Tinker Bell

"I'm a fairy. You might wanna try believing in me."

Tinker Bell, or often just Tink, is a supporting character on Once Upon a Time. She is a mischievous fairy who is willing to break the rules she vowed to obey to follow her heart and do what she thinks is right. However, this only leads her into trouble and she ends up losing her wings and finding herself banished to Neverland, living her days waiting for revenge on the one who wronged her.

Before the Curse
When the very unhappily married Queen Regina falls from her balcony, she is rescued by a fairy named Tinker Bell, who takes the Queen out for a drink. Here, the two new friends discuss Regina's life, and Regina reveals that her true love, Daniel, was killed indirectly by her stepdaughter, Snow White, and she is now trapped in a loveless marriage to the king. Tinker Bell assures the Queen that it is possible to find love again, and promises that she'll use pixie dust in order to find hers. However, when Tink returns to the fairies' sanctuary, she is scolded by the Blue Fairy, who warns her against helping the soon-to-be Evil Queen. But Tinker Bell decides to disobey her superiors and steals some pixie dust for Regina, wanting to help her new friend. She uses the pixie dust to locate Regina's true lover, which leads the two of them to a bar. Inside is a man with a lion tattoo on his arm, but after Tink leaves, Regina refuses to go inside, being too scared. Tink visits the Queen the next day, confused as to why she isn't glowing with happiness, and Regina lies and says that she talked to the man Tink led her to and he was horrible; she calls Tinker Bell a bad fairy and disowns her as a friend, which she proclaims she has none of. A saddened Tinker Bell, who risked everything to help Regina, is then found by the Blue Fairy, who is very disappointed in her student. She tells Tinker Bell that, since she foiled her second chance, she no longer believes in her, and this causes Tink to lose both her wings and her magic, leaving her stranded and powerless with a vendetta to settle with the Queen.

Season 3
When they're unable to find Peter Pan's camp, Captain Hook suggests to Emma Swan, Snow White, Prince Charming and the former Queen, Regina, that they get in via the fairy of the island: Tinker Bell. They continue to trek through Neverland's jungle in order to find her, but Regina, who insists she has a "complicated history" with the fairy, purposefully lags behind. Eventually, she lets the others go on without her, which prompts Tinker Bell to emerge and knock Regina out using powder made from poppies. She takes the former Queen back to a cave where she ties her up, but when Regina awakes, she's able to break through the ropes with ease thanks to magic. She soon realizes that magic is something which Tinker Bell has none, but the fairy improvises, taking an arrow dipped in the very deadly Dreamshade poison and pointing it at Regina's throat. Regina tells the fairy that she shouldn't let the poison kill her, but kill her herself, and Tinker Bell becomes confused as to what the Queen means. Regina then rips out her own dark heart and hands it to Tink, who contemplates crushing it to ash. The fairy gets Regina to admit that she never met with the man with the lion tattoo, and, realizing that when the Queen chose revenge over hope and love, it lost her everything, so Tink decides not to crush the heart, giving it back to Regina. Tink is then approached by the rest of the people who are searching for Henry Mills, Regina's adopted son, all of whom aim their weapons at her, wanting to know where the Queen is. Regina then reveals herself to be alive, but tells the others that Tinker Bell has no magic and no pixie dust, meaning she has no way of helping them. She can, however, use her influence to get them all into Pan's camp when she herself enters, but they'd only have one shot. She then asks what would be in it for her, and Mary Margaret says that the fairy can have a home with them. This then prompts Tinker Bell to accompany the Jolly Roger crew, during which time she tells Regina that when she refused to talk to her true love, not only did she ruin her own life, but she ruined his.

Tinker Bell runs through the plan to break into Pan's compound with Emma, Snow, Charming, Regina and Hook, and warns them that once they get in, they're still going to have to face the Lost Boys, whose weapons are dipped in Dreamshade poison. She then tells them that she's ready to go and carry the mission out just as soon as they tell her the exit plan, and they all look dumb. The former fairy asks if they even have a way to escape Neverland after they save Henry, and they reveal that they do not. They assure Tink that they'll figure out away, but she tells them that no one leaves the island without Pan's permission, meaning that this whole thing has been a huge waste of time. She is continually assured that a way will be found to escape Neverland, but Tinker Bell tells them that they don't get it, before finding a way to make it clear: she shows them Tamara's wristwatch. The group is shocked to discover that Tink took the watch from Tamara's dead body, and shocked still to learn that she was unable to salvage anything from Greg because there wasn't enough left of him. Tinker Bell uses this scenario to prove her point: this is what Pan does to people he employs, so what is he gonna do to them should they cross him? She then says she's not sticking her neck on Pan's chopping block without a way off that island, and starts to leave, telling them that, when they figure that out, they can come and find her where she lives.

Tinker Bell, who's hanging out around her tree house, is visited by Snow and Charming; she is surprised, as she didn't think she'd be seeing them again, and refuses to help them unless they have a way off the island. Mary Margaret assures the fairy that they're "about to", something Tink doesn't like the sound of, but Emma, Hook and Neal soon arrive with the escape plan. Tink is surprised to see Baelfire back in Neverland, and he greets her, saying he goes by Neal now and that it's been a long time. He presents her with their way off the island: Peter Pan's shadow trapped inside a coconut. Satisfied with this means of escape, Tinker Bell continues to plan the rescue of Henry along with Emma, Hook, Neal, Mary Margaret and David.

Tinker Bell is trekking through the jungle alongside Baelfire, Hook, Emma, Snow White and Prince Charming and is about to help them break into Pan's compound in order to rescue Henry. They soon run into Regina and Rumplestiltskin, who join them on their mission, and when they arrive, they say that there are to go in, rescue Henry, and immediately get back out. Regina then uses her magic to knock out all the Lost Boys, but when they storm the camp, Pan and Henry are no where to be found. They soon find out from Wendy, Pan's prisoner, that Henry has been taken to Skull Rock where his heart will be taken and given to Pan, who will become immortal. When it's asked what shall happen to Henry in the process, Wendy states that the boy will die. Whilst Emma, Bae, Regina and Rumple make their way to Skull Rock, and Snow and Charming head up Dead Man's Peak in search of magic water to help the latter, Tinker Bell is asked to stay behind at Pan's camp with Hook in order to guard the unconscious Lost Boys. Later, when Henry shoves his heart into Pan's body, a burst of magic is released which spreads across the whole island, hitting Hook and Tink as it does so.

Emma, Snow, Regina, David, Neal and an unconscious Henry return to the camp where the former three decide to face Pan alone, having received his location from the Lost Boys they coerced into helping them, promising them a home and passage off the island. Tinker Bell boards the Jolly Roger with everyone else and witnesses Henry regain consciousness once Pan is defeated. She is then approached by Wendy, who gives the former fairy a vial of pixie dust which she thinks she can make work, however, Tink informs the young girl that she can't perform magic since losing her wings; Wendy assures Tinker Bell that she believes in her. Keeping the vial of dust, Tink approaches Regina and congratulates her on regaining her son, commenting that it turns out the Evil Queen is capable of love after all. As the two frenemies converse, the pixie dust in Tink's hand glows with magic for a moment, and Regina, having noticed this, tells the fairy that it seems for a second there she "believed".

Tinker Bell, along with everyone else aboard the Jolly Roger, arrives in Storybrooke, a small town in Maine, and goes on to celebrate in Granny's Diner. Here, she and Regina approach Mother Superior, formerly known as the Blue Fairy, where the latter orders the nun to give Tink her wings back. Blue reminds the former Queen that she doesn't take orders from her, and wonders if Tink has yet earned her wings, learning that the Green Fairy aided everyone back in Neverland and even made pixie dust glow for a brief period. Due to the fact that Tinker Bell is unable to believe in herself and make the dust glow indefinitely, however, Blue is unable to believe in her also, and refuses to give back her wings. The next day, Tink runs into a flirtatious Captain Hook who appears to come on to her; she realizes that he's merely trying to use her to get over Emma Swan, and refuses to succumb to his charms, stating that she may have lost her wings, but she still has her dignity. The two of them then hear a scream and join Emma and the Charmings outside, who is surprised to see Hook and Tink together. They then find the source of the screaming, and find Mother Superior being chased by Pan's shadow, who soon rips out the Blue Fairy's own shadow, killing her. Tink is shocked by the death of her former mentor, and is later under threat when Pan, who's disguised as Henry Mills, steals a new Dark Curse that will be able to wipe the minds of all those in Storybrooke all over again.

Origins
The character of Tinker Bell is based on the homonymous character of the popular popular novel Peter Pan and Wendy. The first published version of this tale was a novel by J.M. Barrie, in 1904. There are many adaptations of the story, the most popular - and the one followed closely by Once Upon a Time - being the 1953 film adapation by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The general story is that of a young boy named Peter Pan who spends his never-ending childhood in the magical world of Neverland, where he interacts with various fairies, mermaids, native americans, and pirates, most noticeably his arch enemy, the notorious Captain Hook.

Gallery
Gallery of photographic stills released to promote the character.