Rumple been the Dark One? Right now, it’s all guessing.

      • Rumplestiltskin is 300 years old as revealed by entertainment weekly. Since there was only around 35 year age gap between Rumps and his son, that places Baelfire well over 200 years old. Therefore, Baelfire in order to be alive must have gained immortality at some point. Neverland anyone?

        • I missed that article. Need to go find it now.

          I was beginning to wonder about him being much older, though. And The Crocodile really solidified that thought. So, is Bae even alive? Or…

          I like your idea of Neverland. We see that it exists now. What if Bae is Peter Pan? The boy who doesn’t grow up because he wants to find his father.

          • Baelfire has to be older!! Because he was 14 when Rumple became the Dark One. And Rumple was the Dark One he met Cora in her younger age. It makes no sense that Baelfire is 42 when the Dark One/Rumple is 300 years old.

    • Just one thing if you are adding 28 to his age and you work his age out to be 42-52 than he would have to have been 32-42 when emma wa 18

    • Just one thing if you are adding 28 to his age and you work his age out to be 42-52 than he would have to have been 32-42 when emma was 18

  2. You are all forgetting that he spent centuries in Neverland….he didn’t start to age again until he returned to the land without magic. He looked 14 but was actually much older. Then the 28 years of the curse occured. I would say he is around 300 years old.

  3. In Season 2,we see that the Dark one,knew Cora,Regina’s mom,before Regina was born…and Rumpel became the dark one when Bae was already older…
    So Bae is older than Regina
    *just realized

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