[ SECRET POST #2299 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2299 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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01.


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02.
[Kuroko no Basuke]


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03.


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04.
[Milestone Inc./Radilgy/Karous]


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05.
[Glee/RPS]


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06.


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07.


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08.
[The Following]


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09.


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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]















10. [SPOILERS for Resident Evil 6]



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11. [SPOILERS for Doctor Who]



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12. [SPOILERS for Homestuck]



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13. [SPOILERS for Southland]



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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]















14. [WARNING for ?? something]



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15. [WARNING for abuse]



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16. [WARNING for rape]



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17. [WARNING for rape]

[Spartacus / Once Upon a Time]


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18. [WARNING for animal abuse]




















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #328.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Following that logic, Rumple isn't to blame for anything he's done since he became the Dark One, either. Magic is portrayed as an addiction, and both Rumple and Regina have been given and refused opportunities to give it up.

It doesn't change the fact that Regina was involved in acts of rape, and that they involved forcing herself on someone who did not want to have sex with her.

[(Anonymous)]

But without the capacity to decide right from wrong herself, she is as much a victim as Graham. We can see that prior to Rumple's book infecting her Regina was on the same moral level as Snow White. That means she is not truly acting with full agency and autonomy either.

[(Anonymous)]

But we're not really shown that magic directly takes the ability to tell right from wrong. While still in possession of his magic, which is about as evil and infectious as you can get, Rumple admits to Belle and to Bae that he realises what he's done is wrong, he's just too weak to give it up. Regina admits to Henry that she does know that what she's doing to him is wrong, it's just that magic is the only crutch she knows and she keeps being put in situations where she feels she needs one.

What we see happen is essentially that Zoso originally and Rumple later seek out badly abused people and tempt them with an offer of power. With the power to strike back against their abusers, they lose their heads, slowly at first and then with increasing speed. It's less that the magic is directly influencing them, at least at first, and more that the fact of having power is causing them to strike out at people who caused them pain in the past. It was never as simple as Rumple giving her the book and boom, evil Regina. We're shown that he went through a long period training and tempting her first, so her morals were still in operation despite the magic until her emotions were engaged.

It's still a long corruption by outside agencies, yes, but we're never shown that their individual actions are directly influenced by an outside force. More that their backgrounds and sudden influx of power, as well as someone to tell them it's okay to use it, caused them to stop putting moral limitations on themselves.

So it's not that Regina has magic in her head forcing her to rape someone. It's that she suddenly has power over someone that she never had before, and she's had someone tell her often enough that it's okay to use it that she's stopped questioning that.

She's a victim, yes. A long-term victim of psychological abuse and addiction. But she's also victimising other people, not because something is forcing her, but because she now has power to hurt people who hurt her back, and take people she desires whether they want to be taken or not. She's victim and rapist both.

Regina is an exceptionally complex character, with a long history of abuse and pain behind her. But she still hurt people, raped them, for no better reason than that she could, and that wasn't all the magic. Some of that was her.

[(Anonymous)]

All of this was very well put. I've thought this throughout the show - looking at the psychological side of it, absolute power corrupts absolutely et al, was much more interesting than blaming everything on magic. Speaking as a Rumpel fan and and someone who's indifferent to Regina, it doesn't make sense that someone would claim to love either of them, yet want to strip them of the character they are.