#she was a baby | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

horsetailcurlers2 · 7 months

Note

do you have any headcanons about reginas upbringing with cora and/or her relationship with the king? i know it can be a sensitive topic on here but imo theres no way they both didnt abuse her in some way shape or form

yes i very much do and they are all objectively awful and sad. i’m a bit hesitant to answer for a couple of reasons. the first reason is that i definitely have an idea of what she went through in my head but to write it out is very different than to just have it in the back of my head when i think of or read anything about her character. the other reason is that my headcanons aren’t anything new. they’re all things lots of other people have thought or written about. however, i do have thoughts so i will try my best. TRIGGER WARNING for child abuse, marital rape, and mentions of eating disorders.

-cora was abusive. hands down, there is no ifs, ands, or buts. even from what they show in the show (it’s an ABC sunday night family show. when it comes to the especially dark topics, they are usually vague or just stick to heavily implying things), we see her manipulating and gaslighting her daughter, being extremely controlling and critical, and physically restraining her in aggressive and violent ways. i think cora was definitely physically abusive- she often used magic instead of her hands because she rarely wanted to mar regina’s beauty.

-i can see her doing things like restraining regina when she was very young if she ever “misbehaved”. i have an image in my mind of little regina being tied to a chair and forced to endure hours of etiquette lessons. cora probably would direct painful bursts of magic at her if she ever misstepped. she’s definitely struck regina before- probably mostly slaps. but she probably would heal the marks with magic (besides maybe the lip scar but i don’t have one solid headcanon about how she got that)

-regina definitely grew up hearing the philosophy that children should be “seen and not heard”. she rarely got to do anything childlike. maybe she was allowed to play with dolls or indulge in dress up games if cora was in a good enough mood to ignore her for the day, but cora probably started telling her she was too old for things like that when regina was around eight or nine.

-regina was probably also very isolated as a child. she rarely socialized with other children outside of rigid balls and parties. she spent most of her days with private tutors or learning how to be a “proper lady”.

-image is extremely important to cora. the only thing cora truly valued about regina is her looks. this has resulted in an complex about her looks even in adulthood. the regina we see in the show is clearly a person who values her appearance. even as the evil queen, she presents a very carefully curated image to the world. if there is one thing that cora has beat into regina, it is that appearances matter. she rarely likes to be seen without makeup and she is very particular about her outfits.

-i also think this contributes to a complex about her intelligence. her mother was always belittling her and calling her a “stupid girl” and her so called husband never had any interest in hearing what she had to say about anything. this is part of why magic is so seductive to her- she can prove that she is more than just a pretty face. (i also have dragon queen headcanons about mal being one of the first people other than daniel to be interested in her intellect)

-i also believe that cora was probably cruel to regina about her darker complexion and would make her wear light makeup and powders and avoid staying out in the sun for too long. same thing with her hair- she taught regina to dislike her natural curls. she always had to iron them out straighter or reshape them into more “perfect delicate ringlets” (like snow’s hair), or hide them with braids. this all feeds into a fucked up whitewashing thing cora definitely perpetuated.

-and her body. especially as she got older, cora was very strict about what regina’s body was supposed to look like. she was supposed to be beautiful and desireable to male suitors, which in cora’s mind= thin. cora would control what regina ate on a daily basis and essentially had her on a starvation diet. i definitely headcanon regina as having issues with eating just based on a few comments she makes in the show and one line in “regina rising”. even as an adult, regina can still hear cora’s voice in her head when she eats or looks at her body in the mirror. to cora, regina’s body has always been a commodity and it has to be maintained like one. this is a very very hard mentality for regina to shake.

-i have very complicated feelings about henry senior. on one hand, he was the only loving presence in her life for a very long time. on the other hand, he was never strong enough to protect her- not from her mother’s abuse and not from being sold off to a fifty year old man. i think that although he was the thing she loved most, she also resented him a bit deep down. (side tangent: i think regina has a deep seated complex about single fathers because of this. like, look at her issues with jefferson, hansel and gretel’s dad, and owen/greg’s dad. it’s almost like she is punishing them all for not being able to protect their children). and he felt a lot of guilt about never intervening until it was too late and she was consumed by darkness- i think he was in a way resigned to his death. he didn’t fight that hard against her killing him because he felt like he was finally making a sacrifice for her happiness or he was paying some sort of penance.

-the king. ughhhhhhh. okay i have made a few posts before about how creepy king leopold is but let’s just state it very plainly: that man raped her. what business does that man have marrying an 18 year old stranger? she looked visibly distressed when he proposed. there is no way he thought she was super into it. “snow needs a mother”?????? one that is barely eight years older than her?? when she has a perfectly good nanny taking care of her. no, that man has a thing for young girls (just look at eva in those flashbacks) and he wanted a beautiful young wife to warm his bed.

-this is horrible and dark, but i believe regina’s wedding night was her first sexual experience. as much as i would have liked daniel to be her first time, there’s almost no way she would have gotten away with it when cora kept her on such a tight leash.

-he treated her like an ornament. he dressed her up and paraded her out to balls and parties only to ignore her all night and dote on his daughter. if cora treated her like a commodity, then leopold treated her like a doll. something to entertain snow during the day and to entertain him at night.

-snow of course was ignorant to all of this darkness until many years later. she thought she had a very happy childhood with her father and stepmother. this is part of why she has such a hard time reconciling her kind and loving stepmother with the cruel and evil woman who wants her dead.

-regina learns early on not to refuse him. that it is easier and less humiliating if she lets him have his way. i can’t even describe how awful and traumatic i think her wedding night was.

-i really don’t know if he would have been physically abusive in other ways. i think he had an inflated ego and probably bought into all the people calling him a “kind king”. he thought that he had a right to her body and she was the one out of line for not happily obeying him. but i wouldn’t be surprised if he got physical with her in other ways, considering the way he canonically locked her up in her room and read her diary.

-his is the one murder she will never regret.

-she likely had long lasting trauma surrounding sex. after the end of her marriage she is so consumed by her rage and thirst for revenge. she gorges herself on the freedom of finally having control over her own body for once in her life. this is a big part of why she goes so crazy as the evil queen.

-i personally think that regina never really thinks of her marriage in terms of what it was. like, she knows she hated it and leopold was awful and disgusting. but she never attributes the word “rape” to it al until many many years later. she still has it ingrained into her mind from her mother and her husband, that she was his wife and it was just her duty. she doesn’t even fathom that it’s possible for a husband to rape his wife. i think she eventually goes to therapy or one day she is watching something on tv and they talk about marital rape and something just shifts within her. suddenly she feels so vindicated. she can finally put a name to it. for years, she thought she was being dramatic and that rape was something that happened with strangers and not within a marriage bed. it is both terrifying and incredibly cathartic to finally name what she went through.

ugh i’m sorry to end on such a sad note. regina has gone through way too much (obviously this doesn’t absolve her of all the evil she has done, but it definitely explains a lot of it and nobody should have had to go through all that).

#regina mills #ouat #once upon a time #fuck you cora!!!#fuck you leopold!!!!#she was a baby #sorry if this isn’t as well articulated as i would’ve liked. i’m very tired lol but i saw this and got fired up #i’m writing a character study of sorts in which regina goes to therapy if anyone is interested #tw: abuse #tw: ed mention

48 notes · View notes

liquidstar · 6 months

Text

If my mom sees a significant amount of blood she gets lightheaded, and has fainted on some occasions. Once it happened when we were kids, I wasn't there to witness it but I heard the story from my dad. Basically my brothers, around 7 or 8 at the time, were playing outside while my mom was making their lunch, and she accidentally cut her finger. It wasn't anything serious, but it drew a fair bit of blood and she passed out. My dad saw this and rushed over, but he didn't really know what to do so he just sort of started slapping her to wake her up (not recommended, but he had no idea and panicked)

At that exact moment my brothers both came in from playing, and all they saw was our mom unconscious on the floor and our dad slapping her. So, like, without even saying a word to each other they both just INSTANTLY start whaling on him, like, full blown attack mode to defend our mom. Which obviously didn't help the situation, but she did wake up and everything was fine.

Now our dad says that he's actually really glad they attacked him over what they thought was going on, because it means he raised good boys. And I still think that's true, they're very good boys.

#i think about this story sometimes like yeah I'm proud of them for that too actually. good job baby brothers #they're not babies anymore of course they're turning 20 next year which is crazy #but they're still the type of people who'd do something if they saw something of this sort happen for sure #respectful of women and everyone else too. they're good guys #I'm glad I ended up with them living in my house against my will for like 14 years #anyway i have no idea where i was for all this but my best guess is probably a friends house given the time period #i was always at my besties house lol #i hope she's doing well too actually. haven't spoken in forever...#bestie from greek elementary school... if you're out there... let's get muffins and fanta at the bakery across the street again someday 💜☮️

59K notes · View notes