Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-34924658-20170504173357/@comment-24276151-20170505191814

Tysonjackson wrote: Ursula, Cruella, and Maleficent may have been following Gold's plan but they never behaved like his henchmen. Maleficent treated herself more like his partner, even altering their deal. While Cruella and Ursula also cared about their own plans and did whatever they coudl to ensure them. These two were also the most essential villains (well in the Queens/Gold group) in 4x11-413, being responsible for getting Gold into Storybrooke and reviving Mal. They could've very easily left Gold outside. He needed them. You are very correct, however I feel like after Mal returned, they never really did anything prominent, it was always her and Gold (and Gold moreso than her because he was almost always the one making the plans, she just nodded and was like "It better be good.") She showed an equal relationship by changing the deal between them twice (although he still could have refused, he jsut felt bad for her, which upsets me when the still turn on each other and all that character development is erased by the Crystal). Cruella and Ursula just went into the background and made snarky comments.

Yes, Cruella went solo and was the star of "Sympathy" but you can kinda see why she's a bit of an idiot. As much as I don't like Mal being stupid and going dragon on her when everyone knows she can use animal magic to make her stop, Cruella was even dumber by leaving her on the street instead of forcing her to bodyguard. That's what got her killed by Emma - instead of using Mal to protect her, she used Pongo of all choices. It might have been a much more cathartic ending to have Emma flick magic at Mal and free her body from Cruella's animal magic, after which Mal tail whacks Cruella.