REGINA:
I don't think I have ever defended a character more (Nic tell me if I'm wrong :p).
The truth is that Regina doesn't get much hate these days because she is the actual Queen and no one can resist her (:p) but there are still people talking sh*t about her and especially in earlier seasons she got much hate -even though she was always a fan favorite- especially for what she did as the EQ. I can't say that I agree with her actions back in the Enchanted Forest but seriously if you watch all her main flashback episodes alltogether you can see that she was manipulated in the worst way by almost everyone until she reached that point in her life where craziness and hatred ruled her world :( . She grew up with a mother who never cared about her happiness and just wanted to make her queen, she saw her first love dying in front of her & she was fooled by Rumple, Whale & Jefferson who made her hatred towards Snow bigger and bigger because Rumple needed her to enact the dark curse. I could go on talking and talking but I don't think I'm good in this. LOL :p

RACHEL:
She is the character I relate the most, I always understand her and her actions & I get that the character can sometimes be annoying (even though she never annoys me muahaha :s) . She's my little precious inspirational cinnamon roll <33 and I will always defend her!

PEYTON:
Excusez-moi but HOW CAN SOMEONE SAY SMTH MEAN ABOUT HER? Peyton is IMO one of the most inspiring -if not the most inspiring- characters in tv history. End of story!

KATE:
She's my favorite & I may be biased<33 . I can't say she gets much hate but sometimes people blame her when it comes to Caskett and how long it took her to say out loud her feelings but I can never blame her because I relate 100% to her insecurites & the fact that she's scared to open up until she feels ready with herself first!

AMELIA:
Current motto in my fandom life is 'protect Amelia Shepherd at all costs' .
She's been literally through EVERYTHING and sometimes she may act childish but she's a damaged sould who needs love and protection. She's my angel ,I love her & I never understand tha hate she gets<333 . She's so strong and inspiring and I will always support her!

&& that's all folks :p

I can't say anything about Amelia or Kate because I don't watch the show but from what I've seen on Tumblr they seem great :)

As for Peyton, she definitely got a lot of hate from the OTH fandom while she was hands down the character who had the worst life experiences out of everyone. So like when someone bashed her saying she was always whining it baffled me bc honestly if anyone had to go through just ONE of the traumatizing experiences she's gone through, they would be a total mess. In retrospective, she actually took it all very well considering :D
As for Rachel, I didn't think she was that hated by the fandom but she had flaws. Like sometimes she hurt her friends so she can succeed was a bit cringy but while she was never my favorite character, I never hated her either.

Regina is an interesting case for me because I was quite indifferent of her character in the first season and then I started to like her but she's not my favorite or anything so I feel like my point of view of her is quite objective (as compared to the fandom :p) Tbh the things she did were pretty terrible but what I like about the character is that she knows it and she works at it to be forgiven (the problem is that she only did that with Henry so far but anyways I think S5B can be finally the end of her redemption arc I think -- where she would be finally forgiven by Snowing and other characters that she hurt.) but idk her redemption is believable bc she doesn't change overnight. In S2, she's still struggling between becoming good for Henry & doing bad stuff with her mom. What I like about her is that her redemption arc is fueled by love - having Henry & meeting Robin pushes her to become good and for that she should be defended. I agree what you said about people pushing her to become evil and that definitely took its toll on her - though I'm still very much a believer of the idea that no matter crappy life is, actions are a choice and not all responsibility can be dismissed on that excuse. - which is I think it's at the core of the differences between Rumple & Regina as far as their redemption arcs are concerned. Regina takes the blame for her actions while Rumple always tries to pin it on something else but that said, Regina has still has flaws - after all she's human - but the fandom tends to glorify her to an extant that they talk about her as to vilify Snow & Charming and that's not okay bc she did way worse than they ever did.

Okay rant over :p

I agree what you said about people pushing her to become evil and that definitely took its toll on her - though I'm still very much a believer of the idea that no matter crappy life is, actions are a choice and not all responsibility can be dismissed on that excuse

I agree -you explain these so much better than me ahahah :p- but what I like is that she didn't become evil in one day and she didn't change back to good overnight as you said. Both times there was struggling. For example the only reason she wanted to use magic at the first place was to bring back Daniel and when she was practicing it with Rumple she couldn't even kill that unicorn he asked her to . Of course she chose to do those actions but it was after she was pushed and influenced a lot to a level I think she wasn't able to think logically anymore . I don't know if I'm being biased but that's the way I always saw it!!
I think Snowing has already forgiven her but now it's another chance for her to show who she really is as [SPOILER!! her dad told her in last night's ep :p]

^Oh totally agreed, Rumple did manipulate her to the point that her revenge was all she cared about. And that's just the thing, she always saw her pursuit of Snow as what it was - revenge and not justice for Daniel - she knew being evil would get her what she wanted and so she embraced that and when she saw that Henry and then Robin could bring something positive in her life again, she knew that not everything was lost. There's a lot of despair in her search for revenge which makes her hard to hate even though she did terrible things. It's hard to think that in her position, you wouldn't want to seek revenge as well. Not everybody would kill for it but what she felt was very human. The thing I don't really understand is that she should have seen that her anger was misdirected: Snow did tell her secret but she was a kid and besides she's not responsible for what Cora did bc of the secret! But like you said, it was illogical. Yeah I do think that Snow (and Charming too to a certain extant) have forgiven her but there's still some things that she did that I'd like the writers to address - Graham for example comes to mind but I doubt Jamie would come back even for a cameo so yeah I can still wait :p - but like she did curse an ENTIRE town just to punish Snow and idk we don't really see her that remorseful for all of them. We saw maybe that aspect a bit when she took the Savior role in S5A but I have great hope for her in S5B with all the unfinished business she has with - most likely - a LOT of people in the Underworld. YES 5x12 was a great start in that sense and I hope we see more of that for her while the others are looking for Hook. (btw we have to talk about 5x12 & her scenes with her dad, I cried so much!)

Snow did tell her secret but she was a kid and besides she's not responsible for what Cora did bc of the secret!
Completely agree ,never understood why people blamed Snow :O ,Cora manipulated her and she was only like 11 ys old (?) . But yeah when things like this happens I guess you're not able to think rational.

Agree about Graham, it's my least favorite moment for Regina :( , this was really out of control .

like she did curse an ENTIRE town just to punish Snow and idk we don't really see her that remorseful for all of them. We saw maybe that aspect a bit when she took the Savior role in S5A but I have great hope for her in S5B with all the unfinished business she has with - most likely - a LOT of people in the Underworld.
This is kind of a taboo subject . I think she feels sorry for what she did to all of these people but at the same moment that's the reason why she has Henry -as she said to Pan ,she doesn't regret it because that was what got her her son who she loves more than anyone and anything!- . Agree about 5A ,it was the point when all the town believed in her and I'm excited to see how she's gonna handle things in 5B ,5x12 was the greatest start

&& I'm coming to your wall <3

Forever and always defending my baby cakes <33

I lowkey agree with what Aline is saying about Regina tbh.

Love P.Sawyer more but defending Regina forever<33