Six Times Regina Mills and Cordelia Goode Were Basically the Same Person
In the spirit of Halloween, what better time than today to celebrate the Realms’ most powerful sorceresses? Whether you belong to the Disney/ABC fandom or the FX/Ryan Murphy one. Maybe even both? Whether you’re an Evil Regal or a Sarah Paulson fan, hopefully, this one resonates with you and your fave(s):
Humility vs. Insecurity
Is it their humility or insecurity that gets in the way of using their powers? Maybe it’s both (at first), maybe it’s neither. Maybe they just really don’t want to use magic since they’ve been exposed to how their mothers used it at an early age and usually for selfish reasons.
The once and former Evil Queen sure didn’t know what she was capable of. All she wanted was freedom. Suffocated by her own mother’s desperate attempt to be everything she wasn’t able to be, Regina was stuck. Though she had power and was powerful, she didn’t want to hone her magic let alone have anything to do with it seeing as how it was used against her by her own flesh and blood. What good could have possibly come out of that – when all she really wanted was to be with her first love, Daniel and be free?
Cordelia, daughter of Fiona Goode, the (former) Supreme (the most powerful witch from the Salem descendants) does not want to use magic to conceive a baby at first. Even though she definitely could have done so, magic is the one thing that makes her distinct, and that’s exactly why she wanted something more “natural” in every which way possible especially in this scenario. “I should be able to have a baby just like any other woman. If I start using magic to fulfill my every whim, then I’m just Fiona,” Cordelia said.
Innocent consultation/dabbling of power… of the dark magic kind
Both witches’ early naïve reputation precedes them because of their mothers’ stints as powerful sorceresses before them. This can be either good or bad. In both Regina and Cordelia’s cases, it was the latter.
Summoning the Dark One for the first time and asking “What are you?” used to be the young Evil Queen-in-the-making’s aesthetic. She’s come a long way since then, but Rumple and Regina’s first meeting is the exact moment that catalyzes the birth of the Evil Queen. “You could do so much if you just let yourself,” Rumple said as he sensed Regina’s power oblivious to her own. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, didn’t know how to use magic, didn’t even want to use it for fear of being just like her mother. Yet, after just a little bit of time after speaking with Rumple, she pushes Cora out of her life and out that realm through the looking glass. Can you really blame her? She really did not want to marry the King.
When science, light magic and all else fails, the next logical solution is found where, Cordelia? Dark Magic. Voodoo. In desperation for her wanting to have a child and getting organic results, Fiona Goode’s daughter runs to the other side of town and risks breaking the contract between the white and black witches of New Orleans for the sake of having her own child. Where’s the harm in consulting Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen for a simple fertility spell after all?
A Lover’s Betrayal
Fair warning: Multi-shipper here.
While Robin did love Regina, it’s valid to say that both Cordelia and Regina have had their fair share of broken hearts and infidelity caused by their male lovers. Is it also too soon to say that Robin and Hank’s “other woman” were both redheads? I’m sorry. Not sorry. But true story.
I for one don’t approve of the whole siblings-shared-one-man storyline. There’s not much to say about it, but Robin thought Zelena was his wife, Marian who he thought was dead (reliving this is quite painful). Apparently, ever the Wicked Witch, Zelena was wearing a glamor spell and all the while playing house with Robin Hood and his son, Roland in New York – she had other plans: like cooking something in her own oven with Robin… to make her little sis, Regina, jealous. Ah, Zelena’s questionable life goals. Those were the days that definitely make you think…did that really happen? For sure, Regina feels the same.
What to do when the side chick falls for you? A step-by-step guide by USDA agent/inspector Hank Foxx. In all honesty, raise your hands if you also thought the Kaylee woman was an old high school flame for Cordelia’s husband? It turns out; Hank had too much time on his hands not killing his witch of a wife and her witchy army, so he decides to unleash his pent up energy to hook up with a random stranger online – who shares his fondness of Thomas Kinkade paintings. Then we find out she’s actually a witch too…and he, well… a witch-hunter.
Mother issues and a Regal Future Intertwined
The main difference between Regina and Cordelia is that Regina was devastated when Cora died. Thinking she actually was given a second chance to spend time with her, but it was instead once again taken from her. Cordelia, on the other hand, was ready to let Fiona go. “You were the monster in every one of my closets,” she said as she cried for herself and finally held Fiona before the former Supreme entered the realm of her eternity with the Axeman.
Regina’s mother, Cora Mills was quite the stickler for social status having been born a commoner and marrying a prince for his riches after being proven worthy because she spun straw into gold. Cora would even go as far as to argue that she got there all on her own. Rumplestil-who? So, it’s only fair – by her logic – that Regina must marry a nobleman because “one’s trajectory must keep moving up.” Regina for her part didn’t want to use magic at all; she just wanted to be free with her first love, Daniel – who was a stable boy and definitely a no “way up.” As the story goes, she saves a princess’ life unaware she was royalty and finds herself in a deadlock marriage to the King who is how many years old her senior? Congrats, Queen and so sorry about what is to come.
“You have royal blood running in your veins,” Fiona Goode scolds her daughter when she waltzed in unannounced at the Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies. Her daughter Cordelia, even if content as Headmistress of the Academy, still has Fiona insisting she could be ruling the world. She reminds Cordelia that she is the only child of the Supreme. “One of my greatest disappointments in life is that you never fully realized the extent of your power,” she said. Cordelia is, of course, more than offended and to which she replies with, “When are you gonna die and stop ruining my life?” (Not too long, after all, Delia. Just a couple episodes more.)
The supportive number one
Not the side kick but the we’ll-cast-spells-grow-plants-defeat-monsters-pass-the-seven-wonders-and-keep-each-others-dagger-together type of intense closeness / best friendship is what these two pairs have in common.
Regina mentors Emma.
Helps the Savior hone her power.
They repeatedly protect Storybrooke and fam.
Cordelia mentors Misty.
Helps the (supposed) Supreme hone her powers.
They protect the coven.
Most powerful in all the realms
“We’ll always be targets for the ignorant. It is what it is. But we are strong women…” the one and only Supreme, Cordelia Goode once said. Regina and Cordelia both share tragic and abusive pasts, but over time, these two have grown from insecure young sorceresses filled with self-doubt to bad ass/most powerful Queens of all the realms. Whether it was perseverance, strength of character they didn’t know they had, fate or all of the above that got them to where they are now, Regina and Cordelia undeniably rule.
The Evil Queen with the Unfinished Story
If only young Regina knew the depth of her powers and the fact that she had it in her to bring the entire Enchanted Forest into another realm – our world. Storybrooke. She’s grown a lot since her vengeful days, but if one thing’s for sure, she’s using her powers for good and has been the most redemptive resident of the sleepy town. Which is why we should just drop the E. In our mortal world, she is just The Queen. Most powerful one at that.
The One True Supreme
“The law of conservation of energy. I have to die for you to truly live,” former Supreme, Fiona Goode said. For the longest time, no one suspected it would be Cordelia, not even Cordelia herself. The Headmistress came into power with the purpose of presenting the Coven to the world as a safe haven for young witches all over the globe. + Best quotable line – The Supreme has spoken: “Women who identify as witches are born as such and their abilities which we call powers are part of who they are, part of their DNA if you will.”
Could we possibly even anticipate for a crossover storyline between the two sorceresses? Most likely not. Maybe just a Paulson-Parrilla collab. Sometime. Somewhere. Maybe. In the not too distant future, am I right? One can only hope.