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beccatoriaOkay, so, in my OUAT catch-up I finally got to the episode where we find out why the Queen hates Snow White. And frankly, I'm kinda disappointed. Which is frustrating because after a bit of a soft few episodes, I'm really getting caught up in the plot again and overall I'm enjoying the show. But I feel this is one place where they almost pulled of something really interesting.
See, cus, imagine this; imagine the same situation, but without Cora tricking Snow:
Regina saves this kid, this kid she adores, but the act of doing so brings destruction down on her precariously balanced life. She's trapped between these two manipulative bulldozers, her mother, who does it intentionally, and Leopold, who does it because he has such a white-knight patriarchal saviour complex, he just doesn't see that his generosity could conceivably cause harm. What if Cora just catches Regina running away with Daniel, instead of tricking it out of a child?
One could argue that the lack of direct culpability leaves Regina with no motive to hate her, but I think it leaves her with a far sadder and more believable one.
Currently, we have the really awkward way this leaves us with Regina detesting a child with a vitriol usually reserved for adults who knew full well the consequences of their actions. In this case, what makes it even worse is that Snow's actions were taken out of clear care for Regina, and she's smart enough to know this. I mean, basically it's a disproportionate enough reaction that it makes her look psychotic. And I'm actually not as much against Regina as just a flatout selfish, batshit villain as I could be, given there are many other characters to balance her against, but that wasn't how she was portrayed in the rest of the episode. And it's unbalanced. It's like suddenly the evil switch goes off in her head and she doesn't even have the good sense to direct it at the person who deserves the blame.
On the other hand, if it wasn't directly Snow's fault, then Snow is still the beating of butterfly wings that leads to a tsunami. Worse, after Daniel's death, and with no reason not to at accept the proposal out of dull resignation, and - at least partly - as a way to escape her mother, Regina is increasingly made aware of the sacrifice of living in a loveless marriage. A marriage that is more about this child she wishes had never entered her life, than it is about her husband. In that sense, she didn't trade Daniel for Leopold, she traded him for Snow. Subconsciously, and then consciously, she will start to resent her. Resent her happiness, her prettiness, the way everyone loves her and is forever unaware of the terrible things done to Regina; the way she has to smile and act like a good mother to a child who provoked her mother into taking away the man she really wanted to raise a family with. The burden of appearances, of loss, of the patronising assumption that she has been well-treated by circumstance, will eventually turn her heart to ice. Eventually, she just hates her and everything she represents and everything she had to give up to be her "mother".
And I'm sure a lot of that is still there. There's still space for that interpretation - it's not like at the end of the episode she swears bloody vengeance against a seven year old; she buttons herself up, colder, angrier, more hurt, and lies to Snow that everything is fine. But by cutting directly from that scene to Regina in the real world swearing bloody vengeance against Snow, it really does weight it towards being a direct reaction to that one false betrayal from a child. It makes her look ridiculous instead of horrifying, yet tragic.
On the other hand, I think Rumplestiltskin's reveal was more interesting. Searching for his lost son, genuine remorse at having betrayed him, is quite sympathetic. And yet, what he did to achieve it - the devastation of so many lives, the creation of a curse that destroyed a world, with no remorse, no thought to anything but his own goals, inherently includes the horror of his selfish, power-hungry perspective.
See, cus, imagine this; imagine the same situation, but without Cora tricking Snow:
Regina saves this kid, this kid she adores, but the act of doing so brings destruction down on her precariously balanced life. She's trapped between these two manipulative bulldozers, her mother, who does it intentionally, and Leopold, who does it because he has such a white-knight patriarchal saviour complex, he just doesn't see that his generosity could conceivably cause harm. What if Cora just catches Regina running away with Daniel, instead of tricking it out of a child?
One could argue that the lack of direct culpability leaves Regina with no motive to hate her, but I think it leaves her with a far sadder and more believable one.
Currently, we have the really awkward way this leaves us with Regina detesting a child with a vitriol usually reserved for adults who knew full well the consequences of their actions. In this case, what makes it even worse is that Snow's actions were taken out of clear care for Regina, and she's smart enough to know this. I mean, basically it's a disproportionate enough reaction that it makes her look psychotic. And I'm actually not as much against Regina as just a flatout selfish, batshit villain as I could be, given there are many other characters to balance her against, but that wasn't how she was portrayed in the rest of the episode. And it's unbalanced. It's like suddenly the evil switch goes off in her head and she doesn't even have the good sense to direct it at the person who deserves the blame.
On the other hand, if it wasn't directly Snow's fault, then Snow is still the beating of butterfly wings that leads to a tsunami. Worse, after Daniel's death, and with no reason not to at accept the proposal out of dull resignation, and - at least partly - as a way to escape her mother, Regina is increasingly made aware of the sacrifice of living in a loveless marriage. A marriage that is more about this child she wishes had never entered her life, than it is about her husband. In that sense, she didn't trade Daniel for Leopold, she traded him for Snow. Subconsciously, and then consciously, she will start to resent her. Resent her happiness, her prettiness, the way everyone loves her and is forever unaware of the terrible things done to Regina; the way she has to smile and act like a good mother to a child who provoked her mother into taking away the man she really wanted to raise a family with. The burden of appearances, of loss, of the patronising assumption that she has been well-treated by circumstance, will eventually turn her heart to ice. Eventually, she just hates her and everything she represents and everything she had to give up to be her "mother".
And I'm sure a lot of that is still there. There's still space for that interpretation - it's not like at the end of the episode she swears bloody vengeance against a seven year old; she buttons herself up, colder, angrier, more hurt, and lies to Snow that everything is fine. But by cutting directly from that scene to Regina in the real world swearing bloody vengeance against Snow, it really does weight it towards being a direct reaction to that one false betrayal from a child. It makes her look ridiculous instead of horrifying, yet tragic.
On the other hand, I think Rumplestiltskin's reveal was more interesting. Searching for his lost son, genuine remorse at having betrayed him, is quite sympathetic. And yet, what he did to achieve it - the devastation of so many lives, the creation of a curse that destroyed a world, with no remorse, no thought to anything but his own goals, inherently includes the horror of his selfish, power-hungry perspective.
