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themattress · 1 year

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THE TOP 5 BEST AND WORST DEEDS OF ONCE UPON A TIME’S MAINSTAY VILLAINS

THE EVIL QUEEN (REGINA): 1. Confronting Tinker Bell - The first wholly altruistic, no-strings-attached deed Regina does in the show’s present-day narrative happens early into Season 3, where she splits from the rest of the “Nevengers” in Neverland in order to confront Tinker Bell, who plans to murder her. Regina risks her own life, fully accepting the fact that she might die and probably deserves to, in order to convince Tinker Bell to help the rest of her group save Henry. And afterwards, she even reconnects with Tinker Bell as a friend, in full honesty. It’s a legit great moment for her.

2. Atonement on the Town Line - In order to stop Peter Pan’s out-of-control Dark Curse from killing everyone, Regina reverses the effects of her original Dark Curse so that it cancels it out. This means that she and everyone else from the Enchanted Forest will return there, and she has to give up Henry, since he and Emma will stay behind and forget everything. She does so gracefully, and even gifts Emma and Henry with good memories of a life where Emma never gave Henry up for adoption. She even accepts that she was a villain and that this painful personal sacrifice is karma for her years of atrocities. Damn it, why couldn’t she have just stayed like this!? Her character regression did no-one any favors, least of all her.

3. Evil vs. Wicked - The writing for it may not have always been the best, but everything that Regina did in Season 3′s second story arc as she and the others struggled against Zelena was totally on the up and up. Splitting Snow White and Charming’s hearts so that the latter could survive, not succumbing to her obsession with Henry and being willing to forge a new type of relationship with him, training Emma in magic, opening herself up to a new romance with Robin Hood, defending Snow from Cora’s wrathful spirit, and ultimately saving the day while also sparing her half-sister’s life in order to give her the same kind of second chance she got....all of that was good and further showed a Regina that was capable of true nobility.

4. Saving “Maid Marian” - Yeah, I know she technically killed Marian in the original timeline. But in the present day, she saved her life three times: first from a snow monster, then from the freezing curse that Ingrid the Snow Queen put her over, and then insisting that Robin Hood take her across the town line when it looked like staying in Storybrooke was making her deathly ill. Being willing to give up the man she loved to save his other love interest is heroic no matter how you slice it. If only it really had been Marian and that last one not a total con...

5. Partaking in Operation Firebird - While this one certainly could have been better, with her taking an active role in confronting her dead victims and helping them move on, I will begrudgingly admit that her signing on to Operation Firebird in the Underworld and being in support of it at all shows some measure of decency, even if somewhat selfishly motivated. -----------

1. The Huntsman - She ripped the man’s heart out, used it to control him which included raping him, and when he finally defied her as Sheriff Graham in Storybrooke, she crushed his heart, murdering him. That she completely got away with this remains a sore spot for many.

2. Razing Villages - Men, women and children were murdered. Families were torn apart. Hearts were ripped out to create new slaves. And why did she do any of this? For the lolz.

3. Wedding Crasher - I don’t mean Snow and Charming’s wedding; no no, I’m talking about the time she encountered a random civilian wedding being held on her lands without her permission and when the groom tried to apologize for this, she ripped his heart out and crushed it. Killing him in front of his friends, family and now widowed bride. What. The. Hell!?

4. The Failsafe - In the case of the curse breaking and her losing her grip on Storybrooke, Regina prepared what amounts to a magical nuke that would wipe the town and its entire population off the face of the Earth. And she was fully ready and willing to use it, only helping to stop it once it was forcibly taken away from her and used in a way that endangered Henry.

5. Casting the Dark Curse - This one was a given. Killing her own father to enact a curse that would upend the lives of countless people and trap them in a never-ending day-to-day cycle of misery where she reigns supreme over them all, just to satisfy a petty grudge? It’s pretty damn heinous. The only thing worse would be enacting a curse that forcibly merged all realms together without their inhabitants’ consent and her getting to reign supreme over the whole magical universe. But no, that would be way too stupid, so I won’t bother considering it.

RUMPELSTILTSKIN (MR. GOLD): 1. His One Phone Call - When Gold is dying from Dreamshade poisoning inflicted by Hook in the middle of Season 2, he calls an amnesiac Belle on the phone and gives her a heartfelt speech about who she really is and what she meant to him, all for the purpose of providing her with comfort and the strength to carry on living a good life in spite of her memory loss.

2. Embracing his Father - In a deadly embrace. When Peter Pan is about to kill his loved ones, Gold makes the ultimate sacrifice, using his enchanted shadow to root his father to the spot while he thrusts the Dark One Dagger in his back. When Pan tries to tempt him to stop with promises of a happy ending, Gold simply replies that he’s a villain and that villains don’t get happy endings, right before literally twisting the knife and obliterating the both of them.

3. Choosing to Forget - When the Rumple of the past forces a time-traveling Emma to reveal that his son Baelfire dies in the future, he is tempted to alter time in order to prevent that from happening even though it could risk worse things occurring. But when Emma pleads with him to respect his son’s heroic sacrifice and not potentially condemn him all over again, Rumple gives in and drinks a memory potion to forget he ever heard anything of the future.

4. Doing the Right Thing - During the Final Battle, Gold is tempted by both his mother Fiona and the embodiment of the Darkness taking Rumple’s shape to do the wrong thing for the sake of power yet again. But finally realizing he can’t bypass the price of magic, Gold refuses to give in, doing the right thing and saving his son Gideon’s heart...and Emma’s life as well.

5. Unlikely Friendships - As Rumple and later as Weaver, he forges a tight bond of friendship with both Alice/Tilly and her father, Wish Realm Hook/Rogers, looking past the latter’s resemblance to his former nemesis. This friendship ultimately leads him to sacrifice his life to save Rogers from Wish Realm Rumple, even risking not reuniting with Belle in the afterlife because he now knows you do right for right’s sake, not for the sake of a reward. ----------- 1. Killing his wife twice - In a fit of entitled rage when he discovers his wife Mliah left him for a pirate, Rumple rips out her heart and crushes it. Later, he actually reconciles with her in the Underworld as Gold, only to end up betraying her as part of a deal with Hades - throwing her into the River of Lost Souls which erases her individual personhood; basically re-killing her.

2. Abandoning his son - The act that drove Rumple into complete madness: letting go of his son’s hand and allowing him to fall through a portal to another world, all because he never got past childhood trauma and was too scared of the possibility of living without his power. So much pain and suffering followed for so many people, all because of this one cowardly deed.

3. The Sorcerer’s Hat - Everything that Rumple / Gold did in his quest to harness the power of the Sorcerer’s Hat in the first half of Season 4, both past and present, was an example of the great cruelty and selfishness he is capable of. It was particularly bad in the present, where Gold’s recent trauma at the hands of Zelena convinced him all he can ever be is a villain, and as a result there is no line he’s not willing to cross in his pursuit of absolute power.

4. Beauty and the Domestic Abuser - Yeah, from lying to her in his wedding proposal all the way to trying to force her pregnancy to speed up so that he can kidnap her baby, Gold was the definition of an emotionally and psychologically abusive husband to Belle. Then again, given what he did to his first wife, are we really all that surprised? Stopping short of killing Belle hardly lessens the myriad of other ways he harmed her throughout their marriage.

5 The Darkest Dark One - When there was a real chance to destroy the Darkness once and for all, Gold sabotaged it, betraying the heroes and re-absorbing the Darkness that was now fully charged by the souls of all past Dark Ones, becoming the most powerful Dark One ever. And he has no remorse for it, fully accepting it as proof of the kind of selfish man he truly is.

CAPTAIN HOOK (KILLIAN JONES): 1. Neverland - It was Hook that allowed the Nevengers to reach Neverland in order to save Henry by coming back with the magic bean in the Season 2 finale, Hook who provided the ship they sailed upon, Hook who guided them through the terrain he knew well, Hook who saved David’s life, Hook who was responsible for rescuing Neal, and Hook who followed Emma’s lead at all times to see the mission through to its success. He was excellent here.

2. Bringing Emma Home - Trading his beloved Jolly Roger and his career as a pirate for a magic bean, Hook travels to NYC to restore Emma’s memories so that she can return to Storybrooke and save her family, all for a love that he fully accepts may remain unrequited.

3. Making Amends - Several times, Hook wrongs someone, only to later redeem himself by fixing his mistakes. Aurora, Belle, David, Neal, Ariel, Ursula, Nemo, Liam...the list goes on.

4. Sacrificing his life four times - First in the alternate reality that Isaac creates in order to buy Emma and Henry time to escape, then in Camelot in order to save Snow’s life, then as Dark Hook in order to vanquish the Darkness and save Emma and her family, and finally in the Underworld where he gives up on ever finding a way to return to the land of the living so that Emma can make it out on time. For Emma and her family, Hook will truly do anything.

5. Repairing the Broken Kingdom - In the Underworld, Hook teams up with the man who killed him, King Arthur, in order to help Emma. He shows Arthur his passionate dedication and nobility, making the king rethink how he lived his life. At one point, Hook even saves Arthur from being dragged into the River of Lost Souls. Together, the two of them play an pivotal role in Hades’ downfall, and because of Hook’s influence, King Arthur goes on to become the new ruler of the Underworld who restores all the lost souls and reshapes the whole despair-ridden realm into a place of hope and healing. Understandably, Zeus deems this proof that Hook is a True Hero, and thus restores him to life so that he may reunite with his True Love, Emma. ----------- 1. Taking Ursula’s Song - A meeting with the mermaid Ursula almost reforms Hook during his villainous years, but then in order to spite her father he steals her singing voice, the thing that brought her the most joy. This leads to Ursula finally snapping and becoming a villain.

2. Killing David’s Father - Hook killed David’s father....who was literally about to be killed anyway....so that he wouldn’t tell anyone he robbed a carriage belonging to King George and killed his soldiers...even though a pirate thrives off reputation and should want his crimes to be known. Yeah, I’m not sure what the Hell went on with this one. It was so fucking dumb.

3. Stealing Aurora’s Heart - In order to restore his alliance with Cora, Hook stole Aurora’s heart while she was sleeping then manipulated her into thinking he was on her side by setting her free. It was all a ruse so that he could give Cora her heart to control her with, allowing the two of them to set a trap for Emma, Snow and Mulan. His smug attitude about pulling it off and his vicious taunting of Emma once she fell into the trap only made this evil deed worse.

4. Shooting Belle - Aboard the deck of the Jolly Roger, Belle convinces Gold to spare Hook’s life, and how does he repay her for this? Shooting her in the back so that she falls across the town line, causing her to lose all her memories. To be fair, he did want to die...

5. Pawn of Darkness - When Emma turned Hook into a Dark One against his will and even attempted to control him with the Dagger, he regressed into his old depressed nihilism and became a willing servant to Nimue’s sinister agenda, crushing Merlin’s heart to enact the Dark Curse and, once back in Storybrooke, bringing the souls of Nimue and the other past Dark Ones to the land of the living in order to exact his revenge on both Gold and Emma.

THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST (ZELENA): 1. Aiding Belle - In the Underworld, Belle comes seeking Zelena’s aid when she wants to be put under a Sleeping Curse so that her baby isn’t born in the Underworld where Hades can take it. Zelena gives it to her out of an unexpected feeling of empathy toward the “bookworm”.

2. Killing Hades - After Hades kills Robin Hood, his Olympian Crystal winds up in Zelena’s hands. Defying his urges for her to kill her sister Regina so that they can “have everything”, Zelena stabs Hades with it, disintegrating him and finally putting an end to his reign of terror.

3. Giving Up Her Magic - When the Black Fairy tricks her into imbuing crystals with her magic that can then be used to produce the fairy dust needed to start the Final Battle, Zelena prevents this from happening by giving up her magic altogether. After having lived in her sister’s shadow for so long, she finally was able to do something Regina was never able to.

4. Crash Course - She hits the Black Fairy with a car. That is all.

5. Motherhood - Under the name of Kelly, Zelena ended up becoming a pretty great mother to Robin / Margot, putting her wicked ways behind her and raising her daughter to be a hero. --------- 1. Her Tyranny in Oz - An obvious one. She’s the Wicked Witch of the West. Duh.

2. The Death of Neal - Tricking Neal into signing his own death warrant in order to have Rumple resurrected was a truly nasty deed, one she never shows any kind of remorse for.

3. Caging Rumple - After killing Neal, Zelena used the Dark One Dagger to enslave the newly resurrected Rumple, keeping him locked up in a cage and doing everything she could to make him feel helpless and vulnerable out of pure sadistic spite, while also kind of forcing herself on him. The trauma this caused him directly led to Gold’s relapse into pure villainy.

4. The Maid Marian Switch - Traveling back in time, Zelena kills an unconscious Marina in order to absorb her appearance into a glamour charm, making herself appear to be her. Returning to the present with Emma and Hook, she then willfully kept Robin Hood and Regina apart and eventually getting herself impregnated by Robin....so, essentially, rape.

5. Helping to Create Dark Hook - In Camelot, Zelena betrayed the heroes and teamed up with King Arthur, which led to the scuffle where Arthur fatally wounded Hook, which led to Emma turning him into a Dark One. In Storybrooke, Zelena is the one who made Hook regain the lost memory of having become a Dark One in order to get back at Emma for kidnapping her and planning to kill her. She even takes advantage of the crisis Dark Hook creates to steal sole custody over her baby away from Regina and Robin Hood, who had previously been generous to allow her to even have a share of custody at all. It’s just all so...wicked.

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