Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-25926288-20170103001825/@comment-24674051-20170105180623

I would agree that Robin is the Victim through and through. The first time was when Regina refused to walk through that door. Yes, he met Marian and had Roland. But he also lost Marian, and was forced into a position to steal from Rumple to save his son. Robin's life would be different had he married Regina instead of Marian. But how different? nobody knows.

However, Regina's attraction to Robin in the EF when they breifly returned was detrimental to Robin at that point. My opinion is that the time for "OutlawQueen" had come and gone with the turning of Page XXIII, so any effort to restore the potential was going to be met with disaster. As indeed it was.

Now, how would Robin & Regina be different with the alternate outcome for page XXIII? Regina may or may not have continued with her magic (she started learning under Rumple not long after her marriage to Leopold, so I assume that she was at least at the beginning stages). Zelena would still be envious of her Sister, who had the chance to be Queen and threw it away (Remember that Zelena's biggest argument was that Regina has much and took it for granted).

And the big one. The dark curse. Rumple will still be looking to have this cast, and the prophesy was (I believe) that it would be cast by one of Cora's daughters. And I don't see his training sessions with Zelena going any different, meaning that he would still reject Zelena since he would be the one that she loved most (and therefore could never cast the curse). So ultimately Rumple will convince and train Regina to cast the curse, and in this alternate universe, it is Robin's heart that is used.

So... While I agree that Robin is the victim, I also think that Regina's rejection of him protected him from the potential early demise caused by the first curse. The problem is Regina's 'chasing the dream' when it was too late, and that is what led to Robin ultimately dying (Fate, as Regina says, is a b****).