Thanks for sharing your story ScarletLady. That was incredibly brave.
However, I have to agree though with the posters that don’t think that Cora and Eva are sisters. Not that this show doesn’t like to connect the characters in any way they can, but I think they’re just connected because Cora was the one responsible for Eva’s death.
Just the way they portrayed Cora in “The Stable Boy” gave me the impression that she herself didn’t come from wealth/royalty, and that she tried very hard to attain a certain status, evidently achieved that status for a short time based on recent spoilers, but lost it all and tried to put Regina into a position of finally accomplishing what she could not do.
Not that it can’t mean that Cora’s plans were more about getting revenge on her sister than just about trying to get Regina to marry into wealth/power, but the way Cora came across to me was like one of those stage mothers from hell, who couldn’t do something when they were younger, so they force their children especially their daughters into trying to accomplish the goal to be able to live vicariously through them like Mama Rose Thompson or Dina Lohan. She just didn’t come across as someone who grew up in that lifestyle at all, and they gave no hints at that time that Snow and Regina might be related. However, they did possibly hint that Cora may have been the one responsible for Snow’s mother’s death because Cora tells Regina that Regina has no idea what she’s had to do to get Regina into a position to marry Leopold. Plus, she obviously was the one that spooked Snow’s horse with magic, so evidently getting King Leopold to marry Regina was part of Cora’s long con all along.
@RumplesGirl wrote:
I agree with this except I don’t think that automatically means they are sisters. I think Cora just really wants a throne (any throne) back. And she’s willing for it to be Regina because I think we all know that Cora would be the true power behind the throne. She could kill Eva without it being a family intrigue. We know Cora arranged for Snow’s horse to go go crazy in Stable Boy thus leading for Regina to save SW and met Leopold, so I don’t think it’s far outside the realm of possibility that she’s been plotting to take the throne for much longer.
If Henry did lose his kingdom/throne to George, it wouldn’t make sense for her to go after that realm because George had an heir, the original James who would have been the same age as Snow, and thus not marriageable age for Regina. Killing George wouldn’t help Cora get a throne.
I suppose she could have arranged for Regina to marry George but that wouldn’t be faithful to the original Fairy Tale.
As for why she picked King Leopold, I agree with the above post that it may have been simply for the fact that Leopold didn’t have an heir while George technically did, since the only people that likely knew that James wasn’t George’s real son were George, his wife, and Rumpelstiltskin, so Regina could have gave Leopold a male son. Plus, I’m not sure where Cora was living at the time, but maybe she and Henry were banished from King George’s kingdom and were living in King Leopold’s kingdom, and it was just more convenient to target Leopold. Like say hypothetically, Prince Thomas’s father would have made a good target too, but maybe he lived thousands of miles away from Cora, so it’s not like she could orchestrate a long con from that far away and not look suspicious.
Speaking of Prince Thomas, in a round about way, personally I see Cora being similar to Ella in some ways. I think their personalities were very different, but I think they were both given the chance to make a deal with Rumpelstiltskin in exchange for their first born. However, they chose different paths after Rumpel reminds them of what will happen when their babies born. So Ella decides to give up her new life of wealth and status to try to protect her unborn child that way.
On the other hand, it seems that Cora may have tried to think she could have both her child and her new life of wealth and status. So like in RumplesGirl’s theory which she posted in “The Miller’s Daughter’s” spoiler section, I think she got a hold of the Dagger, so that Rumpel would have to agree to whatever she wanted which was getting to keep Regina and getting to still be Princess/Queen. Rumpel agrees because he doesn’t have any other choice, but he already has a plan to get back at Cora by making it so Henry loses his kingdom to George, and Cora is left with nothing but Henry and Regina. As years go by, Cora becomes really bitter and angry with herself that she finally was a Princess/Queen, but if she hadn’t wanted to hold onto Regina instead of just handing her over to Rumpelstiltskin, she could still be Princess/Queen. I think that maybe why she told Regina that love was a weakness because she grew to see herself as being weak.