Board Thread:Show-Related Questions and Answers/@comment-1758442-20130915084147/@comment-4975807-20130922223222

TNOandXadric wrote: Princess Alessandra wrote: I honestly don't think it will ever be an issue or discussed on the show. My 4 year old watches the show and I wouldn't want her put in mind of things like that. I still don't think Leopold the man is quite as great as Leopold the King though. It's not as if OUaT doesn't have rape, though. Or does Regina raping Graham not count?

I very much believe that Leopold did rape Regina, because:

1. Rape is not about love or even sexual attraction. It's about assertion of power. Leopold has zero problems locking her up under armed guard when he thinks she's being unfaithful and elsewhere gives zero indication that he cares about her happiness. Add to this that it's Cora, not Regina, who accepts his proposal and he does nothing to suggest that he sees there's anything wrong with this, and I don't think it's much of a stretch.

2. The argument that it couldn't have happened because Regina had magic doesn't taking into consideration that not all rape—not even the majority, for that matter—is of the violent, 100% physical force variety. Consider that Regina is an abused young girl who's desperate for her chance at happiness and, thanks to Cora, equates power with freedom with happiness. Consider also that Leopold is the ''king. ''

So while Regina did have the ability to stop Leopold from raping her because she has magic and he's implied to be physically weak, she doesn't have a lot of motive to do so. What do you think would happen to her if she fought back and injured or even killed Leopold? She's not powerful enough to fight off all the king's guards and even if she did escape, she'd be a fugitive. And it isn't as if there's a rebel movement because, from what we see of the FTR, all the peasants adore Leopold and Snow. (True, Rumpel would more than likely protect her so she could survive to cast the Dark Curse, but Regina doesn't know that.)

3. It's completely possible that marriages in the FTR have to be consummated to be legal. This isn't exactly an unheard of concept and, considering how psuedo-medieval the FTR is, it wouldn't surprise me at all if this were the case. And if it is, it's equally plausible that Cora would have raised Regina with the assumption that one day she's going to marry a king and that king is going to have sex with her whether she likes it or not, so she's just going to have to grit her teeth and bear it because that's the price she's going to pay for power. Okay, but everything you are arguing here is hypothetical. Do you know for a fact marriages in the Enchanted Forest *must* be consummated? No. You are bringing it up as a suggestion that has yet to be proven. And secondly, there are other things at stake from Leopold locking Regina up after he thought she was having an affair. Such as reputation of the royal family. Gossip. Rumors. How were things going to be if something like that got out to the public? It could have been a number of explanations, which were *never* elaborated on. I dislike that you are trying to imply, "well, he has the power to lock her up, so I guess it means he has the power to rape her".

I want to remind everyone that we still do not know how Regina lived throughout her marriage. It's very easy to make assumptions based on only what we have seen on the show thus far, or to imagine what Regina might have or might have not gone through.