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A user who goes by the name “simplymaterial” put together an amazing video about Regina’s life and her development throughout seasons 1 to 6 of the show. Check it out at the following link:
Of all the characters Regina has had the most (and best) character development on the show by far. Which is one of the reasons why I’m upset about what we’ve been hearing about season 7. Giving her a new persona in season 7 means all that awesome character development that she went through from season 1 to season 6 is now being wiped away. I really hope they don’t plan on keeping Regina under her new cursed persona (Roni) for the entire season 7. I don’t really care much for this “Roni”. I want Regina back as soon as possible.
[adrotate group="5"]I like Regina, but she has been rewritten multiple times just like all the other characters on the show. I liked it when she was a villain in the first few seasons and i liked her when they just rewrote her and she was part of the team in later seasons. For me, this show doesn’t really develop characters, it just rewrites them, so this new Roni is just a new iteration of the character they have rewritten multiple times anyways.
I am not a big fan of the curse lasting long either. It seems like a waste of time, but if the returning characters are just background characters then maybe it won’t be so bad.
My interpretation of Regina is similar to that of Zelena (see the thread about Zelena’s character study): Borderline Personality Disorder.
The most extreme borderlines can become murderous, but unlike psychopaths, if their BPD comes from an abusive background (i.e. it is not their original, genetic temperament), they can improve and be better people (or the person they were originally meant to be), more secure, love themselves and others, and be one of the nicest people you have ever met. Basically, they can recover and become ”normal” people. The people who develop BPD are sensitive and feel deeply, and this also why this fits Regina to a T.
Overall, to me she is the best written character not only because of development, but because the writers wrote her the most consistently….in keeping with BPD, it’s symptoms, what it takes to recover, the backsliding along the way, and the fact that you can recover from it. Not only this but it the only time I have seen BPD represented so well on television (though BPD may not have been the writers’ original intention).
Keeper of Regina's bravery
That is an interesting take on Regina. The problem being that her behavior is coddled by the other characters. Her abuse of Henry is erased. Her attempts to murder everyone are just seen as little blips. That is why i find her characterization inconsistent and unrealistic. The way everyone reacts to her behavior is completely unrealistic and was the first major flaw in the show.
In the very first episode of Season 2, the way Henry reacts to Regina, saying she’s my mom and the way Emma reacts after just a few hours before having thrown Regina against a wall and saying if he dies you die, was just so inconsistent. Then the stupid episode where Regina tries to kidnap Henry and murder Charming and then Henry goes with her to protect the townspeople and then she lets him stay with Charming, but then later on in another episode Charming invites her over to babysit during Henry’s sleeping curse dream.
The way everyone reacts to Regina right after the curse broke and then again when Emma and Snow return from the Enchanted forest were such huge writing errors and it was never really fixed for me. They just rewrote her for Season 3, again, and from then on i liked Regina again. I liked the evil Regina in Season 1 and the like middle ground, part of the group, still willing to rip hearts and murder, but also actually showing some care for Henry, Snow, and Emma that happened from Season 3 on. Even though there were some great scenes with Cora and Snow and Season 2, Regina’s character was pretty much crazy in that season and how the rest of the characters reacted to her made them all seem crazy too.
I really like the Regina that exists now and her interactions with Emma and Henry have been really good. There has been some great Cora and Zelena stuff in the later seasons, as well as, a few nice moments with Snow over the years. I just don’t think her journey is consistent or earned or somehow better written then any others. They just rewrote Regina three times until they were like oh this is a good middle ground for her to be in and kept with it, so Roni is just the fourth rewrite.
That is an interesting take on Regina. The problem being that her behavior is coddled by the other characters. Her abuse of Henry is erased. Her attempts to murder everyone are just seen as little blips. That is why i find her characterization inconsistent and unrealistic. The way everyone reacts to her behavior is completely unrealistic and was the first major flaw in the show.
In the very first episode of Season 2, the way Henry reacts to Regina, saying she’s my mom and the way Emma reacts after just a few hours before having thrown Regina against a wall and saying if he dies you die, was just so inconsistent. Then the stupid episode where Regina tries to kidnap Henry and murder Charming and then Henry goes with her to protect the townspeople and then she lets him stay with Charming, but then later on in another episode Charming invites her over to babysit during Henry’s sleeping curse dream.
The way everyone reacts to Regina right after the curse broke and then again when Emma and Snow return from the Enchanted forest were such huge writing errors and it was never really fixed for me. They just rewrote her for Season 3, again, and from then on i liked Regina again. I liked the evil Regina in Season 1 and the like middle ground, part of the group, still willing to rip hearts and murder, but also actually showing some care for Henry, Snow, and Emma that happened from Season 3 on. Even though there were some great scenes with Cora and Snow and Season 2, Regina’s character was pretty much crazy in that season and how the rest of the characters reacted to her made them all seem crazy too.
I really like the Regina that exists now and her interactions with Emma and Henry have been really good. There has been some great Cora and Zelena stuff in the later seasons, as well as, a few nice moments with Snow over the years. I just don’t think her journey is consistent or earned or somehow better written then any others. They just rewrote Regina three times until they were like oh this is a good middle ground for her to be in and kept with it, so Roni is just the fourth rewrite.
@hjbau:
Abuse of Henry? Please explain? Sure, Regina did have selfish motives (at first) for adopting Henry, and she did go to extremes to keep the truth from him, but she never “abused” him. And anyone who actually paid attention while watching the show can see that Regina does love Henry.As for your comments about season 2. Season 2 is (for Regina) about Regina’s road to redemption. She starts to change (or at least tries to start to change) for (and because of) Henry. Also, from season 2 and onward throughout all the later seasons as well Regina puts her own life on the line several times to save the heroes. She also actively tries to be a better person and to make up for the things she has done in the past. Sure, on her road to redemption she does slip back to her old ways every now and then during season 2 and 3, but that is what makes her change so believable. (Unlike Hook who goes from villain to hero over the course of one episode, which is completely ridiculous and unrealistic.)
Unlike Rumple, we see that Regina is actually trying to change. And by the time we get to season 5 Regina has become a much better person.
Let’s also not forget that Rumple has done WAY WAY WAY worse things than Regina has ever done. And Rumple is LARGELY to blame for the way Regina turned out when we see her in season 1.
Can Regina ever make up for ALL of the bad things she has done? Well, maybe not. But from season 2 and onward she most certainly does a lot of things to make up for her past. And unlike Rumple, Regina is actually capable of change. Even at the end of season 6 Rumple would still kill everyone, including his own family, if it meant getting more power. And yet many fans praise Rumple as if he can do no wrong.
If you don’t notice how Regina changes (for the better) throughout the course of the show then I suggest you go and re-watch the entire show, and this time pay attention to what you are watching. It’s especially important to pay close attention to Regina’s facial expressions. She actually says a lot with her facial expressions alone. Most of the time if you take notice of her facial expressions you can see that 9 times out of 10 she feels bad whenever she does something “evil” or “bad”. Even in season 1. Just look at the episode in season 1 where she used the Mad Hatter to get her father back. When she leaves the Hatter behind, from the look on her face right before she turns to face him you can see she feels bad that he won’t get to see his daughter again.
I don’t really think how evil Hook and Rumpel are is relevant to the conversation. I don’t like either of those characters and they didn’t have redemption arcs, but neither did Regina.
In Season 1 Regina murdered Graham because he remembered and Henry knew it, so he didn’t spend time with Emma for weeks because he was afraid Regina would murder her. Regina tried to murder Emma, and, instead, Henry almost died from the poisoning attempt. In Season 2, Regina kidnapped Henry by threatening to kill people in the town, so he went with her. He tries to leave and she uses vines against him just like her mother did to her. Regina tells Henry that she is going to use the fail safe which will kill everyone in town and take Henry to live with her. He doesn’t like this, so she erases his memories. Regina constantly neglects Henry throughout the first two seasons. Regina constantly through both seasons suggests that other people’s behaviors are the reason she does evil things, saying it is their fault that she is trying to kill them. She constantly expects Henry to be the one to keep her in check even though he is a child; he constantly has to talk her down from murdering people.
The threatening to kill family members to get a child to do what you want is classic abuse. The neglect is also classic abuse. The emotional abuse is also classic. I am not saying Regina doesn’t love Henry. I think Regina does love Henry in the only way she knows how in those early seasons, but that doesn’t mean she wasn’t also abusive.
Regina’s behavior in Season 2 is just inconsistent. The way the Emma, Snow, and Henry react to her behavior is inconsistent with Season 1. It is a writing error and it has continued to be the major writing error on the show. It started with Regina and now every character on the show is written in an inconsistent manner, sometimes a character will behave one way in one episode and then behave a completely contradictory way in the very next episode with no foreseeable reason for the change. It is bad writing to the extreme.
They could have written a redemption arc in Season 2, but, in my opinion, they did not. They just flipped a switch. One moment Regina is the villain, who cast the curse and tried to kill Emma and instead Henry almost died. The next she is my mom, we have to save her, she’s not dying. Then Regina continued to waffle back and forth throughout the season, trying to murder Emma, Snow, Charming, and general townspeople, joining with Cora, almost casting the fail safe, but then being invited to parties at the diner or being asked to babysit while Henry is in his sleep curse dreams. It is just crazy and Regina is a character, so it has nothing to do with her, it is just writers, writing very, very badly.
I, actually, like Regina too, for a lot of the reasons you said, because she does in later seasons become part of the group. She teaches Emma magic. She co-parents with her. Regina and Snow have some great scenes even though that never was what it could have been. There is a lot of really interesting things going on with her character in later seasons and i actually really like the Regina and Cora and Snow arc in Season 2. Regina is easily the best character left on the show right now, for me, but none of the negates the fact that in Season 1, Regina was the villain and that she abused Henry. That she was so inconsistent in Season 2 and that the other characters reaction to her behavior pretty much ruined the show. Then Hook was introduced and he completely ruined the show to where it is now completely unfixable, so the writers are pretty much scrapping it and trying to start over with a new story.
I think the writers knew near the end of Season 2 that they had made a huge error during that season and tried to fix it. The problem is that they do not understand what they are doing wrong. They made Regina more likeable and had her show real care for Henry. They jumped the shark and introduced a love triangle for Emma. They made Hook her love interest and got rid of Neal. They did all of these random, crazy things in Season 3 because they knew that Season 2 did not work for their audience. The problem being that the things they did were not what was wrong with the show and they only continued to lose viewers. They lost half the audience by the end of Season 3 because they didn’t get what was wrong with their show. What is wrong with the show is that the characters are written inconsistently. That is it.
I just wanted to give my two cents on this even though this convo might be over by now.
As most of you know, if you’ve read any of my previous posts, I love Regina’s character but I agree that she, as well as all of the Once characters, are not written with consistency or in a real believable way. Yes Regina has changed –the reasons for it IMO has not always been personal growth, but also a lot of plot convenience and fanservice.
I think the creators have a lot of good ideas for the show along with a lot of bad ones, but as far as the good ones go they are just not that good at bringing them to life.
This new curse I Do like as an idea for story and exploration of character, but I have my doubts as to whether they will be able to tell the story and have the characters move in it in a satisfactory way.
Back to Regina’s character growth- IMO the only time I really saw her character make a believable step in her redemption(I hate that word) was in the 2 season in one of the first eps-When she gave Henry permission to go live with Charming, because she understood that she wouldn’t win his love by holding onto him with force. After that, all other steps she took towards becoming “good” felt like they were being forced on to her from the writer’s side. This, as mentioned by others, also is to do with the fact that she never actually deals (emotionally or thought-wise) with all the mistakes she has made in her past. Also, nor do the other characters around her really confront her with them.
So In my mind the “real version of Regina” is still stuck in that moment with Henry on the steps.. Everything else Regina does are different versions of her 🙂 Just my humble opinion..
sorry but I don’t know where else to write this. Maybe I should start a new thread?
Anyway, anybody want to hazard a guess as to who Regina’s/Roni’s next love interest will be?
I’m guessing Tramp from Lady and the Tramp. He might even be able to turn himself into a dog haha.
Keeper of Regina's bravery
I think it’s safe to say that Regina, like every other Once character, has been written in a very inconsistent manner. I think that her journey from villain to hero was rushed and mismanaged, possibly because the writers were facing some criticism at the time about adoptive parents being villains? I’ve heard that and I also heard at some point that Lana herself requested to be re-written as a hero? We may never know exactly why. At this point after six seasons of this great, but far too often frustrating show all I really know is that the Once writers are just bad at character consistency and development.
I like Regina, but she has been rewritten multiple times just like all the other characters on the show. I liked it when she was a villain in the first few seasons and i liked her when they just rewrote her and she was part of the team in later seasons. For me, this show doesn’t really develop characters, it just rewrites them, so this new Roni is just a new iteration of the character they have rewritten multiple times anyways.
I am not a big fan of the curse lasting long either. It seems like a waste of time, but if the returning characters are just background characters then maybe it won’t be so bad.
If it turns out that Regina/Roni is just a background character this season then the show has lost me for good. I’ll give it until episode 5 for the show to prove to me that Regina is not just a background character this season. If by episode 5 I’m not convinced then I’m done.
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