Some Thoughts on Regina

[storyteller]

With the mid-season break only a few weeks (not to mention an important research project I’ll be on for the next few days) I thought it might be good to get the ball rolling on some discussion of where Regina is up to this season and where she is likely to go.
1) Why give Regina such an epic soul mate as Robin Hood unless you plan to follow through with their love conquering all?

2) Why set it up that Regina is the only one to feel her situation is hopeless, unless the point is that someone must give her hope?

3) Why is her life repeatedly and repeatedly saved by intervention and circumstance, unless she’s more important to the end game than her companions or the audience believe at present?

4) Why drop hints about Regina finding out who she truly is beginning in Season 2 and continuing most recently with 3×03?

5) Isn’t it a Catch 22 for Regina to have such a dark heart that could serve as the ultimate weapon, crush it and your own heart takes on the black spot (i.e. the fate that awaited Tink if she followed through) or enrage and embitter Regina even more (the way David and Snow do) and back her further into a corner (i.e. the Huntsman fails, leads to the Sleeping Curse, leads to the Dark Curse each time her anger get more and more implacable)? Since they don’t know that all she needs is love like Tink does they are trapped in a perpetual game of whack a mole. Help to heal that heart or succumb to the darkness are the only viable options. Because you destroy Regina you destroy the family period.

 

[Gaultheria]

2) Why set it up that Regina is the only one to feel her situation is hopeless, unless the point is that someone must give her hope?

I think Regina’s destiny is to move beyond hope.  There can be no redemption for her many murders, and there’s no chance for a happily ever after, but she can still grow up and serenely accept what she’s sown.  Part of that can mean accepting Henry’s love and Snow’s forgiveness, and even Robin’s regret for what might have been.  Spending the rest of her life in prison would be sad, but the greater tragedy would be for her to remain as she is, always blaming others for her actions and misfortunes.

Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

[storyteller]

That creates a bit of a problem when the whole premise of the show is predicated on the notion that there is hope. How does one move beyond hope? Regina was serene and ready to let go in the season 2 finale hence why survive, why introduce love in the form of Robin, why have her pathos be so wonderfully paralleled in Emma?  It is a show about fairy tales with everyone shooting for their own happy ending. And Regina hasn’t exactly had a cheering section she puts any faith in outside of Henry because he is uniquely positioned because of who he is.

Custodian of Graham's darts, Rumple's spindle and Robin's quiver

[RumplesGirl]

That creates a bit of a problem when the whole premise of the show is predicated on the notion that there is hope. How does one move beyond hope? Regina was serene and ready to let go in the season 2 finale hence why survive, why introduce love in the form of Robin, why have her pathos be so wonderfully paralleled in Emma? It is a show about fairy tales with everyone shooting for their own happy ending. And Regina hasn’t exactly had a cheering section she puts any faith in outside of Henry because he is uniquely positioned because of who he is.

Maybe beyond hope is peace? Making peace not only with Snowing and Emma and Henry and Rumple but maybe most importantly with herself. Being centered in who she is and not fluctuating between extremes. I think she needs hope that she can recover that girl we saw in Stable Boy but also make peace with the fact that she’ll never be wholly that girl ever again.

*random two cents*

"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"

[Gaultheria]

I don’t mean that Regina needs to give up hope (in the sense of giving in to despair).  But she’s lost the right to decide her own fate, so going out on her own terms like she intended to do in the finale still seems like denial of responsibility.

Gaultheria's fanvids: http://youtube.com/sagethrasher

[storyteller]

Right to determine one’s own fate? Not to put too fine a point on that but that is something that cannot be intrinsically taken away, it can only be abnegated by the individual themselves.  Re-asserting control of her fate seems a more plausible notion given the manipulations and fears she has been subjected to over the course of the series.  Rumple did say that whether she turned out like her mother was up to her. Rumple so manipulated her that she began denying true self in favor of what he was feeding her in terms of negative emotions. Recall that Rumple planted the notion in her head that all she had was anger when she was fearful and lonely.  Her self-sacrifice at the end of the second season was a self-less act of love and an assertion of responsibility intended to save Henry’s life and end her misery.

In my opinion the girl we saw in Stable Boy was a woman on the verge of greatness and if her love had bloomed who knows what she would be capable of remember that she has never really been allowed to be herself as she has wished. She has always been what others or the circumstances have dictated namely an obedient daughter, a dark apprentice (pawn) and an Evil Queen. She has not truly been allowed to be herself as it were.

P.S. will be absent for this week’s forums graduate research papers wait for no man. Best to everyone.  And with a flick and a flourish of my hands and a big puff of crimson smoke I’m away my dearies.

Custodian of Graham's darts, Rumple's spindle and Robin's quiver

[Author]

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