Wonderland Castle

The Red Queen's Castle is a Wonderland location on ABC's Once Upon a Time in Wonderland. It first appears in the first episode of the first season.

History
The castle is ruled over by a King who holds an evening royal ball. Earlier on, a poor couple, Anastasia and Will, sneak their way into the party to steal much needed food for themselves. While Will goes to pilfer some, Anastasia casually walks throughout the crowd of guests. She overhears a high class woman use the term "darling" and practices saying the phrase to herself. As she bumps into a man, Anastasia tries out using the word to greet him, only to embarrass herself after he introduces himself as the King of the castle. He is attracted to her in the few minutes they spend together sharing a drink, but watches in dismay as Will is hauled outside for a forged ball invitation, and Anastasia herself is thrown out for wearing a stolen gown. Despite the humiliating outcome, Will managed to grab a few bread loaves from the tables, which he shows Anastasia as she smiles at his silliness. They head home, but she takes one last longing look up at the castle balcony.
 * -|Before the Curse=

Much later, the lovers find themselves at another pitfall while Anastasia suggests they should just use the looking glass to return to their own world instead of continuing on in Wonderland. Before they go, she wants to steal the crown jewels from the castle, and then return to their world to sell them for a large sum of money. Will doesn't like stealing, as he already gave up that life once, but goes along with the plan since Anastasia reasons they are only stealing due to being needy and poor. While Will waits below the castle balcony for her to throw down the jewels, she breaks into the cabinet to take them. She is delighted by a red crown, and in her distraction, is caught red-handed by the King. She insists that he has so much wealth and it would be little matter if some of it is gone. After he explains that the hierarchy dictates who has or does not have wealth, Anastasia hands back the crown, but the King offers her it if she does the honor of marrying him. Anastasia's feelings for Will hold her back until the King notes that love won't get someone far and it is never enough. She accepts the marriage proposal, though she does not love the King, and later strolls out to the balcony, garbed in a lascivious new outfit topped off with the red crown, and greets the adoring public as their new Queen. Her gaze meets Will's heartbroken eyes, but then she carries on with the charade of her new status.

In an alliance with a sorcerer from Agrabah named Jafar, he and the Red Queen arrange to capture the last and third genie they need to break the laws of magic and gain what their hearts desire most. The only problem is the genie, Cyrus, recently gave three wishes to a girl, Alice, yet she never used them, so he is still bound to her as his master. They separate the pair by faking Cyrus' death while Alice, despondent and grief-stricken, is forced to return home alone. The Red Queen commands the obedience of the White Rabbit to follow her orders when she holds his family hostage. He agrees to goad Alice back to Wonderland by telling her Cyrus is alive. Once this is accomplished, the Red Queen comes across the White Rabbit on the side of the road and brings him back to her castle for a chat. The Red Queen is pleased with his work, but when the White Rabbit asks to stop spying on Alice for her, she shows him exactly who is in charge while he can only back away in fright. Out on the balcony, Jafar receives an update from her about Alice's return to Wonderland. He questions the usefulness of the Red Queen and proceeds to magically suffocate her. He only halts when the Red Queen chokes out that only she is aware of Alice's current location. She reminds him of whose land Jafar is in--hers--and he has no power in Wonderland.
 * -|After Broken Curse=

One day, much to the Queen's boredom, one solemn duty she is required to do is listen to the petitions of the commoners. Jafar freezes all the subjects and enters to ask about her efforts in finding Cyrus' genie bottle. She protests that there are responsibilities as a Queen, so he frees up her time by turning the commoners into dust. Her servants, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, unfreeze from the freezing spell and begin cleaning up the mess while the Red Queen looks on at Jafar's retreating form in annoyance. He returns a short time later with the accusation she already knows the location of the bottle. She affirms this to be true, but won't tell him anything until he agrees to give her a reward out of their deal. Jafar is unamused by her tactics and freezes her whole body, except the head, until she spits out the bottle's location to be in Mimsy Meadows under the Tum Tum Tree. Her answer is actually a lie as she already possesses the bottle, thanks to the White Rabbit, and later unveils the truth to Jafar to force him to start treating her like an equal rather than a lackey.

Jafar becomes aware of Knave, who he only recently learned is Alice's ally, and goes the the castle to question the Red Queen about why she did not tell him this. She admits Knave was just an excuse for Alice to feel safe enough to return to Wonderland, so Jafar orders her to get rid of him soon. The Red Queen imprisons Knave in her castle, but this is still not enough in Jafar's eyes, who desires for a public execution so others can see what will happen to those who ally themselves with Alice. When pushed by Knave, the Red Queen spitefully commands for a beheading. As Jafar and the Red Queen watch from a balcony atop the castle, Alice rescues Knave by pretending to be the executioner and they escape into the maze via a catapult. Jafar and the Red Queen follow and corner them in the maze, which ends with Knave being turned into a stone statue.

The Red Queen orders search parties for an escaped Cyrus, but he is not found, much to her disappointment. In the throne room, she prattles on to Tweedledum about the power she will have over Jafar once the genie is hers, though the sorcerer himself overhears her every word. This does not deter her in the least when she notices him standing behind, and the Red Queen feigns a concerned tone over Jafar's recent disappearance since she couldn't find him. She tells him, with much satisfaction, that Cyrus escaped while he was away. As a counter, Jafar warns her not to get any silly ideas that she can actually change the laws of magic without his help.

Tweedledum delivers news that Cyrus is trapped in the forest, but also admits witnessing his brother Tweedledee give something to Jafar. Suspiciously, she goes to check her drawer and finds the bottle missing. Though it was a decoy bottle, the Red Queen is furious at Tweedledee's duplicity. She takes off his head and wraps it up in a present box addressed to Jafar, who later enters the castle after discovering the bottle is fake. He briefly opens the box and closes it in annoyance. Seeing as she also deceived him with the fake bottle, Jafar takes a strand of the Red Queen's hair and brews a storm cloud to kill her as punishment.