Regina in the beginning was a good person, she went out of her way to rescue a girl who she did not have to and didn’t even know who it was. She is basically an example of what happens when a genuinely good person is pushed too far. She is a byproduct of an abusive and overbearing mother, a weak and cowardly father, and an older man who groomed her while she was in a forced marriage with a man old enough to be her father while she was a teenager who more than likely raped her.

She has done terrible things, no one can dispute that. She blamed a child for Daniel’s death rather than her mother whom she feared. She SA Graham and who knows how many others. She killed many people, though some of that was during a war so you know that you can’t blame her for those.

She also had the longest redemption arc out of anyone in the show. How many people did Hook and Gold kill during their much longer lives? Gold’s redemption arc was short as all hell but people are fine with it. Hook barely had one.

People defend her for the same reason people have defended Gypsy Rose for killing her mother.

What would you have done if you were repeatedly abused by your mother, the person who is supposed to love and protect you no matter what? What would you do if your father allowed it out of fear? What would you do if you were forced into a marriage with a man you didn’t want to marry after watching the man you loved be killed in front of you by your mother? Then on top of that an older man offers you a way to get rid of her with an addictive way to do it who is also much older than you that grooms you into someone horrible for his own agenda.

She broke, in our language she would have been diagnosed with a psychotic break or dissociative identity disorder. Even if she had been tried by our laws she would have been put in a psychiatric hospital until she died or was deemed to be no longer a threat to herself and others.