The Sliding Scale of Villainy

[PriceofMagic]

There is a saying, either in general or said on the show, “who the villain is depends on who’s telling the story”. Since day one, Snowing and their family have been treated as the “heroes” and therefore all the storylines have been from their perspective. If someone was against the Charmings, they were automatically “the villains”. So how villainous were the villains really? Rate them on the villain scale 1-10! (1= least villain like. 10=villain extraordinaire)

(I’ve not included “villains” who have redeemed themselves so no Rumple, Regina or Ingrid)

George- The first time we meet George, he’s trying to marry his son off to the daughter of a wealthy king. George’s kingdom is struggling, we later find out this is because Regina’s kingdom cut off trade with George’s kingdom meaning income was severely limited. George arranges with Rumple to have Charming take James’s place so that the arranged marriage can take place and George’s kingdom can prosper once more. Charming decides he’d rather marry for love (as does Abigail) and the wedding is called off. George does not take it well. He wages a war against Snowing (trying to kill Charming, making Snow barren, etc), George even allies himself with Regina (ironically the cause of his kingdom’s troubles in the first place) until he is overthrown and Snowing take residence in his castle. It is unclear what happened to George after his defeat.

In Storybrooke, George continues his vendetta against Charming. Murdering Billy, trying to frame Ruby, and trying to convince the town that Charming wasn’t fit to rule. George also destroyed Jefferson’s hat to prevent Charming from finding a way of returning Emma and Snow to Storybrooke. Whilst we don’t know what happened to George in-show, a deleted scene revealed that Charming imprisoned him in the mines.Whilst George has done some reprehensible things, he original motivation was to ensure the survival of his kingdom. That is what a good king does. Did he really deserve the fate that was handed to him in Storybrooke by Charming?

George’s imprisonment in the mines is full of fridge horror. As far as we know Snowing are the only ones that know he is there. When they jetted off to Neverland for a week, George would’ve been without food or water. This could lead to a slow and painful death either through starvation or dehydration. Even if Snowing did arrange for someone to keep George fed and watered, the horror does not end there. There were no working toilets in the mine, there were no toilets at all. Sooner or later, George would have to “go”. Charming had both of George’s hands shackled, meaning George was severely limited on what he could do. George is wearing a suit which means the trousers likely had a button and zipper. Buttons aren’t always the easiest things to undo at the best of times, now imagine trying to undo one when your movement is severely limited. Anyone who Snowing did trust enough to keep feeding George is also someone who is not going to go out of their way to help George especially with personal matters, and even if they would help, they may not always be there when George required them. Therefore George would not be able to get his trousers down when nature came calling so George would be stuck sitting in it. Snowing denied George his basic human rights. Not to mention lack of sunlight could cause rickets.

Villain Scale: 6

Cora- Cora’s done some pretty terrible things, it’s only later that we find out it’s because she removed her own heart. However, how much can be blamed on the lack of a heart? Although Cora would still know the difference between right and wrong, she just wouldn’t be able to feel guilt or pleasure. It would take too long to list all the bad things Cora did and the good things are virtually non-existant, however due to the cursed candle situation courtesy of Hook, Rumple and Snow, Cora never got the chance to redeem herself once her heart was back in her chest. Cora claimed everything she did was for Regina, and from a stone cold logic point of view it makes sense, it’s only when emotions enter the picture that how terrible what she did really takes hold. Cora’s treatment of Regina growing up led to Regina taking on the mantle of Evil Queen and she began to exhibit the same behavioural traits as her mother.

Villain Scale: 9

Felix- Felix was Pan’s second in command but also his friend. Whilst it was never made clear if Felix knew of Pan’s true intentions for wanting Henry’s heart, there is enough evidence to suggest he did, such as telling the other lost boys “don’t listen to her” when Emma reveals Pan’s true plan and also being completely unfazed with Panry, going so far as to help try and create a “new Neverland”.

We know very little about Felix (because the writers didn’t bother to give him any backstory) so it’s hard to say what his motivations are. We know he’s a lost boy. He seemingly can’t hear Pan’s music (or maybe he could and just wasn’t in the dancing mood) and we know that he and Pan are genuinely friends otherwise his heart wouldn’t have been enough to work. Felix is only a villain by proxy in that he was following Pan’s plan. His friend was dying so of course Felix would want to help stop that, even if the price was Henry’s life. Henry was nobody to Felix and the lack of care for the life of a stranger is also a trait that has been exhibited by the “heroes” of the show.

Villain Scale: 3

Pan- What can be said about Pan? Aside from the fact he didn’t want to die, which is kind of a reasonable line of thinking, he is a very terrible person. He abandoned his son and traumatised him, traumatised his grandson, kidnapped and attempted to kill his great-grandson, took over Henry’s body and tried to curse everyone, killed probably his only friend without batting an eye, belittled and mocked his now grown up son and showed no remorse for anything he did whatsoever.

Villain Scale: 10

Zelena- Zelena is still alive and kicking which means she could descend into further villainy or she could slowly redeem herself. Zelena has done villainous things because she is envious of her sister Regina. She was abandoned by Cora as a baby and grew up with an emotionally abusive father. It’s possible that Zelena never learnt to show emotion in a positive way so she veers from one extreme to the other: she’s an adoring fangirl when someone praises her or shows her positive affection and she becomes vengeful if she feel’s she’s been wronged in some way. Whilst she can’t necessarily make up for her past misdeeds, learning to control her feelings may enable her to build herself a brighter future.

Villain Scale: 8

Hook- Hook is a very divisive character. He started as a villain, somewhat redeemed himself, but has now descended back into villainy worse than before. There are a lot of things Hook has done that he has showed no remorse for. His main transgressions have been against Rumple and Belle. Whilst Hook started the vendetta between himself and Rumple, the continuation of it has been a mutual decision between the two men. However, Hook’s actions against Belle, who had no part in the vendetta but became a target due to her affiliation with Rumple, is what raises him in the villain stakes. He seemed to be making some genuine steps towards making it up to her when he was helping her do research and assured her that despite everything, Rumple really did love her.

Hook’s relationship with Emma has been both good and bad for both parties. Whilst it has encouraged Hook to be good and Emma to be less emotionally-closed off, at the same time it has developed into a co-dependency especially on Hook’s part. Without Emma, he has no reason to stay good. He rejects her if she’s not “his Emma/Swan” this almost impossible pedestal he’s put her on. When he’s angry about being the dark one, he lashes out at Emma with personal insults and claiming she’s failed him. Without his reason to be good, Hook has easily jumped into being bad, and it has to be wondered how hard did the darkness really have to push before Hook willingly took the plunge. We’ve seen both Rumple and Emma as dark ones, and they didn’t fall so nearly as fast as Hook so the darkness can’t be so completely to blame for Hook’s current attitude.

Villain scale: 8

Snowing- Snowing are supposedly “heroes” but some of the things they’ve done kind of veer into villain territory if the story was being told from someone else’s perspective. They’ve denied George his human rights (see above) just because Charming doesn’t “want to look at him everyday”, they cast a dark curse, they separated a baby from it’s mother and sent it to another world because they didn’t want THEIR daughter to turn dark. Snowing, especially Snow, are very self-centred. They only care about themselves and their family. When Storybrooke was being destroyed, Snowing gathered their family and small circle of friends and were ready to transport out of there leaving the rest of the town to their fate. Not only are Snowing supposed to be “heroes” but they were prepared to leave people who were their subjects and even family through Henry to die.

Villain Scale: 5

[Author]

Posts