Red Riding Hood

> My mother wanted me to choose between being a wolf and being a human. Granny did, too. You are the only person who ever thought it was okay for me to be both.
>       —Red Riding Hood to Snow White

**Red Riding Hood**, also known as Red, is a character on ABC's *Once Upon a Time*. She débuts in the first episode of the first season. She is portrayed by guest star Meghan Ory, and is the Enchanted Forest counterpart of **Ruby**.

Red Riding Hood is based on the titular character and the Wolf from the fairytale, "Little Red Riding Hood", the Wolf from the composition, "Peter and the Wolf", and on Rose-Red from the fairytale, "Snow-White and Rose-Red".

## History

### Before First Curse

In a small village, Red Riding Hood is raised by her grandmother Widow Lucas. She grows up not knowing her parents, and only that her mother died some time ago, as Widow Lucas tells her. In a budding romance, Red Riding Hood falls in love with the blacksmith's son, Peter, and the two have secret rendezvouses near her cottage window at night. They dream of running away together, but things are not safe in town with a bloodthirsty wolf running around on every wolfs time, or full moon. One evening, she and Widow Lucas receive Mayor Tomkins at their door. He asks for more volunteers to help the hunting party kill the wolf. Red Riding Hood expresses an interest in it, but Widow Lucas refuses and the pair lock down the house for safety. As Red Riding Hood goes to rest for the night, Widow Lucas reminds her to keep her cloak on since the color red repels wolves. The next morning, she finds a woman, who calls herself Mary, hiding in the chicken coop barn. Red Riding Hood offers her shelter at the cottage. When they go to fetch water from the well, the mangled, bloody corpses of the hunting party is discovered. After returning to the village, Mayor Tomkins calls for a meeting where he demands for an even larger hunting party so they can put an end to the massacre of people and their livestock. Widow Lucas protests by explaining her own terrifying experience of having been marked by a wolf in the past.
During the evening, Red Riding Hood grabs hold of an idea to simply kill the wolf and get rid of the danger so she and Peter can be together. Mary is reluctant to agree, but eventually agrees to help. The next day, they follow the wolf's foot prints, which oddly begin turning into human tracks, and stop at Red Riding Hood's cottage. Stunned, they conclude Peter must be the wolf. Red Riding meets with him in the woods to tell him the truth while Mary masquerades as her in bed. Peter believes Red Riding Hood's theory and agrees to be tied up in chains. However, when the full moon rises, it is she, not Peter, who shifts into a wolf. Despite Peter's frantic attempts to make her recognize him, she has no sense of her human self. She tears him apart and feasts on his remains just as Mary and Widow Lucas arrive to put her out with a silver-tipped cross bolt. Then, Mary places the cloak on Red Riding Hood to turn her back into human. At first, she awakens in a disoriented state. In the next instant, Red Riding Hood catches a glimpse of what she did to Peter. She and Mary are urged by Widow Lucas to run as the hunting party nears. *("Red-Handed")*
They flee through the woods while being actively chased by soldiers looking for Mary, who is actually the wanted fugitive Snow White. They evade capture, but Red Riding Hood notices her cloak is partially torn. In fear of shape shifting again, she sends Snow White away for the time being. Red Riding Hood wakes up in the morning, relieved that the cloak's magic held through, and takes it off when she goes to wash up at the stream. A stranger grabs her cloak and runs off. She stops him in time from burning her cloak. The man, Quinn, reveals that he is a wolf too, and takes her to a den to his leader, Anita. Red Riding Hood is shocked to learn that Anita is her mother and that they were separated because Widow Lucas didn't want her granddaughter growing up as a wolf. With Anita's help, Red Riding Hood is taught how to master control of herself while in wolf form. The respite is short lived when Snow White accidentally treads into the den of the wolves. Red Riding Hood pleads to the other members of the pack that her friend means no harm, and convinces them Snow White is an ally. Though the two women had planned on travelling together, Red Riding Hood regretfully states that she wants to stay with the wolf pack. Suddenly, the Queen's guards burst in looking for Snow White. In the midst of the battle, Quinn is shot dead. Furious, Anita prepares to execute Snow White as penance, but Red Riding Hood defends her. In wolf form, mother and daughter scuffle in their dispute until Anita impales herself on a spike. With her last breaths of life, Anita accuses her daughter of choosing a human over her own pack. On the verge of tears, Red Riding Hood asserts she chooses herself because she is not a killer, and neither is Anita. After burying her mother, Red Riding Hood thanks Snow White for constantly supporting her as both a wolf and human. *("Child of the Moon")*

* Alternate Timeline

On Snow White's request, Red Riding Hood arrives at nightfall to help Prince Charles and Prince Charming break into the Queen's castle to rescue Princess Leia. Taking off her cloak, she turns into a fearsome wolf and attacks the soldier guarding the castle prison entrance while Prince Charming knocks the man unconscious. Then, Hook covers her with the cloak, which restores Red Riding Hood to human form. As they travel further in, she hears someone approaching, but it is only Princess Leia and another freed prisoner. Their hopes of regrouping with Snow White are dashed, however, when they witness her being tied to a post in the courtyard. The Queen then hurls a fireball at the defenseless Snow White and incinerates her. Directly after, Prince Charming discovers Snow White transformed herself, using fairy dust, into a bug to escape death. With the Blue Fairy's help, she reverts to human. Relieved, Red Riding Hood rejoices by giving her friend a hug. *("There's No Place Like Home")*
At some point, Red Riding Hood begins providing food to starving villagers when she learns the Queen and her Huntsman are raiding it, and they have joined forces with Anita's former wolf pack led by Adair. As the Queen and her allies are traveling, Red Riding Hood assumes her wolf form to spy on them. Immediately, the Queen sees her. Mistakenly believing this wolf is part of the pack, she orders the beast to get back in line with the rest of her kind, but Red Riding Hood merely growls at her. Noticing the Queen is carrying a box, Red Riding Hood knocks it out of her hands. This attracts the attention of the other wolves, who charge at Red Riding Hood to exact revenge for Anita's death. Red Riding Hood ends up constricted in the air by the Queen's magic, but she is dropped when the Huntsman aims an arrow at an approaching Adair. While the Huntsman runs off with the box, Red Riding Hood snatches it from him. He tracks her down, to which a human Red Riding Hood threatens to kill him due to his affinity with the Queen. She drops her guard, however, upon learning the box contains his heart, which the Queen stole from the Huntsman and controls him with, which is his punishment for sparing Snow White's life. After returning the Huntsman's heart, Red learns from him that the Queen and the pack intend to hunt down Snow White, so they head to King Midas' realm. There, they join Snow White and travel to Lake Onondaga where a totem can be used to transform the shape-shifters into normal wolves, but it can be wielded by someone only once. On the way there, she and the Huntsman share a wolf joke. On glimpsing the lake, Snow White remarks how romantic it looks, which makes Red Riding Hood blush. While the Huntsman grabs the totem, his companions hold off the wolf pack. However, Red Riding Hood and Snow White fall into the lake as the Huntsman jumps in after them. Due to the totem’s power, all three turn into aquatic creatures. Before regaining human form, the Huntsman convinces Red Riding Hood to talk sense into the pack. They approach Adair, who refuses to listen and calls out the wolves. To menace the Queen, the Huntsman threatens Adair's life, but she incinerates the man herself; causing the upset wolves to attack her. As the Queen counters them, Red Riding Hood urges the Huntsman to take Snow White away while she ensures the pack's safety. Rather than that, the Huntsman sacrifices his heart to the Queen while the two women escape. Snow White regrets how much Red Riding Hood has given up for her, but the latter wants to continue protecting her in order to honor the Huntsman's wishes. Additionally, Snow White promises to stop the Queen so Red Riding Hood and the Huntsman can be together again. *("Shadow of the Queen")*
Many weeks after, Red Riding Hood brings food with her to Snow White's secluded forest hideout. She keeps Snow White up-to-date on all of the Enchanted Forest's current events, including Prince Charming's wedding to King Midas' daughter, Abigail, which is set to happen soon. Snow White is very upset at this and asks for some magical cure to heal her broken heart. Red Riding Hood remains quiet, which makes Snow White think she knows something. After some prodding, she tells Snow White about Rumplestiltskin, a man with great powers who might be able to help her take away her love for Prince Charming. The next day, Snow White sets out to meet with Prince Charming at King George's castle after he sends her a love letter requesting to see her. She does not return for several days, and Red Riding Hood comes across Prince Charming when he arrives at Snow White's hideout searching for her. *("7:15 A.M.")*
Red Riding Hood informs him that Snow White never came back after she went to meet him. She states Snow White went to the castle due to her love for him, though Prince Charming doesn't believe her. Red Riding Hood attests that Snow White intended to confess her feelings for him unless something changed her mind. Prince Charming realizes King George must have forced Snow White to reject him. They face another problem when King George himself and his soldiers begin closing in on them. Thus, she and Prince Charming escape on horseback. *("What Happened to Frederick")*
They camp out, but King George's men catch up to them once again. She insists on staying behind to buy him more time while he escapes. As the soldiers approach, Red Riding Hood rips off her cloak and shape-shifts into a wolf to attack them. *("Heart of Darkness")*
Though Prince Charming eventually finds Snow White, the two are separated when he is taken as King George's prisoner. Snow White enlists the help of Red Riding Hood, Granny, the seven dwarves and the fairies to rescue Prince Charming. They take the castle, but the rescue attempt is unsuccessful because he has already been traded to the Evil Queen. Snow White agrees to a deal of meeting the Queen alone and without arms. Despite everyone's pleas for her not to meet the Queen, Snow White stubbornly follows the Queen's rules if it means the safe return of Prince Charming. Shortly thereafter, they go looking for Snow White and find her lifeless body. They believe her to be dead, and remain unaware she is under a Sleeping Curse. *("An Apple Red as Blood")*
With the power of Prince Charming's kiss of true love, Snow White is revived to life. Soon after, Red Riding Hood helps the pair fight against King George in order to take back the kingdom. She alerts them to a rumored general of King George's called "The Leviathan". Their camp is forced into battle when forces make them by surprise. *("Lady of the Lake")*
As the war wages on, King George's army falls in battle. Following the capture of the Evil Queen, Red Riding Hood is one of the many war council members discussing what they should do with her. Though Snow White is against it, the final vote is to put the Queen to death for her crimes. At the public execution, Red Riding Hood listens to the Queen's last scathing testament on the gallows. The Blue Fairy releases arrows to kill her, but Snow White, at the last moment, commands for the execution to stop. *("The Cricket Game")*
Many months later, Red Riding Hood and her grandmother join in the war council yet again when Prince Charming seeks advice on how to defeat the Evil Queen's Dark Curse. Prophesized by Rumplestiltskin, the only one who can save them all in twenty-eight years time is Prince Charming and Snow White's unborn child. The Blue Fairy presents them with a magic wardrobe, which is capable of protecting one person from the curse's effects. It is decided Snow White, while still pregnant, will be the one to go through so she can guide her daughter until twenty-eight years pass. On the day the curse is cast, Snow White goes into labor and her newborn daughter is sent into the wardrobe. Shortly after, Red Riding Hood, along with everyone else are engulfed by the curse. *("Pilot")*

*For events occurring after the casting of the first curse, see Ruby.*

### Before Second Curse

After Regina takes magical preventive measures to undo Pan's casting of the Dark Curse, all the inhabitants of Storybrooke pay the price by returning to the Enchanted Forest and reverting to their prior personas. In a group, they manifest in the land of Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip. A plan quickly assembles for everyone to make their way to the Queen's old palace. On the trek there, the group are joined by Friar Tuck, Little John, and Robin Hood of the Merry Men. As they near the palace, Regina discovers a protection spell, cast by whoever currently residing inside, is keeping them out. For the time being, Robin Hood suggests everyone can take shelter at Sherwood Forest. *("New York City Serenade")*

As they depart for Sherwood Forest, Red Riding Hood talks to Snow White, expressing nostalgia at the journey being like "old times", except rather than running from Regina, they are with her. She notices the former Queen behaving listlessly, but doesn't look kindly on Regina's past actions in hurting everyone, and therefore isn't too concerned for her. Snow White, however, goes to talk to Regina. Later, out of nowhere, a flying monkey attacks, though Regina quickly disposes of the beast by turning it into a stuffed animal. In a group discussion, Belle shares knowledge about the flying monkey's origins in the land of Oz, so Regina determines the person in the palace is the Wicked Witch. A plan is set up to wait for Regina to bring the shield down and then mobilize the whole group into the palace. Once night falls, Grumpy gives the signal when he spots the dissipating barrier, meaning Regina was able to lower it, so everyone begins assembling towards their destination. *("Witch Hunt")*

Threatened by the presence of the Wicked Witch of the West, Prince Charming and Snow White learn from a witch named Glinda that only the most powerful of light magic can defeat her. Realizing their daughter, Emma, fits the bill, Snow White casts another curse in order to whisk herself as well as everyone else back to Storybrooke. Before the curse spreads, however, the Wicked Witch interferes by adding a potion into the mixture to erase everyone's memories of the last year in the Enchanted Forest. *("A Curious Thing")*
*For events occurring after the casting of the second curse, see Ruby.*

### Character Notes

* A small doll plushie of Red Riding Hood sits on the shelf of Emma's nursery in the Enchanted Forest. *("Pilot")*
* In Henry's room, there is an illustration called "Little Red Riding Hood" (1875), by the artist and book illustrator Walter Crane. *("The Thing You Love Most")*
	+ There is also an illustration from 1867 by Gustave Doré, which depicts a scene with Red Riding Hood in bed with the wolf. *("The Price of Gold")*
		- "Red Riding Hood meets old Father Wolf", another illustration by Doré, is also in the room. *("The New Neverland")*
	+ There is also an unidentified illustration of Red Riding Hood and the wolf, from the fairytale. *("A Land Without Magic")*
* Red, like all werewolwes, is immune to any weapon except silver while in the form of a werewolf. *("Red-Handed", "Shadow of the Queen")*
* In Henry's storybook, there is an illustration of Red Riding Hood from 1909, by the famous book illustrator Arthur Rackham. *("Selfless, Brave and True", "The New Neverland")*

## Appearances

Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage.

* Red Riding Hood is featured in *Once Upon a Time'*s Season One novelization, *Reawakened: A Once Upon a Time Tale*.

* Red Riding Hood appears in Henry's storybook in "Selfless, Brave and True" and "The New Neverland".

## References

1. ↑ File:101TalkToHim.PNG
2. ↑ File:102AnOldBook.png
3. ↑ File:104ShoeOff.png
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 File:310TheGoldenBird2.png
5. ↑ File:218Storybook.png