This post is long and a bit all over the place, because I’m not entirely sure what to make of the Tink situation yet.
Firstly, where does this pic fit in the timeline? We’ve seen Regina in that dress twice before, once just before her wedding, and once before Daniel died.
If it’s back in the day before Daniel died, maybe Regina had just gone to stroll in the nearby village as she often did, and Tink came to her, (as she’d done before, because she’s her FGM), and Regina started gushing about this really cute boy who just started working in the stables, but she doesn’t have anyone to talk to about it, because she knows that if her mother found out she liked him, she’d get in trouble. And Tink can say that true love is the most powerful magic of all, and if Regina loves the stable boy, she should just go for it, and there’s no way Cora could ever tear them apart.
That could either be Tink being a genuinely caring and encouraging FGM, or it could be Sneaky Tink who knows the future, encouraging Regina down the path that would end up with her heart broken, which would end up with her turning evil, which would end up with her casting the Curse for Rumple and PP.
If it’s before the wedding, but after Regina moves into Leopold’s place, this could be the future Queen exploring her new home, getting to know the people she was going to be ruling over, trying to find something to brighten up the otherwise crap situation she’d ended up in. It would be nice (and heart wrenching) to see her interacting with the peasants in a positive way, instead of how we usually see them hating her and her killing them and stuff.
If Regina had known Tink previously as her FGM, would they appear so chummy in the pic? If I was Regina, and my FGM hadn’t come to help out when my true love’s life was in danger, I’d be pretty pissed at said FGM, not walking along arm in arm with her all smiley. So perhaps Tink hadn’t ever appeared to Regina previously, but was appearing now because Regina was struggling to come to terms with the new direction her life was taking and needed some help. Though again, if I were Regina, I’d be all, “And only now are you showing up to help me? Coulda used your help even more a couple of weeks ago! Thanks for nothin’!” As opposed to the smiley pic.
If it’s just after the wedding, again, Regina could be mingling with the people she’s begun to rule over, getting to know them, trying to find something positive in her crap situation. It would probably have to be rather soon after the wedding, because Regina started working with Rumple when the wedding happened, and it didn’t take that long for her to become totally bitter and dark, so I can’t see her cheerily hanging out with the peasants for any great length of time after the wedding.
And again, I can’t really see her being all smiley with Tink if she’s around after the wedding, when Regina’s life is officially on a downward spiral, because if fairy magic is on offer, it really should have helped her get out of that downward spiral some time ago, before she ended up completely trapped in it. If I were Regina, I’d be sort of annoyed with Tink by that point in time, not laughing with her like she was my BFF.
Then again, it’s not often that Regina acts in a way that I think makes sense, so perhaps my own mindset isn’t even valid in this argument. 😛
Then we have the question of Tink’s allegiance. Who does she work for? What’s her motivation? Can she flit back and forth between worlds?
Traditionally, pixie dust from Tink made the JR fly out of NL. If Tink’s pixie dust has the same abilities in the show, then yes, she herself should be able to move between worlds at will, (though if she does end up being Regina’s FGM, I’d guess that FTL is Tink’s primary residence, because it wouldn’t make much sense for her to be given a charge who lives in a whole, separate world). But maybe, at some point after this scene with Regina, Tink got shut out of FTL. Cora’s magical, but once she went through the Looking Glass, she didn’t have a way to get back to FTL, so perhaps the same could be true for Tink? Rumple is the one who arranged the one way trip for Cora, so probably had the ability to arrange a similar situation for Tink if she was being a genuine FGM to Regina, which was screwing up Rumple’s plans. Given that we haven’t seen Tink coming to see Regina during her EQ days, I’m inclined to think that it was because Tink couldn’t actually get to her. It’s either that, or she was just straight up ignoring Regina’s need for help.
So was Tink a long term resident of NL and buddy of PP’s, or did she only end up there more recently? Either way, she could have worked with him at some point, and played a role in the plan to get Henry. If she’d known and worked with him for a long time, it just means that she’d probably been manipulating Regina from the getgo. If she only met PP more recently, she could still have ended up working for him, helping to communicate with THO. Even if Tink got shut out of FTL, that doesn’t mean she also got shut out of our world.
Maybe PP needed her in NL, because the ability to travel between worlds was a power unique to her, and he needed to be able to do that in order for the lines of communication between him and THO to be possible. Though, the Shadow was able to fly back and forth to our world, so PP must have already had that ability to cross between worlds, I guess. Maybe the Shadow was the only being that could actually leave, and PP needed someone else as well, to act as liaison with THO, so that’s why he needed Tink?
Anyway if Rumple did kick her out of FTL, he may have been doing it, (knowingly or not), on behalf of PP. If it was Blue who kicked Tink to NL, again, she could have been doing it on behalf of PP, (most likely knowingly in her case).
Going way back to the start of my post, talking about FGM Tink maybe encouraging Regina to go for it with the cute stable boy, those two being happy would have changed the course of history. If Blue was aware of the prophecy, was maybe even in cahoots with PP concerning the whole thing, then she wouldn’t want Tink around, encouraging and helping to protect Regina’s love for Daniel. Blue could have told Tink to back off, and when Tink told her where to go, Blue took action and booted her out of FTL.
What I like about this scenario, (apart from it reinforcing Sneaky Fairy, which is always fun), is that it could make Regina in present day re-evaluate her perception of Tink, which could in turn lead to her re-evaluating her perception of Snow, and YAY character development.
Regina thinks Tink abandoned her, so she’s resentful towards her. Turns out, Tink actually tried to be there genuinely for Regina, but circumstances she wasn’t in control of led to Regina feeling betrayed by her.
Regina thinks Snow is the reason Daniel died, so she’s resentful towards her. But really, it was Cora’s manipulation that put Snow in a situation she wasn’t in control of, which led to Regina feeling betrayed by her.
If she comes to a realisation about the truth of her relationship with Tink, that should have a flow on affect to her relationship with Snow.
Also, imagine if Tink reveals to the Charmings that she had this run in with their precious Blue back in the day. Would set up some new tension for when they eventually get back to SB.
OK, that’s more than enough random rambling for one post. 😛