About

“But maybe I need you”—Regina

SwanQueen is the femslash ship between Emma Swan and Regina Mills from the Once Upon A Time fandom.

Regina Mills, formerly known as the Evil Queen, is the adoptive mother to Henry Mills, the biological son of Emma Swan, daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming. Regina and Emma meet through Henry who went looking for his “real mom”. Antagonism runs a muck between these two, particularly on Regina’s side as she hated that Henry went out and found his birth mother. When Regina learns that Emma is the “Savior”, meant to break Regina’s curse, she hates Emma even more so.

Emma and Regina continue to fight once the curse is lifted. However, because Henry asked her to, Emma repeatedly saves Regina from the vengeful mob of newly-woken fairytale characters out for her head. In her efforts to save Regina from getting her soul eaten by a Wraith, Emma accidentally triggered Regina’s own magic by laying a hand on her arm, and then subsequently fell through a portal to the Enchanted Forest (aka Fairy Tale Land or FTL). Emma’s absence gave Regina an opportunity to have Henry to herself forever, but because she made a promise to their son that she would be “better” and earn his love, she absorbed a death curse to save Emma and let her return to Storybrooke.

There were quite a few subsequent issues involving the return of Regina’s abusive mother, Cora, a trip to Neverland, evil Peter Pan, the Wicked Witch of the West aka Regina’s older sister Zelena, and although they still don’t always get along, Emma and Regina now more often than not join forces to protect their family and the town.