TV Romance
6 ‘Once Upon a Time’ Couples That Should’ve Gotten Together: SwanQueen & More
Not every character got the happily ever after they deserved on ABC’s Once Upon a Time. Whether an actor left the show early or the writers had a different endgame in mind from the start, some Once Upon a Time pairings had tons of romantic potential with zero payout.
Once Upon a Time follows classic fairytale characters who have been cursed to live out their existence in our world, so that Snow White’s evil queen can finally live out her happy ending. Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) arrives in Storybrooke, guided by the biological son she gave up years ago, who claims that he has been adopted by the Evil Queen in his storybook. As Emma digs deeper into the truth of the unchanging town, she grows to realize his theory may not be far from the truth.
While many unexpected fairytale characters ended up together throughout the seven seasons of Once Upon a Time, it’s impossible to look back without remembering the fan-favorite ships that didn’t make the cut. From SwanQueen to Captain Charming, scroll to find out the Once Upon a Time couples that should have gotten together, ranked from worst to best.
Comment below with your favorite Once Upon a Time couple and why they should have been endgame!
6. Killian & David
While this pairing may seem completely random, the real ones know that this was a fan favorite ship circa 2013. I distinctly remember watching a YouTube edit of Killian (Colin O’Donoghue) and David (Josh Dallas) falling in love to the tune of “Rude” by MAGIC! Of course, nothing says love like turning down your daughter’s boyfriend’s request to marry her (all of you are the same age) because you’re in love with him, despite your own happy marriage.
While Captain Hook and Prince Charming come in at the bottom of our ranking, because we can’t in good conscious break them up from Emma and Mary Margaret (Ginnifer Goodwin), it’s a testament to the creativity of fandom itself that they even made the list.
5. Jefferson & Emma
Remember when Sebastian Stan played the Mad Hatter on Once Upon a Time for a hot second before he was swooped up by Marvel to play Bucky Barnes? Looking back at his run on Seasons 1 and 2, sparks certainly flew between his character, Jefferson, and Emma, and it was clear that he was being set up as a romantic option for her later down the line.
4. Henry & Violet
Okay, yes, technically, Henry (Jared Gilmore) and Violet (Olivia Steele Falconer) did get together, but as viewers, we received no closure on their young relationship, and for that reason, they’re sitting pretty on our list of couples that should have been.
Henry first meets Violet in Camelot. However, after sharing a beautiful little romance, they (along with the rest of the town) are cursed to forget their time at King Arthur’s castle. In the real world, they begin to crush on each other and end up together through most of high school, but once we hit the time jump, Violet is nowhere to be seen. Sure, most high school relationships don’t last, but most people don’t fall for Cinderella either, so I’d be willing to suspend my disbelief.
3. Mulan & Ruby
While Dorothy (Teri Reeves) and Ruby (Meghan Ory) had a good thing going, some viewers still hold a candle for the potential for a relationship between Ruby and Once Upon a Time‘s other queer baddie, Mulan (Jamie Chung). As one of our commenters explained on our original Once Upon a Time couples ranking, “I really thought, and later hoped, that Ruby would end up with Mulan. I think they kinda messed that one up.”
2. Mulan & Aurora
While Mulan and Ruby had potential, we came so close to seeing Mulan and Aurora (Sarah Bolger) get together that we could taste it. Unlike most of the couples on this list, Mulan was ready to make the leap. However, nothing comes easily in the Enchanted Forest, so naturally, the second Mulan was ready to reveal her feelings to her fellow Disney princess, Aurora revealed that she and Prince Philip (Julian Morris) were pregnant. What a lackluster ending to a perfect ship.
1. Emma & Regina
Of course, Emma and Regina (Lana Parrilla) come in at the top of our list, because SwanQueen wasn’t just a ship, it was a way of life. As another Swooon reader put it, “Regina and Emma had the potential to be the top-tier romance if ABC and Disney had the guts to do it. They had a strong divorced lesbian mum’s co-parenting vibes.”
Before the final season, many fans theorized that Once Upon a Time would end with their biological/adopted son Henry waking up from a dream in which his two happily married moms had been the feuding Savior and Evil Queen in a wacky little town called Storybrooke. Seeing the intense chemistry between Morrison and Parrilla, this ending certainly would have been worth the wait.
