Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-26211594-20151009183748/@comment-5106672-20151017172212

People keep missing the point here: no one is saying that Regina's actions are better than what other characters have done. The point is, she's finally switching from denial and blame-pushing to really trying to accept the darkness in her past and her own responsibilty in it and LEARN from it – which, I point out again, is a process that takes time. In S2 she was very self-aware when she told Snow that she never learns from her mistakes – that was a deliberate choice. Now she's actually doing that and she's also hell-bent on using said mistakes and her experience of how miserable they have made her to try and prevent others (i.e.: Emma) from going down the same path. There is no magic way to erase one's past mistakes: the only reasonable thing to do is turn them into wisdom and make something useful out of them in the present and for the future.

On the other hand, some characters keep going on denying their mistakes and refuse to take responsibility for, or even being called out on them. This does not affect the past, but puts them on lower moral grounds in the present, because repenting, learning and trying to do good, even for selfish reasons, is still better than doing bad in good faith.

Side note: the Zelena debacle. From our perspective, Regina came out of the blue and threatened a woman who wronged her last season. From the characters' perspective, Zelena was ready to kill her boyfriend to assist Rumple's collective brainwashing plan, like, the day before yesterday. I'd still be pissed off too.