Hypocrisy Thy Name Is - Tumblr Posts

I think what gets me about this post and the Snow/Regina relationship is how very human they are.  Both are driven by their own selfish goals, desires, and emotions.  One finds it easier to lie, to pretend that these selfish wants are in fact selfless.  I get this.  I, too, experience discomfort at the idea of admitting to someone else that I truly do not care about them except as a vehicle for my wants.  A puppet for my pleasure.  I also understand Regina's motivations.  I have been hurt enough to want someone else to feel my pain.  This is a trap as even when they do feel pain it is never my pain they feel.  You cannot make another care.  They either chose to or not.  

There are however two things that I do not understand about these scenes.  Firstly, why did Regina even give Snow a choice?  Could she not have let Charming die and lie to Snow about her having a choice?  If she wanted to cause Snow pain she did not need to give her an out.  I do not think Regina is so dumb that she did not realize that a) Charming was Snow's True Love and b) the sleeping curse could be broken by True Love's Kiss.  She's a badass Witch, she knows more about magic than a man raised to herd sheep.  She picked Charming because he was Snow's True Love.  Regina also knows how it feels to know your love is dead.  It's been her driving emotion for a number of years by then.  There's also this idea that Regina was a heartless murderer.  Yet instead of ripping out Snow and Charming's hearts, letting one or both of them die, or killing them she sets this choice up.  And it truly was a choice.  

Secondly, why did Snow pretend to give Regina a choice?  Could she not have just crushed Cora's heart and let Rumple live or not based on actions Hook (and not Snow) took?  Was the thought of facing a disappointed ten year old boy too much for her?  Or did she want Regina to know what it was like to have mother who loves her only to see her mother die and the man who owned her live?  This, more than any of her actions, shows me that Snow fundamentally does not respect Regina.  She dangles a pretty lie in front of her knowing that either Regina makes the 'right' choice and loses her mother or makes the 'wrong' choice and loses her mother.  Even the 'right' choice was a lie.  Consider the infamous about them not needing to tell Regina about Henry.  Yet she expects Regina to believe that making the 'right' will suddenly make Henry part of her family again.  Snow doesn't just lie about Regina's mother, she lies about the only two people Regina loves.  And it's neatly packaged as Regina's responsibility, after all it is her 'choice'.

1.21 “if you refuse the apple, your Prince, your Charming, will be killed. As I said, the choice is yours” 2.16 “Imagine real love. You’d have a mother and a start on making a family Henry could be part of. Or you could have her be the dark one. The choice is yours.” suggested by rickmantic