Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-26084266-20150207063110

I went to post this before, and depressingly enough, it didn't go through because I didn't have a membership on the forum. Well, now I have to retype it out! Bare with me!

Back when I first ever saw Zelena get stabbed by Rumple, me and my friend both honestly started talking about what we thought right away..and we weren't convinced she's dead. Even with the producers announcements to have her in "flashbacks", it was only a matter of time because they can touch up on so many storylines with the Oz arc.

I just want to start by saying that I don't think OUAT would just introduce a character that Rumple considers to be the most powerful sorceress he's ever encountered, just to kill her off quickly within a half season mark (especially being more powerful than Cora and considering the other woman he's come across) without having some type of merit to have more of a backstory. Baum's book really had a lot of depth and development to them, and even though OUAT did not follow the "Wizard of Oz" storyline (also due to copyright), they can go many directions with a spin on the book series if they wanted to.

Glinda was also a key point in a lot of factors that really give merit to Zelena's return. The producers I notice have been holding off on the full potential of Emma's powers; and Glinda's biggest stress was that ONLY the strongest prevailer of light magic can defeat Zelena, and within the series it is Emma. I can see where Dorothy can be led into the prophecy due to the traditional Oz storyline, but the Oz prophecy was not even near being fullfilled. Emma could be the sorcerers that eventually goes to Oz by cyclone and must defeat Zelena. Also, the pendant Glinda gave to Zelena was told was now her life, I think there is some legitimacy behind that. I think Zelena learned how much of her power she could actually harness and manipulate through the pendant because Glinda told her that with it she could achieve miracles; i.e. traveling through time, banishing glinda to the EF (power to cross realms to some extent).. this can include harnessing her pendant as a life force; incase her physical body is harmed then the pendant can protect her.

Back in the episode when Rumple killed her, we saw the flashback where she tricked Dorothy and Glinda into thinking she melted. I think in present day, Rumple is meant to be Dorothy/Glinda being tricked by Zelena into "killing" her, knowing she had a connection to the pendant with her extrordinary power to latch onto to activate the portal and re-latch to her magic. I think during these flashbacks we could find out more of how Zelena's powers had enhanced because she did tell Regina that she "made something of herself" without Rumple and Cora; her powers probably grew even more remarkably after Rumple already referred to her as the most powerful, or we could see past encounters between them when she became the Wicked Witch full force. You can also see a smirk in her face before Rumple kills her, and I think it's because she knew that being killed by dark magic would actually be what she needed to activate her magic. Only light magic can defeat her, and I noticed her subtle manipulation to get Rumple to kill her, she acted like she was scared just like in the flashback when she pretended to melt.

As for the current photos online of her and Marian, I believe Zelena successfully was able to travel into the past and is already causing havoc. Zelena is intelligent enough to know I think that she can only do but so much in the past because she can affect even herself in a more negative way depending on consequence, so she has not killed anyone in the past; instead found significant key points to harm people in the present. I just think of the irony that ever since Marian was kept alive; Regina lost Robin, Rumple lost bell, The frozen arc began, basically all hell broke lose from the time portal opening.

Any more thoughts, please feel free to add on! I'm curious to see what others think. Honestly my favorite villain, I see why people don't like her but you have to consider these are the producers of lost and also OUAT is notorious for huge plot developlment and showing different perspectives later in the game; her plot felt very incomplete unlike Cora, Pan, and the other villains left off in a resolved past connection. Zelena's storyline feels still very open with a lot of unanswered questions. 