Zelena

"The Queen may be Evil, but I'm Wicked. And Wicked always wins."

- Wicked Witch of the West

The Wicked Witch of the West, also known as Zelena, is a character on ABC's Once Upon a Time. She débuts in the twelfth episode of the third season. She is portrayed by guest star Rebecca Mader, and is the Enchanted Forest counterpart of Zelena.

The Wicked Witch of the West is based on the character of the same name from the children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

History
Abandoned by her birth mother, she is taken by a cyclone to the land of Oz and picked up by a woman. The woman's husband witnesses the babe exhibit powerful magic by felling a tree, though the latter remains oblivious. Given the name Zelena, she loses her adoptive mother in childhood and grows up with a drunken father. While she is shaving his neck, he harps on Zelena to always put on her best face. Accidentally cutting him with the razor, she conjures a rag, but her use of magic terrifies and angers him. He reveals the truth of her birthright, that she is not his biological daughter, and spitefully calls her "wicked". Hurt, she consults the Wizard about her birth family. Zelena finds out she was abandoned because her own mother, Cora, wished to become royalty, which her first-born could not give. She glimpses her half-sister, Regina, who has become Queen and is being taught magic by a man named Rumplestiltskin. Gifted silver slippers, she uses them to travel to Regina's palace. Rumplestiltskin stumbles on Zelena, and believes she is lying about being Cora's first-born until testing her genetics. Accepted by him, she learns that he is making a powerful curse to take himself to a Land Without Magic. She is taught to channel rage, such as anger about her own abandonment as well as jealousy towards Regina, into magic. Rumplestiltskin also teaches Zelena how to let the rage simmer by thinking of a happy moment, and even shares his childhood memory of being raised by spinsters and eating meat-pies. This helps her realize her happiest moment is having met him. After the lesson, she bakes him a meat-pie, but he has to leave to teach Regina magic. Upset, she reacts in hysterics until he points out that her jealousy is literally turning her skin green. Unwilling to settle for competition, Zelena attacks Regina, though it is Rumplestiltskin in disguise. He disqualifies her as the future caster of his curse since one of the ingredients required for it is the thing she loves most—him—and that makes her too dangerous. He backtracks upon seeing the silver slippers she has, which can take him to a Land Without Magic. Too furious at his prior rejection, she scathingly promises him that he'll choose her next time. Returning to the Wizard, she asks for a way to change the circumstances of her own past, though he says it's impossible. She rips away the Wizard's curtain, discovering he is just a man putting on a show, and transforms him into a pet flying monkey. As she gets a glimpse of Rumplestiltskin calling Regina his "best pupil", her jealousy reaches a boiling point, Zelena's skin becomes completely green with envy. Zelena, now known as the Wicked Witch of the West, begins taking residence in Regina's former palace and breaking the latter's magic lock on the crypt, which was created by blood magic. Conveniently, due to her blood link to Regina, this allows her easy access into the fortress. Zelena later enacts her own protection spell to keep outsiders out. Upon learning from Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip that the old inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest have returned, she sends her minion, a flying monkey, to extract some of Regina's blood. After doing so, the Wicked Witch mixes the blood with a potion intending to seek revenge on Regina.
 * -|Before the Curse=
 * -|After Undone Curse=

While still in the palace, she notices Regina and a man break in through the underground tunnel with intentions of bringing down the barrier encasing the building. Zelena also learns that Regina is concocting a brew of the Sleeping Curse and planning to use it on herself. Only after Regina, having broken the palace shield, prepares to use the curse, she finally reveals herself to the other woman. The Wicked Witch speaks freely about having tried on Regina's clothes and seeing all the various rooms in the palace such as the crypt. While Regina believes Zelena forcibly opened the crypt, which is bound by blood magic, she insists that is not the case. When she admits their relation as half-sisters, with Cora as their shared mother, Regina doesn't believe her. Zelena elaborates by detailing how she was sent away to Oz while scathingly recounting how Cora gave Regina everything. Though Regina considers her lucky to have escaped Cora's tyranny, Zelena is too hurt by her mother's abandonment. Additionally, Zelena feels inferior to her since they were both students of Rumplestiltskin, but yet she wasn't the one chosen to enact the curse. Upon learning Cora and Rumplestiltskin are dead, she is somewhat disappointed by the news. Nonetheless, Zelena announces that her true intent is to get what she desires; describing it as "her dreams being realized" while Regina will suffer a "fate worse than death".

Zelena entraps a man named Lumiere into a form of a candle; forcing him to manipulate Belle and Neal into reviving Rumplestiltskin by using a key to open the vault of the Dark One. Unknown to the pair, whoever resurrects the Dark One will lose their life. Shortly after Neal opens the vault, he begins dying while Rumplestiltskin is resurrected. As opportunity would have it, Zelena reveals herself to Rumpletstiltskin as he is holding his son as well as the accursed dagger. As he is unable to cling onto both Neal and the dagger, she grabs the weapon. To keep his son alive, Rumplestiltskin quickly absorbs him into his own body. Zelena orders him to kill Belle, but before he can, she is entrapped by Lumiere's flames. The girl flees unharmed, taking Lumiere with her, while Zelena furiously seethes.

Trivia

 * The name "Zelena" is of Old Greek origin derived from the word "selene" that means "moon". "Zelena" also means "green" in various Slavic languages.