Obviously.

It really depends on the aspect. For example Regina takes a lot of shit physically link And the list over there was just from the first 3 seasons. Emma I feel had the hardest time as a mother link Regina had it worse in terms of dealing with parents link

In general though I think Regina had it harder. Emma did take a lot of crap but her mom never killed her lover and forced her to marry a man thrice her age. That alone gives me chills. On top of that it's been kind of hinted that Cora was a physically abusive mom (ie. binding Regina in the air with magic). Yes Emma lost love too but she never had to kill her lover as Regina had to with Dan as an act of mercy. Regina lost a second lover as well an (as of now) he didn't come back, like Hook did. So as far as parents and lovers go, I think Regina has it worse.

Regina also seems to have a lot of self-hatred and guilt that Emma does not. Emma does harbor her own guilt for different reasons than Regina. But despite what Regina said in season 3, she has a lot of regret. And I think that's coming to the surface this season--she's been so quick to say "it's my fault" and then head off on some self-sacrificing mission. She was so desperate to alleviate this guilt that she split herself and made it worse. She quite often spoke of "the Queen's karama" and how she could never be happy because of her past. And part of me thinks that she believes that she deserves it. I don't think Emma feels guilt/self-loathing to that magnitude.

Though self-brought Regina had to deal with more hatred in general. Hatred that didn't come from within. Regina had a whole town/kingdom that hated her. Emma never had that. Regina never really had support, unlike Emma. Emma had Neal for a while. Emma had Ingrid at one point. Regina only had her father but when it came down to it he was (understandably) afraid of Cora and didn't help her as much as he could have. In season 2 Regina was very isolated. I mean there was that scene in season 2 where she's venting to Henry and he's like "why would you tell me that?" And she replies, "because you're the only person I can talk to."

Regina also had Henry's spite at one point. Henry never hated Emma, he always loved her unconditionally. For a long time his love for Regina was very conditional; she had to stop using magic and be a perfect, do no wrong hero to keep his love. Thankfully after her redemption he learned to accept and forgive her. But my point is Regina loved Henry with every bit of herself but until around the end of season 2 he really didn't want anything to do with her no matter what she said or did.

Another problem both ladies face is a path that was set for them. Emma was destined to be the savior despite not wanting it. Regina was destined to be The Evil Queen. Rumple made damn sure of this. The reason I say Regina had it worse was because she was twisted and broken by careful and cunning hands to make her path happen. Emma's parents had good intentions and her best interests at heart in making her the savior. Cora also seemed to want the best for Gina but with a selfish side quest (one not present in Snow). But Gina also had Rumple who deliberately screwed with her to make her his curse caster. And he clearly didn't do it because he thought making Regina evil was what was best for her. He did it because he wanted Bae back and she was just venerable collateral damage. Not only that but Frankenstine and Jeff were working with the dude. Gina was screwed from the start; I mean Rumple was told that there would be a girl who'd cast his curse for him and he did everything in his power to make it so. And he still tries to kick her down and drag her back to the evil side by planting these seeds of doubt. Emma was not exposed to that kind of crafty and deliberate fate shaping. She was just kind of unlucky enough to be handed a difficult destiny like many heroes.
The crazy thing is that with Regina people like Blue didn't even want to help her. Blue just wrote her off as a lost cause and tried to stop Tink from helping her. Whereas Blue was always willing to help Emma or send someone to do so, even if she strayed from the right path. Regina was set up to fail and it amazes me that she still fought to become a better person, and actually managed to do so.

And then of course there's all of that physical stuff I mentioned above; getting electro-shock torture, getting thrown into cars and clock towers, getting thrown across the forest, getting stabbed with a fork, almost getting her soul sucked out in season 2, absorbing a killing curse from a well, getting thrown into a table during season 2, getting thrown into a different table by her own ghost mom, and so much more. This woman takes a lot of damage I have no clue how she's not a regular at the Storybrooke hospital.

But above all I think that the most telling is that Regina hurts herself (ripping her own heart out and such to try to dull the pain) and honestly, low-key tried to kill herself. I mean she was gonna put herself under a sleeping curse that could only be broken by true love's kiss and as far as she knew the only person who could do that was gone. Emma never tried anything like that.

Of all the characters I ever love, Regina takes the most shit.

I agree with everything that zanhar1 said.

Both of their lives have been complete CRAP STORMS! But Regina does get my vote because she has to live with the guilt of causing so much suffering to others just because a little girl told a secret thinking she was helping (Under Cora's influence) and is always fighting her urges to be bad again like a suicidal person trying to fight their urges. Although, to respond to zanhar1's comment, I would like to say two things in response to it.

1. Emma DID have to kill her a love, not once, but TWICE! She had to rip Rumple out of Neal in season 3 to know who the Wicked Witch was, but in the process that ended up killing Neal. In season 5 she had to kill Hook in order to snuff out the darkness and after she turned him into the Dark One to save his life. Plus how she thinks just being with her kills men she has romantic feelings for (Which she stated in season 4 during that AWFUL Frozen story arc), such as after she finally let her walls down and kissed Graham but right afterwards he dies.

2. Regina did at least have her father that was loving to her and tried to protect her, but was bad at it. Emma didn't have a parent growing up and basically raised herself. She did have that family when she was a teenager but as soon as the whole mess with Lily got her into. They said something hurtful to her, she ran away, and they didn't bother to stop her from going out the door or go looking for her. But like zanny said, she at least didn't have a parent that forced her to kill her true love.

I'd explain why Regina's life sucks worse, but I think zanny already did that job for me lol.

Disagree with everything zanhar said.

1. Emma did have to kill her love. Hook in season 5, remember? And Neal because of Zelena? So... LOL

About people hating Regina. I wonder why they hated her? Hmm. I don't know maybe it was because she was the Evil Queen? No one hated her just for no reason.

Yes Emma had Ingrid and Neal for one point. Thats exactly why she had the harder life. They all left her. All the people that left Regina, aka her dad, was because of her. She decided to kill him. She sent her mother off to wonderland.

The reason why people run away from Regina or become scared of her is because of her own actions. Her and Snow had a good relationship before the death of Daniel. Regina of course ruined it because she blamed Snow for Daniel's death when she should have blame her mother.

About Henry. Henry KNEW Regina was evil in season one because of the book. That is why he distanced himself from her. Even though her own son didn't completely love her at that time, it was because of her wrong doings.
When you said that Regina was going to put herself under a sleeping curse and that Emma has never done that,there is a reason why. Emma, although losing everyone she cares about, is a strong person. She is not as insecure as Regina, and most of the hardships regina has had to face comes with her attitude.

In conclusion, Emma has always been a strong person, or hero, as the show says lol. She has had all these horrible things happen to her, but she chose not to be evil. All of the horrible things Regina has done is catching up with her. This isn't her having a bad life, its her seeing what goes around comes around. People will always remember how you treated them.

Hope you get to read this.

I also think about opportunities. August was supposed to watch over Emma but didn't. She didn't have the luxuries and opportunities Regina did. She was raised by no one, and had to raise herself. How is this an easier life than Regina's?

But Hook came back at least. Robin is still dead. Admittedly I did forget about the Neal scene and yes that's definitely awful and hard. Where is this unnecessary attitude coming from?

Once again; what's with the attitude, I never came at you sideways? And I specifically said "though self-brought Regina had to deal with more hatred in general." Key words being 'self-brought', literally the first thing I stated that paragraph. Agree or disagree with me on this; but just because the pain was self inflicted/brought about by her own wrong doings doesn't mean it was any less hard to cope with espically when she was trying to fix it. It's more or less that her wrong doings bit her in the ass for a very long time even when she was trying to fix things. She was isolated when she was trying to redeem herself which made even trying to redeem herself a struggle in itself.
TL;DR: nit once did I say she didn't do bad things. In fact I said she brought the pain and hate upon herself but it was pain no less.

Once more I'm going to say that self inflicted pain is still pain. When she finally joined the good side don't you think that it tears her up inside that she did kill her own father? That she did have a hand in her own downfall? It's like getting angry, punching a wall, and busting your knuckles. Is it you're fault you're hurt in that example? Yeah. Are you still in pain? Probably.
And honestly was keeping her mother around even a good idea? The woman was trying to push her further into the dark. In that sense her mother did leave her; she was physically there but wasn't that much of a mother so much as a woman who was telling Regina how to live her life.
Henry left her. Graham left her (same principle as the above). Zelena was taken from her before they could truly get to become closer.

Which is another point; Regina was lonely as a child. You can't tell me that little Regina was abusing and pushing people away. She was talking with a doll and hurt herself trying to make a friend using her mom's wand (if I remember right). And that's the very reason Cora brought Zelena to meet her. She was lonely as a kid too.

Once more; yes she made her bed and had to lie in it. But laying in that bed was still hard to deal with espically when she began trying to fix things. Of course they had a reason to fear her but wouldn't you feel hurt and discouraged if you were giving it your absolute all to mend your mistakes but people just kept holding them against you?
As for the Regina and Snow relationship; I'm not going to try to justify it. But I do understand her feelings. Regina was afraid of her mom so she displaced her anger on Snow and took it out on her because she felt like she wasn't strong enough to go against her mom. Is it good to do? No. But that relationship was doomed from the start due in part to Cora intentionally meddling.

I feel like I'm being a bit redundant; yeah her actions pushed Henry out. But I feel as though she genuinely didn't understand why until season 2 episode 2. And what about the hiccup with Cora framing her? She finally earned some trust and then, to no fault of her own, had it crushed.

As for her attitude a lot of her life has been dismal. Speaking from personal experience, you can only get kicked and beaten down so much before you just can't get up. You can only handle so much misery before your attitude changes. Again speaking from personal experience; I was always extremely happy as a kid even through hard times and then times got harder. And it seemed like the harder I tried to be happy the more miserable things got until I just kind of developed this 'eh whatever' attitude, because trying so hard to be positive became so draining. And that's how I kind of interpreted Regina's attitude.
And I don't at all think that it makes a person weak to fall prey. Everyone handles things differently. Everyone has different thresholds concerning how much they can take before they snap. And in my opinion, as long as they try to fight it (even if they have a period of failure) they're still strong. And I do believe Gina fought it; she tried to remain a good woman until Rumple started pushing her into magic. She tried to remain hopeful until the thing with Rumple, Gold, and Jeff. Even after that there were small moments where she was trying to get better. Obviously that didn't work and she had her queen years. But after season one she got back to fighting. She knows she screwed up and she's still trying to right it. When Robin died she didn't blame Emna. She admitted blaming Zelena a bit, but came up to her with the intention of letting her know and fixing it, it just didn't work. She fought for Henry's love and trust and she got it. She changed so much about herself and made amends with so many people. She's saved the town and people she once tried to destroy, multiple times. Even with her evil queen counter part trying to show her that she's not a hero, she's still doing heroic good things. In my opinion that makes her very strong. It takes strength and persistence to come back from a place so dark.
Yes she's insecure. Of course she is, there's probably a lot she still doesn't like about herself. But she's still trying to change those things. She's still fighting. And that is strong, it's a different kind of strong. Just because a person is insecure doesn't mean they're automatically weak. They have a weakness but they aren't weak.
Frankly Emma is also insecure; how long did she try to deny and shy away from her savior duties? How many times did she try/want to take Henry and run? But like Regina she still fought it.
Regina's attitude and the problems she faces are a vicious cycle; one leads to the other. The fact that she's still standing and trying is what makes her such a strong character. Her resilience despite it all. She had her low points like the sleeping curse thing but she's still a strong character.

To wrap my points up; not all of Regina's problems were self made. She was definitely thrown into an uncanny situation, by her mother no less. It wasn't a choice it was more like she went down kicking and screaming until she finally caved and let the dark in. Because she was manipulated and pushed in the direction of the dark until she could no longer withstand the pressure. Emma never had someone as tricky and powerful as Gold trying to get her to the dark side. I have a feeling that if Gold wanted to and came to Emma at a time of weakness she'd have eventually caved too (unless Snow and Charming were around). Regina had a trickier more diabolic force working against her, imo, than Emma did. Regina's issue stemmed from problems her mother had and managed to push on her.
The fact that her life had such a domino affect your is what makes it so tragic in my opinion. Because not all of her issues came from her. Her first few major losses were her mother's fault. From there it was more of her own doing. But once again self made issues are still issues. And when your life has a lot of issues then for me it's safe to say you have a bad--or at least hard--life. Yup things bit Gina in the ass and people remembered what she did but that's still hard to overcome and it makes for an unhappy stressful life.

To long didn't read; yes Regina made her own grave to some degree. But she's trying (quiet successfully if I do say so) to claw her way out. And that does create for some awful times and life struggles.


As for opportunities, Regina's at a loss there too. All Regina wanted was a humble life married to a stable boy that she loved. That opertunity was shot to hell and back and then to hell once more. Regina didn't want luxuries, she wanted love. But Cora literally crushed that on her. Regina's story is a prime example of 'money can't make a person happy.' All the diamonds in the world couldn't fill in the hole of losing a lover.

How is that an easier life than Gina's? It doesn't. To clarify I think both women had their own struggles. They both had it hard in different ways. At the end of the day I think both had it very hard just as much as each other. For the sake of this poll I voted Regina because I figured most people would argue that she didn't have it herd when she did.
TL;DR: One person having it worse =/= not having any problems. Different kind of struggles =/= less hard. They both had difficulties.

Feel free to disagree and debate with me, but don't talk to me as if you think I'm an idiot or something. Because I'm not going to carry out a debate if I feel like I'm being mocked/not taken seriously.
If I misinterpreted your tone I apologize, just let me know. I don't really talk to you much so I don't know your debate style yet. And for all I know you probably didn't mean to sound antagonizing.

@Silent and Katara Thanks guys. I'll expand on my response to you Katara later on. I gotta log off for now.

Shit man, I put way too much into that one and it's probably not even that deep lol. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I believe it would be more fair for both characters if there was a BOTH option as well.
Such a hard pick with no easy answer....

I really wasn't trying to have an attitude at all. Sorry if it came across that way, but I wasn't at all. I'm not the type to do that! :)

I know how much you love Regina, and feel that she has had way more hardships than Emma but like I said before, thats not the case in my opinion. Oh and about Cora bringing Zelena to meet Regina as a child, that wasn't because Regina was lonely. Thats because she needed blood magic to heal her.

About what you said about Regina taking out her anger on Snow, that was a horrible decision. That also proves it was her fault that their relationship ended the way it did. She had the opportunity to make amends and she didn't. It only wasn't until she realized she would lose the people she loved that she tried to change.

Like I said, I cant choose Regina having the harder life. Yes she was lonely as child. So was Emma. Regina had parents there for her, while Emma had no one. Yes, Hook came back, but that doesnt give Gina that edge automatically because her loved ones never came back. Like i said, most of Regina's suffering came from what she did. She chose to become evil, like I said in another articles, and had to suffer the consequences. Emma had a horrible life as well, but she chose not to be evil. It is certain personalities of people who feel they are obligated to make people suffer for what they don't have, aka Regina, Zelena, Ingrid, etc. And the main reason Henry felt that way about her was because she was the evil queen. Even after she started to change, people didn't trust her anymore. Would anyone? No, because she couldn't be trusted. This is a woman who spent most of her years killing and torturing others. This is her paying the consequences of what she has done. If everything was just happy and great for her after, that would be the show giving a bad example, that bad deeds do unpunished.

i am still very adamant that Emma had the harder life.

@Zanhar1
Your two comments were so long that you could easily put them into one article called"Why Regina is the OUAT character that has suffered the most"XD

@SilentForce It's 99.99% likely that, that is exactly what she's going to do lol.

@Silent & Katara lol wow...it's funny because it's true. I was planning on doing that over my mini-Thanksgiving break.

@katara's first comment: I actually did forget about the Neal one. I knew that he died but I forgot exactly how because I was too busy heart-eyeing Regina to pay attention to the plot. Whoops. I didn't count the Hook one persay, because he ended up coming back and for that probably won't be something that sticks with her because it was pretty much solved.

That' pretty much what I was saying about Regina's relationship with her dad. At least he tried, but he didn't get very far. As I said above I pretty much chalk their parental situation down to; one person having problems doesn't cancel out another person's problems just because they seem worse.

@coolsinger It's alright, that's kind of what I thought. Glad I didn't completely jump to conclusions.

TBH I think pretty much all of the characters have a pretty loaded amount of hardships; Regina and Gold are the ones who have it the worst in my opinion, they are very similar. And then Emma is very close behind. Though I'm feeling less sympathy for Gold these days.
Oh yeah, that's right lol. But I do believe it was Regina's longing for a friend that got her hurt in the first place. It's a shame Cora didn't realize that.

I definitely agree with you there. The only difference is that I think that there were other people who had a hand it in. But at the end of the day it was Regina who continued the feud (as seen in season 2) until she finally found a person who was able to make her see that what she was doing was wrong. And I do believe that trying to become a better person for a loved one or a few loved ones is better than when she was trying to make Henry and the others love her and the bad things she was doing. Which I think is where Gold is at right now and I hope he can change too.

I think where we pretty much have to agree to disagree is that 1. Regina became evil on her own and 2. that the fact that Regina's suffering was self-made makes her life less hard. But I do agree that the trust did need to be earned back and that people shouldn't have just automatically trusted her. For one them just trusting her right off the bat wouldn't make for a very interesting story. For seconds I think it would have taken away from her character and her character development if they just let her off easy.

But yeah at the end of the day we'll probably just have to agree to disagree lol.

Everything coolsinger said, though I do think Regina has had an awful life, as well.