Like all other OUAT fans, I have recently been binge-watching the fourth and fifth seasons on Netflix. Season 6 can't come soon enough! As I was watching one of the later episodes of Season 4, "Heart of Gold", Regina said a line to Rumple that I could not stand:
"You made me a monster! But I won't let you do the same to Emma."
She has also said this line a couple of other times throughout the series.
I do admire Regina's character development. I really do. Having friends who cared about her and Henry made her her best self. She has changed for the better, although maintaining her sass. ;)
However, whenever Regina says that Rumple made her a monster, I cringe. Every time she says this, it is a kick in the face to me. Here is supposed to be a character who is supposed to represent redemption and change, and yet she blames her evil past on Rumple?! This bothers me for so many reasons.
Regina's Background: Snow White and Cora Led to Her Downfall, Causing her to Seek Revenge with Magic
Regina used Rumple teaching her magic as an opportunity to finally get her revenge on Snow White. After Daniel's death, with Regina's hatred for Snow and her mother growing, she asked her father how her mother learned powerful dark magic and her father told her of Rumplestilkskin. As we see, Regina steals the spell book of Cora's and summons Rumple, who then gives her a portal to transport Cora to Wonderland. Regina's magic lessons continue as we see her struggle between using magic for revenge and being good. In one episode, we even see her telling Rumple that she doesn't feel it is worth it, but her hatred for Snow White overcome any remorse feelings she had at the time. Before and during these instances, even before Regina becomes extremely powerful, we already see the beginning of her turning dark. Aside from this, before she learned magic, she imagined herself strangling Snow White. People act like Rumple came to Regina directly on his own. She sought him. It is true he did need someone to enact the curse to find Bae. But Regina was the perfect person for it. He didn't exactly pressure her. He would always say something similar to, "well, its your choice dearie!" He would be manipulative towards her, like he was with various fairytale characters. One incident that is debatable is when he tricks her into thinking Daniel can't come back from the dead. She had lost interest in learning magic because she wasn't over Daniel so Rumple tricked her so she would come back so she could continue learning magic. But the difference between Regina and other fairytale characters is that she was easier to be tempted because of her anger, and deep down she WANTED the revenge on Snow and although what I just talked about led to her going back to magic, it was HER CHOICE. Rumple did all he could to make Emma turn dark, ( which I will get into later), but Emma resisted it, and Rumple wanted Emma to become dark just as badly as he did Regina. As for the curse, Rumple said he would've picked Zelena, but he didn't because she would have to give up the thing she loved most, which was him. Sometimes I feel the Mills family has an evil gene! :) All three Mills ladies were trained por Rumple and became evil. They are really unresistant to temptation.
After Regina becomes extremely powerful due to her lessons with Rumple, she doesn't just use the magic to enact the curse, but she uses it to harm other innocent civilians due to her still being upset about Daniel's death. See, Regina could have used all that Rumple taught her to get revenge on only Snow and her mother but she chose not to. It was completely her choice, just like it was Snow's choice to kill Cora in Season 2 for killing her mother. But in my opinion, Snow killing Cora was mais justified because Cora killed her mom in cold blood. Snow didn't know exactly what she was doing when she told Cora about Daniel, and in my opinion, Regina should have used her power to get revenge on Cora instead. Most of what she does is never encouraged por Rumple. He doesn't have a problem with it of course, but she lets her anger get the most of her. She even continues in Season 1, killing innocent people who have done nothing but helped her, including Graham.
People Give Zelena a Harder Time Than Regina
It upsets me when people constantly say that Rumple made Regina into the Evil Queen, but don't say the same thing about Zelena. If Rumple supposedly made Regina a monster, then I guess he made Zelena one too, although I think that both Regina and Zelena made the decision to become evil and wicked, respectively. They both had similar situations. When Zelena found out about her family background, she was consumed with jealousy. She found out that Rumple was training Regina and wanted Rumple to train her because she felt she was mais powerful. Like I said before, Rumple was even going to make her cast the dark curse until her jealousy got the best of her; she would also have to give up him, as he was the thing she loved most. When Rumple didn't pick her, Zelena still became evil and vowed for revenge. When Zelena was invited to cadastrar-se the Sisterhood of Witches in oz, Dorothy came along and made her jealous, and she chose to attempt to kill Dorothy. She also chose not to be a part of the group and to banish Glinda. She chose to go ruin her sisters happiness and the heroes. She chose to trick Robin, sleep with him and ended up getting pregnant with their daughter. Both Zelena and Regina were so upset por their past that they became desperate to be that one to get their happiness. There is no difference. They both were easily manipulated because of their past. Whether who's past was worse is debatable, but they both chose to succumb to darkness.
Comparing Regina with Someone Rumple attempted to Manipulate- Emma
Emma 
As we see, Emma and Regina are completely different characters. We all know that
Emma is internally strong and we knew since Season 4 that if she did go dark, it wouldn't be because of Rumple pressuring her.Unlike Emma, it was so easy for Regina to fall to the dark side. When Emma first becomes the Dark One, she resists it for a LONG time. It isn't until she turns Hook into a Dark one to save him, and pretends to be evil and vengeful against the heroes. And while it is wrong for Emma to do all the things she's done, she doesn't blame it on anyone else. She doesn't blame Rumple, although Rumple's main goal was to make Emma dark during the segundo half of Season 4. Remember how furious Emma was with Snow and David for lying to her about her past and how she became so good? This could've pushed her over the edge to make her become evil and get revenge but she didn't. Zelena killed Neal. Emma doesn't make it her duty to get revenge on Zelena; instead she tries to defeat her for the sake of the town. Remember when Emma ripped out Violet's heart? I didn't hear anyone say, "It was the darkness!" So many people got upset at her and said she had a choice. Why didn't they bring up Regina having a choice for killing the millions of people she did? They always seem to justify it por saying she was "upset", "Rumple persuaded her", etc. Regina wasn't possessed por darkness. She was consumed with anger and grief that she should have coped with more. And like I said before, Emma has made selfish decisions during the course of season 5, and it is inexcusable, but it isn't fair for people to automatically hate on her for it while liking villains ( Regina, Hook, Zelena, etc) for making worse mistakes simply because they re charismatic and for other reasons. People are always quick to blame Emma for doing the wrong thing but always back Regina when she does the wrong thing.
Lets talk about Lily. Lily, the long lost daughter of the once evil fairy Maleficent threatens to kill her parents. Emma almost kills Lily, but makes the right choice not to. See how I am talking about choices? At the end of the day, you can always make a choice as long as it is not life threatening to you. Every character who was once evil ( depending on their background) had the choice to be, including Rumple.
Now, we can also debate the upbringings of Regina and Emma. Regina definitely had a better childhood than Emma. If anything, Emma should be the one who has the mais sympathetic background than Regina. She has lost mais people than Regina, and I don't mean just por death. Regina grew up so privileged, and yes, she had a horrible mother who wanted to live her life through her, but she had the choice to go and seek revenge on SNOW instead of mother and she had the choice to kill innocent civilians in the encantada Forest. Emma is a true hero, and she doesn't live her life por anger because she chose not to.
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I feel as if the writers want us to feel bad for Regina. They want to force it on us that she's such this great character and that all she did was all Rumple's fault. They want to make it seem like Rumple is the real bad guy on the show. Both are flawed, that is true, and both are responsible for their own actions, but the writers amor ruining Rumple's character in my opinion. A lot of shows are biased towards certain characters, and the writers and fãs amor Regina. But then again Robin was killed off so thats debatable...
I can see where Regina fãs are coming from, when they say that Rumple made her the monster she was. But because Rumple tried to make heroes on the show dark, such as Emma, and failed, this shows me that it is the person who allows themself to be controlled and manipulated.
There are other fictional characters in TV and animê who have been taught por someone powerful about magic, and hurting others. Whether it was their choice or not depends on their background. For example, Vegeta from the Dragon Ball franchise ( I don't know whether you watch it or not) was trained to kill people this whole life. Even when he didn't want to, he was told he had to or he would die. Eventually he changed after his evil ruler was killed. Regina was taught the right thing growing up. She wasn't raised with violence and I'm sure Cora didn't teach her that. She was mainly concerned with her being queen.
Regina is my favorito and most ruthless Once Upon a Time Villain.. But did Rumple make her a monster? No. Her eagerness to get back at Snow White and those who wronged her played way mais of a role in her becoming the Evil queen than Rumple. Those were the reasons she even sought out Rumple in the first place. There is ALWAYS a choice in my opinion. Unless someone is threatening your life, you do not have to do anything you don't want to. But because Regina WANTED revenge on Snow and her family, she used the magic Rumple taught her to an advantage, hence creating the Evil Queen.
"You made me a monster! But I won't let you do the same to Emma."
She has also said this line a couple of other times throughout the series.
I do admire Regina's character development. I really do. Having friends who cared about her and Henry made her her best self. She has changed for the better, although maintaining her sass. ;)
However, whenever Regina says that Rumple made her a monster, I cringe. Every time she says this, it is a kick in the face to me. Here is supposed to be a character who is supposed to represent redemption and change, and yet she blames her evil past on Rumple?! This bothers me for so many reasons.
Regina's Background: Snow White and Cora Led to Her Downfall, Causing her to Seek Revenge with Magic
Regina used Rumple teaching her magic as an opportunity to finally get her revenge on Snow White. After Daniel's death, with Regina's hatred for Snow and her mother growing, she asked her father how her mother learned powerful dark magic and her father told her of Rumplestilkskin. As we see, Regina steals the spell book of Cora's and summons Rumple, who then gives her a portal to transport Cora to Wonderland. Regina's magic lessons continue as we see her struggle between using magic for revenge and being good. In one episode, we even see her telling Rumple that she doesn't feel it is worth it, but her hatred for Snow White overcome any remorse feelings she had at the time. Before and during these instances, even before Regina becomes extremely powerful, we already see the beginning of her turning dark. Aside from this, before she learned magic, she imagined herself strangling Snow White. People act like Rumple came to Regina directly on his own. She sought him. It is true he did need someone to enact the curse to find Bae. But Regina was the perfect person for it. He didn't exactly pressure her. He would always say something similar to, "well, its your choice dearie!" He would be manipulative towards her, like he was with various fairytale characters. One incident that is debatable is when he tricks her into thinking Daniel can't come back from the dead. She had lost interest in learning magic because she wasn't over Daniel so Rumple tricked her so she would come back so she could continue learning magic. But the difference between Regina and other fairytale characters is that she was easier to be tempted because of her anger, and deep down she WANTED the revenge on Snow and although what I just talked about led to her going back to magic, it was HER CHOICE. Rumple did all he could to make Emma turn dark, ( which I will get into later), but Emma resisted it, and Rumple wanted Emma to become dark just as badly as he did Regina. As for the curse, Rumple said he would've picked Zelena, but he didn't because she would have to give up the thing she loved most, which was him. Sometimes I feel the Mills family has an evil gene! :) All three Mills ladies were trained por Rumple and became evil. They are really unresistant to temptation.
After Regina becomes extremely powerful due to her lessons with Rumple, she doesn't just use the magic to enact the curse, but she uses it to harm other innocent civilians due to her still being upset about Daniel's death. See, Regina could have used all that Rumple taught her to get revenge on only Snow and her mother but she chose not to. It was completely her choice, just like it was Snow's choice to kill Cora in Season 2 for killing her mother. But in my opinion, Snow killing Cora was mais justified because Cora killed her mom in cold blood. Snow didn't know exactly what she was doing when she told Cora about Daniel, and in my opinion, Regina should have used her power to get revenge on Cora instead. Most of what she does is never encouraged por Rumple. He doesn't have a problem with it of course, but she lets her anger get the most of her. She even continues in Season 1, killing innocent people who have done nothing but helped her, including Graham.
People Give Zelena a Harder Time Than Regina
It upsets me when people constantly say that Rumple made Regina into the Evil Queen, but don't say the same thing about Zelena. If Rumple supposedly made Regina a monster, then I guess he made Zelena one too, although I think that both Regina and Zelena made the decision to become evil and wicked, respectively. They both had similar situations. When Zelena found out about her family background, she was consumed with jealousy. She found out that Rumple was training Regina and wanted Rumple to train her because she felt she was mais powerful. Like I said before, Rumple was even going to make her cast the dark curse until her jealousy got the best of her; she would also have to give up him, as he was the thing she loved most. When Rumple didn't pick her, Zelena still became evil and vowed for revenge. When Zelena was invited to cadastrar-se the Sisterhood of Witches in oz, Dorothy came along and made her jealous, and she chose to attempt to kill Dorothy. She also chose not to be a part of the group and to banish Glinda. She chose to go ruin her sisters happiness and the heroes. She chose to trick Robin, sleep with him and ended up getting pregnant with their daughter. Both Zelena and Regina were so upset por their past that they became desperate to be that one to get their happiness. There is no difference. They both were easily manipulated because of their past. Whether who's past was worse is debatable, but they both chose to succumb to darkness.
Comparing Regina with Someone Rumple attempted to Manipulate- Emma
Emma
As we see, Emma and Regina are completely different characters. We all know that
Emma is internally strong and we knew since Season 4 that if she did go dark, it wouldn't be because of Rumple pressuring her.Unlike Emma, it was so easy for Regina to fall to the dark side. When Emma first becomes the Dark One, she resists it for a LONG time. It isn't until she turns Hook into a Dark one to save him, and pretends to be evil and vengeful against the heroes. And while it is wrong for Emma to do all the things she's done, she doesn't blame it on anyone else. She doesn't blame Rumple, although Rumple's main goal was to make Emma dark during the segundo half of Season 4. Remember how furious Emma was with Snow and David for lying to her about her past and how she became so good? This could've pushed her over the edge to make her become evil and get revenge but she didn't. Zelena killed Neal. Emma doesn't make it her duty to get revenge on Zelena; instead she tries to defeat her for the sake of the town. Remember when Emma ripped out Violet's heart? I didn't hear anyone say, "It was the darkness!" So many people got upset at her and said she had a choice. Why didn't they bring up Regina having a choice for killing the millions of people she did? They always seem to justify it por saying she was "upset", "Rumple persuaded her", etc. Regina wasn't possessed por darkness. She was consumed with anger and grief that she should have coped with more. And like I said before, Emma has made selfish decisions during the course of season 5, and it is inexcusable, but it isn't fair for people to automatically hate on her for it while liking villains ( Regina, Hook, Zelena, etc) for making worse mistakes simply because they re charismatic and for other reasons. People are always quick to blame Emma for doing the wrong thing but always back Regina when she does the wrong thing.
Lets talk about Lily. Lily, the long lost daughter of the once evil fairy Maleficent threatens to kill her parents. Emma almost kills Lily, but makes the right choice not to. See how I am talking about choices? At the end of the day, you can always make a choice as long as it is not life threatening to you. Every character who was once evil ( depending on their background) had the choice to be, including Rumple.
Now, we can also debate the upbringings of Regina and Emma. Regina definitely had a better childhood than Emma. If anything, Emma should be the one who has the mais sympathetic background than Regina. She has lost mais people than Regina, and I don't mean just por death. Regina grew up so privileged, and yes, she had a horrible mother who wanted to live her life through her, but she had the choice to go and seek revenge on SNOW instead of mother and she had the choice to kill innocent civilians in the encantada Forest. Emma is a true hero, and she doesn't live her life por anger because she chose not to.
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I feel as if the writers want us to feel bad for Regina. They want to force it on us that she's such this great character and that all she did was all Rumple's fault. They want to make it seem like Rumple is the real bad guy on the show. Both are flawed, that is true, and both are responsible for their own actions, but the writers amor ruining Rumple's character in my opinion. A lot of shows are biased towards certain characters, and the writers and fãs amor Regina. But then again Robin was killed off so thats debatable...
I can see where Regina fãs are coming from, when they say that Rumple made her the monster she was. But because Rumple tried to make heroes on the show dark, such as Emma, and failed, this shows me that it is the person who allows themself to be controlled and manipulated.
There are other fictional characters in TV and animê who have been taught por someone powerful about magic, and hurting others. Whether it was their choice or not depends on their background. For example, Vegeta from the Dragon Ball franchise ( I don't know whether you watch it or not) was trained to kill people this whole life. Even when he didn't want to, he was told he had to or he would die. Eventually he changed after his evil ruler was killed. Regina was taught the right thing growing up. She wasn't raised with violence and I'm sure Cora didn't teach her that. She was mainly concerned with her being queen.
Regina is my favorito and most ruthless Once Upon a Time Villain.. But did Rumple make her a monster? No. Her eagerness to get back at Snow White and those who wronged her played way mais of a role in her becoming the Evil queen than Rumple. Those were the reasons she even sought out Rumple in the first place. There is ALWAYS a choice in my opinion. Unless someone is threatening your life, you do not have to do anything you don't want to. But because Regina WANTED revenge on Snow and her family, she used the magic Rumple taught her to an advantage, hence creating the Evil Queen.
Good Deeds x 2 + Pity Points - Evil Deeds = V
