Reply To: Saving Marian

WR, I disagree with you about Zelena being fated to cast the curse. If fate was actually driving things at that point, then it went exactly as fate wished.

But remember why Rumple chose Regina? Zelena had become infatuated with him. She convinced herself that he was the only person who saw promise instead of wickedness in her (perhaps after her mother), and she loved how he taught her to use her powers instead of holding them in. She fell for the teacher, and needed him to reciprocate that love–that’s part of why she tried to kill Regina. She was afraid of competition, because she had no confidence in herself. And Rumple realized that–and realized also that since she had become obsessed with him, the only way she could cast his Curse was to kill HIM. That made her a threat.

Also, the slippers suggest this is before Rumple pulled the whole Frankenstein trick on Regina to convince her that she wasn’t going to get Daniel back with magic and get her back on track to learning what he wanted her to. So his corruption of Regina was still in its infancy at that point.

As to that: Regina called for his help the first time. He didn’t push her–he just waited for Cora’s abuse to do its job (and probably foresaw that waiting would work). He did not force her to do that, and while he encouraged her to use the mirror and magic for the first time, he didn’t force that either.

And she loved it, even if it scared her.

And the next scene is her riding for freedom, escaping the marriage she didn’t want; Rumple stops her and she gives him back the magic book. He doesn’t stop her, he doesn’t force her to turn back; he just asks (granted, manipulative) questions about her feelings on magic now that she’s used it. And when she voices her fear that magic will turn her into Cora, Rumple promises that it’s entirely up to her whether it will or not. Despite his recent turn to lying, Rumple generally tells some version of the truth. Regina then chooses to go back to Leo (and this is never really explained, though Cora did tell her how to run things before she went to Wonderland–and we notice Regina eventually does just what Cora suggested with the private guard etc), and chooses to learn more magic from Rumple. When she learns that there is no way to bring back Daniel, she chooses to go back to Rumple, kill someone, and prove she’s ready for more. He manipulates, but never forces her to make any of those choices. And all that is LONG before she is in the Evil Queen mode.

The moment that Cora killed Daniel, Regina’s heart hardened; the very next day she was wishing a ten-year-old had died. That was before Rumple was even in the picture as far as she knew.

Regina’s a complex character and definitely a victim of Cora’s abuse and Rumple’s manipulations, but she is also a woman who chose to embrace her inner darkness to the fullest extent at one point in her life. She got there by gradual steps and we seem to be seeing her escape it by gradual steps as well. Her crimes, however, are her own doing. It’s not okay to abuse someone else just because you were abused; it’s merely more understandable (and statistically more likely, as I understand it). Nor does the fault of your crimes fall upon your abusers’ heads.

If Once weren’t a fantasy, the violence and crime we’ve seen from our favorite characters would be the sort of thing that would have Regina locked up, at minimum, for the rest of her life (Rumple, too, and Hook, and even possibly the Charmings depending on how good of lawyers they got). We’re rooting for people who are not good to become good, in a world where good and evil are set at extremes and it’s okay for a character to dabble in both ends of the spectrum and still be likable. That means that, to a degree, we have to accept what the show tells us about the world to work out where the characters are in their arcs–and the show has told us that Marian’s action was brave, good, selfless, heroic, and that she wanted to protect her family. It’s shown us that Regina was wrong in context to condemn Marian to death. And yes…it’s shown us that Regina is constantly losing, and it’s not always her fault (but mostly so far, the actions of the characters HAVE driven their downfalls–Rumple’s lies about the dagger led to his banishment etc…so we’ll see where they’re going with Operation Mongoose).