User blog:DeviousPeep/''Once Upon a Time'' Character Ranking

Hello, girls and gays, I'm here with a definitive ranking of the top 50 Once Upon a Time characters. This list will include all of the regulars of the series' seven seasons (and short-lived spinoff, Once Upon a Time in Wonderland) and additional supporting characters who have appeared in at least five episodes. This list will not include duplicates of any pre-existing characters, thus meaning that the split versions and Wish Realm counterparts are excluded (though for cases like Regina, Hook, and Robin, these alter-egos may be taken into account when judging the primary version of the character). As I fill out this ranking, my goal is to be somewhat objective, but of course my own biased opinion will shine through at times.

So, let's begin!

50. Lucy Had I not made it a rule that all of the main characters had to be on this list, there's a good chance Lucy wouldn't have even made the cut. Still, she's a pretty nice place to start. I really don't have anything good to say about this character. I'm already not the biggest fan of child actors, so my appreciation of this character was lost from the start, because of that and for other reasons. I remember when word first got out that Alison Fernandez was cast on the show, I was a bit excited because she played young Jane on Jane the Virgin... except she turned out to be the worst of all the young Janes. Adding on to that, before Alison Fernandez had been cast, casting calls had been put out for the character and for Andrew J. West's character. My theory had been that they were casting a grown up Henry (correct) and Baby Hood (incorrect), which for solidified my stance that there was absolutely no way Rebecca Mader was leaving the show after Season 6. Yeah... Sure, none of this really has to do with Lucy herself, but now let's skip to her actual debut. Her introduction was already a rip off from Henry from the pilot, but somehow she was already less likable. I'm no fan of Jared Gilmore, but I was always able to appreciate Season 1 Henry. Really, his acting only got worse from there, but I digress. Already I wasn't a fan of Lucy, and that only continued into Season 7. The character was just so squeaky... and whiny... and just annoying. Scenes with Henry and Lucy alone were also a lot more discomforting simply because Henry is a grown-ass man left alone with a little girl he doesn't even know. And no, I did not feel this way when it was Emma and Henry because yes - double standards. But as we went further into the season, Lucy started to become less and less relevant to the narrative. Sure, it was nice not having to watch Alison Fernandez's shitty acting, but from a writing standpoint, this isn't good. Rather than sidelining Lucy (and Jacinda) because of how poorly she's received, they should work on making her character better. Instead the writers just got bored, gave up, and moved onto something else, which has been a common trend since like Season 2. But the thing is, unlike past storylines and characters, they can't just forget about Lucy entirely because she's Henry's daughter and Alison Fernandez is still a series regular. The rest of the season is just so awkward to watch with her being there because it just feels so very clear that no one writing or watching the show actually wants her there, but there's literally nothing they can to do about it. The most relevant Lucy ever is is when she slips into a coma at the end of 7x09, and during that all we see is her laying in a hospital bed, asleep with no lines. The worst part about this though is we had the whole emotional conundrum of saving either Henry or Lucy by breaking the curse, but it was just so unbelievable that this would be a question for any character on the show, that Lucy's life would in some way be a priority over Henry's. On paper, sure, Lucy is Henry's daughter, so she's related to Regina, Rumple, and Zelena, but the writers never actually put in any effort in developing actual connections with these characters. They can't honestly expect the audience to believe that the life of Henry, a character we've known for six years, has the same value as a character that's just coasted through half of a season. The only two characters I could believe this being an emotional struggle for is Jacinda and Sabine, but both of them were still cursed and unaware of the repercussions Henry would face anyway, so it doesn't even matter. Not that Once Upon a Time would ever kill a child period, but they most definitely could not have gotten away with killing Lucy during this because then Henry's happy ending would be tainted with the fact that his daughter is dead. I just... you really can't win with Lucy. Her character was just so screwed from the start, but they set her up in a way that they can't rid of her. She has absolutely no significance to the series finale. Hell, she has a total of one line in 7x22! But she has to be there. Like, you could not have done the finale without that little girl's presence because then it would just be incomplete. Am I making any sense right now? This feels like one long ramble, but yeah, Lucy. Bitch just does not work.

49. Robin Hood Oh, Robin Hood, you piece of shit... Look, anyone in the Once Upon a Time fandom who doesn't ship Captain Swan gives Hook a lot of shit. And I mean a lot. And that's good. He did essentially ruin the show. But with all of that anger and hatred for Hook, most people tend to overlook the fuckery that is Regina Mills' soulmate, Robin Hood. Originally, I had planned for Robin to rank #50 on this list, but the difference between him and Lucy is that I initially did like Robin. Not Tom Ellis Robin. I really have no opinion about that. But Robin in Season 3. When the writers teased that Regina would be getting a love interest, I was intrigued. We'd only known Sean Maguire's Robin for three episodes before finding out he was Regina's soulmate, but I was down for it. I liked his interactions with Neal and Mulan, so I was ready to see what came next. Looking back at 3B, the relationship between Regina and Robin was rushed as all shit, but I didn't really notice that at the time. Hell, re-watching now, I still don't even care. I don't really know what it is, but there was something I liked about these two together. I was rooting for it. Make Outlaw Queen endgame. Then the Season 3 finale happened, and all hell broke loose. Marian's return was something that I knew was bad news right from the start. Not because I don't want drama for my ship (I did spend the last five years obsessed with Rumbelle), but because I knew what the writers were capable of and I knew that there was no way in hell that they were capable of writing a good storyline out of that. There's just a certain level of emotional complexity that Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz do not understand, and thus it was doomed from the start. I remember developing a hatred for Robin almost immediately in the fourth season's premiere. His reasons for breaking up with Regina weren't because his wife was back from the dead and he wanted to be with her, but because of his code of honor. Marian was an obligation to him. His wife and mother of his child comes back from the dead and he breaks up with his girlfriend (who murdered her in the first place) because of obligation. Just... what?! Then you have Marian get frozen and immediately Robin is wanting to get back into Regina's pants. The whole affair storyline was disgusting, and Regina's character was being destroyed more and more with each episode. Robin was just a really shitty person, and Regina was becoming so bratty and entitled to a "happy ending" because she used light magic once and decided not to kill her sister. The writers thought they could get out of this by making Marian turn out to be Zelena this whole time, and while I do forgive them a little since bringing back Zelena was one of the few good things about the last four seasons of the show, it doesn't change the fact that Robin was still a disgusting human being to a woman who he truly believed to be his wife. From then on though, there's not really much to say about Robin. Zelena's pregnant with his child, but that's a storyline more based around Regina and Zelena and their path to becoming real sisters. Robin is sidelined for the entirety of Season 5, and the audience is left to wonder why he's even there. Sean Maguire spends the whole time looking constipated, and really as the seasons go on, the less and less chemistry he and Lana Parrilla have. It's also quite noticeable that whenever Robin is relevant to Regina's storyline, that's when she's at her worst. Season 4 was basically the year of Outlaw Queen, and it was hands the worst season of the show. Regina's character was truly assassinated that year, and only in Season 7, three whole seasons later, would I say that the writers managed to fix her. When looking back, Robin as a character was never actually necessary because Regina really didn't need a love interest. The majority of the show's most-developed relationships have her as part of it, and after his sudden death at the end of Season 5, the last two seasons truly did not feel his absence. His character was purely fanservice, and shitty fanservice at that. Fans wanted Regina to have a love interest even though her relationships with Henry, Emma, Snow, even Rumple, and later Zelena honestly should've been enough. The Outlaw Queen portion of the Once Upon a Time fandom is also some of the nastiest, whiniest, and most brain-dead people I've ever come across on the Internet. Their ship had no chemistry, and half of the ship had no purpose, and yet for the last two years you can find them bitching and moaning on every single Once Upon a Time-related tweet. Going back to my point about Regina being at her worst whenever Robin is relevant, take her falling out with Zelena in Season 6. Blaming Zelena for his death was such a regression in Regina's character, not only because she spent the last three episodes mourning Robin with Zelena as sisters, but because it showed that she learned nothing from Snow/Daniel. The writers were convinced they needed to throw Robin fans that bone to show that he wasn't forgotten, and then gave us that pointless arc with his wish realm counterpart later in the season. I'll admit I liked the ending with the split Evil Queen ending up with the wish version of Robin, but of course anyone who was actually fans of the original ship or character just felt insulted by the whole thing. One last point to make: Robin's appearance in the series finale felt the most forced out of all of the character cameos. Snowing and Zelena fit in naturally, playing a part in one final adventure; Emma's cameo and homage to the pilot was beautifully done and made up some for the disaster that was 7x02; Belle's scene was the most needed because its what Rumple's whole season arc built towards; but Robin--his dream sequence felt the most like it was there because it was the final episode. It just had me thinking that Robin never truly integrated himself into the show, that he was always this piece of extra that was there for the sake of being there, which, yeah, ugh.

48. Leroy/Grumpy Okay, so this one might be a little surprising, but first of all keep in mind that I had to narrow it down to 50 characters and I started off with like 90-something. When you look back on the show, Grumpy really isn't that good. I think we all like him simply because he and Granny are the two supporting characters to appear in the most episodes, and I personally appreciate that Lee Arenburg is the one actor to appear in all seven seasons and the spinoff, but Grumpy is pretty moo. His one centric episode is infamously Season 1's worst episode. The whole thing with dwarfs hatching from eggs is just dumb, and then we never see or hear about Nova ever again. I'm down for filler episodes. Hell, I'm even down for this filler episode. But in the grand scheme of things, moo? There's nothing that special about watching Dreamy turn into Grumpy, and besides that there's really nothing to the characters being grumpy and loud. He's loyal to Snow White, which you can appreciate, but there's not really any complexity to his character. We like him because he's Grumpy, the dwarf from the iconic Disney movie, not because he's an interesting character. After a while, his yells about curses and snow monsters get old, and after Season 3 all hope is lost in him ever being something more to the show. (Poor Rena, being given false hope that Season 5 would give this poor sucker any actual screentime as if Snow didn't just need a babysitter while Belle was off being kidnapped and no one noticing.) I like that there's townspeople - Grumpy and the dwarfs, Granny, Blue, Archie - that stuck around the whole show, but I don't actually care about any particular one. It's more about the tokenism of it all than actually giving a shit.

47. Dr. Whale/Viktor Frankenstein So, if we're being honest, Whale probably could've ranked a little bit higher. I think the first two seasons actually gave him some decent characterization, with his Storybrooke persona being the town sleazebag and his Enchanted Forest Land Without Color persona being a scientist with daddy issues and wracked with guilt and depression from his failures and brother's death. He's actually interesting to watch in "In the Name of the Brother", and it's a shame that his relationship with Ruby never developed after that episode. Also, for some reason his one night stand with Snow White remains one of the most talked about Season 1 moments years later. However, while I do find some intrigue in this character, I'm not gonna deny that he was pretty boring a lot of the time. I can watch 2x12 and be entertained, but only once or twice like every three years. The black and white world and Frankenstein mythology wasn't something I was desperate to see the show delve into more, and I didn't even notice as he started to appear less and less, not even at all in the fourth season. His character did bring up an interesting topic though, the concept of magic vs. science--that, I do wish we'd have seen more of. Sadly, he was among a whole bucketload of Season 2 concepts that go thrown out when the show switched to half season arcs. His sudden reappearance in Season 5, with his iZombie hair, to deliver Zelena's baby was certainly fun to watch. But it did feel as though all of his prior characterization had been thrown out. Suddenly he was just super goofy and chill. I really enjoyed it, but it felt more like a joke than anything. Lmao, but can we talk about the 7x22 press release for a second? Did he have a scene that got cut? I'd have rather seen him than fucking Robin Hood...

46. Mother Superior/Blue Fairy This fucking bitch... Talk about some wasted ass potential. I don't really know where to begin with Blue, just that she's somehow the messiest, most useless, most inconsistent, underdeveloped character the show has ever seen, and yet I wanted so much for her to strive in the six seasons that she was on the show. I'm part of the bandwagon that thinks Blue should've been the series' final big bad. There was a time in Season 5 or 6 that Joe and I had even gone back and traced every event she was apart of and managed to justify it as if she was one day revealed to be a villain. From the start, Blue was just... weird. Keegan played her weirdly, and the character was written weirdly. Her morals seemed to be all over the place, what with it being a thing that fairies don't lie, despite the fact that she straight up lied to everyone in the pilot so Pinocchio could go through the wardrobe; she's always stone cold despite seeming to represent all of the "good" magic in the show; and she's never actually any help to anyone. She was so easily taken out by Regina in 2x10, got her shadow stupidly ripped out in 3x10, was absolutely no help when it came to the Author and the Sorcerer in 4x12, never assists in taking down villains, got the shit beaten out of her and a baby stolen by the Black Fairy. Like, what is her problem?! She's supposed to be this powerful hfic (head fairy in charge) and yet? Nothing? The fairies were always a very messy and underdeveloped part of the show's mythology, and a part of me had hope that they would finally clear some stuff up about it in Season 6 when the Black Fairy was introduced, but no, instead (and this is something that grinds my gears more than anything else in the show) they introduce fucking Tiger Lily for no goddamn reason and make her a fairy for no goddamn reason and split the focus between the two of them in the Black Fairy's one centric episode. The only time we could ever expect to see any backstory for Blue. Everything about this drove me over the edge. For some reason, the Blue Fairy seems to have always been a joke to the writers (and, as a result, the fans). Are Adam and Eddy bitter because Lady Gaga never called them back? Do they take it out on Keegan because of that? Because Blue had not done a single thing right in six seasons. Instead we watched her shadow get ripped out, get sucked into a magic hat, get her ass kicked by the Black Fairy (twice, if you count being tortured in 6x19), and then the series finale had a whole scene dedicated to Wish Rumple condemning Wish Blue to eternal exile in her own hell-book. Like... why?! Why is the Blue Fairy a punching bag to Adam and Eddy? I want answers.

45. Granny Granny's a doll, give her a spinoff. Nah, but really I actually had her a little bit higher on this list but decided to drop her down a couple people because really what has she done for the show? Granny's Diner was a pivotal location in the first six seasons, and Granny was in a lot of episodes most seasons, but she never does anything. She's a badass old woman with a crossbow and birthed the being that brought Meghan Ory's Red Riding Hood into this world, but that's it. She gets some good one liners now and then, and I suppose that's all she needs, but I do wish we got some more from this old bad. After heavily recurring on the show for six seasons, they could've given her a centric like they did Grumpy, but nope. The reason I'm including her on this list at all is obviously because of how high her appearance count is. Granny's been a constant presence on the show since day 1, and I think she deserves appreciation for that. Granny, you're a doll, go get yourself some Geppetto wood. Hmm, I wonder if she's homophobic any. She had a crossbow ready the second Alice and Robin arrived into town. Would she approve of Ruby munching pus? These questions and more can be answered in Wendy Toliver's next tie-in novel.

44. Archie Hopper/Jiminy Cricket I like Archie, and I think it's safe to say that I would have put him on this list even if he wasn't a main character in Season 1 for god-knows-what reason. I think Archie is a pretty successful recurring character, perhaps the most successful out of the main townspeople. He appeared in a decent amount of episodes, was characterized and fleshed out in a single centric episode, and unlike Grumpy or Granny, he was utilized most times that he appeared. I always found Archie pretty likable, and the fact that he was Henry's therapist in Storybrooke and Jiminy Cricket in the Enchanted Forest was clever. His centric episode, while one of the lowest ranked Season 1 episodes, is still one of the better filler episodes of the show, and that's thanks to Jane Espenson. She did a good take on Jiminy Cricket and giving us a pre-Pinocchio story with him. The funny thing about Archie is that even after being demoted, unlike Ruby or Will, you could still find him being active at later points in the series. The mini-arc with Cora fake-killing him and Belle saving him was nice, and then I very much welcomed all of his Season 6 appearances, being Emma's therapist and Zelena's captive. He also officiated the Rumbelle wedding, which, bae... and then later the Captain Swan wedding, which, not bae. We give Archie a lot of shit because he was a series regular in the first season, but if you ignore that and look at him as a regular recurring character then he does pretty well for himself. The show never seems to forget about him, what with even giving him some mentions when he's more absent from Seasons 4-5 or cameos with CGI Jiminy like in 3x12 or 5x12. I'm not so far up Archie's ass like Rena is, but I'm happy whenever he appears, and I'm glad he continued to after all that time. The only downside, really, is that some of his advice is pretty goddamn awful lmao. He told Snow to let it go with overparenting poor Prince Neal, and we all know how fucked up that baby is now. Ah, Snow... mother of the year, amirite?

43. Jacinda Vidrio/Cinderella Sigh, I wish she could be higher... Look, Jacinda sucks, okay? I'll forever love Dania Ramirez for playing Rosie in Devious Maids, and I so wanted to love Jacinda in Season 7, but it just couldn't happen. Her storyline was just done so dirty, and I strongly believe that only the writers are to blame. Not Dania, my Trump-supporting Latina goddess. Adam and Eddy's first mistake was pitching Henry and Jacinda as the new Snow and Charming. That alone was polarizing enough for viewers, but what makes it worse is that Adam and Eddy took that statement and ingrained it into their own heads. What I mean by this is that they say Henry and Jacinda are true, epic love, and that's it. After that, they feel no need to dive any further into developing this relationship. Snow and Charming had the entire first season to convince the audience their love was true, with episode after episode filling in more pieces to their epic love story. What did Henry and Jacinda have? 7x01 gave them some parallels to Snowing 1x03 with meeting and Jacinda bashing Henry over the head. Okay. Then 7x03 was Jacinda centric, but it mostly provided exposition to set the scene for the Tremaine storyline. Then it's not till 7x08 where they get their final centric... and it ends with them getting their first kiss. 7x10 starts off with the birth of Lucy and then skips eight years later. What?! 7x16 was Henry centric and gave us their engagement scene in the last flashback, but that's it! The pacing for Henry and Jacinda's love story was just so incredibly off. There was so much telling us about how they were in love, but no actual showing it. Cinderella, as a character (it's hard for me to even call her Cinderella), was pretty one dimensional. I'm all for her being a badass warrior princess; they did that with Snow, and she was great. But that's all Ella was. She had no other characteristics. In interviews, Dania repeatedly describes her as "badass" and "rough around the edges", but it's no fun when we never get to go into her psyche any. The character also suffers from lack of backstory, what with the three episodes she's tagged as a centric character for being mostly set-up and exposition. Her causing Anastasia's death was meant to be this big thing, but we only ever saw it from Lady Tremaine's perspective in 7x09, and episode in which the actress who plays young Ella is a costar. It's just really depressing to see that the writers never even tried to write Ella a good storyline. I personally enjoyed Jacinda at times in the present day, unlike most people, but due to the fact that she was cursed all season, she remained less interesting than other characters like Regina or Rumple. The chemistry between Dania Ramirez and Andrew J. West was also never that great, but I think it would've been okay had the writing been good. Dania Ramirez is a good actress when given a good script, but unlike Lana Parrilla or Robert Carlyle, she can't pull off bad writing. On the positive side, I always liked her chemistry with Mekia Cox who I believe to be Season 7's most underrated performer.

42. White Rabbit If you don't like the White Rabbit then you're just plain wrong. I consider Once Upon a Time in Wonderland superior to the majority of the main show's seasons, and that's because I think it tells a nice, complete storyline with five wonderful main characters. But the White Rabbit, he's just such a nice piece of extra. John Lithgow did a fantastic job voicing him, and the Rabbit itself is hands down the best piece of the CGI the Onceverse has ever given us. I mean, just look at him. He looks amazing, and I suppose that's why the rest of Wonderland looks awful lmao. But yeah, pretty much any time the Rabbit appeared, scenes were just more enjoyable. He's just so damn cute, and it's nice that he appeared as much as he did. The fact that he served as a portal for the other characters was a nice way to keep him relevant and useful to the storyline, and is there anyone didn't love his wife, Whoopi Goldberg? In the grand scheme of things, the Rabbit doesn't do all too much, but I'd say he does more than expected. Being blackmailed by the Red Queen to act as a double-agent, helping Jafar cross realms, being of help to Alice, it was enough to leave him ingrained in the series' mythology. Yay, Rabbit! Season 7 did him dirty.

41. Cyrus Cyrus doesn't do much for me one way or the other. I don't love the guy, and I don't hate the guy. He and Alice were meant to be the series' main love story, but this puts them at a disadvantage when compared to Snow and Charming. The latter was given a 22 episode season to tell their tale, and then an additional five to flesh it out as much as possible. Alice and Cyrus had 13 episodes total, and because of that things were obviously going to be a little rushed. Alice and Cyrus, meet fall in love, go on adventures, and are separated all in the matter of about three episodes of flashback story, but unlike Henry and Jacinda in Season 7, the writers did their best to make use of these episodes and managed to tell a pretty convincing tale. Alice's mission in the first half of the season is to find and rescue Cyrus, and so the character works as a good motivation for our lead heroine. I personally don't find him to be the most interesting character ever, never really preferring his scenes with the old prisoner in Jafar's tower, but I think he served a purpose and he served it well. His backstory episode where we steals from the Well of Wonders and we learn Amara is his mother is one of my favorite episodes of the season, and I rooted for him and Alice to be together all the way through the end. Cyrus was a simple, but good character. Oh, and I also appreciate the fact that Cyrus being jealous of Will was never made into a thing.

40. Sultan of Agrabah So the Sultan was actually the 50th character chosen to be apart of this rank, having selected 49 characters prior and then narrowed it down to him, Ariel, the Blind Witch, and King George, so yeah, spoiler: none of those characters make the cut. When looking back on Once Upon a Time in Wonderland, the Sultan is actually a pretty good character and nice addition to the ever-expanding universe. Acting as a friend for Cyrus in the present day, seemingly just an old generic prisoner, but turning out to be a sultan and Jafar's father in the past, made for a very excellent twist. I read back over Rena's old character ranking and agreed with the comparisons made between him and Kenneth Miller from Devious Maids, both of which were cruel in the past but nice in the present, being forced by bitter family members to pay for their prior wrongdoings. The Sultan could easily be overlooked as "boring", which may be the case at times. I'll admit that I was never particularly thrilled to see Agrabah and the like being explored in-depth, just finding the whole aesthetic of it rather depressing, but the spinoff surprised me on multiple occasions in that regard, what with the Sultan being a pretty cool piece to the overarching puzzle, and the Cyrus-centric "Dirty Little Secrets" being one of my favorite episodes. The Sultan also met a very tragic end, suffering one of the most brutal deaths in the whole Onceverse, being drowned from the inside and by the son who he was just made to love. Even though you could argue he got what he deserved, having tried to drown Jafar once himself, I still couldn't help but feel bad for the guy, and he made for a very tragic casualty in the finale.

39. Jefferson/Mad Hatter Jefferson was one cool dude, and I'm not just saying that because I'd let Sebastian Stan inside of me anytime he wants. I genuinely liked the character, and I understand all of the hype behind him even years later. "Hat Trick" was easily one of the best episodes of the first season with the whole hostage situation being done brilliantly. It was such a cool episode to watch, seeing Emma and Mary Margaret try to escape this freak, and it genuinely had me on edge the first time I saw it. Sebastian Stan does a phenomenal job bringing this character to life, both in the past and the present, with me really feeling for Jefferson and wanting him to be reunited with his daughter. He was definitely among the people Regina royally screwed over the most, having to spend years trapped and watching his daughter be raised by another family (meanwhile Snow White is cursed to be a frumpy school teacher, oh boohoo). It's honestly a shame that Sebastian Stan had to go on to do bigger and better things because I'd have loved to see Jefferson explored more in-depth, but instead all we're left with is a shitty chapter in a graphic novel written by Kalinda motherfucking Vazquez. Isn't life just so unfair? Anyways, despite his short stint in the series, Jefferson opened many doors (get it?), for better of worse, what his magic hat being the first means of realm hopping before you could pull portals out of your ass (worse), establishing Wonderland as a setting and giving us a tease to that mythology (better), and freeing Belle from her cell down in the asylum (best!). This was a character I simply could not leave off the list, and I wish Sebastian Stan continued success in all future endeavors.

38. Ashley Boyd/Cinderella It may come as a shock that I included the original Cinderella on this list since I've never been so up her ass like Rena has, but I really couldn't not include her. People tend to overlook Ella due to the fact she's appeared in very few episodes, something that she's often criticized for due to being such an iconic character. She's also Once Upon a Time's only interpretation of a Disney Princess to not go on to be some bad ass warrior. Her motives are pretty simple, sticking to simply wishing to marry a prince and have a better life, as told in the fairytale and Disney movie. But guess what? That's okay! Being feminine is okay! Simply wanting a nice life for yourself is okay! Nowadays it's all about empowering women to be heroes and go on adventures, but Cinderella is a reminder that that's not always the case. She's still a very strong character despite having no interest in being a hero and going on adventures. Ella survived the abuse of her step-family for years; she bested Rumplestiltskin, both in the past and in the present; she raised a baby she wasn't ready for; and she toted a motherfucking shotgun like the proud American citizen that she is. We got to witness some of how she suffered in life, what with being a target of the Dark One in 1x04 and a more fleshed out version of her time with Lady Tremaine in 6x03. Despite only being in five episodes, two of those were centric to the character and provided her with a better fleshed out backstory than at least half of the series regulars. Both of these episodes are among the best of the series, and both times the episodes deemed Ella important enough to be paralleled with Emma, the series' leading lady. There's also the matter of unarguably being better than the second iteration of the character that was given in Season 7. Ashley was the true Cinderella of Once Upon a Time, and that's fact. 1x04 and 6x03 remained true to the fairytale and the Disney movie while simultaneously providing just the right amount of twists to the story that make it the series' own. The writers seemed to have wanted a do-over with the character, but the only thing making Dania Ramirez into Cinderella for Season 7 was the fact that it was the character's name. It also serves as an example of extreme erasure of femininity, promoting Jacinda as this new badass warrior Cinderella without giving the character any actual substance. While Ashley was in a total of five episodes, she had two centric episodes with a fleshed out backstory, personality, and complete character arc. Jacinda was a series regular for a whole season and left with an incomplete backstory, underdeveloped romance plot, and hardly any actual substance to her character. While we got told Jacinda's history and told that she and Henry were this epic love story, we got to see Ashley at the lowest point in her life, how it affected her, and see how she worked for her happy ending, never giving up. I wish her a long and happy life with her husband and daughter, getting to continue to run her Mommy & Me classes with the other Disney Princesses. Ashley Boyd, you were truly the superior Cinderella. Shame you look like a drag queen in your ball gown...

37. Sheriff Graham/Huntsman Like Jefferson, I understand the hype behind this character and why he's still talked about seven years later. When I saw Once Upon a Time for the first time, I was really into Graham and was ready to see his story. I was a big fan of him and Emma the first time around, wanting him to get away from Regina and for the two of them to just live happily ever after, and then I was completely crushed to see him shockingly killed off only seven episodes in. Jamie Dornan's acting is often criticized, but I personally never took any issue with it. He wasn't the best, but he wasn't the worst. He is, however, the hottest male main in the Onceverse, so there's that. Anyways, with Graham, he just feels like such an integral part of the first season, despite dying so soon. Being a romantic interest of the lead and having an affair with the villain, that's some juicy shit. His death was also the show's first real shocker, and also one of the few deaths to actually have me feeling something. It was heartbreaking to see him die in Emma's arms, but an even bigger pain that we never got to see her find out the truth behind it. Besides the present day though, Graham's backstory is one of the more creative ones on Once Upon a Time's part, taking a pretty minor character and giving him an expanded role. It was cool and original, something the show got progressively worse at with each season. He was a huntsman who didn't like to hunt, and the fact that he negotiated the outlawing of hunting wolves as part of his deal with the Evil Queen is quite admirable. All of his post-death appearances are also good, with his perfectly timed cameo in the Season 1 finale where his credit appears just as he reveals himself to Charming, his fairly active role in Regina's Storybrooke-based centric in Season 2, and even the totally unnecessary but decently written graphic novel centered around an untold story about him, Regina, Snow, and Red. All in all, Graham is a small but memorable part of the show's history, and while I wish we got to see him again, I'm content knowing that his story is left relatively well-preserved.

36. Fiona/Black Fairy The Black Fairy's role on Once Upon a Time is nothing but a messy, underwhelming, inconsistent mess, and yet I simply adore her. Jaime Murray's portrayal of the character is brilliant, no matter what Rena says, and there's just a lot of individual things about the character that I really, really love. For starters, the Black Fairy has been foreshadowed pretty much since day #1, and to me she's the perfect idea for the final big bad. I would've preferred she be the alter-ego of the Blue Fairy or something, but being Rumple's mother also works. Speaking of which, the reveal of her being Rumple's mother actually had my jaw dropped. I loved it. I loved everything about her first scene, from the acting to the actual revelation, even just the dialogue was really good. I was so intrigued and excited to see more of this character, and this was only furthered when she kidnapped Gideon the following episode. One thing about Season 6 is that I think they had a lot of the right ideas, just the execution of said ideas is where it all falls apart. Sadly, I think the writers waited too long to bring the Black Fairy to Storybrooke. Rather than introduce her in 6x09 and not bring her to town until the end of 6x16, they should've introduced her earlier in the season and then built up to a sooner arrival. Build-up is good, but not that late in the game. I found the character very enjoyable in 6x16-6x18, but 6x19 is where the problems started to become more severe. The writing for the Black Fairy's centric episode was just so inconsistent with everything we had seen prior. Her taunting of Rumple in 6x09 doesn't align with her strong desire to protect him in 6x19, and we still don't have a clear explanation on why she kidnapped all of those kiddie slaves. This episode is also the only time that I think Jaime's acting suffered because she spent all season playing her one way, only for her centric episode to write her another way. And then 6x20 through 6x22 has her back to the way she was prior to 6x19. The writers felt the need to give her a sympathetic backstory despite it not being necessary. We don't need to feel bad for the Black Fairy because never had she shown any indication to deserving our sympathy. At least with Cora she claimed from the start that what she was doing was for Regina, despite having ulterior motives and a strong craving for power. In all other episodes, The Black Fairy falls more in line with villains such as Peter Pan or Cruella De Vil, but they wrote her centric episode in line with villains like Cora or the Snow Queen. By the end of the season though, there really isn't anything original left to be explored with the Black Fairy. She was pretty much just copying everything Regina did, but Zelena already did that in Season 3 and did it better. Hell, even her death is kinda unoriginal since Rumple killed his father twice already, once only a season prior. While I love the actual scene where Rumple kills her, it being one of the scenes from the show I re-watch most, it's pretty underwhelming from a storytelling perspective because she was taken out so easily and because it wasn't Emma to take her out. Yay for Rumple's third redemption arc, though! But despite all of the flaws that come with the Black Fairy, I can't help but still look back on her fondly. I just like her, okay? As messy as she was, I'll still argue she was a far better villain than fucking Gothel (who doesn't make this list, haha, slut), and there's just bits and pieces here and there that really make her time on the show worth it for me. In the finale she threw Henry down a flight of stairs and served him the charred remains of his storybook on a platter. How fucking extra, god love her.

35. Sabine/Tiana Tiana's actually pretty hard to place as I've come to find out, having moved her up and down several times now. For the last few years, the one story I really wanted to see be done on this show was The Princess and the Frog, so it was a relief to see that they were finally getting to it in Season 7. Because Mekia Cox was initially announced as a guest star, I didn't get my hopes up to much. I figured it would be like past seasons where we'd get a little arc out of her and that would be it. It's when they announced that she was being upgraded to series regular that my hopes began to rise. Obviously one would think that, because she was being promoted, it meant that they were going to do more with her than originally intended, right? Wrong! Of course, like every season prior, there had to be at least one main character that left you wondering why the fuck they were still there, and for Season 7 it was Tiana. And, of course, it was the show's first African American main character, because Adam and Eddy have never been ones to listen to criticism lmao. Promoted to "starring" billing in 7x05 (her first centric episode), Mekia Cox appeared in a total of 14/22 episodes, the same as Rose Reynolds. However, unlike Rose Reynolds, one of these appearances consists of a lineless cameo, and that lineless cameo being the series finale rofpmslmfao!!! Nah, but this really sucks because Mekia Cox deserved to shine in this season. Despite how minimal her role was, Mekia brought a sense of warmth to every scene she was in, and she had good chemistry with every actor she starred alongside. You had people shipping her with Nook despite them only sharing about 2-3 scenes total, and while almost everyone hated Jacinda, a noted exception I often saw was her friendship with Sabine. I don't think anyone dislikes Tiana. Unlike Ella/Jacinda who was admittedly annoying at times, Tiana never was. She was just under-utilized. The main problem with Tiana is that there was a lot of potential to do a great storyline with a great character and a great actress playing her. She's pretty comparable to Red Riding Hood, being best friends with the leading princess, but the writers never quite knowing what to do with her. We get two centric episodes out of her, but 7x05 was mostly just exposition and set-up, and 7x12, while good, wasn't enough to wrap up the character. The writers set themselves up to fail by having way too many characters and storylines in Season 7, thus leading to characters like Tiana being sacrificed in favor of other (more shittier) stories. There was two episodes Mekia Cox was absent, but Jacinda mentions having Sabine babysitting Lucy or going to get drinks with her in the club next door. Dr. Facilier is meant to be the big bad of her story, but he's more wrapped up with Regina and Rumple's stuff to share many scenes with her. 7x20 showed just how irrelevant both Sabine and Jacinda were when Samdi so easily locked them in the closet for most of the final showdown before the curse broke. Did anyone root for her relationship with Naveen? Because I sure didn't. I just didn't care. There was too much else going on for me to ever even try to invest in it, which is why I lowkey hoped they would just throw her together with Nook because at least he's a familiar face. I will say though, Tiana's one saving grace is 7x21. I liked seeing that inner struggle between being Tiana the Queen and Sabine the foodtruck cook. It was a nice callback to Season 2 when everyone was uncursed for the first time, and it's something I wish the series dealt with more. All of these curses, double personalities, amnesia, etc., characters should be more affected than they are, but of course the writers of this show don't know how to do shit so rip to that. I'm saddened by the fact that a character I waited years to see on the show left me so underwhelmed, but I'm also relieved that she wasn't bad. She's no Belle, but she's also no Jasmine. Tiana wasn't a success or a failure, just a thing that happened, if that makes any sense?

34. Margot/Robin It's funny how, between Snow and Zelena's newborn babies, it was Zelena's that wound up being more relevant to the series, even getting her own storyline in Season 7. Despite how hard Zelena's return was spoiled in Season 4, having killed Marian and masqueraded around as her for 17 episodes, I think we were all shook to find out that she was pregnant with Robin Hood's baby. That was just the icing on top of the cake and what really solidified this insanely twisted revenge scheme that Zelena had concocted for her sister. By introducing this child into the mix, it not only forever insured Zelena a place on the show, but it also set up the possibility of her going through a redemption arc, mirroring Regina's decision to change for Henry. Unlike with Snow and Baby Neal, the show never really forgot after Baby Hood after she was born in 5x08. She remained central to Regina and Zelena's Season 5 storyline, and she was often present in Zelena's scenes in Season 6. Despite how back and forth Zelena was on her path to redemption, one consistency was always her love for her daughter and desire to do right by her in whatever way she believed that to be. Now, Season 7 is when Robin really comes into her own, being aged up to 25 years old and played by Riverdale guest star, Tiera Skovnjskdvn. The back half of Season 7 introduced us to a new dynamic between Zelena and her daughter, what with her being more than just a 50 pound prop. We got to see Robin's desire to live up to her parents legacies, as well as some normal teenage angst. Her love story is also among the better bits of the show's crappy final season, what with it being the only new ship that was worth giving a damn about (lmao Glass Believer and Voodoo Queen, what were they thinking?!) Sadly (but not that unexpectedly given that she's from Riverdale), I always found Tiera's acting to be very wooden and that did tarnish some of my enjoyment for the character. On the plus side though, most of her scenes were shared with Rebecca Mader and Rose Reynolds, both of whom are talented enough to guide Tiera through her scenes. Overall, I think the show did a good job with this character. Despite being the second iteration of Robin Hood and me finding that whole concept extremely stupid, they actually did this one done the right way, what with her being the first iteration's daughter (also, bonus points for making her female). She played a very key role to Zelena's arc of the last three seasons, and she was a fine character and half of the LGBT couple of the show's final season. Hope she and Alice are off getting married and making magical true love babies! (Have y'all heard the SwanQueen headcanon that Hope is really the product of Emma and Regina's true love? Yeah.)