Zelena Mills/The Wicked Witch of the West Character Analysis

[WickedRegal]

Let’s say Rumple did not kill Zelena. 1) Would she have taken the second chance offered to her? and 2) What would that have looked like?

1. In the end…Zelena was powerless, with only Regina there to protect her from Storybrooke’s wrath. I think she would have realized that she didn’t have much of a choice, but to become a better person, and would have gradually over time redeemed herself in the eyes of Storybrooke.

2. Zelena’s redemption would be just the same as Regina’s was, but only a lot easier. Of course…judgmental Storybrooke would be judgmental, and wait till Zelena risk her life a few hundred times and still not forgive her, but eventually one day they will.  But what would make Zelena’s redemption so much easier is that she’d have Regina holding her hand through it….

Regina’s been there done that with NO ONE”S help. Henry left, stayed with Charmings, and manipulated her love against her to suit him and his “blood” family needs, the Charmings practically pounced on her the first chance they got to make her the bad guy, SB wouldn’t accept her, and Rumple bragged about how she’d never find her happy ending….not to mention Regina had a very painful redemption arc with Daniel dying, Cora dying, Charmings & SB turning on her…but eventually she managed to claw her way up the Mountaintop of Redemption. And did so with NO ONE”S help. So Regina knows first hand how it feels to be in Zelena’s position, and according to Lana Parrilla, Regina was even going to once say “It’s nice to have family in town”. So without a doubt…Regina would have helped her sister find her redemption, and eventually her own happy ending. Regina would have been Zelena’s Tinkerbelle.

1) I don’t think Zelena would have taken the second chance. It was only because she realised that Rumple was literally going to kill her that she tried to play the second chance card. I also think that it wasn’t Regina’s place to be offering Zelena the second chance. 2) I think Zelena would’ve bided her time, licked her wounds, but her jealousy of Regina would’ve reared its ugly head again because she would’ve seen Regina as lording it over her because Regina gave her the second chance. Zelena would’ve tried something again.

1. Not necessarily true…Zelena had been really been considering accepting Regina’s offer considering she truly had no other choice. And Rumple killing a powerless, defenseless woman said a lot about his character…and I’m just going to throw it out there, the first thought that came to me was “back to the coward” phase as he apparently didn’t have the guts to go after Zelena in Oz, as he knew she would one day pose a threat. And it was very much sadder when Zelena actually began to weep, and plead for her life & second chance, before Rumple daggered her. Then again…Rumple did curse Regina with the wraith, influenced Snow to kill Cora….but this isn’t the Rumple thread, so I won’t continue on his “toxic thing” with the Mills Women. And it was more Regina’s place to decide what to do with her sister since the entire vendetta was against her in the first place…and in her own words “everyone else just became collateral damage”.

2. And that’s also not necessarily true…all Zelena desired was a stable, loving relationship. She had no more blood family, her adoptive father didn’t like her, her adoptive mother died when she was young, she feels Rumple and Cora betrayed her for Regina, Shady Glinda was ready to replace her, and the other pieces missing to Zelena’s backstory….Zelena probably never experienced love. Therefore…Regina could have become that person who would always stand by Zelena’s side, and actually help her sister along the path to redemption. The only thing Zelena required was love, something she’s never experienced, and the sisterly bond can be one of the truest love of all as shown by Frozen. And I do hope that when we see Zelena again in S4(more than likely 4B), that her and Regina can have that chance to make up for the time they lost.

 

[PriceofMagic]

1. Not necessarily true…Zelena had been really been considering accepting Regina’s offer considering she truly had no other choice. And Rumple killing a powerless, defenseless woman said a lot about his character…and I’m just going to throw it out there, the first thought that came to me was “back to the coward” phase as he apparently didn’t have the guts to go after Zelena in Oz, as he knew she would one day pose a threat. And it was very much sadder when Zelena actually began to weep, and plead for her life & second chance, before Rumple daggered her. Then again…Rumple did curse Regina with the wraith, influenced Snow to kill Cora….but this isn’t the Rumple thread, so I won’t continue on his “toxic thing” with the Mills Women. And it was more Regina’s place to decide what to do with her sister since the entire vendetta was against her in the first place…and in her own words “everyone else just became collateral damage”.

Regina didn’t really suffer at Zelena’s hands though. Yeah she was thrown through the clock tower, but it’s not like her son died or she was kept enslaved for a year by Zelena unlike Rumple. Rumple should’ve got a say in what happened to Zelena. Obviously he would’ve wanted to kill her whilst Regina didn’t but they should’ve come to a compromise so that it didn’t feel like Zelena was going to be let off scott free after what she did. If it had been Henry that died, you know Regina wouldn’t have been so forgiving of Zelena, in fact she’d probably have been first in line to kill her.

Zelena only began to weep and plead for her life when she realised Rumple was actually able to kill her. She was still taunting him right before when she thought he couldn’t do anything because he didn’t have the dagger. She was unrepentant for all her wrong doing up until she realised she was going to die.

2. And that’s also not necessarily true…all Zelena desired was a stable, loving relationship. She had no more blood family, her adoptive father didn’t like her, her adoptive mother died when she was young, she feels Rumple and Cora betrayed her for Regina, Shady Glinda was ready to replace her, and the other pieces missing to Zelena’s backstory….Zelena probably never experienced love. Therefore…Regina could have become that person who would always stand by Zelena’s side, and actually help her sister along the path to redemption. The only thing Zelena required was love, something she’s never experienced, and the sisterly bond can be one of the truest love of all as shown by Frozen. And I do hope that when we see Zelena again in S4(more than likely 4B), that her and Regina can have that chance to make up for the time they lost.

Zelena knew love from her adoptive mother. We don’t know how recently her adoptive mother died but Zelena seemed quite well rounded growing up. She walked out on her adoptive father when he started being abusive towards her. Zelena knew love because she had the confidence to walk out on her adoptive father.

I think Zelena’s eager to please attitude was her trying to replicate the unconditional love she got from her adoptive mother. If she pleased the person, they’d love her in return. However if they didn’t give her the love she craved, she’d make them pay. I did feel sorry for Zelena during the Glinda situation but the hate for Regina was built on flimsy ground at best. Regina hadn’t done anything wrong to warrant the hate, she’d never even met Zelena.

I still think Zelena would resent Regina. She wouldn’t want Regina’s pity or have Regina lording it over her. Regina told her she’d kill her if she tried anything again. Regina’s basically told Zelena “I’ve given you a second chance and I can take it away again”. Regina would’ve been in a position of power over Zelena, and considering how much Zelena hates Regina, Zelena wouldn’t enjoy it.

Snowing were to quick to jump on the “Regina’s the bad guy” bandwagon in season 2 and you know what else, they also jumped on the “if it’s not Regina, it must be Rumple” bandwagon too. Snowing are too quick to tar Rumple and Regina with the villain brush rather than consider it could be someone else. The difference between Regina, Rumple and Zelena is that Rumple and Regina have actually taken steps in redeeming themselves so that when they are accused of villainy by Snowing, it is unfair to them. Zelena hadn’t taken steps to redeem herself before Rumple killed her, and it’s not because she didn’t get the chance. If she’d shown some willingness to accept the second chance when Regina offered it, or at least attempted to apologise to Rumple before he killed her, then it would be fair to say Rumple cut her off from a chance of redemption. However she was taunting him still when she thought he couldn’t do anything to her- that doesn’t suggest she was considering accepting Regina’s second chance.. Her attitude only changed when she thought “oh crap, Rumple can kill me and I’ve really p***ed him off”.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[Jenna_B]

Ok, so…
1) Zelena is just unhinged.  And I think she would’ve been regardless of whether her father emotionally abandoned her, Dorothy did or did not come along and ‘threaten’ Z’s place with the other witches in Oz, or even if Rumple felt Z could/could not be the Mills daughter to eventually enact the SB curse.
As said, it appears Z grew up in a fairly loving household.  Her mother (adoptive, I don’t consider Cora her mother, more like her incubator) obviously loved her.  Her father was probably always distant, and I assume his distance is part of the reason she was so eager to please.  But if that situation was as bad as it got, she still had a far better childhood than….almost every other lead character on OUAT, villain or hero.

I don’t know if the Oz arc were prolonged and Z better fleshed out, we would still consider her unhinged or truly motivated for her actions – my assumption is that I would not.  I would’ve liked to see more but again, if her childhood until she left her father was the way it was presented, on this show where villains are made, not born, she still would’ve been the first villain to truly test that theory and her motivation lie in the fact that she’s – for lack of a better word – off her rocker.  With such little motivation, to me she presents as the least predicable and biggest threat of any of the villains to date.  If she comes back, I would like to see her be just flat out nuts.

2) I think their venture ‘into’ Oz was more successful than NL.  We were told we weren’t really going to Oz, so the fact that much of the original story isn’t present didn’t bother me.  What we did see kept me interested, and I liked it.  3B wasn’t about Oz, it was about one of the characters in Oz, with snippets of other Oz traits, but the story took place in Storybrooke, and for that, I was glad to see them back in what’s become their home town.  Had they actually BEEN in Oz, I would’ve been disappointed – as I was with NL.

RumplesGirl wrote:
Let’s say Rumple did not kill Zelena. 1) Would she have taken the second chance offered to her? and 2) What would that have looked like?

I don’t believe Z was capable of taking Regina’s second chance – see above (she’s a freaking whack-a-do).  The reason characters such as Rumple, Regina, Hook were able to be redeemed (and it would take a lot but I think Cora could’ve been redeemed as well) was because their initial motivations were, at it’s core, based on love/family/home.  Z might say her initial motivation is lack of home, or because her sister had everything she wanted, but I don’t believe this is actually true – she never once stopped to try to bond with Regina, she never actually listened to Regina to see that her life wasn’t all that enviable – she pretty much went off the deep end.  So although she might even try to take that second chance, I think she is incapable of true redemption.  I think the same stands for Pan – his villiany was rooted in purely selfish motivations – and I think because he willingly gave up his family for purely selfish reasons, he, too could not be redeemed.  Which makes them, in my opinion, are more dangerous than even Rumple, Regina, or any of the other villians we’ve seen before.  (And why I would LOVE to see either/both of them again!  Can you even imagine Pan and Zelena working together – holy warpath!!)

[Bo-Peeps]

Zelena was a chaotic mess of a character. Granted, she had some of the funniest lines of the season and her control of the dagger made her very bold, but really, for me she was the ultimate scenery chewer and overacted everything, getting way too much in the face of other characters. Loose cannon rolling all over the deck.

Whiney? Yeah. Even with her blatant evil and intelligence, she resorted to crazed, *poor, poor me* crap at the weirdest times. From my viewing seat, the flashbacks did nothing to create genuine sympathy for her, either.

Unhinged? Totally. She was a completely deranged whacko.  And it rather killed the possibilities of a good Oz connection. She has too much of an immature, tantrum throwing nut ball to be a serious dark threat.

Too rushed, as many of you have said. Not enough time to absorb much of anything before she was off on her next lunatic action. You couldn’t even pinpoint her *I hate my sister* motivation, since she seemed to have plenty of power already when she showed up. It was as if the writer’s pot of coffee while plotting things out was laced with Speed.

Redeemable? I didn’t care. I was just glad Rumple deteriorated her. I wanted her to die! It didn’t come soon enough to save some of the more interesting characters.

Sadly, Oz was misused and even abused. As deviously cool as the flying monkeys visuals were, plot wise, they were quite flat and ill-defined in the entire story line.  The whole Walsh deal…just weird. The end result of being a flying monkey was…what? For all the hype of Wicked vs Evil, all Oz did was basically set up the *No Place Like Home* parallel for Dorothy/Emma in the finale (which played out like it’s own min-mini season within a season.) Reading fans creative versions and ideas of what could happen concerning Oz was more entertaining several times than what showed up on the screen.

Way too many different agendas playing out poorly in the writer’s room. Still entertaining just because of the magical love everyone has for Oz, and our continuing love for the major players… but falling short in the realized potential.

What COULD be said about Zelena? Her biting and pointed snark, when not accompanied by chewed scenery dripping from her mouth, was PRIME. The flying monkeys were menacing, very dorky hats and flashy costumes were worn and it gave Carlyle a chance to act delightfully insane. Oh, and Hook trussed up in a trunk having a rose dragged across his mouth was…pleasantly entertaining. (heh)

***Always in search of a good flock***

[WickedRegal]

Well…maybe when Zelena returns in Season 4, we catch extra glimpses of her backstory. As I said there are missing pieces, and we may come upon the famous quote “Are people born wicked…or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?” 😛
But she deserves her chance of redemption, and I just believe Rumple “avenging” his son….I loved Neal, he was actually my second favorite male character, well since Robin peeved me off in the finale, Neal was my favorite male character…but Zelena only stacked the aces…Neal was the one who rolled the dice. And true it was very OOC for Neal to just say “to hell with the price” but that’s what he did….I just find it wrong for Rumple to place all of the blame on Zelena. And Regina did make a point…”who haven’t we killed to get what we want?”

And true if that had been Henry to die instead of Neal….Regina probably would have been first in line to kill Z, but she wouldn’t do it because she knows that’s not what Henry would have wanted. She would have respected her son’s wishes, and just locked Zelena away instead. This should have been the case for Rumple, who should have honored Bae’s memories, and not kill Zelena, because Neal would not have wanted his father to backslide the way that he did. Neal sacrificed his life to bring back a hero…not a villain. And Rumple killing Zelena was like a slap in Neal’s face.

"If you go as far as you can see...you will then see enough to go even further." - Finn Balor

[PriceofMagic]

Thing is Zelena wasn’t going to be locked away, Regina was going to let her out as part of a second chance. Whilst Rumple was wrong to kill Zelena, at the same time it felt like Regina was a little insensitive to how he felt about what he’d just gone through. She kind of just dismissed him.

What would have been better is if either Zelena went on trial in Storybrooke with a jury or Regina and Rumple both got a say in what happened to Zelena so that they would both feel that their opinions were validated.

As it stands, Regina was all “I want to give her a second chance” whilst Rumple was “I want to kill her” and there was no middleground. It was either one extreme or the other. Really neither Rumple nor Regina should’ve decided what happened to Zelena since they were both too involved and therefore it wouldn’t have been a fair sentence or trial.

All magic comes with a price!

Keeper of Felix

[RumplesGirl]

And true if that had been Henry to die instead of Neal….Regina probably would have been first in line to kill Z, but she wouldn’t do it because she knows that’s not what Henry would have wanted. She would have respected her son’s wishes, and just locked Zelena away instead

I just can’t believe this, sorry. Regina goes into protective Mama Bear mode when it comes to Henry. This is the woman who spent HOW long trying to defend Daniel’s memory by going after Snow?

If Henry died at Zelena’s hand, Regina would claw the woman’s eyes out and snap her neck afterwards.

And Rumple killing Zelena was like a slap in Neal’s face.

And on that we agree.

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

[WickedRegal]

Thing is Zelena wasn’t going to be locked away, Regina was going to let her out as part of a second chance. Whilst Rumple was wrong to kill Zelena, at the same time it felt like Regina was a little insensitive to how he felt about what he’d just gone through. She kind of just dismissed him. What would have been better is if either Zelena went on trial in Storybrooke with a jury or Regina and Rumple both got a say in what happened to Zelena so that they would both feel that their opinions were validated. As it stands, Regina was all “I want to give her a second chance” whilst Rumple was “I want to kill her” and there was no middleground. It was either one extreme or the other. Really neither Rumple nor Regina should’ve decided what happened to Zelena since they were both too involved and therefore it wouldn’t have been a fair sentence or trial.

If SB went by this…then we wouldn’t have our anti heroes. Everything begins with a second chance….Snow was the one who decided what to do with Regina because Snow was the one Regina targeted. Should David have a say in the matter…he didn’t because he was as Regina stated “collateral damage”. Had Peter Pan lived, Rumple should have been the only one to decide what to do with him, because he was the one Pan mostly targeted on. Rumple should have had a say in what to do with Hook, well, considering Rumple killed Millah, and Hook stole Millah, I don’t know who should have a say on who in that matter. But the point is…Regina was the head target Zelena was aiming for, so Regina should have had the say so…Rumple, Emma, Charmings, Hook, Henry, Belle all became collateral damage.

Of course Regina was going to let Zelena out, because she wanted to give her the chance, Rumple, Hook, and herself got. And not to mention the fact that she was the only family Regina had left. Zelena was only in jail for one night before Rumple killed her…we’ll never know if Regina would have went to consider Rumple’s feelings or not. She may could have just been waiting until the morning before approaching him…but we’ll never know. Bottomline…this was #WickedvsEvil, Regina against her sister Zelena….something only between the two of them. Not to disregard Rumple’s painful year, but it was like a silent vote in 3×20. When Regina declared that her sister was to be spared, none of the Charmings or Hook(who were also collateral damage) spoke against it. Majority ruled in favor.

WickedRegal wrote:

And true if that had been Henry to die instead of Neal….Regina probably would have been first in line to kill Z, but she wouldn’t do it because she knows that’s not what Henry would have wanted. She would have respected her son’s wishes, and just locked Zelena away instead

I just can’t believe this, sorry. Regina goes into protective Mama Bear mode when it comes to Henry. This is the woman who spent HOW long trying to defend Daniel’s memory by going after Snow? If Henry died at Zelena’s hand, Regina would claw the woman’s eyes out and snap her neck afterwards. 

And Regina learned her lesson from the Daniel experience. Had Henry died at Zelena’s hand, Regina would have never forgiven her sister, and probably locked her away under the Clock Tower for life, but she wouldn’t have killed her. Because that’s not what Henry would have wanted, and Regina respects Henry’s wishes above all else. You can either honor or dishonor your child’s memory, and Regina would have honored them.

"If you go as far as you can see...you will then see enough to go even further." - Finn Balor

[bibliophile]

Now that Zelena’s story on Once is essentially over can we talk about what her story could’ve been? It’s always bothered me that she was powerful enough to summon a tornado to Oz with her baby rage, yet she was born of two non-magic users in Cora and ‘prince’ Jonathan the gardener. So here is how I would change the Zelena story…

Cora – Cora is a poor and miserable women with a drunken father, a wretched life and no obvious way out except to marry for money/a title. She meets Rumple, learns some magic, breaks Rumple’s heart and then when she finds out she’s pregnant she tells Henry (Sr.) that the baby is his, even though she knows better (she knows it’s Rumple’s baby). Henry’s father, who knew about Cora and ‘the imp’ confronts her about the actual parentage of her child and Cora kills him. When the baby is born green (or gold) Cora knows that showing her daughter to her husband will cost her everything, so she dumps Zelena in the woods and tells everyone her child was stillborn (killing the midwife too no doubt).

OZ – Abandoned child of The Dark One Zelena summons up a tornado that takes her to OZ and drops her right in the path of a poor childless couple… do they raise her? Does her color (green or gold) make a difference to them?

Rumple – Obviously if they changed the story of Zelena’s birth and made her Rumple’s daughter this would necessitate a few crucial changes in the later stories (meat pies and boiled peas for one).  Would Rumple realize that she was his daughter when he was teaching her magic? How radically would Zelena’s story have to be changed if she’s Rumple’s daughter?

 

[TheWatcher]

I don’t have an issue with the fact that shes so powerful. I mean, you have some people who are mathematical geniuses who come from parents who never went to high school.

Magic seems to be an innate talent but still something you have to train at (Zelena was trained by the dark one and without that training, she probably wouldn’t be half of what she was) So I think her power is a mix of natural talent and great education. Making her Rump’s daughter to explain her power just makes stuff too complicated. I think Rump should have stayed with one child as his motivation: Bae.

And Gideon is fine too, I guess.

"I could have the giant duck as my steed!" --Daniel Radcliffe
Keeper Of Tamara's Taser , Jafar's Staff, Kitsis’s Glasses , Ariel’s Tail, Dopey's Hat , Peter Pan’s Shadow, Outfit, & Pied Cloak,Red Queen's Castle, White Rabbit's Power To World Hop, Zelena's BroomStick, & ALL MAGIC

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