Popular fantasy drama Once Upon A Time graced our screens each week with new and exciting ways of weaving classic fairytale stories with one another to create an entirely new storyline for the characters in Storybrooke. With these new stories came new twists on romantic tales we grew up reading or watching in Disney movies.
Whether they were a couple you had come to expect, like Snow White and Prince Charming, or an entirely new couple, such as the Wicked Witch and Hades, you were bound to either love them together or hate the pairing with a burning passion.
So while Once Upon A Time may have ended in 2018, we are now going to break down the all-time best and most loved couples of the series, as well as the all-time worst which everyone hated.
Loved: Emma Swan And Captain Hook
Emma Swan is the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming - the literal product of true love. And then, on the other side of the spectrum, is Captain Hook a.k.a. Killian Jones, who is an infamous pirate captain and was a villain when we first met him in season 2.
Over time, the two kindred spirits found common ground and eventually, fell in love. Killian was there long before Emma, but once they both were all in on their relationship, there was nothing that was going to break them apart.
Even when obstacles would get in their way, they found ways to overcome them. In the end, their love was as true as Emma’s parents and they had a daughter together and they lived happily ever after.
Hated: Kathryn Nolan And David Nolan
During the curse that overcame Storybrooke and its residents in the first season thanks to Regina, David was in a coma and Snow - or Mary Margaret - was just the woman who had been coming in to read to him and take care of him. But when he woke, Regina had Kathryn waiting in the wings as his “wife”.
While both David and Kathryn were being negatively affected by the curse - and Kathryn was being used merely as pawn to keep David away from Snow - what was even more painful was watching their complete lack of chemistry unfolding.
It helped sell the fact they weren’t in love with one another, but it still made them one of the least likable couples on the series.
Loved: Snow White And Prince Charming
Snow White and Prince Charming are the epitomai of true love and the perfect couple on Once Upon A Time. No matter what troubles came their way, they always fought to be together and would literally die for each other.
The actors who played the iconic couple were Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas and they ended up falling in love off-screen, even starting a family of their own. This may have been a key component in their ability to sell the incredible love story between Snow and David because their chemistry lit up the screen each and every episode.
Hated: Regina And Graham
Regina was definitely the least likable character of season one. Her fairytale persona, The Evil Queen, had started the curse in Storybrooke in the first place and was causing negative effects on the lives of everyone in the town.
She used her powers to control everyone in Storybrooke by using their stolen hearts to literally tell them what to do. This included her so-called love interest, Graham.
He was romantically and intimately involved with the Mayor of Storybrooke but we later learned this was not of his own volition. It made their apparent relationship very alarming and honestly, disturbing. We couldn’t help but feel even worse about this when Graham was later killed by Regina’s hand.
Loved: Dorothy And Ruby
In Once Upon A Time’s universe, there had been teases of LGBT storylines, but never a truly successful one. That is, until season 5 in the “Ruby Slippers” episode when Dorothy Gale and Ruby fell in love.
They had met and literally fallen for each other over the course of the episode. It was a beautiful relationship that we were lucky enough to witness unfold at this pivotal point on the show.
Ruby had previously been used sparingly so it was doubly refreshing to see her not only make a comeback but to get her own happy ending with her true love, Dorothy. If only we had seen them together more after this.
Hated: Zelena And Hades
It was definitely interesting seeing two villains fall in love with each other during the Underworld story arc in season 5, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were a good couple or even good people.
Zelena was always known for being extremely, well, wicked, and choosing herself over anyone else. Hades was the literal god of the Underworld. These two were destined to have their relationship end tragically.
They also were two characters that were disliked more often than not, so it made it that much more difficult to root for them as a couple. At least, in the end, Zelena chose her family over her “true love”.
loved: Rumple And Belle
Look, we know that Rumpelstiltskin was hands down the shadiest and possibly even the darkest character in Once history. And when it came to his relationship with Belle, his true love, he still didn’t always make the right choices that would better her life. But we can’t deny that he loved her with his entire being and that seeing their twisted yet incredibly romantic relationship evolve over the course of the series was truly satisfying.
They were the show’s embodiment of Beauty and the Beast, and Rumple surely lived up to his role as the Beast well. But their happily ever after was beyond well deserved and just what fans wanted, and honestly, needed.
Hated: Emma Swan And Walsh
All Emma Swan ever wanted was a family and to be truly loved. When she and her son, Henry, left Storybrooke in the middle of season 3 to be saved from the latest curse, they lost all of their memories from their time there.
But while they were gone for that year, Emma thought she had found love with a man named Walsh. He had wooed her and weaved himself into her life with her son and she truly trusted him.
But when Killian came to find her to bring back her memories, she found out that it was nothing but a farce. Walsh was actually a flying monkey sent by the Wicked Witch to harm Emma. It was yet another heartbreak in a long list of heartbreaks for our Savior that was difficult to watch.
Loved: Robin Hood and Regina
It took some time, but eventually, the Evil Queen a.k.a. Regina Mills became a truly great character and hero on Once. So when she seemed to finally find love with none other than Robin Hood in season 3 and we couldn’t have been happier for her.
Unfortunately, their love had been thwarted time and time again until eventually, Robin sacrificed his own life during an attack from Hades and their love story ended abruptly.
We only saw Robin in the Wishverse story arc after that, but this was a completely different version than the Robin Hood we - and Regina - knew and loved. They had been fantastic together so we only wish the show had let them be happy.
Hated: Robin Hood And Zelena
Zelena was a character that you never knew if you could truly trust. And if you were even questioning it, the likely answer was the no, you could not trust her. So it wasn’t all that shocking when we found out Zelena had taken on the form of Robin’s wife, Marian, secretly and had been posing as her for months.
We found this out in season 4 and it changed the entire storyline for not just Robin, but Zelena and Regina, too. During the time that Robin was with Zelena posing as Marian, they had been intimate and she had become pregnant.
This felt like the ultimate betrayal as well as completely wrong and disgusting. This makes them the worst couple to have ever been on Once Upon A Time, easy.
