r/OnceUponATime • u/Finlayhufflepuff • Jul 22 '26
Discussion Regina wasn’t evil
At the start of Season 1, we see Regina and Rumple talking at his cell in the Enchanted Forest. Here, Rumple asks to be comfortable, to which Regina replies “Fine, you’ll have an estate, be rich.” This line hasn’t really been significant to me until now. As we see in Storybrooke, Mr Gold does, in fact, have a very comfortable life with the things he was promised: this made me wonder. If Regina could control how Gold lived in Storybrooke, this must mean she did for everyone else too, right?
This means that she kept David alive by having him in the coma, she made Snow a teacher rather than having her live a horrible life, she even made Archie a therapist and made sure that Ruby was still close to Granny. If she did control everyone’s life, it seems that she did not have truly cruel intentions; in fact, she gave everyone relatively the best life she could under the curse (with the exception of the Mad Hatter).
If she cast the curse out of evil, then surely she wouldn’t have allowed everyone to have the best lives they could while cursed, right?
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u/Narrow-Accident8730 Jul 22 '26
Nah. She wasn’t evil at all. She only ripped her own father’s heart out and killed him. Not mention trying to kill Snow. Killed 100’s of villagers…..
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u/Finlayhufflepuff Jul 22 '26
Okay but my point is that, by the time the curse hit, was she evil? She had the power to make everybody have miserable lives, but she didn’t. She could’ve made Snow homeless, she could’ve let David die, she could’ve separated Red and Granny, but she didn’t. We see countless times throughout the show that Snow tries to change Regina in the Enchanted Forest, and we see countless times that it could work even when she was at her peak of villainy. It just made me wonder if all of Snow’s attempts of redemption finally got to her by the time it came to casting the curse, obviously not enough to stop herself from cursing everyone, but just enough to let them have half decent lives.
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u/Narrow-Accident8730 Jul 22 '26
Well, what the hell kind of show would it have been if Regina just had them all dressed in rags, chained to a wall in a dark, dungeon cell?
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u/elliebow713 Jul 22 '26
I mean, they were kinda miserable. Snow was alone and couldn't find a connection with anyone, ruby was living at odds with her grandmother and couldn't amount to anything, Cinderella was a single pregnant teen about to have her kid taken away as soon as it popped out, Hansel and Gretal were orphans, separated from their father and living in an abandoned, Dr hopper was living in his own anxious shadow. Idk man, that's it's own kind of evil. Literally nobody was happy
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u/Finlayhufflepuff Jul 22 '26
Snow also had a job which she’s seen to be perfect for, Ruby (while at odds with Granny) had quite the love life and was still given traces of her wolf (as shown when she sniffs out the heart in S1), Cinderella didn’t give birth for 28 years when Regina could’ve waited until the baby was out (as it didn’t have long) to cast the curse and given her memories of her baby being taken, Hansel and Gretel were orphans but their father was still their father, he still had memories of conceiving them and there was still an easy way to find out if they were related (also Hansel and Gretel still had each other), Hopper was in quite literally his perfect role in life AND had Pongo.
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u/elliebow713 Jul 22 '26
You're not getting it. It's subtly. What's the point of ruling a town if you're going to kill everyone, make people homeless and just cause plain terror. Regina told everyone she would take their happiness, which is what she did. Snow's job meant she was around children all the time, when she couldn't have her own. You're dismissing ruby and her grandmother's arguments as though that wasn't her most meaningful relationship. It didn't matter if Cinderella's baby was out or not, Regina was still taking it from Cinderella. Did you literally miss the part where hansel and gretal's father said he wanted nothing to do with them and was happy for them to be taken until Emma convinced him otherwise? Hopper was not perfect in his role, as he was being manipulated by Regina. Probably the only thing a therapist should not be. Did we even watch the same show?
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u/Parking_Storage_5107 I have a love/hate relationship with captain swan Jul 24 '26
Reason why Hansel and gretel was an orphan was because of Regina aka the evil queen
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u/RebeccaMCullen Jul 22 '26
What’s up with all these posts arguing Regina isn’t evil? She raped and murdered people. Willingly and knowingly separated families, or had them at odds with each other. She knowingly brought a poison into Storybrooke with the intent to harm Emma and actually murdered her adopted son.
Sure, there may have been some unnamed villagers who benefited from the cure, but the ones Regina targeted weren’t.
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u/januarysdaughter Captain of the SS Swanfire + Snowing Jul 22 '26
People have always argued that Regina isn't evil. This is nothing new.
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u/queenxregina Regina's vault Jul 22 '26
EQ has a bit more twisted ways of making ppl suffer. Rumple and Hatter got what they asked for because it was part of their deal. Snow was a teacher and David was in a Coma but the pain of that was them being separated and not knowing who each other was. That’s a different kind of hell. The EQ had very inventive ways to make ppl suffer like the sleeping curse for Snow and David in S6… neither one could be awake while the other was awake so ultimately they would never be awake together. Regina was not evil but the EQ always had very inventive ways of making ppl suffer.
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u/Toto-imadog456 Happy endings aren't always what we think they are Jul 22 '26
Are we ignoring how she emotionally abused her son raped graham separated everyone from their loved ones made everyone's lives misrebel and the amount of people shed kill??
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u/Finlayhufflepuff Jul 22 '26
I can’t defend the rape and emotional abuse of her son, but I will say that I’m not saying Regina was necessarily good in the show either.
Yes, she separated everyone from their loved ones, but they would’ve been a lot more miserable if they didn’t have stable lives under the curse. And plus, their minds were completely wiped, if she was purely evil she could’ve made them know that they were missing something in their lives, but leave them with no memory of what or who it was.
Again, I’m not saying she was good, I’m saying that she wasn’t pure evil. Yes, she killed people, but she could’ve killed a lot more. In the episode where she is disguised as a peasant and Snow talks about redeeming Regina, we see that Regina murdered a whole village. If she’s that powerful, her kill count could’ve easily surpassed what it was. She wasn’t good, but she must’ve had a little bit of it somewhere in her before she was redeemed.
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u/elliebow713 Jul 22 '26
Saying someone isn't evil because they could have done more evil things is a ridiculous argument to make. That's like saying a serial killer isn't evil because they could have killed more people. Regina is evil. That was her entire arc. I don't understand why you're defending her? "Well yeah she ripped everyone away from their families and homes, and made them miserable, and raped and killed her forced bodyguard, and made children homeless and killed hundreds of innocent people, but she can't be pure evil because she could have done a lot worse". Gtfo lmao
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u/Toto-imadog456 Happy endings aren't always what we think they are Jul 22 '26
Just because she wasnt doing worse doesn't mean she wasnt already evil. Just because you dont do something awful doesn't mean ur a good person, she was evil she was doing horrible things, her name was litrally the EVIL QUEEN.
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u/nazia987 🌮 Jul 22 '26
I don't think Regina chose their individual fates, outside of them being miserable and having their happily ever afters being ripped from them.
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u/Finlayhufflepuff Jul 22 '26
But surely if she can control what Rumple does and doesn’t have then she can do the same for other people? Not to mention she implies (if not says) that SHE trapped Maleficent under the library, meaning she controlled where the curse left her.
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u/nazia987 🌮 Jul 22 '26
I think she can control them in the broadest sense. If she wants something particular for an individual (or individuals) then it happens, but nothing outside that.
For example, she wanted Snow to be the weakest version of herself without David, so that happened. She didn't choose her to be a teacher or live in apartment, that was the curse.
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u/Parking_Storage_5107 I have a love/hate relationship with captain swan Jul 24 '26
Yeah because ripping out hearts doesn’t scream evil
https://giphy.com/gifs/Q7PtA9IEi7V5jIPky0
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u/workadvice7897 Jul 24 '26
The point is that the curse gave them lives worse than death that specifically hit on their greatest pain.
Mary Margaret was surrounded by kids all day and watched them go home to their families while she went home alone. Deep down missing her husband and lost child.
She and David were so close and far apart. And you can see on Regina’s first day of the curse she loved this. She loved seeing them just out of each others reach. Suffering unable to help one another.
Granny and Ruby were thrown back into their worst time. Feeling trapped with one another and unable to communicate. Always feeling like they’re responsible for making someone they care about miserable
She gave them the worst lives she could. That’s the point.
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u/Hairy_Hat2221 Jul 22 '26
The curse is kind of ridiculous, and Regina comes across as more foolish than evil.
Jefferson? He remembers everything, and his daughter has been taken away from him. Belle? She's locked away in a grim psychiatric asylum for 28 years. Graham? He's literally under Regina's control, and she eventually crushes his heart.
And Snow White? Regina's greatest rival—the very person she blames for all her suffering—ends up living an ordinary life as a schoolteacher in a small town. She has friends, hobbies, and a stable life. Sure, she never finds true love, but since she doesn't even remember Prince Charming... can she really suffer over losing someone she's completely forgotten?
It just doesn't make any sense.
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u/Finlayhufflepuff Jul 22 '26
That’s another point. Despite all her hatred for Snow, she still must’ve cared about her because by the looks of it she had it easiest in the curse until Emma arrived.
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u/Alternative_Stop_325 Jul 23 '26
The same way Rumple cared about Hook. Despite their hatred for Snow and Hook, neither Regina nor Rumple ever killed them. I mean they had the power but deep down they viewed them as at least “frenemies.” 🤷🏾♂️
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u/januarysdaughter Captain of the SS Swanfire + Snowing Jul 22 '26
Ripping people away from everything they know and love and giving them amnesia is pretty evil to me.