Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-27308670-20160307235212/@comment-25536775-20160607170158

Honestly, I feel like the writers changed directions; everyone's plan at first was to give villains a happy ending within their own timelines. Something happened along the way and Isaac decided to write the book.

In my personal interpretation, given enough time for the story to progress, EQ!Snow would've been defeated, whilst Bandit!Regina would still not ger her happy ending; the villains of our timeline were rewritten as heroes and would eventually get happy endings, and the heroes were rewritten as villains who would eventually get their defeats. Snow and Charming were villains who would lose their happy endings evetually, whilst Rumpel and Zelena were heroes who would eventually get theirs. Regina is the only one who goes out of this model; she'd be sad anyway. IMHO, it's a way of acknowledging her status as an anti-hero.