Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20150804233505/@comment-25896389-20150814065808

Hmcooper4 wrote: I agree that Marian is really screwed over royally.

And Regina did start out Operation Mongoose in order to remove Marian and gain Robin for herself. But, TBH, aren't there times when we all have the same type of desire. I'd be a hypocrite if I claimed otherwise.

The story of Operation Mongoose is really Regina's path towards true redemption. She was given many opportunities along the way to make the WRONG choice, but in the end she made the right choices. She chose to save Marian rather than let her die to Ingrid's curse. She chose to let go of Robin so that Marian could be saved. And in the end, she even chose, once she had the author and ink, to NOT rewrite the story. Yes, Regina was tempted to go down the darker path, and sometimes she took a few steps down that path, but in the end, she chose to stay on the right path.

Ok, that was way off topic. Back to Marian. See, that's the one thing I genuinely dislike about Once: How Regina is treated/veiwed compared to others when morality is brought up, both in-universe and out. Let's look at this past season for the most recent examples.

1. Emma saves Marian from Regina's dungeon {at least halfway.} It interferes with Regina's happiness. Result: Regina blames her, Emma blames herself. What Regina did is never even considered and fans flame Emma.

2. The Charmings mess up with Lilly and suffer for it. They have to earn forgiveness. People believe they're demon spawn despite their attempt to save Lilly and make things right down the line.

3.  Regina traps poor Sidney in a mirror and even admits to trying to kill Marian. Nobody raises an eyebrow because she changed her mind.

4. Regina steals Belle's heart to use her as a living pawn to threaten Gold, even almost killing her. She gets away scott free with no one finding out.

5. She used Lilly, turning her into a dragon and endangering many.

6. She tries to erase an innocent baby from existence. Nobody cares cause they either don't know or she changed her mind.

I have more but I'll stop here. The point is: Regina reverts and does questionable things without semming remorseful or being judged. The charmings are made to suffer for every lapse in judgement, no matter how well intended. It's a double standard IMO.