Anastasia, is a character featured in the seventh season of the ABC fantasy-drama series, Once Upon a Time. She is primarily portrayed by Yael Yurman.
Anastasia is the daughter of Rapunzel Tremaine, sister of Drizella, and stepsister to Cinderella. After an accident on a frozen left her on the brink of death, her mother had Gothel preserve her last breath, leaving Anastasia in a comatose state, between life and death.
History[]
After her mother's disappearance, her father remarries to a woman named Cecelia. Despite having a stepmother, Anastasia remains hopeful of her mother's return. Six years after Rapunzel went missing, Anastasia lights up floating lanterns to guide her mother home, which succeeds. After Cecelia is cursed by Rapunzel, Anastasia lives happily with the rest of the family. One winter evening, while building a snowman, Anastasia and Ella fall into the frozen lake, and their father saves Ella first before Anastasia is saved. In the brink of death, her mother brings her body to Gothel, who preserves her last breath but threatens to lock her in a tower to be the Guardian, but Rapunzel turns the tables on her. Anastasia's body is kept in a coffin at her manor, with Rapunzel determined to awake her.
Anastasia lying in the coffin.
Years later, Lady Tremaine has Anastasia's coffin delivered to her house. Tiana, the leader of a rebellion against Lady Tremaine, learns about this and informs Cinderella, who has joined the rebellion, to see if she knows anything. Although Cinderella immediately recognizes it, she lies to Tiana but sneaks out that night to return to her old home and find out more. Lady Tremaine, expecting her, is standing right through the doorway with the coffin. She briefly taunts Cinderella before deciding to open the coffin, revealing Anastasia's body. She explains to Cinderella how she used magic to preserve Anastasia's body and now needs a heart of true belief to revive her. Having learned that Henry Mills, Cinderella's new ally, possesses the Heart of the Truest Believer, Lady Tremaine blackmails Cinderella into ripping out his heart and bringing it to her, threatening to kill the rest of the rebellion if she does not. After being advised by Regina, Henry's mother, Cinderella does not go through with this. Anastasia's body is kept in a coffin at her manor, with Rapunzel determined to awake her.
Anastasia, in her coffin, is brought over to Seattle by a curse, buried underneath the Community Gardens. Victoria Belfrey, the cursed version of her mother, demolishes the gardens to uncover her, then brings her to the Belfrey Towers where she has a woman shackled up. Victoria explains to the woman who Anastasia is and that she plans to steal Lucy's belief to revive her and requests the woman's help; however, she refuses, threatening to stand against Victoria after she has destroyed Lucy and revived Anastasia.
Later, Ivy locates Anastasia's coffin at her mother's vacation home and brings it to the Witch so they can revive her and steal the magic inside her. However, when they open the coffin, Anastasia's body is not there. Ivy then realizes her mother must have moved the body to somewhere else.
With Anastasia's body now in a hospital room, Victoria brings her granddaughter, Lucy, there to show her the reality of her unhappy ending. As Victoria requires Lucy to forfeit her belief in order to resurrect Anastasia, she crushes the girl's dream of her parents' ever reuniting. She then collects one of Lucy's tears and uses a dropper to use it onto Anastasia, who awakens with a gasp, as elsewhere in Hyperion Heights, Lucy collapses in her mother Jacinda's arms. Anastasia recognizes Victoria is her mother, and as Victoria joyfully tells her that she brought her back, an upset Ivy watches from outside the room before sauntering off.
Anastasia awakened.
As Anastasia adjusts to the Land Without Magic by watching cartoons, she and Victoria are visited by Weaver (dismayed that his great-granddaughter was to be sacrificed), who gains Victoria's permission to test Anastasia to see if she is the Guardian he is seeking, in exchange for keeping her safe from Gothel and Ivy. To this end, Victoria and Weaver take Anastasia to Weaver's evidence room. Weaver explains that the test is to see if she can identify which of the many knives has magic. Anastasia briefly examines them, even picking one up, but does not sense magic in any of them. However, the knives suddenly fly into the air and pierce a nearby cabinet, frightening Anastasia who speculates that the magical knife is in that cabinet. Indeed, Weaver pulls out the Dark One's Dagger from the cabinet, confirming that Anastasia is the Guardian. She is terrified of her power after what happened with the knives, but Weaver assures her that her magic can help people and that he specifically needs her to heal an ailing girl. He has her write down runes, which will cast a spell to save Lucy, but Anastasia begins to panic when she senses Gothel approaching, causing her powers to go haywire. When Gothel arrives, Anastasia lets out a blast of magic, sending Weaver, Victoria, and Gothel flying. Horrified, Anastasia flees, running into the arms of Ivy, who she recognizes as her sister, Drizella, and is surprised to see has grown up. Ivy deceives Anastasia into thinking she is working with Victoria and gives her bracelets made out of vines to dampen her powers. She then escorts Anastasia away under the guise of protecting her from Gothel, but actually takes her to where Gothel is waiting and reveals just how much she has come to despise her. Anastasia has her hands forcibly grabbed by Ivy, but instead of transferring Anastasia's magic to her as Ivy expected, the reverse happens and Gothel reveals that she has been manipulating Ivy all along. As a heartbroken Ivy is pushed into a pit by Gothel, Anastasia watches before Gothel leads her to another room. There, several cloaks are on display and Gothel informs her that the cloaks belong to her sisters, the Coven of the Eight and that they will now find the other six members.
Gothel then smugly reveals to Anastasia of her mother's crimes; poisoning her stepmother, killing a prince, killing her father, trying to rip out her sister's heart, and putting her step-niece in a coma to revive her. Anastasia is shaken at her mother's actions.
Anastasia eventually makes amends with Ivy, leaves Gothel and the Coven of the Eight, and returns to the Magical Forest with her sister.
Trivia[]
- Unlike most depictions of Cinderella's stepsisters, this incarnation was never horrible to Cinderella, and the two had an amicable relationship.
Gallery[]
