Unfrozen
is a completed Frozen (2013) fic by SovereignGFC that asks what would happen if Anna and Elsa ended up in our world shortly after the film's release in 2013.
This page contains unmarked spoilers for both the fic and the source material. Read at your own risk.
Contains examples of:
- Brick Joke: Liz/Sasha and the car—they did in fact "Take car, drive to Florida." Anna gets to see a plane and experience flight.
- Broken Pedestal: Elsa is saddened when Defictionalized!Arendelle appears, thinking that Liz and Sasha (who have been helpful up to this point) deceived her.
- Burn the Witch!: Weselton's reaction to Elsa continues to be hostile.
- Celebrity Paradox: Subverted. Defictionalized!Anna is specifically noted to "sound like Kristen Bell" in-universe (implying that Bell does in fact still exist) and she even reads about her own part in the actual Frozen film on Sasha's smartphone. She is naturally creeped out by this.
- Character Catchphrase: Anna likes to use the word "stinker." She uses it precisely once in the movie, but several times here.
- Children Are Special: Downplayed example—it's the love of children that brought Elsa and Anna here in the first place.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Averted. Weselton's hired goons turn tail and run when they cross paths with a US carrier battle group. If they hadn't though, it's likely this would have resulted.
- Death Glare: Defictionalized!Anna gets one for asking if she can have a go at operating the "horseless carriage" (SUV).
- Doing In the Wizard: Downplayed but subverted. After Elsa arrives, many theorists try to accomplish this to no avail—her powers are firmly magical and cannot be explained by science circa 2013. The fact that this is the case is repeatedly lampshaded, leading to the eventual acceptance that Defictionalized!Elsa really is magical.
- Dope Slap: One of the non-Elsa cast members does this to herself upon seeing Defictionalized!Elsa and then shortly thereafter seeing her Elsa-playing coworker's things all neatly arranged as said coworker isn't even at work yet.
- Everytown, America: Where Liz and Sasha Jamison hail from, heavily implied to be somewhere in the Midwest or heartland due to travel time from their home to Florida.
- Failed a Spot Check: Parents at "Frozen: As Real as It Gets" insist on carrying their gadgetry past signs that say "NO TECHNOLOGY PAST THIS POINT." Predictably, like everything else that got too close to whatever magic caused this, said gadgets disappear.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Frozen takes place
somewhere in the 1840s, so when Elsa and Anna experience Time Travel that brings them to 2013, things are a little different. Women wear trousers (pants)! Carriages don't need horses anymore (cars)! Paintings move (movie/video)! Reactions to these things vary. The Defense Minister of Norway exploits this trope with Hans—and even lampshades the notion of a villain "straight out of a Disney movie," thinking a good show of force might dissuade him from whatever attack he is trying to plan without actually having to fire a shot.
- Girl on Girl Is Hot: Extremely downplayed, G-ified example. Liz pulls up all sorts of Frozen-related internet content, which includes the popular ElsAnna ship. While the sisters are slightly embarrassed (Elsa's reaction is basically Let Us Never Speak of This Again), the caption on the photo ("Love will thaw") gives Elsa the idea that it might have been love that brought them here in the first place.
- I Believe That You Believe It: The Orlando Chief of Police says this almost verbatim to Defictionalized!Elsa regarding her insistence that a) Arendelle exists and b) she is not from his world.
- Image Macro: The work references image macros placing blame for the real "polar vortex" on Elsa—which in this universe, may have been the actual reason...
- Irony: The only record of a gathering focusing on peace and love is obtained by military technology from a distance.
- Lame Pun Reaction: One cast member plays Belle and is notorious for filing complaints about things. The supervisor calls this the "Belle ringing." She gives off sarcastic laughs whenever this Incredibly Lame Pun is made (it happens exactly once).
- Lampshade Hanging: Repeatedly regarding Defictionalized!Elsa's magic. It leads to an in-universe acceptance of her powers as people begin to realize that no other explanation seems to work. The Chief of Police repeatedly notes he is probably breaking procedure with various actions he's taking in attempts to aid Defictionalized!Elsa/Anna, but he rationalizes it in-universe.
- Life Imitates Art: The whole point of this fanfic—the Power of Love somehow made real what was fictional.
- Mistaken for an Imposter: Defictionalized!Elsa and Defictionalized!Anna get this at first when ordinary people think they are just cosplayers.
- Nanomachines: Discussed as a reason for Defictionalized!Elsa's powers, but dismissed.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: There are, of course, Real Life persons in the position of President of the United States, Chief of Police in Orlando, and Prime Minister of Norway, but they were written without any direct reference to the actual person holding that position.
- Not in Kansas Anymore: Aside from being an actual chapter title, this happens to Elsa and Anna, being Fish out of Temporal Water.
- No Ontological Inertia: Apparently, whatever brought Elsa and Anna to our world has a gigantic "Undo" button. Zig-zagged, in that while all remnents of the celebration disappear, anything that's vanished because of the magic thus far fails to reappear.
- No-Sell: Taser + Defictionalized!Elsa = failure.
- Plausible Deniability: Why Weselton wasn't banned from trading with Arendelle during King Agdar's reign even though there were plenty of anecdotes suggesting unscrupulous behavior.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Downplayed example—none of the Princess cast members like Rafe Reynolds, but aside from being mentioned in that context he never actually makes an appearance.
- Practical Effects: People think that's what Defictionalized!Elsa is doing at first. Disney World denies it several times.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Hans, prior to his crossing over into Real Life, doesn't want to utterly destroy Arendelle despite having the ability to do so since it would leave him out war spoils.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The Orlando Chief of Police tries to be helpful to Defictionalized!Elsa and Defictionalized!Anna despite thinking them strange.
- Rock Beats Laser: Exploited, though not intentionally. The Weselton/Southern Isles pirates take advantage of the fact that modern radar doesn't do well against cloth and wood. However, their attacks get stopped cold anyway.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Bethany Clayton, a Disney World!Elsa, suggests Defictionalized!Elsa's ice is just this, saying "Call the Ghostbusters."
- Self-Deprecation: In-Universe and on a meta level, Liz/Sasha's mom hopes they don't "spend an entire day in line for that crazy Frozen thing."
- Shout-Out: Even though this is a Frozen fanfic, it still has Shout Outs to the work itself, often in the form of chapter titles taking after lines from the film.
- Shown Their Work: F-15 jet fighters only have a seat for a pilot. But F-15 Strike Eagles? Two seats!
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: How the other Disney Princess cast members view those cast members who portray Elsa—mainly because Elsa gets all the attention.
- Stop Worshipping Me: Defictionalized!Elsa does this out of fear that she might hurt innocents accidentally. She's half-right; her magic does send some people onto their bottoms but no one is seriously injured.
- Take That!: Liz takes a swipe at Defictionalized!Anna's quick engagement to Hans, noting she wouldn't want a bad influence on her own younger sister. Played for Laughs—Anna takes offense because, well, she was younger then, and Sasha takes offense because she doesn't think she would be one to fall for those things. Unnamed Norwegian characters have a dig at their childrens' obsession with Frozen as well.
- Technobabble: In-Universe, describing everyday items circa 2013 like internal combustion engines or smartphones to Defictionalized!Anna can sound like this to her. She doesn't care.
- The Watson: Defictionalized!Anna takes on this role, since she indeed wonders what insert-normal-2013-technology-here is at every opportunity. Creates a lot of reversed As You Know—the audience knows what smartphones, cars, and planes are but Defictionalized!Anna does not, so the Exposition serves for her benefit in-universe. Somewhat Played for Laughs.
- This Is Reality: Amber Gordon, manager of The Old Trunk, discusses the trope with Defictionalized!Anna—basically, you're not supposed to exist because in our reality you're fictional. Defictionalized!Elsa also gets this treatment from a prison guard—"Sure you haven't been watching too many Disney movies?" when the former asks how to get to Arendelle. Also a chapter title.
- Unfazed Everyman: Downplayed, but a growing number of people begin to accept that Defictionalized!Elsa may actually be supernaturally-powered and it doesn't really bother or confuse them. Chelsea, the daughter of the Orlando Chief of Police, has absolutely no problem with Elsa being magical.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Played with. Defictionalized!Elsa's ice and snow are hardly ignored, but it remains isolated enough to not merit categorization in Mundane Fantastic but it's too frequent for Magic Realism. Outright subverted when Defictionalized!Anna catches attention in a random diner—she sticks out and people notice.
- Wicked Witch: How the Duke of Weselton presents Elsa to his people to justify attacking Arendelle.
- Would Hurt a Child: The pirates hired by Weselton/Southern Isles clearly believe in this, though with Elsa around this is a bad idea.
