Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25926288-20150618155459/@comment-26184894-20150618183647

I think two things played apart of their relationship being strained.

First would be rumple's ulterior motives. Rumple only took Regina as his apprentice because he wanted her to cast the dark curse, and spent years manipulating her and her life so she would. He even worked with her worse enemies to achieve his goal. I would be extremely upset if someone that was suppose to be close to me betrayed me like that.

The second reason is power. Even though we see Regina as being barely above average as a magic user, she seemed to be one of the strongest magic users in their part of the enchanted forest, only behind rumple. That was bound to cause conflict in their relationship. Especially when Regina got political power along with her already kinda strong magic.