Regina Mills (The Chipped Cup)

This article is not finished and will undergo changes as the story develops. Queen Regina Mills is a main character featured on TCC's Once Upon a Time. In Storybrooke, she is known as Mayor Regina Mills. She is portrayed by Lana Parrilla.

Background
Regina is born to Henry and Cora Mills, who are aristocrats from a royal family. Throughout childhood and adolescence, Regina has a passion for riding horses. This is encouraged by Henry, although Cora is more ruthlessly ambitious and wants her daughter to marry into power and status. Eventually, Regina enters a secret relationship with the stable boy, Daniel. However, during a romantic rendezvous, Regina and Henry are interrupted by a girl who has lost control of her horse. Regina manages to catch up with the wayward steed and rescues the girl, who turns out to be the Princess Snow White. When Snow's father King Leopold learns of this, he asks Regina to marry him - an offer Regina is unable to refuse. Regina informs Daniel of the arranged marriage, and they plan to meet at their usual meeting spot upon the morrow so that Regina and Daniel can elope. The following morning, Regina waits at their designated meeting spot for hours, but Daniel does not come. Eventually, Regina finds a letter in the stables - supposedly written by Daniel - explaining that he does not love Regina and only wanted her family's wealth. Regina is heartbroken by this, and decides to go through with the marriage to King Leopold, becoming the new Queen, as well as Snow White's stepmother.

Over time, Regina and Leopold genuinely fall in love with each other. However, Regina gets sick of Cora trying to control her and encouraging her to get rid of Snow so that there is no threat to Regina's crown later on. Regina seeks help from Rumplestiltskin, who gives her a magic looking-glass which Regina uses to banish Cora to Wonderland. Upon discovering how thrilling it is to use magic, Regina begins practicing witchcraft with Rumplestiltskin, despite witchcraft being illegal within her own kingdom. Eventually, Snow White learns of Regina's magical abilities and sneaks into her chambers. Snow uncovers Regina's looking-glass, although it shatters at her touch and a shard of glass hits one of Snow's eyes. This puts Snow under the Spell of Shattered Sight, causing her to grab a shard of glass and stab her father with it. Regina discovers this, and weeps by her dying husband, blaming Snow White. With the Spell of Shattered Sight wearing off, Snow realizes what has happened and flees the kingdom, while Regina preserves Leopold in a ghostly form inside her magic mirror. Regina decides that Snow White needs to be killed, as she is a threat and could expose Regina's use of witchcraft to the kingdom. She sends out her Black Knights and her Huntsmen to find her stepdaughter, but Snow manages to evade their capture on numerous occasions, resulting in Regina kidnapping Snow's true love Prince Charming and blackmailing Snow into eating a poisoned apple that puts her under a sleeping curse. However, Charming breaks free and wakes Snow with true love's kiss in front of the whole kingdom, causing Regina to flee.

In exile, Regina turns to Rumplestiltskin for guidance, and the imp tells her of a Dark Curse created by a dark fairy that resides in her lair within the Forbidden Mountains. Regina travels there to find the castle deserted, aside from a unicorn, and retrieves the Dark Curse. However, upon reading it, she finds out that enacting the curse requires her to rip out the heart of the thing she loves most. Regina tries to use the heart of her favorite childhood steed, but when it fails, she realizes that she needs to go all the way and rips out her father's heart. This time, when she crushes the heart into the flames, the Dark Curse is enacted and Regina launches one final attack upon Snow White's kingdom as the curse devours the entire realm, where Regina gloats over a distraught Snow that she is going to lose everything. However, Snow and David had managed to send their newborn daughter Emma through a magic wardrobe that sent her to a land without magic, as she is prophesied to be the Savior who breaks the curse and saves them all. Despite this setback, Regina remains confident that she will have her happy ending at last, as the Dark Curse destroys the palace and consumes them all, sending them "somewhere horrible" where the only happy ending will be for Regina.

Season 1
In Storybrooke, Regina becomes the mayor, and everyone in town fears her. When Regina's adopted son Henry runs away to meet his biological mother Emma Swan, Regina finds herself meeting Emma when she takes Henry back to Storybrooke. Regina feels threatened by Emma's sudden presence in Henry's life, and eventually demands that Emma leaves town and does not contact Henry ever again. Emma, however, is concerned about Henry and decides to stay in Storybrooke, leaving Regina infuriated.

Family/Relationships

 * Henry Mills I (father) †
 * Cora Mills (mother)
 * Leopold White (husband) †
 * Henry Mills II (adoptive son/second half-cousin)
 * Snow White (half-aunt/stepdaughter)
 * Emma Swan (half-cousin)
 * Eva Nordreich (grandmother) †

Trivia

 * Regina is based on the queen from the fairytale Snow White.

Appearances

 * S1, E01: "Once Upon a Time"