Regina’s dilemma

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I was glad to see Regina short-circuit the portal trap at the well in order to save Emma and Snow and impressed that the writers gave her such a difficult choice, but one could argue that from one point of view she made the wrong choice. This was not really a choice to help or hurt Emma and Snow but a choice of whether or not to believe Henry.

Regina’s real motive in setting the trap was clearly not to kill Emma and Snow (even though we know she would not have shed any tears if they died) but to protect Henry from Cora. I realise that in the context of the show she made the right choice. Henry’s reminder that “Good always wins” gave her reason to doubt that Cora would be the one coming through and Henry has a pretty good track record (insisting upon the truth of The Curse, saying the evidence would be found in the abandoned mine, asserting that Emma would succeed in breaking The Curse, etc…). But while happy endings were the rule in the Enchanted Forest, Regina chose to send everyone to our world specifically because, as Snow said in the Season one finale, “Life doesn’t always have a happy ending.”

Given the nature of our world, one could argue that Regina made the wrong choice and simply got lucky. Her choice could in fact be seen as the selfish choice, not the noble one. She chose the act that would give her what she wanted – Henry’s approval – rather than the choice that would have ensured his safety. A good parent has to do what is best for a child, not necessarily what the child wants.

Again, I’m saying this not to bash Regina (I really like her redemption arc) but to emphasise what a difficult choice she was faced with. This one was a lot tougher than simply choosing not to kill Snow and Emma because we’ve seen that choices made with good intentions (like Snow’s revelation of Regina’s secret, Regina’s desire to resurrect Daniel, Rumple’s desire to protect Bae from the Ogre War) can have tragic consequences.

[schmacky]

The thing is… if she kept the trap in place she would lose Henry forever. Because she could insist and insist that it was to protect Henry from Cora but there would always be this corner in Henry’s mind that the reason she set the trap was to kill his mother and grandmother. And he would never forgive Regina for that. So…. keeping the trap in place=certainty of losing Henry.

Removing the trap would lead to the potential of Cora coming through. If she did come through there is also the potential that Rumple and Regina could stop her from doing whatever it was she’d be planning to do. So removing the trap=no certainty of any one event, but potential.

So, really, her best choice was to remove the trap.

[PriceofMagic]

Had Regina not disabled the trap, Emma and Snow would’ve been killed and Cora and Hook would have still found their way to Storybrooke via magic bean.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[Author]

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