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The story of The Red Queen from ABC's Once Upon a Time.
Before First Curse[]
A young Anastasia.
Anastasia first started out as a young noble woman who met her love, Will Scarlet, although she knew her mother would never approve of the union. They both hatched a plan to escape to another world by having Will steal a looking glass from the feared witch Maleficent. He makes it safely back to Anastasia and inside the house Will throws the looking glass on the floor, opening a portal, and asks her where they should go. Anastasia picks a place called Wonderland and they prepare to jump. Before they leave they are stopped by her mother who disapproves of her daughter throwing away her life for a thief. Her mother warns her that if she is to return home she will be a servant cleaning out chamber pots. Will promises Anastasia a better life and that he truly loves her. She says goodbye to her mother and joins hands with Will and disappear into the portal.
They spend a few weeks in Wonderland and become very hungry, being too poor to pay for food and not being able to find good sustenance in nature. When looking for berries, they see a carriage full of bread drive past them and learn it's for a royal ball, which they attend by stealing clothes and forging invitations into the castle. Will goes to steal food while Anastasia coyly greets a man who turns out to be the Red King.
Anastasia meets the Red King.
She makes a good impression on him and the two share a drink until Will is caught for stealing and having a forged invitation and Anastasia is thrown out as well. Now hating her life as a pauper, Anastasia suggests going home, but not before stealing the crown jewels from the castle. Anastasia intends to grab the jewels and drop them down to Will and will sell them so they can be rich. Later, Anastasia breaks into a cabinet and begins bagging all the jewels when she gets distracted by the beautiful red crown. As she examines it, the Red King makes his presence known to her.
Anastasia is given an offer.
He questions why she is resorting to stealing, but she justifies herself by pointing that he has wealth and she has none. After the Red King explains the social order of who has or does not have wealth, she hands back the crown but he offers it to her if she will marry him. Anastasia states that she loves another until the King notes that love will not get her far and will not be enough.
Wonderland's new Queen.
She accepts the proposal and later strolls out the balcony, wearing a lascivious new outfit topped off with the red crown, to greet the adoring public as their new Queen. Her eyes meet Will's briefly, but then pretends not to see him, and continues waving to the crowd.
The day prior to the wedding, Anastasia meets her Tweedles, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, before being greeted by the Queen of Hearts who has accepted the invitation to the wedding. As the two women talk, she reacts with surprise when the Queen of Hearts evaporates roses to the other side of the room, especially since the Red King frowns upon magic since it separates them from their subjects. The Queen of Hearts offers to teach her magic, but Anastasia doesn't want to start her marriage out with secrets, respectfully declines. Later in the evening, Will sneaks into her room balcony and asks Anastasia if marrying the King is real or a con. Anastasia tells him that she's doing the best she can for herself and him, but is touched when will tells her to remember the good times. As the guard burst in, Will tells her to meet him at the wagon so they can run away together before escaping. Anastasia tries to leave the castle when the Queen of Hearts shows her, using mirror magic, the empty wagon with Will nowhere in sight. The Queen implies that Will stood her up and considers this part of Anastasia's life to be over. Heartbroken, yet believing her place as a royal as the Queen of Hearts suggests, Anastasia tearfully collapses into the Queen's arms.
Queen of Hearts teaches Red Queen magic.
The Queen of Hearts then begins to teach Anastasia magic, during a fire conjuring lesson she learns of the laws of magic and curiously asks if they can be broken which the Queen of Hearts says they cannot. The Red Queen has difficulty getting a grasp of magic until be guided by the Queen to let go of the unworthiness she feels and begins to channel a desire to prove those wrong who doubted her and magically ignites a roaring flame with success.
The Red Queen at the Boiling Sea.
From ascending the throne, Anastasia becomes known as the Red Queen. She teams up with a sorcerer named Jafar to capture a genie, named Cyrus. She arrives on the cliff by the Boiling Sea to intercept Alice and Cyrus as they declare their love for each other. Her guards begins to attack the pair in an attempt to capture them. During the skirmish, the Red Queen watches indignantly as the pair defeat her guards. Alice and Cyrus are then outnumbered by the soldiers. As Alice is held down while Cyrus is being dragged away, he breaks free to rescue her. Wanting to excite things up, the Red Queen twirls her hand and smiles deviously, using magic to topple Cyrus from the cliff and into the Boiling Sea as Alice screams. Fortunately, unknown to Alice, Jafar waits ominously below and catches Cyrus on his magic carpet.
After First Curse[]
The Red Queen clashes with Jafar.
The Red Queen threatens the White Rabbit to follow her absolute orders by kidnapping and withholding his wife and two children. As commanded, the White Rabbit travels out of Wonderland to convince Alice to come back with the claim her beloved Cyrus is alive. When Alice returns to Wonderland, the Red Queen rides out in her coach to meet the White Rabbit. She demands he follow, and the two of them go to her castle. Once inside, she asks the White Rabbit if Alice is back, which he affirms to be true. In turn, the Queen orders him to continue to do her bidding, or else he will be turned into furnishing. He slinks away in fright as the Red Queen smiles wickedly.
Later, she encounters the sorcerer Jafar out on the balcony, and informs him of Alice's arrival, which is just as they planned it. Jafar moves closer and tells her that what they want can't be accomplished without the genie's bottle, and Alice's made all her wishes. He tells her not to be so pleased with herself, and she scolds him for talking down to the Queen. He tells her power is fleeting, which she takes as a threat, but he makes it clear that he's not just threatening her... he's ready to dispose of her. Jafar starts to choke the Queen through magic, but she is able to murmur that he doesn't know where Alice is. He releases her, and the bitter Queen reminds him that he's in her turf now, and if he wants her help, their deal remains. The Queen promises to get him his wishes, and he asks what she wants in return, to which she responds, "All in due time." She then tells him to get back on his carpet and let her deal with Alice. He tells her he hopes she does, for her sake, and then his carpet appears and he steps on it and flies away. Later, Jafar goes to pay a little visit to Cyrus, whom he's got locked up in a giant cage in his palace in the clouds over Wonderland.
The White Rabbit with the Queen.
From the White Rabbit, the Red Queen learns the true burial spot of Cyrus' bottle; an item both she and Jafar have been scouring Wonderland in search for as one of the objectives they need to complete their secretive master plan. To gain the upper hand from Jafar, she has the White Rabbit procure the bottle for her. Later, when the Red Queen is listening to petitioners at the castle, Jafar freezes her subjects so they can talk. While he criticizes her flaw in trying to earn people's respect as their monarch, she acknowledges that they both want things they can't have without Alice and her genie. She gives the excuse that responsibilities as a ruler keep her busy from looking for the bottle, so Jafar frees up her time by turning the frozen people in the room into ash. She looks on in displeasure as he leaves, to which her servants, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, clean up after the floor mess.
Jafar returns to accuse her of already knowing the bottle's location, which is true, but the Red Queen won't tell him until they settle what she will be getting out of this deal. Though he freezes her body to force an answer out, she purposely gives him the false bottle site, Mimsy Meadows under the Tum Tum Tree, to send him on a misleading expedition. After he is gone, the White Rabbit visits as the Tweedles are giving her a scrubbing cleanse. She inquiries further how he knew about the bottle's true location, the White Rabbit remembers secretly watching Alice and Cyrus bury it. He asks for his freedom after doing everything she requested. Instead, she gives a strong rebuke and reminds him who is in charge. Triumphantly, the Red Queen confronts Jafar in this lair and calls for a change in relationship, since now she possesses the bottle, and asks to be treated as his equal. In the face of Jafar's humiliation and fury, she leaves him to simmer. Upon return to her castle, the Red Queen places the bottle in a box.
Jafar and the Red Queen dine.
Cyrus is woken up to witness as the Red Queen and Jafar have dinner before him. Jafar shows him the message he sent to Alice, where she wrote back that she's coming for him. The two villains decide to send a horrid creature after Alice, hoping to scare her and force her to waste away one wish. As the Queen skims through a book of Wonderland's most terrifying inhabitants and suggests them one by one, Jafar admires the look on the genie's face each time she brings up a name. When the Queen suggests the Bandersnatch, Cyrus looks particularly worried, and Jafar picks up on this. It's settled then, the two partners decide to send a Bandersnatch after the young girl. On their way, Jafar stops to compliment the Queen, starting to acknowledge that there is more to her than her exquisite exterior. The Bandersnatch attacks Alice and Will at the Grendel's house, but Alice, having learned about such beasts because of Cyrus, is able to overpower it and have it killed.
When the female Bandersnatch dies as well (for they mate for life), the Queen believes Alice must have made her wish already. However, Jafar claims that he would have known about it, and is livid once he realizes they were tricked by Cyrus. Later, the two villains visit the Grendel and ask him what happened. He says - hoping to be reunited with his deceased wife in the process - that he was saved from the beast by a man and a woman. Jafar asks him who the man was, wanting to know who's helping Alice, and Grendel recounts that Alice called him "Knave" (a name that triggers a reaction from the Queen). He then asks if he can be reunited with his wife, and Jafar confirms this... right before he jams the bottom of his staff into the Grendel's chest and kills him.
The Red Queen catches her lover Will.
While Tweedledee and Tweedledum help dress the Red Queen in one of her newest outfits, she pleasingly admires herself in the mirror until noticing Jafar standing nearby. After she dismisses the Tweedles, Jafar asks for an honest answer about why he was left in the dark about Alice's companion, Knave. She gives a smooth excuse that he was only necessary so Alice had someone to trust when coming back to Wonderland. Since the Red Queen affirms Knave is of no more value, Jafar demands she get rid of him as soon as possible. Later, she takes out the Caterpillar's henchman, the Collectors, as they are hunting down Knave. The Red Queen imprisons Knave and belittles him for coming back to Wonderland and whatever Alice, dubbing her his "girlfriend", offered him must have been worth the risk. They both trade personal insults at one another until the Red Queen walks away.
Jafar approaches her again to order a public execution for Knave so people see what happens to those who align themselves with Alice. She proposes Knave might be more useful alive than dead, but he wonders if she is reluctant to kill for another reason. He presses her to get the job done to prove she is willing to go to any lengths to get what she wants. Unwilling to resort to murder, the Red Queen forms an escape plan for Knave to leave Wonderland with the White Rabbit. Knave suspects she only wants to catch him while he's leaving as a reason for capital punishment. She, however, wants an excuse not to kill him as her involvement with Jafar makes it difficult to keep him alive. Additionally, this is her way of making up her betrayal to him. Knave doesn't want pity, but she argues without her support, he'd be dead. He refuses to comply with escaping and blames her for making him a fool because she has committed inexcusable, terrible deeds. The one thing he thinks the Red Queen can't do is kill him, and dares her to try, so she accepts his challenge.
The Red Queen corners Will and Alice in her Maze.
At Knave's public execution, the Red Queen and Jafar appear over the castle balcony to greet the public masses. Tweedledee notifies them that Alice is in the crowd as well. The Red Queen orders for her to be taken in by the guards, but Jafar thinks it'd be a better idea to see how far Alice is willing to go to save a friend. They watch the procession as Knave is brought out onto the gallows and prepped for the beheading, but Alice rescues him and the two flee by using the catapult machine to fling themselves into the maze.
The Red Queen arrives there at the same time as Jafar. As Knave is choked by Jafar, he gasps out Anastasia's name, and is only let go when Alice makes her first wish. Then, Alice herself is tested by Jafar's magic until being dropped. The Red Queen stares in horror as Jafar turns Knave into a stone statue. Afterwards, Alice angrily slaps her for not helping Knave, and moves to deliver another smack, but the Red Queen blocks with magic. She chides Alice to "grow up" and use more common sense. The Red Queen warns that Wonderland is a prison and it's only going to get worse for Alice until she does what must be done. At nightfall, she returns to look, with much longing, at the statue of Knave.
The Red Queen and Alice at the Great Divide.
The Red Queen goes to the edge of a cliff and extends one foot over the edge. After a moment she pulls her foot back. Later, while Alice tries to comfort the stone form of Will, she's approached by the Queen, who offers her a deal; if she retrieve some magical dust that will help protect her against Jafar, then she will help her locate Cyrus. After much reluctance, Alice agrees. When they reach their destination, they find that the gap they must cross is too long, however, Alice is shown a riddle which states a person pure of heart can succeed. Believing her love with Cyrus is pure, she attempts to cross the gap. At first it works and Alice magically walks through the air, however, this suddenly comes to an end and she falls down into the pit beneath her. She is confronted with a vision of her child self, who uses its power to knock the Red Queen down into the pit with them and then the tries to persuade Alice into killing the defenseless queen.
The Red Queen saves her true love.
Alice tells a begging queen that she must pay for her crimes and then swings her sword at her, however, she misses on purpose, stating she won't be the one to make her. Alice's child vision suddenly becomes innocent and clean looking, stating she passed the test. When both Alice's touch hands, the child version dissipates into dust...the dust the Red Queen wanted. Alice collects it up and once they escape the pit, the Red Queen betrays Alice and takes the dust without revealing Cyrus' location. Alice argues that she gave the Queen her life, which triggers a reaction: the Queen states that nobody ever gave her anything and that everyone she has, she had to take. Alice asks about what she's lost, and the Queen doesn't dignify this with a response and the Queen warns her to take care as she walks away.
Then, the Queen goes to the Knave's statue and strokes its face. She says that she's sorry and then sprinkles the magic dust on him. The Knave is restored and she quickly walks away before he can see her.
The Red Queen confronts Cyrus.
The Red Queen goes to Jafar's dungeon with Tweedledee, and discovers that both Cyrus and the guards are gone. She turns to the old prisoner and asks what happened, but he refuses to talk. The Queen slams him around and the prisoner tells her that Jafar took Cyrus away. She points out that Cyrus' cage is cut open and demands the truth, and the old prisoner says that the Queen will never catch Cyrus because he carries the greatest power of all: true love. Later, the Red Queen and Tweedledee follow Cyrus' trail. When he says that she can't follow him dressed as she is, the Queen slaps him and says that she wasn't always queen, and that she knows how to get her hands dirty. She explains that if she finds the genie then she alone will have him and his bottle; Jafar will have nothing and she will win the game.
Finally, the Queen follows Cyrus' trail to the stream and uses magic to track him to his true location. As Cyrus comes to the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean far below, the Queen comes up behind him. The genie realizes that the castle is on an island of rock floating high in the sky. Cyrus vows that he'll see Alice again, but the Red Queen warns that sometimes love isn't enough to conquer reality. However, Cyrus sees Alice's necklace glowing in the distance and diving off of the cliff. A shocked Red Queen rushes to the edge and watches as the genie falls into the ocean below them.
The Red Queen unaware of Jafar's presence.
Tweedledum makes his way towards his Queen, telling her that they've searched the shores and there are no signs of Cyrus. She tries to maintain a certain composure as she tells her lackey to keep looking, for he couldn't have just vanished. Dum turns around and, with a provocative look, turns back to face her again and starts to ironically imply that vanishing is actually something genies can do. The Queen gets up and orders him to shut up, as she walks past him. The Tweedle theorizes that Cyrus could have simply not survived the fall, seeing as how he dove a thousand feet down into the water. She asks him if he's considered the possibility that he's a lazy imbecile; the Tweedle asks if it's a rhetorical question. The Queen starts to tell him that, with Jafar out of Wonderland, she has the opportunity to gain the upper hand. She says she already has the bottle, and wants the genie in her possession too.
Unbeknownst to her, Jafar is standing right behind her. Noticing the Tweedle's reaction to his presence, she asks what it is, only to hear Jafar telling her to continue. The Queen plays it off, acting dumb, and telling him she had been worried sick. Jafar claims not to have time for her games, and asks to be told where he can find Alice. Ana tells him she'd be quite happy to tell him, saying Alice is easy to find, unlike that genie of hers. Jafar asks what she's talking about, and Ana explains that Cyrus got away while he was gone. Jafar, irate, immediately turns to the red army and orders them to find the genie immediately, but Anastasia reminds him that they listen to her and already have orders, and the genie will be back in their hands before the sun sets. She starts to walk back to her throne but Jafar stops her, grabbing her hand and her attention, and tells her not to forget that even if she holds the genie and the bottle, she can't live out her twisted dreams without someone changing the laws of magic, and he is the only one who will have that power. The Queen, amused, tells him, "Of course you are, darling." And heads back to her throne. Jafar isn't entertained.
Anastasia tells Will the whole truth.
In the palace, Tweedledum tells the Queen what he's heard through the Grapevine: Cyrus is caught in a plant snare. As she goes to retrieve him, Tweedledum says that his brother gave a bag to Jafar. She orders him to leave and goes to her treasure cabinet... and discovers that the genie's bottle is gone. Later, the Queen comes to collect Cyrus, dropping him into her carriage, and they stop by her old wagon to collect his bottle. They then return to the Queen's palace and see it's been wrecked by Jafar, meaning he's after her and wants to kill her, so the two of them make their way to the Outlands to find Alice and Will. When Cyrus is reunited with Alice, the latter is less than happy to see the Red Queen with the genie, but he assures her that she's there to help them. A deadly storm created by Jafar is fast approaching and they need to escape Wonderland, but Alice refuses to as she cannot trust the Queen's word, and nor can Will. Cyrus, having previously suspected that the Queen had a secret desire, believes her.
Anastasia reveals that the only reason she formed an alliance with Jafar was so he could change the laws of magic and she could change the past, going back to a time where Will loved her. As the storm cloud closes in, the Red Queen uses the bottle as a shield against a lightning bolt, which then bounces off and fatally wounds Knave. The Queen rushes to her love as Alice suddenly collapses. The Queen reminds Cyrus that Alice's first wish was to die if the Knave died. Will uses his wish to end Alice's suffering. Not only does this save her from the brink of death, but it frees Cyrus from his binds also, meaning he isn't a genie anymore... but Will has disappeared, much to Ana's sadness. The Knave is now a genie.
The Queen is betrayed by her subjects.
At the morning, the Red Queen, Alice and Cyrus start to search the bottle where Will is inside, when the Red Queen is captured by the angry peasants who want to punish her for ignoring their problems. She tries to gain their sympathy, but fails. When she is tied to a post, she claims that someone will pay a ransom if they spare her life. However, one of the angry townspeople asks her who would do that, and she can't answer. Alice and Cyrus, who find her with a locating spell made by the latter, agree to pay, but don't have anything to do so, causing the people to tie Alice and Cyrus, who before being tied, tried to convince the people to not kill her since they would become like her.
In the night, the light of the fires surrounding the trio attracts the Mome Raths; they manage to put out the torches, but Alice's necklace shines and attracts that beasts. Alice reluctantly gives up her pendant, so the three escape. In the forest, the trio see fireworks coming from a poor town, causing the Red Queen to suggest that Will is there. In the town, the Red Queen finds the dead body of Lizard and the bottle Will is imprisoned in. She is falsely accused of killing her by Alice, but the discussion caused by the misunderstanding ended when Cyrus told the Queen to hold the bottle. Anastasia "accidentally" opens the bottle and releases Will, who is in her service until she asks her third wish. She later says where are the two other bottles, and Cyrus says that his brothers are the genies inside them. Recognizing her past errors, the Red Queen decides to stay and help rescue them.
The Jabberwocky torments Anastasia.
The following day, while the group is studying a plan to defeat Jafar and free Wonderland from his threat, The Red Queen reveals to Cyrus that Wonderland also has its own Well of Wonder. The quartet thus is divided into 2 pairs; Alice and Cyrus go to the well to summon Nyx and convince her to remove the curse on his brothers, while instead Anastasia and Will go to the White Rabbit's house. Anastasia formally apologizes to the White Rabbit for having taken from him what can never be returned, and asks for help to convince the commoners that she genuinely wants to take back the kingdom for their sake. The White Rabbit, however, warns them that Jafar has recently freed the terrible Jabberwocky. The monster then intercepts the queen in the woods and Anastasia, perceiving the presence, brings Will into the bottle and then hide it and try to fight the creature. The Red Queen conjures a sword for protection and stabs the Jabberwocky with it, but the weapon has no effect on her. The monster then proceeds quickly pulling a strong head to the queen, causing her to lose consciousness and then immediately find the bottle.
Anastasia then wakes up in the prisons of her palace, tied to a chair next to Will (also tied) inside a cage for life-sized birds. Jafar threatens to convince her to give him control of the bottle, then giving the Jabberwocky permission to mentally torture her until she gave in. In a matter of minutes, the Red Queen collapses emotionally after being goaded about her miserable past and present (the loss of her mother's love, the fear of not being able to regain Will's love and the enormous emptiness she feels for being aware of being alone and without love). She is manipulated into making two frivolous wishes; one for her crown and another for her jewels. Lastly, she uses the third wish to make Jabberwocky stop torturing her; causing Knave to return to the bottle and into Jafar's possession. Afterwards, the Red Queen receives a visit from Tweedledee, who is still loyal to her, so she sends him to warn Alice and Cyrus against fighting Jafar and to leave Wonderland immediately.
Anastasia murdered before her true love.
During her imprisonment, Anastasia has more room to reflect on her life choices while conversing with the old prisoner; witnessing with him the attempts of Jafar to complete the spell of the three genes, until they receive a visit from Alice and Cyrus. The Red Queen warns them that she can not do anything anymore and that the only way to save Wonderland is to free Will. Alice and Cyrus hide out of sight when Jafar strolls in. The sorcerer believes the Red Queen has cast a spell on Will's bottle that prevents him from breaking the laws of magic and interrogates her using magic to threaten her. The Jabberwocky, however, informs him that the queen has nothing to do with it and that they are not the only ones to be in the dungeons, as it succeeds in capturing from someone (Alice) the real reason why the spell does not work; stating that the Knave is without a heart. Afterward, Jafar threatens to slit the Red Queen's throat unless Knave tells him the location of his heart. Despite that she pleads against it, he complies with Jafar's request, stating his heart has caused him enough suffering and no one needs to die due to it. Later, the Red Queen and the Knave of Hearts have a way to clear up definitively and Anastasia reveals that if she were successful in breaking the laws of magic, she would remedy her past by choosing to stay with Will in the Sherwood Forest. The girl then apologizes to Will for having resorted to magic to reconquer him. Jafar returns to the dungeon, shoving the heart into Knave, who collapses in shock. Stunned, the Red Queen calls for Knave to look at her. In the instant their eyes meet, they share a kiss until Jafar separates them. Knave is locked up while the Red Queen is pulled out, forced to look at her beloved Will, as Jafar kills her.
Once the laws of magic are broken, Anastasia is revived by Jafar. The sorcerer then proceeds to subjugate the queen making her believe that she is madly in love with him, and "casually" they drops this bombshell to an entrapped Will; even kissing Jafar in front of him. Visibly subdued, Anastasia has little reaction to Alice being held captive and threatened by Jafar. Jafar later prompts Anastasia to prove their "love" is real by telling him about the Well of Wonders. She informs him that it's a place with water of very powerful magical properties. Jafar then leaves the royal palace intent on hunting and killing Amara and Cyrus, leaving Anastasia complete custody of the prisoners.
Anastasia watches over Alice and Will, though she is easily distracted. She is alarmed upon noticing the White Rabbit attempting to free Alice and becomes defensive when Will suggests that her feelings for Jafar are fake. Eventually, Jafar's magical hold on her is removed once she and Will share a Kiss of True Love. Finally free from the magical influence of the evil wizard, Anastasia frees Alice allowing her and the White Rabbit to quickly reach Jafar at the well to finally defeat him. However, when Jafar is transformed into a genius by The Guardian Nyx and all his spells are canceled together with the curse that afflicted the brothers of Cyrus, Anastasia falls dead once again.
Anastasia revived by her true love.
However, Nyx gives the water of the well to bring her back to life because, although the end for the Red Queen era had come, the time of Anastasia had not yet arrived. The woman is finally reunited with Will and participating in the marriage of Alice and Cyrus in England.
After many years, Alice will narrate her adventures to the daughter she had with Cyrus, revealing that in the future Anastasia and Will will become respectively the White Queen and the White King and restore peace to Wonderland.