10 Best Ships in ‘Once Upon a Time,’ Ranked

There are few network TV series that offer more abundant relationships for fans to fawn over than ABC‘s Once Upon a Time. Putting a soap-opera spin on everyone’s favorite fairy tales led to some of the longest lasting, and enduring, representations of romance the small screen has ever seen. Snow White and Prince Charming, to Belle and her Beast, Ariel, Mulan, and so many more characters from fairy tales and Disney combined grace the screen in this intrepid tale of heroes, villains, and true love.

Once Upon a Time is also unique for giving its fair share of villains their own leading storylines in the romance department. With subplot after subplot, the series makes an argument for the ultimate fairy tale ethos, that true love conquers all. Blending swashbuckling adventure with tales of good versus evil and ever-burning love guaranteed a fanbase that stuck through some pretty impressive narrative leaps over the years. Whether it is the bonds of family or the everlasting link of true love, the series is always clever about how it incorporates romance elements into the core of each plot point. But this list is all about the ships, so here are the best of the romantic bonds that Once Upon a Time has to offer.

10

Jacinda and Henry

Played by Dania Ramirez and Andrew J. West

The most controversial ship tops the list. In a series known to bring fairy-tale romance to life, not everyone was happy with the way Once Upon a Time wrapped things up for its main character. The show is essentially a Bildungsroman, a coming-of-age story, that takes the viewer into the chimeric world of Storybrooke, Maine, the small town where young Henry Mills (Jared S. Gilmore) sets off on a journey of discovery when he goes seeking his birth mother, Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison). Henry’s journey to wake up the storybook characters in his cursed town leads Emma on her own journey into her family history, as her parents turn out to be Snow White (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Prince Charming (Josh Dallas), who were forced to send Emma as a baby into the real world to save her from a curse from Henry’s adoptive mother, the Evil Queen, who is known in Storybrooke as the mayor, Regina Mills (Lana Parrilla).

In Season 7, the series hit a soft reboot, showing an 18-year-old Henry departing Storybrooke in pursuit of his own story. This leads him to the Enchanted Forest, and the show’s controversial decision to introduce a second Cinderella character as his love interest. Henry (Andrew J. West) and Jacinda’s (Dania Ramirez) love affair leads to a season that hit all the favorite Once Upon a Time tropes, including reversing curses, loss of faith, pursuit of true love, and a fairy-tale multiverse that provides ample characters to draw into the adventure. Not everyone loved the conclusion to their favorite fairy-tale TV series, but the final season was imbued with the care that the series’ creators took to bring Henry’s narrative to a conclusion that made sense while paying homage to everything that made the series great.

9

Zelena and Hades

Played by Rebecca Mader and Greg Germann

Vivacious Zelena (Rebecca Mader) serves as a foil to Regina’s “Evil Queen,” acting as a dark reflection of her sister’s lurking evil impulses. Zelena’s childhood jealousy of Regina leads her down the yellow brick road to becoming the Wicked Witch of the West in Oz. From her empowered position, Zelena works to destroy her sister, incapable of putting her youthful envy behind her. But Storybrooke is a world where every villain has a chance at redemption, even after temporarily ruining your sister’s chance to be happy with her true love.

Zelena gets her true love romance through the introduction of the Lord of the Underworld, Hades (Greg Germann) in Season 5. His initial motivation involves keeping the heroes trapped in the Underworld, playing a central role in the sacrifice arc in Emma and Killian’s love story this season. The return of his one-time love, Zelena, changes the game, as Hades explains that his heart is dead, seeking true love’s kiss to restart it. His manipulation of Zelena in extracting true love’s kiss, only to use its power to flee the Underworld in an attempt to rule Storybrooke, reflects the kind of tortured love modeled by the series’ “Beast” character, Mr. Gold aka Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle). Just as Gold distorts and twists the true love given to him by his beloved Belle (Emilie De Ravin) in his pursuit of power as the Dark One, Hades’ betrayal of Zelena leads to her having to make the brutal decision to essentially vaporize her true love in order to save Stroybrooke. This sets up Zelena’s redemption arc, and her role in ultimately resolving the curses that are central to the narrative of the series.

8

Snow White and Prince Charming

Played by Ginnifer Goodwin and Josh Dallas

Snow White and Prince Charming are the core of the fairy tale world assembled in Storybrooke. In the Enchanted Forest’s past, their love irked the Evil Queen, who was carrying a petty grudge against Snow White for accidentally causing the loss of her true love during an innocent childhood blunder. The Queen sends out the Dark Curse, which forces Snow and Charming to place their baby daughter into a magical wardrobe, sending her out of their fairy tale realm and into the real world, orphaned and alone. This act initiated Emma’s journey as a prophesied Savior, who would eventually return to break the curse and find her parents again. While Snow and Charming’s constant love often takes a backseat to the more dynamic relationships in the series, their bond is the springboard from which the entire Storybrooke world develops.

Goodwin and Dallas were so convincing as representatives of true love that they even fell for each other on set (as actors so often do with their long-term romantic co-stars). The pair met during the first season in 2011, and they were married in 2014. Their characters’ decision to send Emma out into the world alone leads to her role as the Savior of not only Storybrooke, but also the world of the Enchanted Forest, where she and her parents originate. Emma trying to reconcile being abandoned by her parents eventually leads her to becoming the Dark One at the end of Season 4, entering her Dark Swan era. This kicks off a chain of sacrifices between her and her true love, Killian Jones, aka Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue), which test their bond and forces them to prove their love time and time again. But more on them later.

7

Jasmine and Aladdin

Played by Karen David and Deniz Akdeniz

There is, of course, a bevy of Disney-adjacent fairy tale romances to choose from in Once Upon a Time. Like ethereal Aurora (Sarah Bolger) and her Prince Phillip (Julian Morris), Jasmine (Karen David) and Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz) have a hero’s journey involving true love’s kiss as the magical solution to their seemingly insurmountable problems. Aurora is a traditional princess in the sense that she requires release from a sleeping curse by true love’s kiss, and in Once Upon a Time‘s retelling of the classic story, Phillip finds his true love with help from Mulan (Jamie Chung). Whereas Jasmine has a more modern-leaning princess’ journey in that she first appears in Storybrooke in active pursuit of Aladdin, not so that she may enact a romantic ritual, but rather to regain control of Agrabah from the machinations of Jafar (Oded Fehr).

Aladdin and Jasmine also differ from the more classic-leaning romantic story between Phillip and Aurora in that their relationship has much more push-and-pull tension, as they work together to restore Agrabah. But, just as Emma and Captain Hook endure many “will they/won’t they” moments, Aladdin and Jasmin’s relationship always ties back into the core theme of true love conquering all obstacles. Jasmine’s true love kiss is tied into her belief in both herself and her love of Aladdin. When Jasmine finally accepts her own value and her love for Aladdin, the strength of her belief creates a powerful magic that breaks the curse that is trapping Aladdin as a genie, returning them to Agrabah.

6

Dorothy and Ruby

Played by Teri Reeves and Meghan Ory

Once Upon a Time tip-toed around showcasing progressive relationships on the series prior to this ship, but Dorothy (Teri Reeves) and Ruby (Meghan Ory) are the series’ first canonical LGBTQ+ couple. Like Princess Jasmine, Dorothy and Ruby reflect a more modern update to classic fairy tale tropes. In addition to accidentally contributing to Zelena getting onto her dark path of revenge, Dorothy has her own true love adventure when her dog Toto leads her to Ruby, a werewolf who has traveled to Oz in search of her pack, once again with the help of Mulan.

Based on her loyal pup’s reaction, Dorothy initially suspects that Ruby is a witch, and treats her with suspicion before the pair establish a firm friendship. In a classic Once Upon a Time bait-and-switch, Dorothy eventually abandons Ruby, thinking this is a way to keep her safe from Zelena. But, with the help of an impassioned plea for true love by Snow White, Ruby is convinced to confront her true feelings for her friend “Kansas” and return to Oz. There, they discover Dorothy has been placed under a sleeping curse by Zelena. Ruby finally confronting her feelings empowers her to break the curse, placing a true love kiss on Dorothy and awakening her from her slumber.

5

Regina and Daniel

Played by Lana Parrilla and Noah Bean

Even though Once Upon a Time creates space for its villains like Zelena, Regina, and Rumplestiltskin to find love, their journeys are often filled with tragic circumstances and overwhelming odds. Regina’s origin story as a princess who falls for a stable boy, Daniel (Noah Bean), has all the makings of a charming “true love conquers all” story, until her wicked mother Cora (Barbara Hershey) intervenes. Cora intends for her daughter to marry Snow White’s father, King Leopold (Richard Schiff), and when the naive young princess accidentally alerts Cora to Regina’s infatuation with Daniel, she catches the couple in the stable together and rips out the stable boy’s heart.

This is the origin of Regina’s hatred towards Snow White, which is the backstory of the Dark Curse, baby Emma’s abandonment, and Storybrooke’s existence. As if that isn’t enough of a legacy, Daniel’s eventual resurrection by Dr. White, aka Dr. Frankenstein (David Anders), turned him into a violent creature set on a path that endangers Regina’s adoptive son, Henry. This forces Regina to use her dark magic to turn Daniel to dust, but not before a sweet but painful lover’s reunion, where Daniel recovers his memories long enough to recognize his once true love. But the memory cannot hold, and as he returns to his monstrous behavior, Regina has no choice but to bring his suffering to an end. The intensity of the loss of Daniel, not once, but twice, plays a significant role in Regina’s redemption journey throughout the seven seasons of Once Upon a Time.

4

Emma Swan and Neal Cassidy

Played by Jennifer Morrison and Michael Raymond-James

As a central character, Emma has her fair share of love interests in Once Upon a Time. Season 1 gave viewers a red herring relationship with the smoldering Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornon), whose slow-burning relationship leads to a kiss that is implied to be true love-adjacent, since it magically returns his memories from the Enchanted Forest to him. But their love wasn’t meant to last, since Regina discovers them moments later and crushes his heart to dust. His death at the end of the first season leaves the Sheriff position in Storybrooke open for Emma to step into as she accepts her role of Savior, and an additional layer of anger towards the adoptive mother of Emma’s son with Neal Cassidy (Michael Raymond-James).

Emma met Neal as a teenager, when the pair were both angling to steal the iconic yellow Volkswagon Beetle that the Savior drives throughout the series. Their life of petty-crime together was Emma’s introduction to true love, so it is significant that he returns to her life at the same time she is meeting her next true love, Captain Hook. In their past life, Neal abandoned Emma after some fairy-tale interventions convince him she has a higher destiny, just as she discovered herself to be pregnant with Henry. It is eventually revealed that both Neal and Emma’s true parents are from the Enchanted Forest, as Neal is the time-traveling son of none other than Rumplestiltskin himself. Though Neal puts up a good fight as a romantic interest to Emma when he returns to Storybrooke, and reunites there with her and Henry, his ultimate fate takes him down a different, sacrificial path, leaving Emma to her destiny with her true love, Killian.

3

Belle and Rumplestiltskin

Played by Emilie De Ravin and Robert Carlyle

Rumplestiltskin may be more of a trickster figure than a true villain, but as the Dark One he certainly committed his own fair share of dastardly deeds. His backstory of losing courage in battle and turning to murder in order to obtain the power of the Dark One to save his son from going to war shows that the roots of his villainy come from a misguided attempt at heroics. Rumplestiltskin’s backstory shows that whenever he has the opportunity to sacrifice his own interests to help the side of good, instead, he makes the choice that keeps him empowered. The mercurial figure always has a hand in whatever drama comes up for the other fairy tale characters, whether in Storybrooke or the Enchanted Forest. Poor Belle, having to keep up with this diva.

Compared to the outrageous machinations of her beau, whose manipulations keep him constantly awaiting retaliation at every turn, bookish Belle is determined to see the good in everyone she meets. Including Rumple. Though he betrays her trust time and again, her continual ability to see the good in Mr. Gold is Belle’s defining characteristic. Though, true to the fairy tale, Belle started as a captive of her beast, she also has her own independent adventures in times of discord with her beau. Belle’s quest for knowledge and ability to decipher ancient lore proved useful for the Storybrooke characters on many a quest, but her ultimate fate, settling down with her child and dying, content, of old age, suited her story. With her final words, Belle bids Rumplestiltskin to join her in the afterlife when he is done chasing power as the Dark One. Which sets up the series’ finale, where Rumplestiltskin sacrifices himself to save Killian from death, resolving their conflict as The Crocodile and Captain Hook, and using his final act to redeem himself so that he can join his Belle and attain his happy ending.

2

Regina and Robin Hood

Played by Lana Parrilla and Sean Maguire

Sorry Maid Marian (Christie Laing), but, as it turns out, the Evil Queen is Robin Hood’s true love. Especially considering the fact that when Marian returned to Storybrooke searching for her husband, who had been dating Regina, convinced his wife was deceased, it turned out that she was actually Zelena in disguise the whole time. Robin and Marian may have been happy-ever-after together in the Enchanted Forest, but in Once Upon a Time lore, Regina is the outlaw’s true love.

Meeting in the Enchanted Forest as a result of Tinkerbell’s (Rose McIver) pixie dust, which revealed Regina’s true love would have a lion tattoo, the Evil Queen is initially reluctant to believe she can have true love, after what happened to her first love, Daniel. Regina’s tragic backstory and villain status ensures that her road to finding true love is filled with potholes along the way, including “Marian’s” return to Storybrooke. Though Regina does not receive her happy ending with Robin in the main story, because of his sacrifice while saving her from Hades, his soul waits for his true love in the Wish Realm, until Regina eventually joins him there.

1

Emma Swan and Captain Hook

Played by Jennifer Morrison and Colin O’Donoghue

The Once Upon a Time producers, who had to find a replacement romantic interest when Jamie Dornan’s Huntsman died at the shocking conclusion to the first season, were hard-pressed to find someone who could compete with his smoldering on screen. But they understood the assignment when they hired Irish actor and musician Colin O’Donoghue to step into the role of the swarthy rapscallion Killian Jones, aka Captain Hook. The character was introduced in the second season, as Emma also reunited with her first great-love, Neal. This triangle intensified the “will-they-won’t they” tension that was naturally created by the clashes with the different characters’ personalities.

But as the Savior’s true love, Jones was one of the most significant characters to be introduced in the series. Their romantic journey is the classic “enemies to lovers” trope perfected. Their wedding in the sixth season was a musical special to commemorate the importance of their love in the series. With his cocky swashbuckling swagger and her tortured savior dynamic, the pair anchored the other relationships in the series. Though there are many romances to choose from in the series’ seven seasons, Emma and Killian are the ultimate ship from Once Upon a Time.