Hiatus Highjinx I’ll Go Down with the Ship Week 3

[puppetmaker40.livejournal.com]

Not all ships have a sextual component to it. Some are just relationships we enjoy watching unfold and talk about.

In that context this week I would like to discuss Regina and Henry’s relationship which does have fanfic and fandom discussion.

So let’s keep it polite.

A few questions to start the discussion but please feel free to add to this topic. I am but one voice.

1. Do you believe that Regina truly loves Henry and had from the start?

2. Did the events of Saving Henry color how you look at their relationship?

3. How hard do you think it was for Regina not to tell Henry who she was?

4. Henry’s behavior is pretty much that of a pre- adolescent at the beginning, how have you seen him grow as this story unfold in terms of his relationship with Regina?

5. Favorite scene between the two characters?

6. What do you think went on in their family counseling sessions with Dr. Hopper?

Comments

[sparkythegeek.livejournal.com]

1. Do you believe that Regina truly loves Henry and had from the start?
Yes. It sounds like she was super controlling of him, like how Archie had described Regina as a "strong woman with a clear path for her son" but I think she really did love him all along.

2. Did the events of Saving Henry color how you look at their relationship?
I hope it colors how Henry sees her, now that he remembers everything!

3. How hard do you think it was for Regina not to tell Henry who she was?
That had to have about killed her... and it's the only reason I can think of why she latched onto Robin so easily: to distract herself from not pestering Henry (and Emma) about the truth.

4. Henry’s behavior is pretty much that of a pre- adolescent at the beginning, how have you seen him grow as this story unfold in terms of his relationship with Regina?
Well, the family dynamic was much stronger in season 3 once he was rescued (for how little long that lasted before the new curse was enacted).

5. Favorite scene between the two characters?
All of them. :D I love how he can sass at such a strong mother character!

6. What do you think went on in their family counseling sessions with Dr. Hopper?
I never imagined Regina being there, actually. I thought it was 1-1 with Archie and Henry.

[philstar22.livejournal.com]

1. Do you believe that Regina truly loves Henry and had from the start?

Yes. I think that she didn't know how to show love in the beginning and then panicked a bit when he started figuring things out and did the wrong thing, but she absolutely loved him and loves him.

2. Did the events of Saving Henry color how you look at their relationship?

Not at all. This episode only confirmed by belief that she loved Henry, even if her evil self only knew how to try to control things the way her mother tried to control her.

3. How hard do you think it was for Regina not to tell Henry who she was?

Not hard at all. I think in her mind they were two separate things. She was Henry's mother and she was the evil queen. They had to be or her love for Henry would have started to change her a lot sooner. It wasn't until he figured things out and ran away and brought Emma back that she started to see that she couldn't keep those two parts of her life separate.

4. Henry’s behavior is pretty much that of a pre- adolescent at the beginning, how have you seen him grow as this story unfold in terms of his relationship with Regina?

I think so. His early behavior was of a pre-adolescent trying to find himself and searching for his birth parents. From what I understand, adopted kids at some point frequently get the idea of their birth parents as their real parents and test their relationship with their adopted parents by thinking of that parent as not their real parent. Henry grew up a bit, though, and as Regina changed he came to realize that she was his real mother too and that she had loved him all along. I still wish the show would come to realize that she's more of his mother since she is the one who raised him and who is legally his parent, but at least we've gotten to a place where she is equally his mother for the most part.

5. Favorite scene between the two characters?

The scene where he tells her she is a hero. The scene in the season 2 final. Their goodbye scene in the season 3 midseason final.

6. What do you think went on in their family counseling sessions with Dr. Hopper?

[hughville.livejournal.com]

1. Do you believe that Regina truly loves Henry and had from the start? I think at first she loved him as much as she was capable. Now I believe she truly loves him the way a mother should love her child.

2. Did the events of Saving Henry color how you look at their relationship? Well, that episode showed how far Regina has come. At that point, I knew she loved him because she was willing to do whatever she had to do to save him, even working with Emma and Snowing.

3. How hard do you think it was for Regina not to tell Henry who she was? Not hard at all. I don't think she likes that he knows all the terrible things she did even though he loves her anyway.

4. Henry’s behavior is pretty much that of a pre- adolescent at the beginning, how have you seen him grow as this story unfold in terms of his relationship with Regina? He's more accepting of her and who she truly is. Plus, he wants to spend time with her now rather than clinging to Emma.

5. Favorite scene between the two characters? When she told him about her relationship with Robin Hood and he thought it was so cool that his mom was dating The Prince Of Thieves.

6. What do you think went on in their family counseling sessions with Dr. Hopper? A whole lot of denial on Regina's part and a whole lot of sullen silence from Henry.

[ctrent29.livejournal.com]

1. Do you believe that Regina truly loves Henry and had from the start?

I've always believed so. But I believe that once she realized he was Snow White's grandson and that Emma existed, she feared that this knowledge would affect her parenting skills and make her more controlling. That's why she took the memory stripping potion. Once she met Emma, she feared that she would lose Henry and became rather draconian and controlling . . . just as she had feared. Most people are like this, when threatened by the loss of someone.


2. Did the events of "Saving Henry" color how you look at their relationship?

I don't think so.


3. How hard do you think it was for Regina not to tell Henry who she was?

It was probably very easy for her not to tell Henry the truth about her past. She probably feared he wouldn't react to the discovery very well. And she was right.


4. Henry’s behavior is pretty much that of a pre- adolescent at the beginning, how have you seen him grow as this story unfold in terms of his relationship with Regina?

As Henry got older, he was forced to face the truth about the morality of others and slowly learn to let go of his black-white morality. After all, he also had to face Emma's lies about Neal and Snow White's killing of Cora.


5. Favorite scene between the two characters?

I have two. One of them is when he watched her prepare the sleeping potion for David in Season 2's "Into the Deep". My other favorite is when Henry regained his memories and Regina broke the second curse by giving him a "true love's kiss" on his forehead in late Season 3.

6. What do you think went on in their family counseling sessions with Dr. Hopper?

I though the sessions were solely with Regina and Archie.

[ramasi.livejournal.com]

I think she loves him from the start, but it's a pretty selfish love that isn't very good for him in some ways*. Even when she takes the potion In Save Henry: she's weakening herself, she's leaving herself open to everything the curse was supposed to bring her being destroyed, it's a huge sacrifice on her part, but she also makes herself forgot her very willingness to make that sacrifice; and then later she struggles for a whole season with choosing Henry over her revenge (not that she doesn't choose him when it comes down to it, I'm certain she always would have; but she puts him in danger by wanting so much to have both).

Still, she was more mature in that episode than I would have expected. In season one I expected her getting Henry to be some sort of desperate "I need someone to love/to love me", and choosing a child because that's a non-treatening kind of love, and one where she has control (and then of course she doesn't know how to deal when Henry grows up). She's grown a lot since then, but her making that choice back then surprised me, so I think the episode did change the way I look at the relationship a little (and I like what it says about the relationship).

* I don't think it's a negative relationship either though (even if the whole "making Henry think he's imagining things" is really bad); I always felt that Henry's utter rejection of her in the first season and his being so openly angry at her rather speaks for her parenting, because it means he's secure enough in the relationship to act like that; never does he seem to feel he needs to tiptoe around her; he might feel and think he's not sure she loves him, but I don't think that's how he acts.

Not being able to talk to Henry in season 3 was obviously very hard for her, but it's a sign of how far she's come that it's not devastating to her (though if there was no chance at all of him regaining her memories, I think she'd have been back to putting herself under a sleeping curse). I don't think she was ever seriously tempted to just tell him.

[ctrent29.livejournal.com]

I think she loves him from the start, but it's a pretty selfish love that isn't very good for him in some ways*.


When you think about it, most people are selfish when it comes to love. Look at Snow and Charming. I wonder how Emma felt when Snow revealed that she wanted another child so that she can raise it herself. Her desire for another child, for her own personal reason struck me as very selfish . . . but also very normal.

People are basically selfish, despite being capable of thinking of others. And a lot of people go out of their way to conceive or adopt children for selfish reasons.


I think she loves him from the start, but it's a pretty selfish love that isn't very good for him in some ways*. Even when she takes the potion In Save Henry: she's weakening herself, she's leaving herself open to everything the curse was supposed to bring her being destroyed, it's a huge sacrifice on her part, but she also makes herself forgot her very willingness to make that sacrifice; and then later she struggles for a whole season with choosing Henry over her revenge (not that she doesn't choose him when it comes down to it, I'm certain she always would have; but she puts him in danger by wanting so much to have both).


I'm a little confused. Are you saying that Regina should not have taken that potion . . . and allowed her fear of Emma's existence to affect her raising of Henry?