Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-8345449-20140513141958/@comment-24898439-20140522004528

Though we never saw Marian die, I think we have to assume that she did, since she never found her way back to Robin and Roland in the original timeline. It was at a minimum two years after the meeting between Snow and Charming that they were all sent to Storybrooke the first time and time was frozen, and so it seems strange to think that she couldn't get back to them in all that time. Moreover, I still think that, though the present has been minimally changed, the future is now irrevocably altered by Marian's presence (assuming that it really is Marian). If you think about it, Hook's warning to Emma about saving the girl (before she did so), are still true. Thus, having Marian in Storybrooke could cause real consequences. I'm wondering, too, if the reason that the urn with Elsa in it made it back at all is that they also brought Marian back.

Furthermore, I think that there are two real possibilities for the Marian/Regina/Robin triangle. My first theory is that, as others have speculated, death is coming for Marian. Regina will try to save Marian, unsuccessfully no doubt, and after a period of renewed mournign on Robin's part, he and Regina will get back together.

My alternate theory is that Marian is really Zelena or someone else and after that comes out, Regina and Robin will get back together.

I don't think that there will be a scene were Robin actually has to choose and/or chooses Regina. One thing that SM has said about his character is that he is a man of honor, and there is no honor in choosing Regina, no matter how much he loves her. For Maian it has not been a long time, she hasn't mourned him and moved on. Plus, it's not like divorce is an option in this realm. Take for example Milah and Hook. Milah ran off with Hook, but never really ended her relationship with Rumple, officially, and paid the price for those actions, since they were dishonorable. I also think that that is part of the writers' motivations as to keeping Regina from meeting Robin when the pixie dust led her to him the first time. Her character's motivation was because she was afraid, but as others have pointed out, how would she have extricated herself from her marriage to Leopold?