Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6302057-20150418132245/@comment-25926288-20150421170559

Boobfairy wrote: Maleficent is apparently powerful enough to put Regina to sleep instantly, not to mention an entire town. So how did she lose to Regina back in Season 1? By protecting the unicorn. However, magic is used for the plot. From what we see, Mal or Regina should have one, so Regina winning makes sense because Maleficent likely didn't try to attack. I mean even if she turned into a dragon, Regina couldn't stop her. The other part of the story is how Mal, Cruella, and Ursula needed Snow and David's help to stop Regina from casting the curse (who waited like 9 months apparently). Maleficent could have made the Dark Palace fall asleep and then have her or Ursula break her neck.

With scenarios like this, you wonder why magic is so overpowered if they have to make characters look so weak or stupid.