Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-32663586-20170723173544/@comment-28162607-20170803212804

Fave: Emma Swan. I think its amazing that her past was worse than 90% of villains and yet she made conscious efforts to be kind and help people (hello Firebird flashbacks). She has so much compassion even though life was so cruel to her. Then she put her whole life on hold and stayed in Storybrooke because she knew Henry was not in a healhy environment. She has such empathy, especially for people in similar situations to her own eg. Ella and the Zimmer twins and also that moment where she tells Milah that Baelfire is happy even though it got her nothing because she knew how much Milah missed him. Her 'crowning glory', her ultimate her moment was not slaying a dragon but sacrificing herself to save Gideon. Because that is who she is. I also love how she inverts the Strong Female Character mould; she can be tough and vulerable. She can kick ass and cry. She can be hard and soft. I mean she is the epitome of "screw writing strong women, write interesting women".

Least fave: Regina (although I loved her in season 1+2). My problem with Regina is she does the bare minimum and expects a perfect life. IN s2 she threw a fit that the people she oppressed and terrorised didn't want to invite her to dinner because she didn't kill them. Then in s3, after she kindly stopped killing people for a year, she threw a petty tantrum when Marian came back. She constantly complains that she's had such a hard life when her victims had it so much harder than none of them complain. She canonically has no regret about her 40 year abuse campagin because she benefitted from it. That's another thing, she only does things so she can benefit. Adopting Henry was so she could feel loved (this is worth a whole other essay), she aditted she only does good (which is really not doing bad) because she wants to have a happy ending. She also has complete disregard for other people. And by the end, she had kept all her privileges and the love of those she abused despite never really changing. She is the antithesis of Emma.