@Phee wrote:
Everything involving Regina was so well written in this ep. Add me to the chorus of people who felt some actual sympathy for her for the first time. I’m actually starting to really want her to be redeemed. Before this ep, I really hadn’t thought she deserved it.
What about The Stable Boy? That was the first time for me. I always liked her as a villain, but The Stable Boy just added so many dimensions to her character. Obviously Snow was deceived and was only a child, but wouldn’t you feel anger towards someone who broke a promise and got the love of your life taken away, your happy ending gone forever. Even if you don’t agree with Regina’s motives at least you have better reasons now of why she hates Snow unlike in the first ep where Snow said it was the traditional reason of “because I’m prettier.”
Regina is actually the victim. I’m not an Evil King, but I associate really strongly with the desire just to be loved so I understand where she’s coming from. She found true love and had her love stolen away by her mother because of Snow’s actions. She managed to escape her mother not long after, but for years the only person she had to vent her rage on was Snow. She was trapped in a castle never allowed to leave, married to a man that didn’t love her, so she killed him so she could be free of him. With that she inherited the Kingdom, but then her people didn’t love her either, hurt and rejected she chose the (wrong) path of trying to force them to like her with her power and so she became EVIL!
Then as we saw in the Hansel and Gretle episode, she tries to get kids, she offers them everything possible, and they still reject her. When she finally manages to adopt a child who she genuinely loves, cares for and protects. He rejects her too, calling her evil, wanting to live with someone else, calling someone else Mum.
She’s had a really raw deal. Plus unless I’m mistaken she wasn’t that bad as Queen, sure she ruled by fear, but Rumple was a lot worse in his town, Regina was never shown killing people just on a whim. The only people we’ve ever seen her killing was an evil witch who ATE children, so actually it was a good thing she killed her, she never explained why she did it, maybe it was to protect the children of her land. And the Sherrif/Hunter, who she killed in a fit of rage after he too, rejected her love and instead seemed to fall in love with her enemies daughter!