Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-26211594-20151009183748/@comment-4427410-20151012192610

Demanding that Regina be a fully good person strikes me as ridiculous and illogical. No one is like that. Even Snow White made that clear in an early Season 4 episode. No one on that show is fully good. Not even Belle. And they never will be. Human nature is like that, whether many humans are willing to face this or not. All I demand is that Regina, Snow White, Charming, Henry, Hook and all of the other characters (including Emma) are willing to face themselves whenever they do something wrong or make a mistake. I can recall Regina, Rumpel, Belle, Snow White, Charming, Robin Hood and Hook facing their mistakes and/or crimes. Even Cora has done this when she had offered a genuine apology to Regina about Daniel's death. Did this mean they would be able to refrain from such behavior in the future? No. Cora never did. The other characters made similar or different mistakes, even after they had faced up to the past ones  After all, human beings have a bad habit of repeating their mistakes sometimes, when they are not being self vigilant. And being self vigilant is something that everyone needs to do until the end of their lives.

Of all the characters who have not faced their mistakes or crimes, I can only think of a few - Zelena, Henry and Emma. We're well aware of Zelena's mistakes and crimes. When she does face up to her crimes, she has never expressed any remorse. Regina had once express no regret to Pan for her past actions because she ended up with Henry in the long run. Yet, she has expressed remorse on several occasions to others like Snow, Henry and Robin Hood. Yet, Henry has never shown any remorse for emotionally manipulating both Regina and Rumpelstiltskin. No one has ever told him that what he did was wrong. And he did not seem particularly remorseful after Regina had confronted him and Hook for springing Zelena from her prison. Why? Because the writers allowed Hook to tear into Regina about the need to save Emma from "the Dark One" curse. What Henry and Hook did was stupid. But the screenplay never really allowed them to consider the stupidity of their actions.

Emma has never expressed remorse for her mistakes and crimes. She has expressed regret for giving Henry up and for upsetting Regina and Robin's romance, following her time travel exploits. But she has never really faced the fact that rescuing Marian was the wrong thing to do in the first place. She obviously has NO REMORSE for her part in the theft of the yellow Volkswagen or the fact that she had continued to keep it. Neither she or Snow have ever expressed any remorse or guilt for Snow's attempt to kill Mulan (after their fight had ended) or Emma's failure to stop her. Emma has never expressed any remorse for trying to sandbag Henry by maintaining his amnesia, so that she could drag him back to their fantasy life in New York. And no one has never pointed out that her method of rescuing Henry from Cruella was rash, dangerous and wrong. No one has pointed out the possibility that she was more interested in punishing Cruella for a crime similar to what her parents had committed than saving Henry. If her only concern was about saving Henry, she would have done anything to lure Cruella (who had a grip on Henry's arm) away from that cliff before attacking the latter. But she didn't. And if Henry had not ducked, he would have followed Cruella off that cliff. I have pointed this out so many times, yet fans are still making excuses for Emma over what she did.

I'm not saying that Emma is not allowed to regress every now and then, regarding her behavior. I expect that to happen. I expect that to happen for all of the characters. But for once, I would like the writers to allow Emma to owe up to her mistakes like some other characters have done. You want Regina to be a wholly good person? I feel you might be wasting your time. Regina will never be wholly good. And to be brutally honest, neither will Emma, Snow White, Charming, Henry, Hook and all of the other characters. No one is that good in real life. And four seasons of "ONCE UPON A TIME" has shown me that nearly all of the characters are morally ambiguous. That is because humans are morally ambiguous by nature and Kitsis and Horowitz are willing to admit this. . . most of the time.

By the way, I agree with GothicNarcissus. I believe there is no such thing as selflessness. . . at least as far as I'm concerned. Even those who engage in do-gooder acts, usually do so for a personal reason. Even if they are unwilling to admit it. So for Regina or any other character to commit a good act out of selflessness strikes me as illogical. . . and they are fictional characters.