Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4519633-20141022032431/@comment-5106672-20151005194453

After The Price, I've come up with an interesting theory in regards of Regina's magic ranking.

In S1 she seemed a very powerfull, end game sorceress, to the point of terrorising the Enchanted Forest and defeating a more expert witch such as Maleficent. Since S2, though, she started to seem quite average, especially compared to other practitioners such as Zelena, and evem a not particularly brilliant pupil of Rumplestiltskin. Whenever she manages to get results, it's because she's cornrered and has to do something, otherwise she's easily put off by other practitioners.

Well, I think Regina's problem with magic lies mostly in self-doubt. When she went fully villainous and embraced her darkness, she was no match for many. At first, I think she had trouble learning because she didn't really want to do it. Then, after the Curse, she started putting her darkness in question and, as a result, went back to being resentful towards her own magic. In The Price, in particular, it was very clear that her fear of not being enough for her new role led her to have problems with defeating the Fury. Yet, as soon as she's accepted her role as a magical good-doer, she could easily reverse the Dark One's spell on Mr. Clark.

So I'd say she's quite a remarkable sorceress, but was held back by her own self-doubt. Considering her original attitude of "magic = evil", it's not hard to believe that she felt that using magic would impede her redemption, and that reluctance could be what caused her to be easily overpowered my Zelena, Ingrid & co. Now she's accepted that her magic can be put to good, that it's not an evil per se, she's gone back to being quite powerful. It's a bit early to say, but let's see what happens next.