OMG! I just realized that the wand Rumple used in 6×01 is the Apprentice’s Wand! It can only be wielded by someone with both light and dark magic. SO…the biggest baddest sum of all Dark Ones has FUCKING LIGHT MAGIC!!! Yeeeeeeessssss!!!!!!
Please tell me I’m right? This better have been intentional and not something they just forgot.
Erm well my instinctive answer was no because Zelena wielded it and there’s nothing but darkness in her. So I went back to the transcript and it said:
Apprentice: It is a gift from the sorcerer, from Merlin, on the day I became his apprentice. In it is all the light magic.
Mary Margaret: It can take us to our daughter?
Apprentice: Not on its own. In order to cross realms, it must be wielded as it was forged, with both sides of the coin. Light and the dark.
Regina: I guess that’s my cue.
(it fails)
Hook: You heard the man, it needs darkness. You’ve gone soft. How’s this for irony? You’ve done too much good. No, we need someone wicked.
So my interpretation was that the wand was filled with light magic, and so it needed someone with dark magic to wield it. The wand had the light magic, not the user, which is why Zelena could use it but Regina struggled.