The writers depiction of redemption is forget about the horrible things in the past and have everyone around you encourage you and tell you what a great person you are.
Regina was never confronted about Graham because it would would make her seem bad to the fans when she is a fan favorite and she needs to keep being that way cause ratings.
Hook was never confronted about the many horrible things he did in the past, S2,3B,4A,5A cause it would make gim seem bad to the fans when he is a fan favorite and he needs to keep being that way cause ratings.
Which is a shame cause bringing a character to a confrontation about the bad things they did creates great scenes and great drama (e.g. Emma and Neal bar scene in 214). Characters can have flaws, characters can do make mistakes, that’s what makes them interesting. But there is no point if they are not confronted about it, everything is forgotten and everyone is happy. Redemption is not just forget about the past and doing good things, it’s about atonement, making amends and earning forgiveness.
I can say that Hook scene with Emma on the Jolly Roger in 503 was great because he finaly admitted that he was wrong going after Rumple’s wife, breaking a family and being the villain. Unfortunately, that scene means nothing if he doesn’t act upon this conffesion, if he doesn’t make amends with Rumple. Instead they chose to go back to that stupid revenge that became irrelevant cause nobody cares about Milah anymore.
A better plot for Regina in season 4 would have been realizing, through Marian, that Snow wasn’t the only one who got hurt by her, that there were other people. Instead of blaming the author about everything she did and whine about not getting a happy ending, they should have shown her helping the people she hurt getting their happy endings instead.
The writers for some reason don’t affraid to show the characters doing horrible things, but affraid to confront them about it cause then they are directly telling the viewers that what this character is bad and they are affraid that the viewers would be put off by that.
"All your questions are pointless"