Oh don’t get me wrong. Regina is evil. Has done a lot of evil. I am not trying to justify that. I just think that she started down that path because of these external things that happened to her. And for Rumpel it seems that he chose to move down that path whereas originally Regina had all of these horrible things happen to her. And Regina’s losses are real deaths or real abuse whereas with Rumpel Bae and Belle are both still alive, out there, and his reason behind his behavior seems weaker to me.
I am not at all trying to excuse Regina’s decision to go after Snow, kill Snow’s father, kill her own father, kill the huntsman, curse the world. I also think that we are going to find out in Ep 202 that Rumpel was the hand behind helping Regina become who she became. And that doesn’t mean that it is not Regina’s fault for everything she did. Her fault absolutely, but i think that part of that fault will be laid squarely at Rumpel’s feet by leading her down that path or helping Regina’s mother, something. Rumpel’s hand is going to be in Regina’s evil.