Board Thread:Character Discussion/@comment-25375217-20150316211747

Okay, so in Unforgiven, Snow White refuses to help Maleficent stop Regina, which somehow results in Maleficent losing her daughter. Seems pretty awful when you phrase it like that, but I'm here to phrase it in a way that it isn't so bad.

Let's take a quick look at Maleficent. Meaning look at the obvious: she's evil. Earlier in the episode, Snow watched her burn two innocent guards alive.

Now look at Snow: she's good. At this point, she's basically the physical embodiment of goodness. Sure, she broke a promise, but all through innocence- it was Regina's mother, surely she couldn't do anything wrong, right? There's no dark spot from it, so it can't be that awful.

Sounds like a rather unstable partnership, doesn't it? It makes sense that Snow might not want to work with Maleficent. In Enter the Dragon, we see that Maleficent's idea of a loyalty test is trapping you in front of a moving train and daring you not to escape. Maleficent has about an 89% chance of throwing Snow into the fangs of fire and destruction if it makes her more likely to survive. Not to mention we don't even know what Maleficent's plan was- it could've been roasting Regina over a fire and having Snow eat her liver. Doesn't sound like something the embodiment of goodness would want to do, does it?

Snow also did not refuse to save Maleficent. She refused to work with Maleficent. There's a difference. She doesn't just say "Nope I'm gonna let Regina cast the curse and kill all of us". She decides to find her own way to break it, as we see in the Pilot. What she didn't want to do was violate her own beliefs, which she didn't do. She probably could've easily stormed Regina's castle and violently murdered her- she had the entire Enchanted Forest on her side. The Dark Curse wasn't fatal, and they had a way to break it.

But Snow still caused Maleficent to lose her child, right? How could she? Well, we don't know the exact cause of Mal's child's disappearance, but presumably it was related to the curse, which caused the following to Maleficent: And the following to Snow: Seems to lean in favor of Mal.
 * 1) Temporary immortality (albeit in a more "trapped" way)
 * 2) (Possibly temporary? loss of a child
 * 1) Temporary loss of memory
 * 2) Temporary loss of true love
 * 3) Temporary loss of daughter
 * 4) Major demotion (princess is MUCH better than schoolteacher, just sayin')

I believe Snow White's decision to follow her own beliefs and find another way to break the curse is perfectly understandable, given the options. It's pretty awful that Mal lost her daughter, but all signs point to that daughter being Lily, who interacts with Mal in AT LEAST two different episodes. So it's not a permanent loss. Snow knew what she was doing, and it looks to be the right choice, because we now have a heroic Regina instead of a burnt-to-death Regina, and everyone gets their kid back! Probably. 