@KFChimera wrote:
As for Cora–I would say she was actually beyond reason most of the time. Remember the time Jefferson tried to bargain with Cora? He says “If I tell you how I got here, can I see my daughter” and her response is, “Off with his head!” Or the time Snow traded the dagger for Johanna’s life, and Cora flung Johanna out the window anyway? I don’t think Cora was “reasonable”. Her cause was herself and her quest for power and maybe Regina (though I’m still not sure about that) and she would not let anything stop her.
Cora’s lack of a heart played a lot in her unreasonableness. Who knows how reasonable could she be if we’d more than just a few seconds of screentime with a heartful Cora? She certainly saw Regina with new eyes after that.
@KFChimera wrote:
No, I think people are harder on Tamara because we haven’t gotten her backstory, she interfered with a popular ship, she has “killed” two of our more main hero characters, is a two-timer. While there are some parallels with real world fanatics and we fear such people (rightly so), not everyone who believes in a cause goes full-on nutso about it so long they cannot ever see reason or admit wrong-doing. Someone mentioned the Salem Witch Trials in connection with the Home Office–ever see this? Declaration of Regret. People sometimes get caught up in a cause until something makes them see the evil behind what they themselves are doing, not just those they are attacking in the name of righteousness. I don’t know how they intend to write Tamara just yet–full on crazy or just misguided. She did seem regretful about shooting Neal and popping the portal, telling him he was a good man, so perhaps as we see more they could show us the other side of her story. Then she dies just as we realize she’s not quite the fanatic and lost cause that we thought. Because they like to play with us like that.
I’ve said it before, the Home Office is likely to have so many operatives we can’t expect all of them to get episodes devoted to their backstories. I see it more likely that we’ll get a Greg backstory showing him joining the HO and meeting Tamara, during which she sums in a few lines her (bad) experience with magic.
I say this because I severely doubt she’ll survive the finale. She just messed with one of the most precious people to Rumplestiltskin, he’ll totally be out for her blood. The episode description even mentions this: “and Mr. Gold mourns the loss of his son, Bae/Neal”; we all know Henry’ll be mourning Neal too, I see no reason for them to mention Gold’s mourning, let alone singling him out, in the synopsys if it’s not going to play a heavy role in the events.