Wicked Witch of the West

> The Queen may be Evil, but I'm Wicked. And Wicked always wins.
>       —Wicked Witch of the West to a Flying Monkey

**Zelena**, better known as the **Wicked Witch of the West**, is a character on ABC's *Once Upon a Time*. She débuts in the twelfth episode of the third season. She is portrayed by guest star Rebecca Mader, and is the Enchanted Forest counterpart of **Zelena**.

The Wicked Witch of the West is based on the character of the same name from the children's novel, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz".

## History

### Before First Curse

Abandoned by her birth mother, she is taken by a cyclone to the land of Oz and picked up by a woman. The woman's husband witnesses the baby exhibit magic by felling a tree, though the latter remains oblivious. Given the name Zelena, she loses her adoptive mother in childhood and grows up with a drunken father. While she is shaving his neck, he harps on Zelena to always put on her best face. Accidentally cutting him with the razor, she conjures a rag, but her use of magic angers him. He reveals the truth, that she is not his biological daughter, and spitefully calls her "wicked". Hurt, she consults the Wizard about her birth family. Zelena finds out she was abandoned because her own mother, Cora, wished to become royalty, which her first-born could not give. She glimpses her half-sister, Regina, who has become Queen and struggles during a magic lesson with her instructor, Rumplestiltskin. Gifted silver slippers, Zelena uses them to travel to Regina's palace, where she dresses herself in her sister's clothes and succeeds in Rumplestiltskin's prior magic lesson. Rumplestiltskin witnesses this, and when she admits being Cora's firstborn, he has doubts until testing her genetics. Accepted by him, she learns that he is making a powerful curse to take himself to a Land Without Magic. She is taught to channel rage, such as anger about her own abandonment as well as jealousy towards Regina, into magic. Rumplestiltskin also teaches Zelena how to let the rage go by thinking of a happy moment, and even shares his childhood memory of being raised by spinsters and eating meat-pies. This helps her realize her happiest moment is having met him. After the lesson, she bakes him a meat-pie, but he has to leave to teach Regina magic. Upset, she reacts in hysterics until he points out that her jealousy is literally turning her skin green. Unwilling to have competition, Zelena attacks Regina, though it is Rumplestiltskin in disguise. He disqualifies her as the future caster of his curse since one of the ingredients required for it is the thing she loves most—him—and that makes her too dangerous. He backtracks upon seeing the silver slippers she has, which can take him to a Land Without Magic. Too furious at his prior rejection, she scathingly promises him that he'll choose her next time. Returning to the Wizard, she asks for a way to change the circumstances of her own past, though he says it's impossible. She rips away the Wizard's curtain, discovering he is just a man putting on a show, and transforms him into a pet flying monkey. As she gets a glimpse of Rumplestiltskin calling Regina his "best pupil", her jealousy reaches a boiling point, and Zelena's skin becomes completely green with envy. *("It's Not Easy Being Green")*
Shortly after, Glinda, the Witch of the South, recruits Zelena into a sisterhood of witches. Along with the Witch of the East and the Witch of the North, the trio believe Zelena is destined to join them because of a prophecy foretelling of a sorceress arriving by cyclone and becoming the Witch of the West. Zelena is still obsessed about changing her past, but with Glinda's encouragement, she decides her own future as a good witch is more important. After receiving a pendant to harness her powers, Zelena views the western area of Oz, which she will be responsible for watching over. She and Glinda approach the wreckage from a cyclone to rescue a young girl named Dorothy. Fearing this child, who also arrived by cyclone, is the actual Witch of the West, Zelena researches the prophecy in the *Book of Records*; discovering the sorceress will "unseat the greatest evil the realm has ever seen", which she believes is herself. Even with Glinda's advisement that her fears may be not true, Zelena plots to get rid of Dorothy by attacking the girl with fire. However, Dorothy counters her assailant with water; causing Zelena to physically melt away. Despite being seemingly dead, Zelena reemerges at the Wizard's Emerald City palace after Dorothy has rejected Glinda's offer of joining the sisterhood since she only wants to go home. Assuming the Wizard's voice, she sends Dorothy back to Kansas with the silver slippers, and then reveals herself to a shocked Glinda. Zelena reaffirms her goal of changing her own past, and to keep Glinda from finding another sorceress to fulfill the prophecy, she banishes the Witch of the South to the Enchanted Forest. *("Kansas")*

### Before Second Curse

Zelena, now known as the Wicked Witch of the West, begins taking residence in Regina's former palace and breaking the latter's magic lock on the crypt, which was created by blood magic. Conveniently, due to her blood link to Regina, this allows her easy access into the palace. Zelena later enacts her own protection spell to keep outsiders out. Threatening to harm Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip's unborn child, she forces them to notify her when the old inhabitants of the Enchanted Forest return. When they do so, she sends her minion, a flying monkey, to extract some of Regina's blood. After doing so, the Wicked Witch mixes the blood with a potion intending to seek revenge on Regina. *("New York City Serenade", "Witch Hunt")*
While still in the palace, she notices Regina and a man break in through the underground tunnel with intentions of bringing down the barrier encasing the building. Zelena also learns that Regina is concocting her own brew of the Sleeping Curse and planning to use it on herself. Only after Regina, having broken the palace shield, prepares to use the curse, she finally reveals herself to the other woman. The Wicked Witch speaks freely about having tried on Regina's clothes and seeing all the various rooms in the palace such as the crypt. While Regina believes Zelena forcibly opened the crypt, which is bound by blood magic, she insists that is not the case. When she admits their relation as half-sisters, with Cora as their shared mother, Regina doesn't believe her. Zelena elaborates by detailing how she was sent away to Oz while scathingly recounting how Cora gave Regina everything. Though Regina considers her lucky to have escaped Cora's tyranny, Zelena is too hurt by her mother's abandonment. Additionally, Zelena feels inferior to her since they were both students of Rumplestiltskin, but yet she wasn't the one chosen to enact the curse. Upon learning Cora and Rumplestiltskin are dead, she is somewhat disappointed by the news. Nonetheless, Zelena announces that her true intent is to get what she desires; describing it as "her dreams being realized" while Regina will suffer a "fate worse than death". *("Witch Hunt")*
Zelena entraps a man named Lumiere into a form of a candelabrum; forcing him to manipulate Belle and Neal into reviving Rumplestiltskin by using a key to open the vault of the Dark One. Unknown to the pair, whoever resurrects the Dark One will lose their life. Shortly after Neal opens the vault, he begins dying while Rumplestiltskin is resurrected. As opportunity would have it, Zelena reveals herself to Rumpletstiltskin as he is holding his son as well as the accursed dagger. Since he is unable to cling onto both Neal and the dagger, she grabs the weapon. To keep his son alive, Rumplestiltskin quickly absorbs him into his own body. Zelena then orders him to kill Belle, but before he can, she is entrapped by Lumiere's flames. The girl flees unharmed; taking Lumiere with her, while Zelena furiously seethes. *("Quiet Minds")*
Leading Rumplestiltskin back to this old castle, she imprisons him in the great hall inside a human-sized cage. After learning Aurora and Prince Phillip told Snow White that she desires their unborn child, Zelena makes a speedy entrance to the palace to turn the twosome into flying monkeys as punishment. Leaving no time to waste, she immobilizes Snow White and does the same to Prince Charming and Regina when they attempt to defend the pregnant princess. Casually, she approaches to touch Snow White's belly and promises the child will soon be hers. Later, Snow White learns from the banished Good Witch of the South, Glinda, that Zelena is weakest against light magic; a criteria Emma fits, and she proceeds to cast another Dark Curse to return everyone to Storybrooke. In the midst of it, Zelena interferes by dropping a potion into the curse mixture, which will erase their memories of the past year in the Enchanted Forest. Victorious, she flies off back to the castle to ingest a substance to retain her memories. Zelena then hands the same vial to Rumplestiltskin; daring him to keep his memories or be foolish enough to want to forget. *("A Curious Thing")*

*For events occurring after the casting of the second curse, see Zelena.*

## Trivia

* The name "Zelena" is of Old Greek origin derived from the word "selene" that means "moon". "Zelena" also means "green" in various Slavic languages.
* The role of the Wicked Witch of the West was written specifically for Rebecca Mader.
* Alchemical signs for the four elements are carved into the table and the stone pillars where Zelena and her fellow sister witches are gathered. Fittingly enough, the element of Wicked Witch of the West (downward-pointing triangle) is water, which is also associated with the west. *("Kansas")*

## References

1. ↑ https://twitter.com/BastardSonVan/status/562852069334605824/photo/1
2. ↑ http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Zelena
3. ↑ http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Selina
4. ↑ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/zelena
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/AdamHorowitzLA/status/490623989270589440
6. ↑ http://altreligion.about.com/od/westernocculttradition/ig/Elemental-Symbols/
7. ↑ File:320Witches.png
8. ↑ http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/wiccaandpaganismbasics/a/elements.htm