- “As long as you hold the spirit of goodness in your heart, I shall never leave you.”
- ―Eva's last words to her daughter[src]
Queen Eva is a character who appears in the ABC fantasy-drama series Once Upon a Time. She was the wife of King Leopold and the mother of Snow White, who was killed by Cora Mills, who wanted to make her daughter, Regina the queen.
History[]
Before the First Curse[]
Many years ago, Eva had been betrothed to King Leopold and Cora had tried to steal him away from her with her beauty and also after screaming for help after her former lover, Jonathan, abused and robbed her. Later on Eva reveals Cora as a harlot after overhearing a conversation with Jonathan and Cora, as Cora is pregnant and stole some jewelry from King Leopold, in order to hide her affair with the gardener. Eva marries King Leopold, while Cora is tossed out of his kingdom and gives birth to a baby girl not long afterwards, Cora abandons the baby apologizing to her, claiming she won't be her key to royalty. The baby is then sucked into a cyclone, and sent to Oz.
Eva's relationship with Snow was very strong and they had a close bond. When Snow was growing up, she was originally quite self centered as seen from the way she treated Johanna, the handmaiden, who Eva was good friends with. Disappointed in her daughter, Eva wanted to teach her daughter that just because they are royalty it does not mean they should treat people, especially employees, any differently to how they wanted to be treated. Immediately after this conversation with her daughter, Eva became sick much to Snow and Johanna's concern. They contacted the doctor but he didn't know what was wrong with Eva, which greatly worried Snow as she was scared her mother was going to die. Johanna informed Snow about the Blue Fairy, who told Snow to use a candle to trade someone else's life for another. However, believing how wrong this sounded, Snow declined the other and Eva died on her birthday, but not before wanting her daughter to stay good to those around her and keep the goodness in her heart. After Eva's funeral a few days later, it was revealed that Cora had poisoned the queen to make her daughter Regina the new queen, which came a reality when she married Eva's husband King Leopold.
After the First Curse[]
28 years after the first curse, Snow White, now going by Mary Margret Blanchard in the cursed town of Storybrooke, is given her childhood crown as a birthday present from Johanna, who was one of the many people who came over with the curse Regina cast. The two reunite, but Snow does not want to celebrate her birthday as it always reminds her of her mother. Johanna and Snow talk about the past, but Johanna is soon captured by Regina and her mother Cora, who takes her heart.
Snow is blackmailed into trading Johanna for the Dark One's Dagger, but Cora kills Johanna regardless by throwing her out the clocktower, which greatly effects Mary Margret as Johanna was the last link she had to her mother, Eva.
After the Second Curse[]
A year or so later, Zelena the Wicked Witch, Cora's firstborn daughter whom she had given up, wishes to rewrite her life. She intends to go back in time before Eva can expose her mother's pregnancy by killing her so she can have everything her half-sister Regina had that she was denied. This act would eradicate the existences of Snow, Emma, Henry; Eva's descendants; and Regina. Snow and David are then discussing the name of their unborn child as they don't know the gender yet. Snow suggests Eva after her mother, to which David asks how it would work for a son. Snow tells her husband that the baby might not be a boy, to which the baby is revealed to be.
Trivia[]
- Unlike the queen from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Queen Eva's backstory is linked to the Evil Queen as her mother Cora led to Eva's death, while it was never fully revealed how the queen died in the original film.
- Queen Eva is one of the several characters who did not appear in the Underworld episodes in season five, despite dying on-screen. This implied that she did not have any unfinished business, or completed it off-screen years before Snow and her family visited the realm.
- Queen Eva is the first version of Snow White's mother to be seen on-screen and to have a significant role.
Gallery[]
