WMG / Frozen (2013)

Frozen WMG Index
Frozen (2013) | "Frozen Fever" | Frozen II | Frozen II Hans | A Frozen Heart

Important note: Please read the Programme Note and remember that not all entries are meant to be taken seriously! Although the most likely theories are welcome, so are intentionally-silly ones or even ones that completely contradict canon. WMG pages are just for fun!

Jossed

Frozen is the Snow Queen's Origin Story

That both stories have the Snow Queen in them really IS all that connects the original tale to this movie. This movie will show her rise to power and eventually become the Snow Queen of the original. Gerda and Kay haven't been altered or replaced; their story happens later.

• Given the finale, Jossed until character derailment.
  • As we all know, people with ice powers cannot hold onto their sanity forever.
    • But the reason the Ice King is mad is because his powers come from an Artifact of Doom. Elsa's powers are natural, so she should be alright.

• Maybe all the characters will somehow figure into the characters of "The Snow Queen". Anna might somehow grow up to be the Summer Witch (who is often made to be the Snow Queen's younger sister, and also both have issues with being lonely). Hans might be the father of the prince and princess Gerda encounter. Kristoff might have some connection to the robbers (he could end up the Robber Girl's long-lost father, considering they both like reindeer...)
  • Hell, we have the perfect reason for Elsa to grow up to her eventual role as Kai's captor; he represents her stolen childhood (being isolated from the world and all). Sure, she seems fine and dandy at the end, but we are talking about the subconscious here. Someone who’s spent much of their life locked in a room certainly would have developed a fondness for puzzles...
  • Kai and Gerda may be the parents of Kai and Gerda.
    • Or named after the originals from a legend.

Alternatively, Elsa's curse is Disney's way of sneaking in the mirror shard from the original story.

• This is because taking the time to explain where the shard and the mirror came from would take too much focus from the main story. Turning it into Elsa's curse just saves time and still moves the plot forward.
  • Jossed, when the Troll elder asks if Elsa was born with her powers or cursed, her father says she was born with them. He could be lying, but given Anna's life was at stake, it is unlikely.
    • I think the "curse" is getting a shard of ice in your heart or head or whatever.

Elsa will be a Type II Anti-Villain.

• Addendum: She will be a Knight Templar Iron Woobie, having cracked under the strain of having to be Queen at such a young age.
  • Semi-Jossed: Elsa is a Woobie, but due to her powers, not her station, and she is ultimately heroic.
  • She technically is a Classical Anti-Hero.

The inevitable Frozen Ever After short will focus on Elsa getting a consort.

And she'll discount every potential suitor as false and/or inadequate. One of them will be Hans's big brother.

• Considering how much of a gay icon Elsa somehow became, this may cause riots.
  • Of course, the consort doesn't have to be male, though I doubt Disney will have that much of a backbone. Then again, the shorts aren't as widely watched as the movies themselves, so maybe they can get away with it as less Moral Guardians will be pissing themselves in rage.
  • Elsa is a gay icon because Idina Menzel originated one famous bisexual/lesbian role, and her second role had tons of Les Yay and takes place in Oz, which has a huge LGBT following.
  • Elsa certainly have a similar hair color as a certain lesbian head of state whose land is named after the element she masters...
• Or they could just end the short with Elsa deciding she doesn't need a consort right now anyway.
• Jossed; the "inevitable short" was called Frozen Fever and was about Elsa suffering from a cold while trying to set up Anna's birthday party.

Anna and Kristoff will be rivals before they hook up.

I think it would be a coo... neat dynamic. Instead of being friendly they would rather do it by themselves. Then as the cold world proves too dangerous to survive in alone, they decide to help one another survive and then they grow to love each other more than anything else. I just think that would be a nice dynamic that still seems like Disney.

• Mostly Jossed: It's not Love at First Sight, and Kristoff does only join the quest at first because it's in his best interest, but they're not rivals, either.

Hans is evil because the trolls bewitched him

It has often been complained that Hans' descent into evil happened way too quickly and felt like Third Act Stupidity. The trolls openly sing 'Get the fiancé out of the way and the whole thing will be fixed' in Fixer Upper. After Hans is imprisoned, Anna dates Kristoff, or at least shows a romantic interest in him, as the trolls hoped for.

The trolls have already shown to have the ability to rewrite human brains. Hans' evilness kicks in directly before he kisses Anna which would confirm/deny whether or not they share true love. Taking Hans' seemingly genuine fondness for Anna, his efforts to be a good leader and his heartfelt plea for Elsa to avoid killing, this suggests a possibility that Hans was trying very hard to balance his ambitious nature with a desire to be a good person, and the trolls had a hand in pushing him down the slippery slope to make sure their OTP became canon.

• Okay, that could work. Although the only way they could cast the magic would be to direct it miles away (if the family's mountain ride is any indication) to a person they have never met before...and know almost nothing about, aside from 'he's Anna's fiancé'...? But maybe they could have somehow attached the spell to Anna, so that the next time they were together it would affect Hans. 'Cause, I mean, let's say he was going to kiss Anna... but the spell took effect right then, because he had come extremely close to her.

• Grand Pabbie specifically says in the beginning of the movie that the heart can't be changed so easily, but he could have been lying or wrong.
• Suppose on the off hand that Kristoff suddenly overhears about the trolls bewitching Hans to make sure their OTP became canon, what would his reaction be? I'd suggest that he would be horrified at the realization that the trolls hexed an innocent man into pushing him down the slope, and would begin to see Grand Pabbie as a Broken Pedestal.
• The Film Theorists have a theory about this as well.
• Jossed.

Hans' brothers aren't all neglectful.

With the exception of the few eldest, Hans' brothers are all quite fond of each other. They find solace in each other because their parents focus only on the princes who are old enough to hold the throne at some point. This is why he sought power in another country, rather than interfering in his own country.

• This leads to one of my theory - Hans has twelve older brothers, and he mentioned that some of them acted like he didn't exist for several years. Actually, he isn't lying a whole lot - he's just telling how he himself remembered it. They "Acted like he didn't exist" when he was very young, yet that was when his oldest few brothers were well into their teen years and adulthood around this time. While they were off getting married or being trained how to rule the Southern Isles, he was being a kid, and being as self-centered as kids are, thought they were shutting him out because they hated him as opposed to what really was happening. This leads into the WMG mentioned that, with the exception of the few eldest, Hans's brothers are all quite fond of each other. Because he never actually said which brothers shut him out, he could easily fool Anna (and the viewers.)
  • Unfortunately, none of Hans' brothers loved him strongly enough to thaw his frozen heart, per Word of God.
  • The words he used were not 'acted like he didn't exist' but 'pretended he was invisible'- probably a common enough prank to play for an hour or so, but pretty cruel to keep up for a long time, and to do it for two years is certainly beyond normal brothers messing each other about, it's horrible, at whatever age.
  • Once Upon a Time suggests that Hans is on good terms with at least some of his brothers, enough to get them to help him out in his secondary attempts to overthrow Arendelle, although when Kristoff is spying on them in their camp, some of the brothers are seen mocking Hans for his previous failure to get the throne, and the ones that accompany him to accost Elsa and Kristoff over the urn flee when Ingrid comes out of the urn and freezes Hans into a statue.
• Obviously as the youngest of thirteen brothers (with possibly more siblings if Hans had any sisters), Hans didn't get the attention and nurture a child needs. His parents had a lot of kids to divide their time - the eldest and second-eldest to train as kings, and older sons to find good marriages for and middle sons to give important duties to. It's not unlikely that as youngest, Hans became increasingly convinced that he was unloved. Not having the time for him doesn't mean they didn't love him, and it doesn't mean all of his brothers bullied him and it certainly doesn't mean he was beaten daily with a stick. What it does mean is that any statement about him growing up without love is still accurate. Being a sociopath takes all of that treatment and then adds the ruthless ambition and complete lack of empathy to it.
  • I always felt like Hans' parents sent him to Arendelle as a representative of the country. They hoped this would make him feel important, but by that time he saw it as an opportunity.
• Another perspective on this was that the emotional abuse that he does allude to was entirely real but it wasn't the whole story. (He might not even be wholly aware that it's not the whole story...) Hans might have been surrounded by biological family who ignored and belittled him... but it's a royal household and would have had a huge team of servants, who may well have been under obligation to treat even small children of the royal family as if they were practically demigods, always speaking to them reverentially, bowing to them as soon as they could walk. (Indeed, depending on the Southern Isles' culture, their reverence might even have had some truth in it.) Now, a person can grow up fairly normal and nice with one of these factors, which is how Anna and Elsa's childhoods likely would have turned out had the accident not happened (most people who have abusive families certainly have issues but are not usually total empathy vacuums), but having both, and a gulf between the two of any normal, affectionate human connection, would be conducive to raising a kid to have a personality disorder.

Hans is acquitted of attempting to usurp Arendelle's throne

The only person to whom Hans admitted his plans was Anna, and she was suffering from magically-induced hypothermia at the time. Not exactly the most reliable witness.

• I doubt it. Technically, Anna saw Hans about to swing a sword at Elsa with the intent of killing her. Regardless of her state of mind, Elsa probably saw Hans drawing his sword with the same intent. Depending on how close he was, Kristoff would have witnessed it too.
• This has been Jossed by Frozen Fever, which shows Hans shoveling manure back at the Southern Isles and getting pummeled by a massive snowball Elsa sneezed out, suggesting he was punished for his crimes.

Elsa and Anna's parents didn't die at sea...

This comes from the actual director, Chris Buck:

"Of course Anna and Elsa’s parents didn’t die. Yes, there was a shipwreck, but they were at sea a little bit longer than we think they were because the mother was pregnant, and she gave birth on the boat, to a little boy. They get shipwrecked, and they end up in the jungle. They end up building a tree house and a leopard kills them, so their baby boy is raised by gorillas. So in my little head, Anna and Elsa’s brother is Tarzan... That’s my fun little world."

• Jossed by the sequel. Chris Buck has explained that he was joking about the Tarzan relationship, and the sequel affirms their last moments were at sea when a storm wrecked their ship.

Elsa and Anna's parents died while their ship was on its way to a wedding — specifically, the second wedding of the king's brother Roland II of Enchancia.

Jossed as of Frozen II. They were headed North to try to find answers about Elsa's powers. They never made it.

Elsa's and Anna's parents aren't dead

They were lost at sea and survived. Probably rescued by merpeople.

• The latter part is Jossed as of Frozen II. They were indeed lost at sea, and their death is confirmed.

Elsa and Anna's parents' ship didn't sink in a squall.

I know we saw it go down in a squall, but hear me out. What if that was what was said to happen? In my eyes, the real story is that it was sunk by a Southern Isles warship as part of the plan to annex Arendelle (part two was to send Hans to woo Anna). Arendelle was fed false information that the ship was sunk in a squall. By Southern Isle spies, no less.

• This one's Jossed as of Frozen II. The ship went North, not South, it did indeed go down in a storm as we saw in the first film, and its wreckage is found.

Confirmed

Sven will be a Cute Mute.

A lot of animal sidekicks in Disney films have been following this trend. From the description of being "mangy" with only one antler, he'll probably fall under Ugly Cute, but will be oddly endearing. (Pardon the pun.) It goes without saying that Sven plushies will be all the rage in Christmas 2013.

• Doing that would just make him too much like Maximus from Tangled. But that may be the point due to the horse's popularity. If they make Sven voiceless, they will really need to write him cleverly to make him his own character.
  • According to Disney Wiki, Sven will be voiced by Tom "It's A Trap!" Kane.
• An artist named Prince Kido recently went to an early screening. According to him, Sven will be silent much like Maximus. Additionally, Sven will act like a dog, though not the same type that Max was.
• Based on the teaser trailer, it looks like they scrapped the one antler idea. Likely, they wanted to keep him symmetrical for ease of animation. Still think this Christmas a lot of kids are going to find Sven plushies in their stockings.
• Sven does not speak, but Kristoff speaks for both of them.

Hans being evil wasn't in the original script

First he was supposed to like Anna, but it would not be true love, he would kiss her but it would have no effect. Then the scene became Hans revealing he was more interested in the throne then in Anna, but still liked her.

• Confirmed by the filmmakers. Originally, Elsa was supposed to be the Big Bad, but that was dropped, and when the plot was overhauled to make Elsa's backstory and motivation agree with her more sympathetic traits, Hans, previously just a mere Romantic False Lead, was made into a Hidden Villain to fill the void.
• According to Jennifer Lee, Hans was "never quite good" but he was "sorta dumb. Sociopaths are far more interesting."

Elsa was born on the winter solstice.

It probably doesn't explain her powers, but it couldn't hurt.

• Jossed. The plot is kicked off by Elsa coming of age and being crowned queen, and it's made clear that this is happening in summer. It's much more likely that the girl with ice powers was born in the summer.
  • Here's an alternate related theory: she was conceived during the winter solstice. Though she would have to be a preemie to be born in mid-July but if she was conceived on the 21st of December then by that time she would already be about 32 weeks [third trimester] along. "By 32 weeks, survival is almost as good as full term".
    • That is with modern medicine, though.
• Actually confirmed late by Jennifer Lee, also stating that Anna was born on the summer solstice. The coronation being in the summer can be explained by the fact that it would probably have been hard for boats to travel there in the winter.

Hans will reappear in a later movie

Under a pseudonym and with a slight alteration to his appearance of course (like a goatee or shaving his sideburns), but he's one of the few Disney villains whose only comeuppance is that he's sent home in disgrace. Given his determination to off both Anna and Elsa for a throne, what's stopping him going to a further off kingdom where fewer people are likely to recognise him and try again? (Actually thinking about it, who's to say that he hadn't tried this small scale somewhere else before?)

• Or possibly come back to work as an unpaid stable boy in the castle or somewhere in Arendelle as a punishment, as the fandom is currently suggesting.
• Pretty much confirmed in Frozen Fever, in which Hans briefly appears as he is shoveling horse manure, and gets hit by a giant snowball Elsa sneezed.
• Some recent interviews with Santino Fontana (Hans's voice actor) suggest that Hans might get a shot at redemption when the official feature-length sequel is made.

Act One of the Broadway show will end with Let It Go.

It's the most natural spot to split the story, wows audiences with the show's show-stopping number and lets them leave Act One with a big smile on their faces. It provides a natural splitting point since it's the end of the first part of the story; Anna sets out to find Elsa while Elsa is revelling in her new found freedom. It also allows a great start for Act 2 by introducing Kristoff properly and having some great comedy at Oaken's.

• Alternatively, Act One will end just after the Wolf Chase and Act Two will start with Olaf's introduction. Either of these would be great splitting points, but Let It Go would be the more exciting and memorable one.
• Confirmed, although the order of scenes is changed so Kristoff is introduced before the song.

At least one song from the film will be played on Christmas radio stations.

To the delight of some and to the detraction of others.

• Confirmed with "Do You Want to Build a Snowman".

Following the final scene, the Broadway play will end with a Triumphant Reprise of Let It Go, sung by the entire cast.

And it will be an Audience Participation Song. And it will be the most epic thing ever.

Elsa & her Powers

Elsa saw right through Hans from the beginning.

Elsa knew all along that Hans was a Jerkass who just wanted to marry into Arendellian royalty so that he could eventually rule Arendelle, and she also knew that Anna would never believe that (especially coming from someone who had been so cold to her for most of her life). And after she told Hans that she didn't know how to end the endless winter, she knew that he was going to try to kill her, and that's why she escaped from the dungeon.

• That explains a lot. It would explain one reason why Elsa flatly says "You can't marry a guy you just met." It would also provide another explanation for why she decides to stage a jailbreak. It's possible Elsa also did accidentally complete freezing Anna because she sensed Anna's presence and also Hans's sword coming towards her.
• Hey, it might make it interesting if the film were told from Elsa's perspective. Perhaps Elsa deliberately fled into the mountains as a show for Hans's benefit.
  • Yeah! You just gave me an idea for a fanfic where Elsa is a warrior queen who goes to save her sister from Hans, ice-bladed sword in hand.

Elsa did not see through Hans.

If she had known he was an evil man who didn't love Anna and who was going to try to kill her, she wouldn't have paused in her escape attempt to tell him "Just look after my sister." She simply had concerns about the hasty marriage proposal. She escaped from the dungeon because Weselton was trying to get her killed, Grandpabbie had convinced her that the mob would lynch her for being magical, and she thought that her very presence was a danger to her sister and to her people.

Elsa is going to marry an ice miner.

The ice harvesters, as shown in the beginning of the film, have a greater respect for Elsa's powers than most of the rest of the people of Arendelle. Kristoff in particular is fascinated by her ice palace, but he's already taken by Anna. Nevertheless, he isn't the only ice harvester in Arendelle...

Elsa's situation, if Anna hadn't intervened, would have led to her becoming a wicked witch for real.

She's already convinced she can't undo what she's done to Arendelle, she gets a lot of innocent pleasure out of creating her palace/making over her wardrobe and feeling like she can let her powers flow freely, but she's already begun creating sentient life, both by accident (Olaf) and on purpose (Marshmallow). She's already under the impression at least (though it doesn't seem to be the case) that the townspeople are horrified by her powers (rather than just surprised/astounded). If not for her sister, she wouldn't have gone back, and after so long having to keep her feelings tightly bottled up and under cover, it's easy to imagine those negative emotions bubbling up in isolation and souring her entirely.

• Aww, how sad. Rather Wicked-esque, actually.

Magic hair

It's also interesting to note that both Rapunzel and Elsa have different hair colors than their respective parents. Both have parents with brown hair, but Rapunzel (whose magic relates to the sun) has golden hair, while Elsa (whose magic relates to ice and snow) has almost white (well, platinum blonde is the actual name for the color) hair. Also, her sister Anna has strawberry-blonde hair which slowly changes to white once she's hit by Elsa's magic. Assuming that Tangled and Frozen both take place in the same universe (which is not too far out, considering Rapunzel's cameo in the latter), it's quite possible that one of the "symptoms" of (elemental) magic in this world is indeed hair color. Also, Grand Pabbie asks the king whether Elsa was born with the powers or cursed, which means that magic in this world can 'just happen' like with Elsa or originate from an outside source like with Rapunzel (who was technically born with her powers and not cursed, but still got them from an outside source).

• There's certainly something different about Elsa's hair. Unlike Rapunzel's, it doesn't grow abnormally long — both girls' hair is probably about elbow-to-waist length when loose, which is long but easily within normal limits — but Elsa's animators confirm that she has 400,000 strands of hair on her head a- roughly four times the normal number for a human with a full head of hair. (Presumably she keeps it braided practically at all times: Anna's bedhead would be nothing compared to what that could do.)
  • Someone has suggested elsewhere that Elsa's magic also causes her to look like she has some of the traits of albinism, a rare genetic disorder where a lack of pigmentation results in pale skin and hair, which is why she looks nothing like her parents and Anna.
    • However, while people with albinism have eyes that look similar to Elsa's, it comes with significant visual impairment, which Elsa doesn't have (if she had albinism, the bright sunlight in the epilogue scene would really hurt her eyes, among other things). Elsa also has very faint freckling and her eyebrows are slightly darker than her hair (as are her eyelashes — as an adult, she always wears make-up, but it's still noticeable when she's a child), which means she doesn't have an impairment of pigmentation, just very, very little (which is not that rare in Scandinavia, though still fairly unusual in an adult).
    • At the very least, Elsa has some traits of an albino, like really pale skin.
    • Elsa has spent most of her life hiding in her room in her castle. She also lives in a time when pale skin was seen as a mark of wealth and refinement and beauty, because it was the peasants who were forced to work outdoors who were tanned. It's not surprising that Elsa would be paler than most women in her kingdom and even paler than her sister who probably delighted in playing outside in the courtyard.

• Elsa's hair retains its pale snow-like color due to her ice powers. When Anna is affected, her hair also turns this color. But what if Elsa were to somehow lose her powers? Given their parents' hair, I assume Elsa is likely a brunette. This wouldn't be the first time a Disney princess went from blonde to brown.

Turns out, Elsa is a goddess.

She can freeze over an entire nation and create sentinent snow creatures. She's at least as powerful as any one of the Greek deities.

• Definitely. She should have a cult. How about a cathedral made of ice?

Elsa is gay.

• Her powers are not only a metaphor for homosexuality, she's also a lesbian, which helps feed into her self-hatred and feelings of utter exclusion from society.
  • Interesting theory, but this does give off some awkward/creepy undertones when you remember that what gets Elsa in trouble with her powers is that she almost kills her little sister out of recklessness... so if you replace her magic with homosexuality, would this mean someone someone caught the two sisters kissing?
    • It's a real world case of Hide Your Lesbians, as placing Anna into a childhood friend role would be trivially easy the way the movie is set up. Also, when has Disney meant ANYTHING other than romantic love when referring to true love? Anna never said "I love you like a sister", just "I love you".
    • Well, at least I no longer feel quite so much like the odd man out for my momentary thinking of Les Yay.
    • That "true love" can mean more than just romantic love is kind of the point. Anyway, people typically don't tell their siblings "I love you like a sibling".
    • Let It Go can be a metaphor for anything. That's what people like about the song. Could be mental illness, a coming-of-age story, or particular beliefs, especially religious or political.

Elsa is a mutant and this movie takes place in the Marvel Universe, in Marvel 1602.

Disney does own Marvel after all.

• Add to this how similar the scene as the coronation goes wrong is to the origins of certain X-Men when they develop powers, and it makes all the sense in the world.
  • It actually fits really well. In Marvel 1602, there's a point where the weather over all of the Atlantic has gone screwy, and it could be because that's when Elsa's frozen the islands.
• BEAUTIFULLY explored by How It Should Have Ended in their "Frozen" video.
• With her abilities, easily overshadowing both Storm and Iceman, Elsa would have to be an Omega-Level Mutant. Another interesting thing: mutants of her power are typically immortal, so there's no real reason she couldn't walk into Xavier's school as an unexpected plot-twist.
• Or alternately, Elsa is Bobby Drake's ancestor.

Elsa is, at least to begin with, sexually repressed.

She initially doesn't want to get close to people for fear of hurting them. Seems like a logical extension. Plus, there's that fan service during "Let It Go", the scene where she first feels comfortable expressing herself.

• Especially likely since she spent her childhood wearing heavy clothes and gloves when she wasn't locking herself in her room, and was terrified of her own family touching her because she didn't want to hurt them by accident. Sex involves lots of skin-to-skin contact as well as intense emotions. Plus there's the Word of God stating she has depression and anxiety issues, which are both very unhelpful for someone's libido — and she may not even have a sex drive to repress, given how she was so young when the castle was isolated.
• Actually from a Freudian perspective — especially as Elsa is almost contemporary with Freud — this almost painfully stacks up as a (very 19th century) female sexuality allegory. As a child Elsa's powers are a part of her that she experiments with without worry or embarrassment, until her parents and a pseudo-religious figure intervene and tell her that it's dangerous and has to be 'controlled', whereupon she tries to hide it away, but as an adolescent it starts getting more powerful until denying her nature means she can barely function. In maturity, her composure breaks completely — coincidentally when an attractive young man is brought into her family (or, for those who want to think otherwise, when she's confronted with Anna wanting to embark on a romantic relationship). After her breakdown she finds that her mature powers are hugely pleasurable, beautiful, and creates miraculous things... but it's when they're controlled with love that she's able to express them freely and be healthily integrated in society. (It's a tiresome allegory, but it works.)
  • Jennifer Lee has also acknowledged the suggestion in Do You Want to Build a Snowman? of the rift that can develop between girls of an age gap that size when the older sister is going through puberty and the younger, still a child, is constitutionally incapable of understanding why her sister is literally becoming a different person.

Expanding on the ideas above, Elsa has incestuous feelings towards Anna.

Now, I'm not trying to sell the shipping here, that's not it at all, but the king and queen locked them away in the castle separately until they were teenagers. They basically isolated Anna and Elsa from the outside world and family as well as the only real friends they've known for their entire lives. They've basically hammered in that Elsa should be afraid of herself and repressed her emotions for years instead of helping her through them. Then they died and she had no emotional guidance at all until the coronation when she was let out. Humans are social creatures and need contact with other people and so sometimes people in extreme isolation or even extremely stressful situations can form strong relationships with who or whatever they can, even sometimes romantic ones. Take Stockholm Syndrome when people in an extremely stressful situation (being abducted) form a romantic relationship with the person who abducted them. Same principle, it would make sense that Elsa would attach almost almost all of her emotion to Anna because that's pretty much the only person that she is close to in this world aside her parents and I would definitely say that being in extreme isolation just paved the way for it. That could include the romantic feelings she never learned to express properly on her own. Plus the subtext between them is amazingly strong!

• There's a precedent, including the superpowers and isolation, with Panacea and Glory Girl, because the separation could prevent the Westermarck Effect from setting in.
  • Elsa was eight by the time she was parted from Anna. The Westermarck effect is strongest for people you meet before you're about seven.

Elsa is going to run into the exact opposite problem.

OK, so Elsa's powers are fueled by love and other happy emotions, right? But Elsa logically can't be happy all the time, something that she's probably aware of. So she'll try to emulate her sister as a Stepford Smiler in the hopes of controlling her powers.

Elsa has Magical Ancestry that ties in with Tangled

At the same time the drop of sunlight fell in Corona, a drop of the icy moonlight fell in a kingdom near Arendelle. The king absorbed it and he and his descendants had powers just like Elsa, and eventually there was an unrelated war between this kingdom and Arendelle. The dispute was settled by 1400, with a marriage for the heirs of each kingdom. Since the King of Arendelle didn't want his children to have powers over ice and snow, the trolls made sure for "400 years, shall the powers be dormant"; cue 400 years later (Frozen is set in the early 19th century?) when Elsa was born, the first royal birth in the family after the curse was broken. This explains why her parents weren't surprised that she had powers and accepted them at first.

• Or Rapunzel and Anna. While Anna doesn't have magical powers like Elsa, she and Rapunzel look more alike and have much more in common personality-wise (with their common adorkable-ness and all).

Elsa's heart was 'frozen'.

Remember that line from the ice harvesters' song that went "Beware the frozen heart," which means having their heart frozen like what happens but also in the movie, Elsa is repressing her emotions and trying not to 'feel', it's once she thinks Anna dies that everything stops and she has some semblance of control. Her heart was also 'frozen' because she wouldn't let herself feel or relax.

• Anna's act of true love should have thawed Elsa's frozen heart as well as her own.
• Perhaps it's still frozen? Her hair is very fair, after all, like Anna's hair turned when she got her head and heart frozen. Except because she wasn't struck with ice powers but born with them, it's nonfatal and unable to thaw? Grandpabby says Anna, should she turn to ice, will be ice forever, implying she'd be little more than a perpetually cold glass or diamond statue. Forever. Perhaps for Elsa, this just means that she'll never die as long as she has her ice powers. Maybe after she outlives Anna and Kristoff (either by them dying in an accident or by some natural cause), she becomes the cold and detached Snow Queen from the original story, leaving her niece/nephew to rule over Arendelle while she becomes a crazy ice hermit in the mountains, and one day, an ''evil'' troll creates the mirror in the story and that sets the plot of the actual tale of the Snow Queen into motion?

Elsa is going to get a boatload of marriage proposals very soon.

Once word of a young, unmarried, female WMD with a petty kingdom of her own gets out, every crowned head in Europe that does not feel their pants growing tight at the prospect of unleashing Elsa's power against their enemies will be soiling them at the prospect of their enemies unleashing said powers on them. ^note Yes, yes, she is not that sort... but how many kings/princes/etc. operating on partial second-hand reports will be willing to take that chance? The young, unmarried, and female aspects will make the means of alliance or control obvious; although with any luck, the incoming bridegrooms will be more straightforward and less ambitious than Hans.

• Someone has already suggested here that Hans' throwaway line about how 'no-one was getting anywhere' with Elsa meant that she'd already had a number of, if not proposals, a number of potential suitors approaching her — possibly by letter — with the idea that they might be the sort of person it would be appropriate to consider to be her husband, sometime, maybe (and has brushed them all off, for reasons that weren't known at the time).

Elsa literally froze her own heart.

When Elsa was told to conceal her powers, she internalised them and froze her own heart so as not to feel anything. This is why she goes from "Conceal it, don't feel it," to simply "Conceal, don't feel." This is why her ice can't melt or be thawed. Her own tears after Anna freezes melted her heart and allowed her to thaw the neverending winter. Also ties in nicely with the original tale.

Elsa's behavior in the three skipped-over years was partly a result of being unable to face her parents' death — and the King had already accidentally given her a lesson in denial tactics.

As well as the pain of anyone having such a terrible loss, Elsa is left devastatingly lonely by her parents' sudden death — she's estranged from Anna and the powers that control her life completely are now secret from anyone but her. Her father was at least seemingly the guide her in her struggles for control — now she's alone. How does she deal with it? She conceals as much evidence of their passing to herself as she can, to try to avoid feeling it.

• She's technically the Queen, but avoids being crowned or taking on her duties — despite the fact that even in this century, monarchs of 18 and younger have been very successful (Elsa would be just a little younger than Queen Vicky, who took up the duties of a Queen at 18 and did very well to rule into her eighties) for an unusually long time. At least a part of her would have been saying 'it's not time to become Queen yet, this is not really happening' — possibly she ran with it.
  • Technically, she was queen in all but the ability to exert authority.
• She keeps to the rules that her father laid down, however impractical they're becoming now that she's head of the household and Anna's guardian. If anything, she makes them tighter. A Freudian would probably tell her she's trying to please her father into coming back to her.
• As a result of this, she can't go to her parents' memorial and has never seen the standing stones erected in their memory — how can she? She can't leave the castle! And therefore, she doesn't have to look at them.
  • Yes, she would have exposed her powers if she did... but how long did she feasibly think it would be before something happened? But she avoided dealing with it — because an unconscious part of her believed that if she was 'the good girl she always had to be', and concealed all the evidence, this horrible thing wouldn't be happening to her.

Elsa is the daughter of Loki and Anna's father (the king) is descended from Thor.

The Queen had an affair with Loki and then Elsa was born, or Loki impersonated Elsa's father at some point just to mess with some of Thor's descendants for kicks.

• Given that Loki's a known shapeshifter, neither the Queen nor the King knew about the affair, or guessed that anything was unusual about Elsa until her powers manifested, after which they likely believed it was a just a fluke. Loki, hardly the most responsible of gods and unlikely to stick around once he's had his laughs, didn't bother to explain his trick or leave any helpful instructions, preferring to see what kind of chaos would result.
• In Norse Mythology, Loki is the son of the Frost Giants, who are nature gods that are in touch with ice, snow and cold. A girl with ice powers would probably be one of the least weird things he fathered. Also, in the original mythology (not the Marvel Comics version) Thor has red hair and Loki has silver-blond hair.
• This makes the sisters' reconciliation at the end of the movie that much more poignant: they're not just making up with each other, they're also showing that one of the longest-going family feuds in Norse Mythology can end happily.
• Or Iðunn (Elsa and Anna's mother, not the goddess) had affairs with both Loki and later Thor, with Anna being Thor's daughter, explaining her strength, and her tendencies in fighting style: bashing stuff with blunt objects (lute against wolves), throwing large items (burning blanket roll, also against wolves), and just plain punching (but doing so with enough force to send Hans in a graceful arc into the air and over the side of the boat).

Elsa has ice powers because her fairy godfather is the Snow Miser.

Think about it.

• Whatever she touches turns to snow in her clutch.
• Elsa created a blizzard in the middle of July. Snow Miser brought snow to Southtown, USA, which apparently almost never gets any.
• She can create sentient constructs out of snow and ice — similar to the chorus line of miniature Snow Misers?
• She can also create things like ice skates and dresses out of ice. Snow miser turns his hat to snow and recreates it.

Does Disney even own the Miser Brothers? It'd be great if they did, because this is the best thing I've heard all day.

Elsa's epiphany in the finale is a reference to Albert Camus.

"In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

Elsa is a reference to the Queen in Chess

The Queen is the most powerful unit (and Elsa is most certainly the most powerful character in the story), but she too is TKO'd in one hit (like how Elsa gets knocked out by a Falling Chandelier of Doom).

• Also, when Olaf was running towards the window, you can see the White Queen chess piece fall over. It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment.

Elsa still becomes known as The Snow Queen.

However, instead of a negative term crafted by fear, it's an affectionate moniker given to her by her people.

• Most Fanfics like the idea that "Snow Queen" became Elsa's new nickname and she liked the ring it had.

Elsa is asexual and aromantic.

Because why not?

• It fits well with the lesson she learns about embracing her nature as an ice-queen instead of despising it and letting it make her anxious, and how her icy nature doesn't necessarily have to prevent her from having fulfilling relationships with people.
• In the sequel, when she (as a kid) was playing with Anna, she got disgusted about Anna making the prince and the princess dolls kiss.
• The whole frozen heart/ice queen thing ties into a arophobia stereotype because they suposedly 'can’t love'.
• Also a song featured in the sequel, "Show Yourself" sounds like a aroace song especially because of the line 'You are the one you've been waiting for.'
• And since one of the film's messages is that 'romantic love isn't the only type of love' it could be even more deep.

Elsa's Required Secondary Powers could be quite dangerous

So that she doesn't freeze herself on her own ice, Elsa doesn't seem to lose any warmth from her body (she never feels cold, her breath doesn't mist, she doesn't slip on her own ice). It's essential when she's using her powers and she lives in a part of the world where keeping warm is usually more of an issue than keeping cool, but they do sometimes have warm days- and what if Elsa is in a situation where the body normally gets warm- like heavy exertion (something she probably hasn't tried in years) or with an infectious disease (something that also probably hasn't happened to her much with her isolation)? Or travels abroad? If she can't lose heat, would she be at risk of normal events giving her a long-standing fever?

• Actually Elsa does vent off excessive energy her body produces, just not in the form of heat we usually knows. We can notice that Elsa seems to glow a little bit in some scenes. This glow is her venting off excessive energy using light in visible spectrum which takes energy away without heating her surroundings too much.

Elsa is going to really get around now.

She is going to make Catherine the Great look like chastity personified. Think about how repressed she was at the time of her coronation. This is a young woman who has not had physical contact with another living being for well over a decade. Consider that one of the first things she does during her self-imposed exile is let her hair down and change into a much more revealing outfit. Now think about what she's going to do now that she realizes she can touch other people and let them touch her. The palace gates aren't the only royal portal that'll be open all the time from now on.

• I'm going to side with you only because Elsa herself makes a subtle implication of this in the movie. Specifically she refers to herself twice as a 'good girl'; Once during "For The First Time in Forever" and again at the start of "Let it Go". Now in the movie this is referring to her dedication to her royal duties but 'good girl' is also a euphemism for chastity. She even says it while staring at a portrait of her late father, meaning she's trying to live up to his ideals, his standards. The moment she changes into that ice dress she saunters outside and exclaims "That perfect girl is gone!". That's a very sexually charged statement.

Elsa was at some point going to tell Anna about her powers

I always assumed that, after refusing to let Anny marry Hans, when Elsa says, "May I talk to you, please? Alone?" she intended to take Anna aside and reveal her powers in private. However, Anna thought Elsa was referring to the proposal from Hans and insisted on Hans being included in the conversation, which is the reason why everything went south from there.

• I thought I was the only one who belived that!

Elsa just vants to be alone.

She sees that people hate her and fear her. So she goes off to a remote mountain in order to be by herself.

Elsa's father may have had ice powers, and was more successful at controlling them

During the opening twenty minutes, up through Elsa's coronation, I noticed a few things:

• When Elsa is practicing holding the orb and scepter gloveless, we see the portrait of her father at his coronation. But on a closer look, Agdar seems to have, in that portrait, the same look of pained concentration on his face that Elsa exhibits on her own face at her coronation.
• Agdar has a reliable way of locating the trolls that is kept secret from everyone else, coupled with the fact that he thinks of the idea of going to them so quickly after Anna gets hurt, it's likely that the royal family has had dealings in the past with the trolls, who obviously view themselves as loyal subjects (given how quickly the Grand Pabbie acknowledges Agdar and how he immediately begins administering treatment to Anna), but they aren't supposed to call on them for every little thing (hence why Agdar can't remember on his own where the trolls live and has to consult a map). The trolls did recognize him, and it looked like he knew them too.
• Agdar said Elsa could learn to control the power. Maybe because he himself has learned to control his own powers?
• He reasoned that gloves would help Elsa.
• Agdar knew getting upset makes the powers stronger.
• His last words to Elsa were, "You'll be fine, Elsa." It could just be him trying to relieve her anxiety, but maybe deep down he felt she could overcome her powers just as he did.
• If Agdar had powers too, he clearly was able to overcome his power because he's gloveless. He must have been ashamed of his power which was why he was so adamant about concealing it so no one would know he had them, and passing that same mindset to Elsa. This might explain why he is not a highly emotional character — he knows he might not be able to hold the powers in if he lets it go.

Elsa is bipolar

And the "Let it Go" sequence is her transitioning from a depressive episode to a manic episode. Indeed, during the song she shows many classic signs of mania:

• extremely elevated mood
• making rash decisions ^note  decides she's going to abandon her crown and live as a hermit on the mountain, with no thought for the consequences
• hyper-productivity ^note builds an elaborate ice palace literally overnight
• feelings of invincibility ^note "the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all!", "You'll never see me cry!", etc.
• grandiosity ^note "I am one with the wind and sky!", etc.

Powers

Elsa's powers are like Rapunzel's

She didn't necessarily acquire them through the ice/sea/whatever crying and accidentally consuming a tear or anything (though it would be a clever nod to "The Snow Queen"), but they're part of the same set, and probably make them the physical manifestations of Yin and Yang in that planet.

• Probably irrelevant, but despite Mystical White Hair, Elsa's eyebrows are dark(er), like Rapunzel's.
  • Word of God is that if it weren't for her ice powers, Elsa would be a brunette dead ringer for her mother, so it's entirely possible.

Alternatively...

Elsa's powers are satanic. The King and Queen made a deal with the Devil - I mean Chernabog - to acquire something, and Elsa was blessed by the hell ice powers.

This means she is inherently damned to an eternity of suffering.

Alternatively alternatively...

Elsa's powers comes from either Dagr, the norse god of Day, or his mother, Nótt, the goddess of night, given the reccurence of "dawn" and "day" in "Let It Go"'s lyrics and the fact that Nótt's horse has a frost mane.

Alternatively, alternatively, alternatively...

Not long before the incident where Anna was frozen the first time, Elsa was wandering around the castle's less used corridors when she found something that looked kind of like the stray cats that sometimes crept into the building. Only, this one was white and pink, with strange, floppy ears that had golden loops wrapped around them, and with piercing red eyes.

The "cat" (she really didn't know what else to call it) followed her back up to her room with Anna that night. Quickly, and with great confusion for all parties involved except the cat, Elsa realized that Anna couldn't actually see her new fuzzy friend. And, when Anna left because she was weirded the hell out and also wanted some cake, Elsa learned that the "cat" could talk. And that it wanted to offer her one wish in exchange for her signing some sort of contract.

She wished to impress her sister, of course. For the first two days, it was a resounding success.

Elsa's powers are BECAUSE of Rapunzel's.

Rapunzel's powers are from the sun. Maybe Elsa's ice powers were given to her as a balance? Yes, Elsa is 3 years older, but we don't see her at any age younger than 5. What if her powers didn't develop until she was 3? Also, while Rapunzel's power is healing, not fire, Elsa can freeze someone's heart, causing them to slowly die.

Alternately, Frozen is simply set 3 years after the events of Tangled. We already know it's set after Tangled, due to Rapunzel and Eugene appearing together in a cameo.

Elsa is a human incarnation of a Physical God

I mean she is powerful enough to be a physical god as is. So the incarnation of the goddess of ice or something similar isn't unreasonable.

Elsa's powers are fueled by her stress.

Trying to keep them concealed only heightens the stress, making her power more uncontrollable.

• She's still immensely powerful when she's calm, she can just control it better. But if you really wanted to push this angle, you could say that the feats she performed during "Let it Go", and at the end where she lifted the winter, were given a burst of fuel by release or relief of stress, and that she may not have that level of power if she's been calm for an extended period of time.

Arendelle is in Westeros and Elsa and Anna are descendants of Night's King and his Other bride.

Thus, Elsa's ice powers are genetic.

• Being a Game of Thrones villain would certainly explain Hans.
  • Being royalty in a pre-French Revolution setting would also explain Hans.
• This troper's theory: Westeros is an alternate universe of Frozen, wherein Elsa's Heroic BSoD caused the freezing of most of her subjects, with the exception of a few that escaped. She attempts to reanimate them so they'd be at the least like Olaf before she could figure out how to reverse it, but each attempt just results in a Came Back Wrong. Still, it never deters her, and she just keeps trying. Meanwhile, the refugees of Arendelle tell the kingdoms that accept them of the long night, where the snows fell a hundred feet deep, and White Walkers roamed the woods... (more in depth here)

Elsa's powers were inherited from her father

Her parents tell the trolls that Elsa was born with her powers, and her father seemed to know a lot about how to control them.

• If this was the case, wouldn't he be better at teaching her how to control them? Her parents meant well but ultimately did more harm than good teaching her to suppress her emotions rather than confront them.
  • He might have had them in his ancestry, if not in his immediate family, and it probably didn't end well; it's not like there are guidebooks for this kind of thing, so all he knew (either first-hand or from family legends) was that the power was somehow tied to emotions and could be highly dangerous.
  • If Word of God from Jennifer Lee is anything to go by, a child is born with ice magic every millennium, and only when there's a certain alignment involving Saturn (it was meant to be explained by a troll in the film but was cut). With magic that rare, no wonder he didn't entirely know what to do.
    • Though if Elsa was born (going by Word of God) in about 1825, there would be enough people on Earth by then for there to be several hundred babies born that night (maybe not so many in A.D. 825, but still). Presumably it's 'when the planets align a child is born within this particular people. Which would mean that the last ice-witch or wizard was born into a Viking culture!

Elsa's power came from a magic shard of ice

To draw the "snow queen" angle in a little more, When Elsa was still a baby, she had a magic ice shard enter her heart, freezing part of it. Ala Dreamworks' Turbo, now her blood is partially ice powered, hence the ice manipulation, but also drawing on the traditional fairy tale where that was an instigator of that plot.

Elsa's powers are an allegory for mental or genetic disorders.

Several people believe that disorders must be concealed and not let anyone see, also the people who suffer from them are told to fear it, (at least around where this troper lives.) seeing it as a destructive force to your career, your reputation, and everything. And several of the people who suffer from it are extremely talented. They are also told to be a 'normal person'. Sometimes they reveal their disorders in times of fear or stress.

• Another take on this: mental disorders have the possibility in some cases to grant those born with it amazing insight and talents. Those who have a mental disorder can see the world in an entirely different light, that allows them to see things as no one else sees them and do things that no one else could pull off (especially, but not limited to, savants). At the same time mental disorders can be a curse to those suffering from it. Being so different can be isolating, makes it hard if not outright impossible to connect with other people, and when everything gets so overwhelming and you get scared you might lash out in ways that could potentially harm yourself and others. Parents of kids with mental disorders usually mean well, but if they don't get all the resources they need to understand what their child is going through, then sometimes the cure can be as bad as the problem. In the end remaining loving and supportive is the best way thing anyone can do.

  • If we go with the allegory here, then learning to control her powers would stand for learning to manage her illness. And there are plenty of examples of royalty who everybody knew to be "crazy" who nevertheless didn't get dethroned. Of course many mental disorders never truly go away and you can have bad days or even bad years... but it's not as rare as people think to be able to live a relatively normal life, or at least a functional one, even with a mental disorder.

  • If that's the case, then the film provides huge tracts of fears from both Elsa's POV and Anna's: Elsa because she harms her sister and to some extent the people who she was supposed to be protecting, without even being fully aware of what she's done; Anna's when Elsa runs away in a state of distress, the authorities of law and order don't understand her and consider her dangerous when she becomes inconvenient, that she's cruelly manipulated by someone Anna herself brought into the family, and almost manages Suicide by Cop. And also for their parents, when Elsa becomes shut-in and her problems start to seriously impose on Anna, especially when Elsa is suddenly left with responsibilities that she's in no state to deal with.
  • While anxiety disorders are not actively shamed, at least, not in today's society, there are still many people who don't bother to sympathize with those who have them, or lump them into prejudices that affect those with mental and emotional disorders at large. Secondly, there are in fact disorders that can cause anxiety that you are born with—I'm pretty sure that's essentially being born with anxiety, so that fits with Elsa being born with her powers. Additionally, there are disorders that cause people to lash out in rage at their loved ones, become paranoid of them, close themselves off, have dramatic and powerful mood swings, etc. Elsa is afraid of harming Anna, as in actually hurting her, not just disappointing her or getting her condemned by association. While there are still elements of the problem that can indicate homosexuality, or counter beliefs, or whatever the person watching chooses to associate with Elsa's struggle, the aspect of losing control of herself, and the fears relating to that, are in line with mental disorders, including anxiety related ones. At the very least it is a very viable interpretation.
• Relatedly, it could also be a condition from the autism spectrum?
  • If Frozen were an allegory to Autism/Asperger’s, then effectively we're talking high scale here, on BOTH spectrums; speaking as an individual who is borderline Autism/Asperger’s. We are literally talking about someone (in Elsa's case) who cannot function at all in society.
  • She was just born differently (how autistic individuals usually feel about themselves) and has terrible difficulty functioning socially and maintaining relationships. On the metaphorical side, people perceive her as cold, and her personal motto is about masking instead of expressing emotions. She saw solitude as the solution to all her social problems.
• It could also be a genetic disease?
  • You are born with it and die with it - just like Elsa with her powers. It affects the life of your whole family - just like Elsa´s powers. You must (and can only) mitigate the havoc caused by the disease - just like Elsa has to control her powers. The disease can also bring some advantages (eg. height in someone with Marfan syndrome)

Elsa's powers aren't limited to being An Ice Person, they're theoretically limitless Reality Warping with emotional triggers

Hence why she can create clothing like the dress and the skates, create sentient life, turn people into ice instead of just coating them with it, and make her ice glow. When she accidentally discovered her powers, she may have been outside in the snow or otherwise thinking of cold things, (Which is not unlikely, considering that the movie is set in Fantasy Sweden) and a combination of assuming she could only control snow and ice and her cold and isolated personality lead to her not trying to use her powers to do anything else.

• Another possible motivation is that she wanted to be alone, to be separated from other people. (Everyone feels like that at least once, even if they have a family like Elsa's.) The mountains are distantly visible from Arendelle, and she may have subconsciously connected the two.

Elsa is a Jotun/Frost Giant.

Which is the source of her ice powers. Either she was glamoured and switched for an infant princess, or she's a descendant of Loki.

• Considering the film's Scandinavian setting, and the fact that Trolls are confirmed to exist in-universe, this doesn't seem all that unlikely. Plus, a lot of the things she does with her ice are very reminiscent of the things Jotunn can do.
• Either that or, depending on which Marvel universe it's set in, she's an omega level mutant with the same powers as Iceman.
  • It doesn't have to be a Marvel universe. The Jotuns of Norse Mythology were neither large or ugly by necessity, especially if partially human.

Elsa's powers are a metaphor for everything.

Yes, even that.

• Even that?
  • Especially that.
• What about that?
  • I didn't even think of that! But yes, that as well.
• What? That too? Gross!
• Even THAT!? Is this really a Disney movie?
  • Calm down—that couldn't possibly work as a metaphor. Were you watching the same movie?
• ...baseball? We're talking about baseball, right?

Elsa has ice powers because Rick traveled to the Frozenverse and experimented on her, then he wiped her memory.

• Well, these are both animated...

Elsa gained her powers from Ice King's crown

Elsa came into contact with that strange crown one day and, by touching it, gained her powers of ice and snow. Sometime after the Great Mushroom War, the crown's next victim would be no other than Simon Petrikov (better known as Ice King).

• Alternatively, her crown (either the one retrieved by Marshmallow or the replacement she will get) could become the Ice King's crown, getting imbued over time with all her powers, along with the mental problems from her early life.

Elsa's powers aren't just Ice-based, but control the seasons themselves

Since the wintery powers were the first to noticeably manifest (having ice suddenly appear indoors is a lot more obvious than plants acting strange), and were doubtless the most enjoyable for her little sister, she never had reason to explore the other aspects or even think that she had them.

Unfortunately for her, their empathic nature caused the years of being cold and distant following the accident to stunt the development of the other three seasons far more than winter. There were probably quite a few unusually harsh winters during that time because of this.It isn't until her Love Epiphany at the end of the film that her Spring powers awaken in any meaningful manner, resulting it the rather sudden and flowery end to her two-day "Eternal Winter" in addition to signaling the end to her long emotional winter.

Now that she's returned to a more-or-less normal emotional state, her other seasons will start to catch up. Plants will grow faster and flowers start blooming when she's happy, the sun burns brighter when she's mad (or something else often associated with heat), if she's tired or bored the skies could cloud over somewhat, and the ice would only come out on its own when she gets depressed.Of course, she will be able to control these new powers so that they don't become disruptive, and if she tries she will be able to conjure and control plants, fire (which can be combined with her ice powers to make other states of water, and winds ranging from a light breeze to full gale-force and bring or disperse storm clouds as she wishes, possibly even being able to call lightning from them.

But on the other hand if she ever gets scared, there's a whole lot more to go haywire...

Elsa is a Muggle-born.

There was just no Wizarding School like Hogwarts for her to go to, at least not that she knew of.

Snow and ice magic are seen in a different (and more negative) light than other forms of magic.

The setting of Frozen appears to be somewhere in Scandinavia, where traditional associations with winter and the cold were almost entirely negative. The far north tended to be seen as the realm of the dead, because of inevitable associations between the dangerous, frozen region and human mortality.

While magic may not be entirely unheard of in the universe of Frozen, ice magic would likely take on a negative connotation in northern regions, particularly in a case where the wielder has the ability to make Westeros' winters look like a nice trip to the Mediterranean. It's likely that people from the region immediately surrounding Arendelle (including the Duke of Weselton, a region that appears to be a fantasy counterpart to Sweden) would live in a cultural milieu where the ability to control the cold is seen in the same way as the ability to control darkness or death. Even if the winter no longer holds as much danger as it formerly did thanks to the progress of technology, that sort of association would take a very long time to wear off. This would explain why most of the people at the coronation are simply frightened, while the Duke of Weselton automatically assumes that sorcery is involved. For people living in the far north, Elsa's powers may have a mythological connection to evil or the devil that they just don't have elsewhere.

Ice magic isn't necessarily genetic, but the right conditions have to be met. Elsa just happened to fit those criteria.

This is confirmed by Word of God in an interview with Jennifer Lee. Initially, it was going to be explained by a troll narrator that every thousand years after an alignment of Saturn, a child would be born with ice magic, but she eventually decided to just say she was born with them and leave it at that. Whatever Saturn was supposed to be aligned with, this actually leads to Fridge Brilliance (no pun intended). What are Saturn's rings partially made of? Ice. Even more significant, what is one of Saturn's major moons? Enceladus, a world covered entirely in ice. See for yourself!◊

Elsa is basically a lesser Sailor Scout.

But all the major planets gain their own Sailor Scouts, and the lesser-known ones are attributed to the other moons besides Earth's. Elsa is thus likely Sailor Enceladus.

Elsa's powers (shooting ice from her hands) are how she poops.

Maybe that's why her parents tried to get her to conceal them (or at least control them).

About when Elsa gets a cold

As Frozen Fever shows, when Elsa sneezes, she produces Snowgies. Logically, one wonders what she feels in the rest of her body. I always imagine that for Elsa, vomiting probably comes in the form of yellow snow.

Elsa didn't tell Anna about her powers because she was afraid Anna would become afraid of her

Perhaps one reason Elsa never told Anna about her powers wasn't just that her parents didn't allow her to talk about them, but think about it: Elsa is protective of Anna to the point she pretty much isolated herself from her for 13 years because that's what she thought it would take to keep Anna safe. Now think about what else might have gone through Elsa's head: if she knew that her sister had magic and she knew that it was Elsa's magic that caused her to get hurt when she was five, she might end up growing up in fear that Elsa might hurt her again, which would drive an even bigger rift between the girls than Grand Pabbie erasing all of Anna's memories of Elsa's magic ever did.

Elsa is somehow related to Daenerys

Both have almost white blonde hair, powers that people are afraid of and lose their parents at a young age.

Although we didn't see it, Elsa was responsible for the shipwreck that killed her parents.

• You know how Elsa is crying at the end of Do You Want to Build a Snowman? Well, that's partly because she thinks she's guilty for killing her parents...and she did! Elsa has ice powers, and ice is the solid form of water. Maybe one day, she had a meltdown for no reason, which randomly caused a storm at sea.

Elsa's powers are as follows:

Ability to magically transmogrify any form of matter into water ice: Because to say that she just freezes water and makes ice from the water vapor in the air, the way Frozone does, is not really sufficient to explain some of the largest or strangest feats she has performed. For example, there's no way the humidity was high enough to justify the ability to quickly construct a giant ice castle that way, but if she's able to convert air to ice with 100% efficiency, or possibly even draw mass from the stone of the mountain itself, then it makes sense. Similarly, this is the only explanation for how she was able to turn her coronation gown into an ice-dress that didn't even have the same shape as the original (in fact, you can see the collar area that was not a part of the ice-ified dress flying off as snow when she changes it.) The ability to curse a person to slowly turn into an ice sculpture, as she accidentally did to Anna, is probably related to this power.

Ability to create Snowlems: obviously. It's not made clear if she can fully control this or if the result is always an embodiment of her subconscious mental state at the time she made it. In addition to living snow, she can apparently imbue life into, for example, the ice permeating frozen twigs, explaining Olaf's arms.

Ability to telekinetically control ice: Shown several times. This probably justifies how she brought in sticks to be Olaf's arms on the basis that the sticks may have been frozen. This also appears to be how she lifted the winter at the end; she seems to have no ability to actually melt ice. But what she did do is, with her newfound positive emotional state allowing her full control of her immense power, she apparently just lifted the ice into the air and then ripped it apart at the molecular level, effectively vaporizing it.

Ability to lower the ambient temperature: Not sure where the heat goes. Either she somehow pumps the heat into an alternate dimension, or she just flat-out violates conservation of energy (because, ya know, magic). Either way, this ability seems to be able to extend around her for miles around, at least far enough range to cause the cold weather in Arendelle to persist even when she's miles away on a mountain.

There have been many Snow Queens throughout history

Like Jack Frost and similar legends, the Snow Queen is a magical being who is the personification of winter. When the Snow Queen dies, a child is born that will eventually take her place. Elsa was supposed to be that child. Elsa's father didn't misinterpret the trolls' warning about her emotions affecting her powers. The Snow Queen is supposed to have a heart of ice, completely free of emotion. That is how she controls her powers. But, instead, Elsa chooses to reject that role and learns to control her powers with love.

Her powers come from a devil fruit

Kuzan got into a fight with a devil fruit user who's powers are to open dimensional portals. This guy, of course, wanted to kill Kuzan, so Kuzan died, but his dead body including his devil fruit were flung into the The 'Verse of Frozen, where the devil fruit reincarnated into an apple tree near the palace and was eaten by a very young Elsa. She may even be able to swim, as this universe's water may not emit the same unknown energy as the waters of the One Piece universe do, weakening and immobilizing devil-fruit users and blocking their powers.

Elsa is an Obscurial

She had to control her powers which she was afraid of and they burst out of her, like Ariana Dumbledore's did until she lost control and nearly killed people.

Elsa is the Winter Maiden

Elsa has an eating disorder

• Elsa could have developed some eating disorders during her 13 years of isolation, and may have had periods where she didn't eat for days at a time, like after her parents died.
  • That would give a Watsonian explanation for the (typical for Disney characters, but not real humans) unhealthily thin body.

Elsa is a Princess: The Hopeful Princess.

• Probably Court of Diamonds: Based on A Sister More Like Me, she's studious, values intellect and control of emotions, and of course has the affinity for ice and water.
  • Or possibly Court of Clubs, since she learns to reconcile expressing herself with living in harmony with others, and tries to avoid becoming a violent monster.
  • Hearts is another possible fit, since she's a leader, regal, and believes in fulfilling duty through following rules and conventions. She tries to fulfill hers by taking her father's advice to "conceal it, don't feel it" while learning control around others to extremes years after he's gone.
• Calling's a little harder to determine, but I would peg her as either Grace (she does display strong leadership traits) or Seeker (again, studious and, based on the apparent "Into the Unknown" song snippet going around, curious).
  • Troubadour could also work, since she's artistic and has an affinity for magic that shapes material and that is connected to emotions. While she usually doesn't want attention, she can still be a bit dramatic and performative, since she uses big gestures when casting her magic, despite knowing it's unnecessary for it to work. During the first film, she learns to embrace her powers as a force that can be used for creation, and her artistic expression is a big part of her.

Anna (& her alleged powers)

Anna

Anna is not the first princess Hans tried to marry.

Since Frozen (2013) is in the same universe as Tangled, it's not hard to imagine the Prince of the Southern Isles wanting to marry the recently returned Princess of Corona. He went to the kingdom celebration (that lasted two weeks) with the hopes of wooing her. However, he had no way of knowing that Rapunzel was already in love with Flynn, ruining his chances. Then he hears that there's a coronation for two isolated sisters in Arendelle...

• And if Anna and Elsa really are related to Rapunzel, he could well have heard of Arendelle during the festivities in Corona, maybe from idle gossip wondering if either of those Arendelle princesses would marry soon.

Anna's education was disrupted a lot because of Elsa's condition

Anna seems to have missed out on the most basic training of how to behave at royal events (though she knows how to dance, possibly because she wanted to learn.) Her free-ranging behaviour and childish world-view have persisted into what most people would consider adulthood.

• A Sister More Like Me suggests that Elsa spent a lot of time studying because of her physical confinement and because she wanted to (not to mention such studying would be necessary so that she can seamlessly become queen without much difficulty). Anna got outside a lot more and wasn't interested in sitting in with books.
• It's speculated a lot that Elsa took up most of their parents' attention, especially their father's. Queen Iduna maybe didn't feel like putting her baby girl under a lot of educational pressure- especially as she could see Elsa wasn't thriving emotionally.
• After their parents died, Anna seems to have had very little attention- from fifteen, it doesn't look like anyone was educating her.

Anna is the way she is partly because of Childhood Brain Damage

Come on, someone had to say it. True, five isn't quite a 'baby' but she did fall about twenty feet head first onto a hard floor (a serious accident in itself), took a bolt of magic to the head, had her brain apparently nearly frozen and had some pretty radical magic brain surgery. She functions okay but it wouldn't be surprising if it left her with more than odd hair...

• Anna's 'kookiness' may be the result of genuinely perceiving the world in a slightly different way to other people- what's sometimes called a 'neuro-diverse profile'- that is, the condition by which people with profiles like Asperger's syndrome, dyspraxia or ADHD (all of which can overlap)- in which the person's brain connects signals together by unusual or circuitous pathways, meaning that they sometimes link thoughts together, or store memories, in seemingly strange ways. (Why this happens is not fully understood but often seems to start with birth trauma or seizures in early childhood.)
• Anna's impulse control and ability to process risks don't seem to have progressed much since she was five.
  • Really? Her body kinesthetic intelligence is pretty high. She knows how to fight very well despite no apparent training (she gives Hans and that wolf flawless hits, knows when to leap off cliffs, etc.) I'd say she knows when to take risks. As for impulse control, there's a very good argument for her engagement to Hans on the YMMV page's Alternative Character Interpretation section explaining she understood the big opportunity she was getting with very little time to make a decision that will effect her life and emotional state forever. (It's also a fairy tale. Fairy tale characters behaving like fairy tale characters isn't really childish.)
• It's also a nice Watsonian explanation of why Anna's 'handedness' seems to be inconsistent (throwing with her left, hitting with her right, gesturing with either). An early sign of a 'neuro-diverse' brain can be when a child is cross-dominant, being ambidextrous and showing no particular dominance of one hand over the other (or they perform some actions left-handed and some right-handed), because of their unusually-mapped neural pathways.

Powers

At some point in the film's development, Anna was going to have Fire Powers:

It would have been suppressed by the Troll's magic at the beginning. She wouldn't have started manifesting them yet, and after the Troll removed all magic she wouldn't have access to them. These would have manifested near the end, leading to an Ice and Fire/Winter and Summer motif. There are a lot of foreshadowing left in, such as "You almost burned me!"/"But I didn't." and "What power do you have to stop this?" It may have been cut for time.

• Elaboration here

Or, there is going to be a sequel involving Anna having fire powers

Think about it. My dad says that he believes Frozen is similar to the Marvel Universe and that you can't have one 'mutant' and not another. Anna could very well have been born in the winter (consisting of December, January and February, therefore born in either January or February in order to make her eighteen by the time of her sister's coronation in the summer) and be born with fire powers that only exert themselves when she's extremely angry. Also, for all we know, the two sisters are going to be made to test their love for each other by having to fight now that both have come of age (in modern terms eighteen is of age).

• And it's going to be called Burned

Anna was touched by Summer, just as Elsa was touched by Winter.

Anna's red hair, green dresses, and general sunny disposition (and sentimentality) are all side effects of Summer's influence. When the trolls wiped Anna's memory of Elsa's powers, they accidentally blocked Anna's power from ever consciously surfacing. This also explains why Elsa's winter magic is so powerful and uncontrollable-she and Anna were supposed to act as mutual Power Limiters, allowing the two to keep their powers controlled until they were old enough to use them properly and responsibly.

Anna has Earth related powers

Another troper mentioned something similar above but, yeah, Anna has powers but they're not fire. She hasn't awakened them yet.

Anna is the one with the power to grant life.

Elsa is a representation of winter, so she got ice, wind and snow powers. Anna is a representation of spring, the season everything comes back to life or is reborn. Notice how there's no indication Olaf is alive when Elsa builds him but is walking and talking when Anna shows up? Notice how Olaf's body parts can be moved around but don't really change, meaning his parts are specific and can't be added or subtracted by surrounding materials... except for the carrot Anna gives him, which somehow works like a real nose? Notice how Elsa had no idea she could create life, despite roughly two decades of having powers she can't control she's never done anything like that before. Notice how the only other living snowman is created in Anna's presence? Also notice that despite the magical ice storm that lasted for days there's absolutely no noticeable damage to any plants or animals when Elsa thaws everything at the end? Elsa's powers have never been depicted as harmless before so why the sudden change? Unless it's ANNA who healed the land by accident as Elsa thawed it. If their powers worked similarly then Anna's powers would also be linked to her emotions but Anna spends most of her time being positive and loving instead of scared and distant like Elsa so she gets better results without realising it.

Anna has Super-Strength.

• She's a tiny thing but somehow manages to:
  • In "For the First Time in Forever" she manages to throw a bronze bust across the room. Even if it's hollow it's still going to weigh 20 pounds.
  • When Hans nudges her playfully, her attempt to do the same knocks him sideways.
  • She knocks away (40 secs) an adult wolf (probably at minimum 150 lbs) with a lute like it was a baseball.
  • When she punches Hans off the boat, he arches backwards.
  • Etc.
  • Going along with the summery theme Anna has, she gets her super strength from being born on the summer solstice like Elsa's magic is from the winter solstice, and that strength derives directly from the sun.

Alternatively Anna has had military training.

Everything listed as an example of Anna's super strength could also be an example of her having been through some sort of military training in the three years since her parents' deaths. It would be a non supernatural explanation for her strength, agility and decisiveness in several scenes, particularly every action she takes when fending off the wolves, including swinging Kristoff's lute at one, throwing a burning bedroll another one, pulling Kristoff back into the sled (and Kristoff weighs about 160lbs / 72kg, much more than Anna probably weighs), and completely takes charge of the situation by giving Sven the 'jump' command, much to Kristoff's chagrin.

Her actions show an amazing amount of quick thinking that would make any commanding officer proud.

• Also, during Frozen Fever she's able to wake up, get dressed and groom her hair perfectly in a matter of seconds. Anyone who has ever been in the military will tell you, that's an accomplishment in itself.

• This could even fit in with the Once Upon a Time depiction of Anna, where she's shown to have taken up swordplay after the ordeal with Hans.

Anna will become the "Sword" half of a Sword and Sorceress team.

• Anna states in a cut song that she will be Elsa's "right hand". Given that Elsa may still need time to get over her issues, Anna might be the best one to be Elsa's first line of defense.

Anna, being born on the summer solstice, would have been born with fire powers...

But the stars (or rather, the planets and time) were not in position for those powers.

Anna has electricity (or storm) powers

Because this is the WMG page and because of her voice.

Anna is a Princess: The Hopeful Princess.

• Definitely Court of Swords, as she is ruled by and believes in Love (of all four sorts). Calling is most likely Troubador, since her main thrust seems to be trying to awaken people's spirits.
• As mentioned above, she displays surges of strength far beyond what she should have, which could either be Celestial Grace or just Transformed Attributes. And Inner Light acting to boost her magic resistance could help explain why the freezing curse took so long to take effect.
• It also seems very likely her Calling is Mender, since she's almost always trying to help people, the physically-suffering people of Arendelle and the spiritually-suffering Elsa, despite how Elsa has hurt her before. She is capable of both being quite naive and being quite mature. Grace is also a possibility, because one of her main goals is to help her sister confront her fears and she has a strong affinity for personal relationships. She also shows effective leadership skills in convincing Kristoff to guide her toward the North Mountain and in convincing the Duke not to send his guards after Elsa (at least until Anna's horse comes back without her, at which point she's missing.)

An elderly Anna would tell her grandchildren about the legendary exploits of her sister

• Anna lives well into the 1910s as a queen emeritus, having abdicated from her throne. She would tell her grandchildren and great-grandchildren about the exploits she and her sister had over the years; alternatively, none of the magical events took place and the dynasty simply had a notable if not eventful reign particularly with the plot Hans unsuccessfully hatched to usurp the throne, and Anna being the perky chatterbox that she was, would weave fairy tales about her family in 1840s Arendelle to entertain her grandchildren. This would eventually become the stuff of legend in Arendelle and by extension Norway and the rest of Scandinavia.
• Or, Hans Christian Andersen, assuming he existed in the Disney universe (or at least the Frozen mythos), took inspiration from the Arendelle royal family and loosely based the Snow Queen on Elsa and the unusual weather at the time.

Arendelle and Politics

Elsa's coronation fell on July 29th of 1844

We know from the line of dialogue from Oaken that the movie is set in July. But Elsa's coronation in the church gives more possible evidence to exactly when in the month. The altar cloths and the bishop's vestments◊ are red, and in the Roman Catholic Church, red is used on the feast days of martyrs (and Holy Week and Pentecost, but those can never be in July). Now, there aren't a lot of Norwegian Saints, but there are two martyrs who have their feasts in July: Saint Sunniva (July 8) and Saint Olaf (July 29). Saint Sunniva doesn't work out, due in part to her being patron saint of the diocese which includes Bergen, but Saint Olaf's feast, July 29, makes more sense, because of his status as first king of Norway and also because of Olaf being the name of Anna and Elsa's snowman.

In Norway, Saint Olaf's feast day (the Olsok) is a national day of celebration. It would make sense for Elsa's coronation to take place on such a day, and some real monarchs of Norway have been crowned on July 29 (notably Haakon IV in 1247 and Christian II in 1514). So it goes without saying that although Elsa was not born on July 29 (and neither were Haakon IV or Christian II), that she was crowned on that day because it is the custom in Arendelle to crown their monarchs on the Olsok (King Agðar was also crowned on a red day◊).

It also lines up with the lunar calendar for that year, since Anna dances with Hans under a full moon during "Love is an Open Door."

Guns were banned throughout Arendelle after King Agnarr's conversation with the trolls.

While the Duke of Wesleton's bodyguards have guns, Arendelle's royal guards don't. It's possible that the King was afraid that Arendelle's people and royal guards will turn on the royal family if the discover Elsa's powers, and while he believed she could protect herself against cold weapons (no pun intended), guns are a different story.

The imperial future of Arendelle

Following the events of the movie, Arendelle will use the godlike powers of Queen Elsa to conquer neighbouring nations and become the preeminent global superpower.

• Somehow I can't see Elsa going along with this.
• But with her power, Arendelle's economy will have a spectacular boost with the all year round ice she can supply.
  • Also imagine this: Arendelle will now be impossible to invade while Elsa is on the throne: she can immobilize any invading fleet by freezing the waters, and then perhaps shifting the ice to crush their hulls. Furthermore, any invading force going overland to the city could suddenly face such a bad blizzard that their traveling pace is reduced to crawling speed while Elsa could create ice barricades for her soldiers to use.
  • Now I'm thinking of Arendelle conquering England and all the world superpower countries. And yes, that includes America.
    • Does America exist yet in this quasi-Medieval world?
    • Will America exist at any point in this world's timeline? Or England? Arendelle is a vaguely Norway-esque equivalent, but there's no direct real-world counterpart, same as Corona; it seems more likely that it's another, non-Earth world, maybe a parallel version.
    • Given the Frozen has an artistic style derived from the 1830s-1840s, there would probably be a U.S. analogue already. For some historical perspective, at around the same time that Elsa is building her ice palace in Arendelle, the Texas analogue could very well be losing to the Mexico analogue at the Alamo analogue.
• An Empire can't be built on one superhuman and an impenetrable city-state, especially if the city is only unassailable thanks to said superhuman, she can't be everywhere at once so there would be rebellions as soon as she left a province. Granted she could make an army of "Marshmallows" but we don't know if there's any sort of limitations to the personal flurry she gave Olaf to keep him from melting.
  • While she does probably have the 'Cross Me and You Are Antarctica' option, the most that would be good for is extorting tribute rather than any sort of profitable long-term direct rule. The Emperor still needed an army. Whether or not it would be technically possible is irrelevant. It would be massively out of character for Elsa.
  • We are in a position to take this as given, but something to consider is how many rulers will not. Some will be cynical enough to presume she would be happy to aggress (after all, it is what they would do with her power), while others will be less certain but have little firsthand knowledge of Elsa's character and know enough about her power to not want to take chances. In short there could easily be much bowing, scraping, exceedingly favorable trade offers, spontaneous pleas for Her Most Dread And Powerful Majesty's forbearance, etc. no matter what Queen Elsa's planned foreign policy is.
  • It's worth noting that Arendelle would become an incredibly powerful military ally due to Elsa's powers. Castle sieges? River crossings? Countering enemy assaults? Combat recon with snowlems? She doesn't even have to be constantly on the frontlines. One solid demonstration of her might and rulers would be clambering over each other to secure her as an ally - or persuade her to not become one.
• It would only last as long as Elsa, or someone else with her abilities, held Arendelle, and we've had no evidence of the power being hereditary (and thus possibly inherited by her or Anna's offspring) or capable of extending Elsa's life. If she manages to make an empire on her power, she'll make a lot of enemies who'll be counting down the days until she's dead or weakened by age. In a worse-case scenario, attempting to use her powers under such conditions may backfire horribly, and those enemies will be accumulating anyway while the empire-building is in progress. Other kingdoms may have magical resources of their own, whether or not they're open about it, and Elsa openly using her abilities could spark a Batman Begins-style arms-race or Cold War. As pointed out above, we know that Elsa's unlikely to use her powers aggressively, but other countries don't.
  • Jossed hard in Frozen II. Elsa abdicates within three years, and Anna takes the throne.

Elsa, and Arendelle, by extension, will gain a great deal of influence in the politics of the realms.

Considering the size of its capital, Arendelle appears to be a fairly minor kingdom, albeit a fairly prosperous one. Now, however, its queen is a Person of Mass Destruction with terrifying ice powers. None but the most moronic rulers would want to piss off a woman who can impale you on icicles with a gesture, summon massive Snowlems to do her bidding, and plunge an entire nation into deepest winter during the middle of summer.

• However, it's implied that Elsa's powers aren't totally unique (The Duke of Weaseltown (WESELTON!) seems to have heard of magic, at least, and Elsa's parents didn't seem to find her having it a cause for alarm, just that she couldn't seem to control it. In all probability, the kingdoms with mages keep each other in check, just like Real Life nuclear powers.
  • Talk about a cold war.
  • The end result when that cold war finally goes (metaphorically) hot? "Each day is more gray than the one before. It is cold and growing colder as the world slowly dies...The roads are peopled by refugees towing carts, and gangs carrying weapons, looking for fuel and food."
  • Hopefully Elsa manages to defuse the situation, since having someone so powerful lose control as she did would set all other nations on edge, especially any other nations with magical resources. Diplomatic incidents happen and get smoothed over all the time, but you don't want to accidentally touch off a sorcerous World War, plus that probably wouldn't be good for Elsa's personal issues.

Contrary to the above, Elsa's rule will make Arendelle into an impenetrable Switzerland-like entity

Obviously she's not the type for conquest, and beyond that, she really doesn't seem like she'd want to use her powers as leverage to meddle with the affairs of foreign countries at all. And she probably wouldn't want to enter into any alliances that would cause other countries to see her as a resource to be called upon in times of crisis. Any benefit of such alliances would be disproportionately in favor of the foreign ally, since she really doesn't need allies to keep Arendelle safe. She would probably go out of her way to make it clear to everyone that Arendelle is neutral and will remain neutral as long as no one is stupid enough to attack her country.

A near obsessively precise census and survey of Arendelle's countryside will be ordered by Queen Elsa

• That way, if it looks like she will be forced to use her powers with more force than precision^note (read: sink a particularly unreasonable war fleet or slap an army with Cabin-Boy Winter) she can issue effective evacuation or shelter-in-place orders (although working the well-insulated bunkers needed for the latter into the budget may take time).

Elsa's reign will mark the widespread acceptance (and return) of magic.

As shown in Tangled and Frozen's opening sequence, magic still exists, but not many people know about it. ^note Elsa's magic is easily accepted by her parents, and only becomes an issue once she hurts Anna- but at the same time, there are no other human mages to help her, or shared knowledge about said magic works. Anna is surprised to hear that trolls exist, which may or may not be a result of the mind-wipe. The only magic practitioner in Tangled- Gothel- is centuries old. That isn't solid proof, but it lends credence to the theory. The implication is that magic did exist, a long time ago, but has now been reduced to a few magical beings hiding themselves away, and a few superstitions that nobody resorts to except in times of crisis.
Frozen's finale essentially smashes this attitude to bits. A powerful mage rules Arendelle, at least one magical creature openly lives in it, and the country's populace is on the way to accepting magic as part of their daily lives. Additionally, the movie's has a strong theme of accepting magic and using it for the good of others. I theorize that Elsa isn't a throwback- she's a herald.

• Maybe it's real in both worlds - in ours, the suppression of witches in the Middle Ages and Salem was successful, in theirs, not.

Elsa's refusal to allow Anna to marry Hans was at least partly politically motivated.

Think about it: Hans is the youngest of thirteen brothers, meaning that, at best, he's twelfth in line to the throne, assuming that his father is dead and none of his brothers have any sons of their own. Anna, by contrast, is first in line to the throne of Arendelle. Moreover, she and the rest of the world think she's just the heir-presumptive, but as far as Elsa knows at that point, Anna will definitely inherit the throne. After all, Elsa believes that she can never let another person touch her, so she has to assume that she can never wed or bear children. As such, Anna will definitely, as far as she knows, inherit the throne, and must therefore marry to greater advantage than Hans. Elsa's willingness to contemplate a romance between Anna and Kristoff at the end may be at least in part because she realizes that she is not condemned to lifelong celibacy and chastity herself.

• The other part, of course, could be Elsa being savvy, possibly sensing that Hans might merely be using Anna as a tool to get himself closer to her to target her. Or she's just trying to go by the traditions of the period wherein a member of the court needs her permission to marry and sire/bear children, something that does apply to Anna.
• It's not so much that Hans wouldn't inherit much- it's not like Anna would need to be provided for and having a nephew who was heir to multiple kingdoms could be problematic for the future- but she would definitely need to find out if Hans is a satisfactory personality in those circumstances, and that an alliance with his brother was actually desirable.

The Troll Hunter is set in the same Universe as Frozen.

Partially out of a desire for revenge and partially to prevent their terrible, vague advice from hurting anyone else in the future, Elsa and Anna decide that the best policy for dealing with the trolls living in the Kingdom of Arendelle is to kill them all. Over the course of the next two centuries, this results in the decimation of the troll population and, as a result, an extreme tendency toward in-breeding. The population of trolls in The Troll Hunter is so dumb that there is no way that they could have survived that way in the long run, and coupled with myths and legends suggesting more human-like behavior in the past, it seems that something like this is the most likely explanation for why they are now dumb enough to attempt to eat their own tails. Hans, the troll hunter, is almost certainly wrong when he suggests that an animal like that could live for 1500 to 2000 years. All of the trolls seen in the movie were born during the 20th century.

During the course of the 20th and early 21st centuries, policies turned more toward containing what population of trolls remained in the kingdom that became Norway, since the monarch who ordered the policy is long dead, and since the trolls have lost the ability to dispense terrible wisdom. This, of course, competes with an attitude that is still generally destructive, leading to troll-hunter Hans being forced to wipe out an entire population to assist in the construction of a tunnel. Regardless of any policy attempting to keep them alive, however, it seems likely that the trolls will eventually die out due to their stupidity.

There's this disturbing rumor floating around the international community that Queen Elsa secretly has Victorian Novel Disease

It's very prevalent in this period, especially among people who are quite young, and for people in comfortable circumstances could be in temporary remission for years. If you live in a society where you see this often, there's lots of clues when Elsa appears on her coronation day that would (misleadingly) point to this.

• It's known that she's been removed from public view suddenly as a little girl and the household could look as if it went into pre-emptive mourning. She still spends long periods hidden from even most of her own household and doesn't go out in public; she has rules that say all people must stay at arm's length and is reluctant to touch even inanimate objects with her bare hands (while this actually is because she's afraid that she'll freeze someone to death, it also fits with some protocols at the time for TB patients- it was already known that it was infectious). She's pale, slight and bright-eyed, yet somehow looks scoured out by sadness; she wears heavy clothing even in summer, moves carefully and her manner of holding her orb and sceptre make it look as if she was barely strong enough to lift them...
• She's known to be only opening up the gates for one day. It's like she's decided that she wants her reign confirmed before she closes it up again- perhaps they guess that symptoms have come back and she's not got long to live.
• It certainly makes sense of the interested parties closing in for a carve-up...and in hindsight, could almost certainly be another plausible reason why Hans is so delighted to find that Elsa has a little sister who's the picture of ideal health- it ties up why he seems genuinely struck when he first meets Anna. It makes marrying the sister a much better bet than marrying Elsa and hoping she survives at least nine months, long enough to leave a young heir for him to be regent for.

Even if Elsa does have her powers under control at the end, there will still be people who hate her because of her magic

There are likely other people besides the Duke of Weselton who are prejudiced against people who use magic.

The weapons first used on a large scale during World War I were originally developed as countermeasures to Elsa

Especially flamethrowers and mustard gas.

The government of Arendelle has traditionally always been really, really, really informal by monarchy standards

Exhibit A: It's implied that before King Agdar started isolating Elsa, the castle gates were open all the time, with at least the courtyard being pretty much always open to the public. And at the end, Elsa said she was never closing the gates again (though that conversation had a double meaning about how she was going to be open with her sister from now on, she apparently also meant it literally, and there's no reason to believe this was a new policy as opposed to just putting it back to what it had originally been. In fact, the latter would make the parallel between the literal policy and her sisterly relationship even stronger).

Also, the throwaway line in "For the First Time in Forever", "...who knew we had eight thousand salad plates...?", suggests that before the king closed everything up for Elsa's sake, that the royals previously had a tendency to throw very large parties, not just intimate gatherings of nobility but huge parties with everyone invited. I mean, the entire population of Arendelle may not be much higher than eight thousand. And of course, what does Elsa do at the end after everything is sorted out? She throws a big ice skating party at the castle, and invites everyone.

Exhibit B: Before she startled the crap out of them with her previously-unseen ice powers, the commoners in the courtyard during the coronation afterparty seemed like they really wanted to buddy up to her, or ask her why she seemed so upset. This sort of implies a tradition of the commoners not really keeping too much distance from the royalty, and being able to know them personally, with the king's shutting everyone out to protect Elsa being highly unusual. The dynamic in Arendelle overall seems like a small town where everyone knows everyone else, just with "town" replaced with "city-state kingdom", and "mayor" being replaced with "monarch".

Exhibit C: Arendelle appears to have a very simplistic and naive power structure and set of rules for succession. There doesn't really seem to be much in the way of nobility besides the royal family. With no regent, we're left to believe Elsa became queen immediately after her parents died and she was just putting off her public coronation as long as possible. When Elsa runs off and effectively abandons her authority, Anna apparently recieves absolute power immediately, and there aren't even any safeguards in place to prevent her from delegating nearly all that power to a foreigner she barely knows.

It seems to be a really simplistic governance structure, which with so few safeguards to ensure stability, you wouldn't think would be able to survive for very long at all. Presumably the only reason it has survived, is by being a very small and tight-knit society where the royal family has always maintained an extremely high public approval rating and very strong public support overall. Given that there doesn't appear to be a standing army, but rather just a few town guards (who are few in number), the royal family probably don't have the ability to force their rule if they wanted to, but rather rely on the people just being happy and not wanting to revolt. Hans, the attempted usurper, seems to know very well that to have power in Arendelle, you must make it a priority that the public likes you.

And a very long-standing and strong tradition of seeing the royal family as trustworthy and ultimately good goes a long way towards explaining why everyone is so quick to forgive Elsa for hiding that she's a powerful ice sorceress from them for many years and then nearly causing an eternal winter. If the queen apologizes and explains herself, that's good enough for them, no matter what just happened. When she cleans up the winter she made and says she didn't mean to make it in the first place, they're not inclined to be suspicious of that.

As for how they haven't been flattened by a foreign power, either they have a really strong citizen militia in the style of Switzerland, or else have managed to get themselves set up as a mostly-independent protectorate of a larger kingdom.

Exhibit D: At the end, no one makes a big deal about the fact that the queen's sister and heir presumptive to the throne is dating a commoner. Unlike most European monarchies, there really don't seem to be any rules in place about "keeping the bloodlines pure", or anything like that. Apparently in Arandelle, anyone can marry into royalty and it's not a big deal.

The entire movie is an Elsaist propaganda film.

Credit to a friend and fellow troper for authoring this theory and granting permission for it to be posted here.

Anna was actually trying to end the state of isolationism Arendelle was in, and joined a foreign prince's plot to help her coup her sister. Hans actually tried to make democratic reforms during his brief rule, and actually captured Elsa after successfully persuading the Arendelle army to mutiny. But he underestimated the Queen's powers and her own supporters, who counter-couped him and "saved Anna" from her. The two conspirators who try to actually coup Elsa in the film are an American who wants Arendelle to be friendly to his kingdom, and an Englishman who wants Arendelle to be more economically submissive.

The Royal Family

The royal family of Arendelle sucks when it comes to long-term planning

This is partly based on a headcanon from this really interesting fanfic that posited that the 'isolate Elsa' thing was originally something meant to last a few weeks, but because of Elsa's issues ended up dragging on throughout her whole childhood. But it does fit with canon:

• What does Elsa do after her powers are revealed? Flee into the mountains and declare that she's going to be alone for the rest of her life. Nice and all... but what was she planning to eat?
  • Ice powers would make hunting extremely easy.
    • Hunting, sure, since she can use the ice to freeze attacking animals like wolves. Turning the products into something remotely edible, not so much. Elsa was raised as a princess, so she's not going to know how to prepare meat, make a fire, find anything to supplement her diet, or whatever. Also, even if she hadn't created an eternal winter, there's still natural winter to contend with. Most animals don't come out much during the winter.
• Anna's plan was basically: 1. Look for Elsa. 2. Find Elsa somehow. 3. Talk to Elsa. 4.??? 5. Elsa defrosts Arendelle.
• This WMG also explains why there's no backup power structure in place that prevents woefully unprepared Anna from receiving power (and promptly giving it away to Hans) when Elsa runs off. It just runs in the family that they're uncommonly bad at planning and contingency plans, and that's why their power structure and rules of succession are so simplistic and lacking in safeguards.

Elsa and Anna are actually half-sisters.

This is just to explain why Elsa has powers and Anna doesn't. They both share a mother, but Elsa's other parent is someone with ice powers. Personally, my bet's on Ithaqua

• I'll wager a snow queen from another Disney work had a child out of wedlock and not caring to raise it dumped it on this kingdom's doorstep.
• Or rather than share a mother, they share a father. It's entirely possible to dramatize Elsa's life by having her biological mother die while birthing her (something which is not implausible in a medieval setting, as childbirth back before modern medicine was a leading cause of death among women), then Agdar remarried, so Idun was the one who gave birth to Anna.

Either way, this theory also ties in nicely with the above-mentioned WMG that Elsa is a descendant of the Jotuns; her biological parent (either father or mother) was a descendant of the Jotuns with ice powers, which explains why she has ice powers and Anna doesn't.

• It would also explain why we never see Idun talking to Elsa; she always lets Agdar take the lead, as if she feels like it isn't her place to comfort her or give her advice. (I think the only time she talks is when she picks up the stricken Anna and says "She's ice cold!").

Elsa is flatly against the idea of political marriages and love at first sight

• Elsa turned down Anna's marriage proposal to Hans not just because of the fact that they had just met, but also for political reasons. This comes from one fanfic this troper has read, which suggests both sisters had received several betrothal offers. Perhaps Elsa didn't want Anna to marry into the Southern Isles clan because she didn't want to rank the Southern Isles above Arendelle in terms of authority.

The reason neither sister left the castle during the three years between when Agdar and Idun died and when Elsa was coronated is because of a decree Agdar made

• This also comes from the fanfic Secret Passages, but suppose that Agdar made some decree that the gates stayed closed until Elsa turned 21. Agdar and Idun died three years before that happened, so for Anna and Elsa, the castle became a Gilded Cage. For Elsa, this wouldn't be a problem since she theoretically could rule from behind closed doors, though Anna might grow tired of the castle's surroundings.

Elsa ruled as a regent in her parent's stead during that period

• There were originally plans for a regent in the script, but the character was cut for time and for irrelevance to the main plot. Perhaps, in the final movie, and again, the fanfic Secret Passages theorized this: perhaps Elsa was supposed to be her own kingdom's regent. Her title technically was 'Queen Elsa of Arendelle' the moment her parents died, but she didn't get the full authority of a monarch until she turned 21. Thus, while Elsa could do business with other kingdoms, she couldn't do some things like repeal existing laws or create new ones (which would be a matter left off to a council of advisors or something), and she would have had to sign documents with something akin to "Crown Princess Elsa of Arendelle on behalf of the late King Agdar and Queen Idun". So while Elsa technically was the highest ranked person in authority in Arendelle during the three years between her parents' deaths and her cornation, she was only ruling in her parents' stead and had no actual political power of her own until her coronation. This would explain who was in charge before Elsa's coronation, and actually ties in nicely with the previous WMG, because if Elsa didn't have any authority to make new laws or overturn existing ones, she wouldn't have the ability to overturn her parents' decree that the gates stay closed until her coronation even if she wanted to open them.

The King and Queen

Elsa unwittingly killed her parents

• Elsa's worries about her parents led to their demise across the sea, her powers manifested the very scenario she feared would happen.

Elsa killed her parents on purpose.

Sort of. Over the years, despite her loving them, part of her grew to resent them as well, blaming them for her isolation and loneliness. While they were away, she had a particularly bad night, cursing herself, her parents, and wishing they were dead. Unfortunately, her dark thoughts manifested themselves accordingly.

Rapunzel and Eugene were Stewards of Arendelle until Elsa came of age.

Someone had to run the place for those 3 years! The job was given to Elsa and Anna's long lost cousin Rapunzel who brought her husband with her. Rapunzel and Anna became good friends, discussing their urge to see the world and fine arts. Anna didn't quite have Rapunzel's talent, but she had been exposed to many great works and liked looking at them with her cousin. Rapunzel unwittingly inspired Anna with a desire to find True Love with a handsome stranger after telling her how she met Eugene. (She skipped the part where she hit him with a skillet.) They both tried to convince Elsa to come out and join them (Rapunzel couldn't for the life of her understand why someone would willingly lock themselves up.) but she wouldn't have it. Not even to join in on the dance lessons Rapunzel and Eugene hosted so that they'd be ready for the coronation ball. They were surprised but very understanding when Elsa's powers were revealed.

Ancestors & Descendants

Elsa's descendant will be Bobby Drake. AKA Iceman

Hey, mutants are born with the gene. Who's to say that Bobby didn't inherit it from his frost wielding ancestor?

Elsa and Anna are Distant Relatives of Cheryl Heather Mason.

In the 2009 re-imagining of the first Silent Hill, the player character (Harry Mason) is revealed to be a manifestation of the tormented psyche of his daughter, Cheryl, who has been controlling (to some extent) both his actions and the environment as she comes to terms with his death in a car crash.

Distinct similarities exist between the worlds that Cheryl's father explores and the one created by Elsa in Frozen. While the climate of the region where most of the Silent Hill games are set (Maine) would obviously allow for winter weather in the middle of the winter, the snow that falls on the town in Shattered Memories is exceptionally heavy. In addition, it appears to have fallen since Cheryl arrived for her appointment with Dr. Kauffman, because there would be no way for a person to travel if it hadn't. In some places, it is piled up over the road to a height of around ten feet. While this could be accepted as just a psychological manifestation, there is really no indication that the events of the game don't take place in the physical world, and some fairly strong evidence that they might (including some tapes and messages left by individuals who Cheryl would have no way of knowing). Cheryl's Snow World and the eternal winter that Elsa brings to Arendelle are facially very similar.

At certain times in the game, when Cheryl is abnormally stressed, the Snow World turns to an icy Otherworld similar in aesthetics to the versions of Elsa's ice castle and Arendelle that are visible when Elsa learns that she has plunged the city into everlasting winter and when she wakes up after being knocked unconscious by a chandelier, respectively. Jutting, sharp outcroppings of ice appear and the general atmosphere changes dramatically.

Finally, the last portions of the game, when Harry Mason is nearing the end of his search for his daughter, occur in an area sometimes called Nowhere, where the environment is twisted enough to play fast and loose with the laws of physics and spatial placement. An analogous environment exists in Frozen on two occasions, one near the beginning of the film when Elsa and Anna's parents die and one near the end when Elsa believes that Anna is dead. Although in these instances there isn't any spatial distortion, the environment becomes highly distorted, and snowflakes freeze in midair.

Although the creatures in Shattered Memories appear to be flesh and blood, Harry Mason's turn to solid ice near the end of the game makes it distinctly possible that they are formed from ice and snow, and given "fleshy" features by Cheryl's delusions.

So, to recap, Elsa and Cheryl both have the ability to create blizzards. The ice and snow that they generate changes its attributes along with their moods. Beyond that, they can apparently create life from snow. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is set in the present, while Frozen is set in around the 1840s. The idea that Cheryl could be a distant relative (or possibly even a descendent) of the two main characters of Frozen definitely puts a darker spin on what would have happened to Arendelle had things turned out a bit differently.

Elsa is a descendent of Nancy and Edward from Enchanted.

Her power, like Elphaba's, originates from having ancestors from two different worlds. (Basically, every Idina Menzel character is connected somehow.)

Elsa's crown had an enchantment that counteracted her powers

Consider that Olaf got impaled through the torso with an icicle and impaled through the head with a carrot and neither one really bothered him that much. (He didn't even notice the icicle at first) Of course this makes sense because he's made of snow, and like any snowman, his body material can easily be rearranged to fix any holes or dents that might appear in him.

But when Marshmallow steps on Elsa's itty-bitty crown in the post-credits scene, he recoils as if it really hurt him. This doesn't make sense, especially when you consider how much smaller the crown is in proportion to him, compared to the icicle and Olaf. So it would seem that something about the crown makes it more painful to magical snowmen then icicles and carrots. Perhaps it was enchanted by an ancestor of Elsa's who also suffered from Elsa's snow magic, and enchanted their own crown in order to keep their powers suppressed. So why is Elsa able to use her magic when she's wearing it? Well perhaps the enchantment has substantially weakened over the centuries, or perhaps the original owner's powers were far weaker then Elsa's.

Either way, something about it makes it painful to magical snowmen. Pain is usually a primal indicator for something that threatens our health or lives, so the fact that Marshmallow finds the crown painful may indicate it's damaging to the magic that gives him life.

Kristoff & Sven

Elsa only appointed Kristoff "Official Ice Master and Deliverer" to give him a good reason to stay in Arendelle aside from Anna and so that he wouldn't feel useless until he and Anna can confirm that yes, they are truly in love.

After all, a job that involves delivering ice is kind of redundant and unnecessary in a kingdom where its queen can quite literally produce all the ice they could ever actually need. Once Kristoff and Anna presumably get married, he'll inevitably get some other, less redundant position and title.

• Well someone does need to deliver it to stores and the like. Though it’s unknown if Elsa's ice is even safe for consumption.
  • Olaf is made out of Elsa's ice, and heat melts him down to water like any other ice.
    • That doesn't necessarily mean he's safe to eat/drink, either due to magical dangers or more mundane toxicity. That said, Sven does eat snowflakes generated by Elsa's magic, and he seems okay.

Kristoff is a Changeling Child.

In the intro he's seen as a child going off to work with the adults. While in the 19th century, child labour laws were... laxer... before the industrial revolution, he would still be working with his father as an ice collector. Given how Bulda says that she'll "Keep" him and Sven it's fitting when you know mythology this would then make Kristoff a changeling. This also opens up a can of Whatever Happened to the Mouse? as to the possible troll-child that may have replaced him.

• Isn't Kristoff an orphan? It seemed to be implied, at least, by the fact that he didn't seem to have any relation to any of the men, no-one stopped to look for him or call to him while the men were leaving or when he and Sven followed the carriage, and it would mean that the trolls wouldn't have had to leave a replacement since Kristoff had no-one to miss him.
• Actually, it kind of works. Trolls were among the creatures who would steal children. Notably, they were especially attracted to blondes and beauty. Sometimes they would just take the child because they liked human children. Sometimes they'd leave a piece of enchanted wood, which would get sick and 'die', or just a fairy, and sometimes the stolen child would return home and in return for working with the fey folk, they themselves would have gifts, like abnormal strength and stamina. The idea of Kristoff being intended as a Fetch (the term for the child who is stolen) is remarkably close to folklore.
  • Also, given the establishment of the trolls' abilities to edit memories in the film it would also make the line Kristoff says "It was just Sven and me growing up" make sense as well: they erased any memories of his biological parents. The trolls could have possibly removed the memories of his true parents, which pushes it towards Fridge Horror.

Sven is actually a girl.

At the very beginning of the movie, we see Kristoff and Sven already together as young children; they are still together years later, when Kristoff is about 21. But male reindeer only live about ten years; female reindeer live about eighteen to twenty years. So given that Sven is still alive and in robust health well over ten years after the opening of the film, Sven must be female. Also, among Scandinavian reindeer, older males' antlers fall off in December, while younger males' fall off in Spring; only females keep their antlers into Summer, which is when the movie is set. So, clearly then, Sven is a girl.

• As Sven is still clearly a young fawn in the prologue, (s)he would have been less than a year old. Deer grow to adult size in the space of about a year, so he's (or she's) about 14.

Alternatively, Sven is male.

• The things discussed in the WMG above would also apply if Sven had been castrated early in life (which does happen.) Eunuch reindeer are also particularly large and strong, which would account for why Sven can pull such big, heavy sleds without needing a companion.

Kristoff's real job is going to be as ambassador to the trolls.

Ice Master and Distributor? That's not a thing. It's really just a cover for Kristoff's real assignment, which is to be Arendelle's ambassador to the trolls. It makes sense for Elsa to keep his real job a secret, because she doesn't want the rest of the world to know of the trolls' existence, or where they're located. Having a monopoly on that information could be strategically useful for her.

• This works as there's a good chance that Elsa might need the trolls at some point. Grand Pabbie's understanding of her condition isn't perfect but it's usually the best anyone has to go on.
  • For that matter, Kristoff's education by trolls (and experience in extreme weather) means he's probably got some relevant skills to help look after Elsa if things get serious again.

Sven is actually telepathic.

When Kristoff speaks "for" Sven, Sven's facial expressions are spot-on in time with Kristoff's words. It's like there literally is no delay as if Sven is miming along with Kristoff (or the other way around, where Kristoff makes up Sven's words to match his expressions). Perhaps after so long together, Kristoff can actually hear Sven's voice in his head and speaks aloud for him. He may not even know it consciously; it's possible Sven speaks to Kristoff with subconscious ideas which then form Kristoff's ideas as to what Sven should say.

• There's at least one fanfic that (jokingly) runs with that idea.

Kristoff once did something really dreadful and that's why he spurns humans.

The Trolls are Trolls, but they are good guys and they wouldn't stop Kristoff socialising with humans. They even know that he's socially impaired. When Anna comes along, they are delighted that he's finally opening up to girls. But in his past, Kristoff did something terrible. Maybe he hurt somebody accidentally, or ignored somebody in need of help, and now he's avoiding humans because he's ashamed and can't forgive himself. When he sings "The Reindeer Song", he's voicing Sven because he's trying to reassure himself. And in "Fixer-Upper", Bulda's words apply very well to Anna and Elsa, but she doesn't know about that - maybe she's talking about Kristoff's past?

Bulda: People make bad choices if they're mad or scared or stressed,

But throw a little love their way, and you'll bring out their best!

Olaf and Marshmallow

Olaf and Marshmallow are manifested aspects of Elsa's personality.

Olaf clearly represents the love Elsa has for her sister, a childish thing that somehow still persists even when he should melt. Marshmallow is her sense of responsibility, overwhelming and scary but happy to put on the tiara in The Stinger complete with a cute little smile.

Olaf and Sven get turned into humans by Elsa

Olaf and Sven get turned into humans and narrowly avoid going down with the Titanic

The living ice, like Olaf and Marshmallow, is unstable.

It doesn't look like the rest of Elsa's magic actually melts when it comes in contact with heat, except the things that never fully froze in the first place (the candlestick and the container when she was practising for her coronation ceremony, as well as the actual items themselves at the coronation). It can only be melted by Elsa herself. Case in point, her dress, her castle ice rink, and her entire winter don't melt, despite the fact that it's summer. The castle likely has all of its fires going, yet it's insides still freeze completely; we even see it freeze a room where a fire is lit. The ballroom unfroze after the incident with Anna no doubt subconsciously, because at the time, Elsa didn't have control over her powers. Likely they unfroze in her sleep, where she can't control her feelings, which is how her bedroom unfroze. It's also why she didn't know how to undo it; she never did it consciously and thought it all unfroze of its own accord. Living ice however, is an unstable part of her magic, perhaps because they're built from stronger, possibly unstable emotions than anything else she makes. Olaf was built absent mindedly in a giddy fit of joy where Marshmallow was built consciously out of a desperate fit of her desire to protect people from herself. Neither time was Elsa really thinking straight when she intentionally used her powers. There are four times Elsa's power really varies and they have relatively consistent results:

• Total focus on both her powers and what they're doing (freezing the ballroom as a child, creating the ice castle, freezing the castle courtyard, creating her dress, unfreezing Arendelle)
• Focus on her powers, slight focus on her emotions (any time she panics or is angry)
• When she's put 100% focus on something other than her powers (the deaths of her family members)
• Focus on her emotions, absent focus on her powers. (the creations of Olaf and of Marshmallow)

I think the reason Elsa never made living snow creatures before Olaf is before, she was always focusing on her powers once she accidentally hurt Anna, meaning there was never a time when she was focusing on her emotions and using her powers until she left Arendelle.

Olaf and Marshmallow will die once Elsa dies

It's totally possible that the two Snowlems' life force is tied to Elsa's; Should she die, the two will cease to live. Taking this further, it may also be possible that her death will cause her ice palace in the mountain to crumble, although considering its solid design and its location (up in the cold mountain), this is less likely.

Olaf

The reason behind Olaf's dream to experience summer is because of Elsa.

• When Elsa created him, he ended up reflecting the part of her that yearns to no longer be surrounded in the cold (as result of her ice powers).

Olaf was supposed to melt permanently, but this was cut.

It seems very odd that they foreshadowed a snowman melting numerous times, even in song, and then didn't go through with it. Maybe the focus groups disliked it.

• It would of been way too sad and melancholic - it's probably wise they cut it, because 'kill the comic relief' has kind of been done before in The Black Cauldron (though it was ultimately averted), and that was depressing as hell...
  • Not to mention it would be even more similar to another iconic snowman, and they didn't want to raise comparisons.

Olaf has real, flesh and blood eyeballs.

It certainly looks that way. What would happen if he melted?

Olaf can always locate the sisters, no matter what.

Building off the idea that Olaf is a manifestation of Elsa's bond with Anna, Olaf will always know where they are. He knew exactly where to go to lead Anna and Kristoff to Elsa when they asked. And while that occasion can be attributed to the fact she made him and thus he was just retracing his steps, he is later able to find Anna in the palace. Rather than wandering around the place blindly and likely sparking off some more panic about the living snowman, he finds the exact locked door that had Anna behind it. He probably doesn't think there's anything special about the fact he can always find the girls, so he never mentions it.

• Perhaps this means Olaf is 'programmed' to find and protect Anna, and his brain (if he has one) is wired so that he can scan his surroundings and locate her at a moment's notice.

Olaf wants to experience summer because he likes warm hugs.

And doesn't understand the difference between literal warmth and metaphorical warmth.

• That would explain his fascinated "So that's what heat is!" when he finally feels literal warmth after lighting the fireplace; it was the first time he realized it was something different from the warm-and-fuzzy feeling of a good hug.

Olaf was envisioned by young Elsa to be a snowman who loves summer.

• It's exactly the kind of thing an 8-year-old like Elsa at the start of the movie might easily think of, and it would explain why she has Olaf say "I like warm hugs" instead of just "hugs". Anna's outpouring of love at seeing Olaf suggests that he might be a familiar recurring character whenever she and Elsa create their indoor winter playground, not just that one time. So it would make sense that Elsa would eventually, after the first few times, invent an elaborate backstory for Olaf and give him his name. And if Olaf was around a lot during their play, then everything he seemed to know in the movie, he might have learned as the two sisters talked around him.
  • Given how this fanfic chose to expand on that scene by having them give Olaf (who has been really cut out from the main part of the plot) "pets" like a horse and a dog, that actually would be a very plausible answer.

Olaf is not wise about love.

While his definition of love is good, putting the other persons needs ahead of your own he has a very narrow belief about how it is expressed. He believes if you love something you let it go and remove yourself from the picture, and does not understand that this is not always true. This is demonstrated by the one selfless act he chooses to represent love Kristoff taking her to her true love and leaving her life forever, and the fact that he believes Kristoff coming back lessened it, not seeming to realize putting someone else's needs above your own and still being present in their lives aren't mutually exclusive.

• He probably feels that way because that's how Elsa thinks. For years, she felt she was protecting Anna by staying away from her. He's just going off what she believes.

The reason Olaf is so fascinated by summer is because he was born in summer.

It's summer when he was created, so perhaps that's why? He inherently knows that right now it's July, and he knows what summer is like because Elsa does (or perhaps because Elsa herself was born in the summer does he know).

Olaf knew all along what would happen to him in the heat.

He's not a Death Seeker, nor a masochist, he simply wanted to experience summer/heat because of the aforementioned WMG and to test if the same would happen to living snow. He's not even a little surprised that he's melting, and when he experiences the heat, he's not surprised he's fascinated. Even when he accidentally sets himself on fire, where he's about as startled as someone stumbling over their cat. He knew full well what would happen if he lit the fire for Anna, but his love and adoration for her made him want to do it anyway for her.

• This matches my feeling on the matter. His feelings on summer seem to be more that he knows he's being amusing.

Olaf is not quite the symbol of love between Elsa and Anna.

Marshmallow is apparently the symbol of Elsa's wish to be left alone, but his duty as the protector of the ice palace may be a bit more literal: He may have been a symbol of Elsa's need to protect herself. With that in mind, it's possible that Olaf is more like the symbol of Elsa's wish to protect Anna.

Let's consider a few things:

• Despite being created by Elsa somewhere very close to the ice palace, he doesn't immediately greet Elsa upon gaining conscience, and instead wanders down the hill, wandering almost aimlessly for about a day and a half until he stumbles upon Anna and Kristoff in the glade. As a proof, Elsa has never seen Olaf^note to be more precise, Elsa has never seen a walking, talking Olaf up until Anna finds her, not to mention that Olaf merely guesses that Elsa must be "the nicest, gentlest, warmest person ever", hinting that he doesn't know anything about Elsa except that she is his creator.
• Olaf sticks by Anna all the time. He could have tried to negotiate with Elsa when Marshmallow throws the party out of the palace, but no, he follows Anna when they flee from Marshmallow. And after that he sticks by Anna, at least until they arrive at Arendelle.
• Upon reaching Arendelle, Olaf goes to find Anna first, instead of trying to find Elsa. Sure, the weather has gotten bad by that point such that trying to look for Elsa, who at that point is probably already wandering the vast, obscured fjords, will be a chore, but no, he doesn't even try to go after Elsa.

So in a sense, Olaf is created by Elsa to be Anna's protector, or at the very least, counselor and advisor of sorts, while Elsa chooses to live in solitude. Yes, Olaf's birth is accidental, but surely it's possible that while reveling in solitude, Elsa also makes a wish for her sister to be happy, and that wish becomes Olaf?

Olaf is a 'safe' object for Elsa's repressed urge to love something small and vulnerable

Possibly going with the idea that Elsa is sexually repressed and certainly has a lot of unacknowledged affectionate, semi-maternal feelings (mostly towards Anna) that she has difficulty expressing without it seeming dangerous and wrong: one of the first things that she does when she 'lets go' and creates her own safe place is to create a being who's innocent, affectionate and vaguely built to the proportions of a toddler... and incidentally is something that Elsa could cuddle without worrying she'd hurt him (and one of the few things he knows is that he likes warm hugs...) She doesn't realise it and events take over before she can do so (though there is every chance they have an affectionate relationship after the film.)

Olaf is an artistic representation of Elsa.

A lot of artists represent themselves in their work, and Elsa is no different. Consider that Olaf is a loving being who likes warm hugs. But if he were to be hugged, he would melt. Similarly, Elsa wants love and human companionship, but is afraid people will be physically and emotionally hurt if they get close. It's safer for her to stay cold, even though she would rather indulge her sense of fun. As someone else noted, it's a fight between her Olaf side and her Marshmallow side. But Elsa, like Olaf, eventually learns that some people are worth melting for, such as Anna. Also like Olaf, she is able to "regenerate" with her two sides balanced once her love melts Anna's frozen heart. Granted, she's not experiencing physical death by "melting" the way Olaf would, but the emotional death she fears has just as big an impact.

If Elsa's magic is not nullified by her death, Olaf is heir to the throne of Arendelle.

She made him, and he was the first sentient snowman she created, so he's arguably her son and therefor a prince.

Marshmallow

Marshmallow is actually female.

This is partially because it wears Elsa's tiara in The Stinger, and partially because Marshmallow does't feel like it has to have a specified gender.

After the events of the film, Marshmallow goes on to become Arendelle's equivalent of the Yeti

• The Stinger implies that he (or she) is still out there in the wilderness somewhere, and may have grown less aggressive, but is probably still shy of humans due to the state of mind Elsa was in when she created him/her. Long after the events of the movie, travelers occasionally return from the mountains with stories of encountering a giant snow beast, but are seldom believed due to lack of evidence. ^note Somehow this train of thought stemmed from Malinda Kathleen Reese's Google Translate version of "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?", where, in the second verse, the title drop becomes "Would you like to build a Yeti?"

Hans

Hans is an Expy of Xanatos.

• Handsome, rich, charismatic, amoral, and very good at Xanatos Speed Chess...

Love can bring out the best in Hans too.

• As the trolls said,
  We’re not saying you can change him, ‘cuz people don’t really change,
  We’re only saying that love’s a force that’s powerful and strange
  People make bad choices if they’re mad, or scared, or stressed
  Throw a little love their way, and you’ll bring out their best
  • Probably, although one should avoid Unfortunate Implications what that could be. Hans does have certain qualities to recommend him- he's very bright, highly motivated, certainly capable of courage- and perhaps it would make him and everyone else happier if they were channelled for the greater good, rather than the 'bad choices' that apparently come out of anger from his dysfunctional background. One just has to remember that Bulda also said people don't really change...

Hans is a repressed fire mage.

Hans has fire powers that are kept in check only by his frozen heart. Since by the end of the film he has seen Anna's act of true love thaw her frozen heart, there is a possibility that his own frozen heart might also begin to thaw at some point, unlocking his fire powers and subjecting him to the same hardships that Elsa had endured. (Or more severe hardships, since his conscience will be much heavier with guilt than Elsa's.) Then, he loses his grip on his pyrokinesis, accidentally plunging the Southern Isles into a Heat Wave, and forcing Elsa and the gang to help him control his magical powers.

• Alternatively, Hans is cold and unfeeling because- unlike Elsa- he successfully trained himself (perhaps because it would be much more quickly evident that his power was a serious problem) to have an extremely shallow emotional affect, so he has no Power Incontinence problems, if indeed he can even use them at all now. Which suggests what a horrible mistake Elsa was making in thinking the answer was 'don't feel'! Hans really doesn't feel and, unlike her, he really is a monster.

Hans has a couple of those mirror shards from the Original story in his eye and heart.

And if and when he ever gets those shards out, his guilt is going to hit him like a freight train.

• I like this theory.
  • Me too, and this related to the theory way above that Frozen takes place after "The Snow Queen".
• Plausible, given that the 'cure' for the mirror shards is either true love or the tears of someone who truly loves you, and both Hans and Word of God states that his childhood was loveless, meaning that there'd be no-one who could cure him and possibly no-one who'd even notice the change in behavior caused by the shards. (Given his ability to deceive others, that might have been the case anyway.)
  • Beyond that, if he were really that miserable in childhood, he could have unknowingly invited them in. He could have made a heartfelt wish to stop the rejection making him feel so unhappy... and ended up unable to feel almost anything but bitter contempt.
    • Would explain why he shrugs off the 'invisibility' thing when it horrifies Anna.
• To add to this theory, being in close proximity to Anna's act of true love started to thaw Hans' frozen heart too, and his bafflement at Anna's recovery was the start of his Villainous BSoD. (Well, assuming it wasn't caused by repeated head injuries.)
• Alternatively, a member of Hans' family, a parent or brother (possibly both,) had a few mirror shards put in them. Hence why they treated Hans so coldly throughout his life.
  • Leading onto that, perhaps the shards of ice are a genetic thing? As the next child is born, the shards grow smaller but remain permanently. However, they can grow bigger if love is withdrawn from the person-which would explain Hans's behaviour and resentment towards his brothers. And it could also make a person into a sociopath. Combine that with a desire to impress his siblings and gain respect, and you have Hans.

Hans originally was supposed to die

During the climax where Hans was about to kill Elsa and Anna's Heroic Sacrifice shattered Hans' sword, Hans was originally meant to turn to ice as well and shattered upon impact. But the writers changed possibly because it will cause a Plot Hole when one of the Princes of the Southern Isles is dead.

• Even spares are royal, and if one goes missing or turns up dead on a diplomatic errand, especially in the wake of a widespread, hard-to-hide supernatural occurrence like this eternal winter, there would definitely be a lot of questions asked, even if there's no actual fondness for Hans. The only people who know the truth about what happened are all invested in Arendelle, have no proof, and wouldn't be without bias if they were thought to be lying (plus one is a snowman who happened to be accidentally animated by a possible suspect, so...). Sending Hans back alive and letting his family deal with it was the best option.

Hans is gay

It would explain why he's so adamant in gaining power, to be in a position where he can feel safe from persecution, and to make up for being an "embarrassment" to the Southern Isles royal family. Besides, his shared hidden identity motif with Elsa has to run deeper than simply being a duplicitous jerk. There's also the whole theory regarding fraternal birth order and homosexuality. The more brothers a man has that are older than him, the more likely he supposedly is to be gay. Hans has 12 older brothers.I found the implications of this study to be hilarious for Hans.

• "The so-called fraternal birth order effect is small: Each older brother increases the chances by 33%. Assuming the base rate of homosexuality among men is 2%, it would take 11 older brothers to give the next son about a 50-50 chance of being gay." And you have how many brothers again, Hans?
  • He could be bisexual, as a reference to Hans Christen Anderson.

Hans believed that Elsa intentionally froze Anna's heart.

Anna only vaguely says that she was wrong about Elsa not ever hurting her and doesn't explain it was a stress-induced accident, if I recall correctly. Hans, being a big jerk that isn't familiar with loving sibling relationships, interpreted this to mean Elsa attacked her sister on purpose, though she now regrets either her actions or the extent of the damage. This theory's truth or falsehood doesn't really have any impact on anything else, but I think the idea makes sense and is kind of interesting.

• After Anna unfreezes, Hans says in disbelief, "But she froze your heart!" to Anna. Perhaps the subtext is, "She froze your heart. Why the hell would you save her from me?" It shows that he doesn't grasp the concept of wholesome sibling relationships.

By the same token, Hans thought (at the early stages of their relationship) that Anna would be cool with the whole 'orchestrate your sister's death before she has time to marry and produce a child, inherit everything' part of his plans

.Again because Hans is Hans and would have done that to his brothers if there weren't too many of his brothers, nephews etc. to get away with that. Obviously he would have realised at some stage that Elsa and Anna didn't operate like that (possibly as early as when Anna rode out into the storm to look for Elsa) but up until then all he knew was that their relationship wasn't good.

• Honestly, it wouldn't be too unbelievable to think that, especially in a royal family. In history, killing off people above you in the succession line was pretty much to be expected, and considering how Anna was complaining about Elsa and they'd just had a fight, he would probably think she would be okay with it.

Hans came to believe both sisters were sorceresses, even if Anna didn't know

Due to Grand Pabbie wiping Anna's memories of Elsa's magic, Anna has a witch lock, and she was locked away with Elsa. And as much as Elsa's personality is ice, Anna's is fire. Hans was too afraid that he would trigger Anna's power. Remove fire when it would be an easy way to destroy the statue. Don’t kiss Anna, (why not he's not her true love, but her passion might light the fire).

A few interrelated WMGs regarding Hans' birth:

Hans is the youngest of 13 brothers, and this is just counting male siblings — it's possible this is just a humorously large Disney family, and it's not outside the realm of possibility, but consider how many other Disney princes and princesses seem to be only children or at the very least have an unremarkable number of siblings, unless they have stepsiblings, sometimes wicked, sometimes benign, such as in the WMG that Ariel's sisters in The Little Mermaid are her half-sisters by multiple moms. Multiple births (twins, triplets, etc.) are perilous for the mother, even today, and even noblewomen in a still-vaguely-medieval milieu would experience quite a toll on their health from carrying a great number of children to term. Either some of the siblings are adopted, giving Hans a possible Loki complex, or they are all by the same mother, making Death by Childbirth a very possible reason why Hans is the youngest at 18 or so, or they are by different mothers and there is perhaps an inherited reason why Hans sees women as insignificant, replaceable, and functionally interchangeable. Alternately, might he be the closest thing Disney will get to showing a Bastard Bastard?

• Real life royalty and nobility pre-birth control often had a significant number of children, but still, 13 sons and God knows how many daughters is a lot for one woman to bear, especially in the days before modern medicine. It's just as likely that Hans's mother was one of his father's mistresses.

  • If Hans's father had multiple mistresses, that would basically say that Hans may have only had two or three full-blooded brothers (sharing a mother and father). Many fanfics actually like to go with the idea that the rest of Hans's brothers would be half-brothers at most, all sharing a womanizing father, and he just refers to them as if they were full-blooded brothers because he likes rounding up.
  • The twelve older brothers are ahead of Hans in the line of succession- he's very clear about that- so if we're going by realistic standards of any European monarchy of the period, they would have to be born legitimate- if their mother was anyone other than the king's legal wife they wouldn't count in terms of inheritance. You have to remember that this issue of legitimacy was the real-life reason why Queen Victoria ascended to the throne of England instead of any of her uncle's children. However it's still possible that they had different mothers- widowed fathers with young families- and thanks to the mortality rate of childbirth there were a lot of those- usually tried to give their kids a stepmother, which may well mean he had more children. (And if those poor queens of the Southern Isles were having daughters as well as thirteen sons between them, it would be little wonder if they were worn to exhaustion as babymaking machines... the family might even have been born over several decades.)

Hans' brothers are the Wild Swans

Since it's also a Hans Christian Andersen story. (The number is off by one, but there are multiple variations of the story.) They're actually his stepbrothers: his mother cursed them into turning into swans in order to give him a chance at the throne. However, his stepsister reversed the curse, but he doesn't know she was responsible, and when the brothers returned, the queen got her comeuppance. Hans learned from her mistakes, and won't go so far as to use magic and curses to achieve his ends, instead using subtle manipulation.

Hans is the mirror

The original The Snow Queen story involves a mirror that distorts things and encourages negativity. Hans could be Frozen's version of this mirror.

• Does that mean that he's the "Man in the Mirror"?

Hans and his family are related to Prince Charming.

Hans has a similar colouring to Prince Charming from Cinderella, and his uniform is very similar too. Since Hans is an inversion of the Prince Charming archetype, I think there may be some connection. Perhaps one of his oldest brother is Prince Charming, or Hans' family are the direct descendants of the Prince. That may explain why Hans was able to mimic the "Prince Charming" character so well, because it's so well-known; he heard stories of his ancestor and his marriage to Cinderella (a girl that he only met once, not dissimilar to how quickly Anna and Hans got unofficially engaged) from his parents and it may be part of his kingdom's legacy, so he was able to look, act and dress the part of the perfect suitor while hiding his real motives. Charming's ideals may even be something of great importance to Hans' kingdom, which is why Arendelle knew that sending him back to his brothers would be a perfect punishment, as Hans betrayed the image and ideals that he was raised to follow (just not like that).

Hans heard his mother say the same words he uses on Anna

Or even worse, she used it on him.

Hans: "Oh Anna, if only there was someone out there who loved you."

• Here's the fan comic that this refers to, by the way.

Hans is not working on his own agenda.

His older brothers staged a coup, and are threatening to publicly execute the king and queen unless Hans covertly takes over a kingdom to prove his worth to them. Hans genuinely liked Anna, and his evil acts were nothing but a show. He never actually intended to kill Elsa, only make it look like he killed her. When he returned to the Southern Isles, he was declared useless and executed, along with his parents. The Southern Isles eventually became part of modern day Germany, and an offspring of one of Hans' brothers, under the pseudonym Adolf Hitler, started World War II.

Hans is Hans Christian Andersen

When he returns to the Southern Isles, his family disowns him and he is forced to make his way in the world as a traveling storyteller. Writing The Snow Queen was his way of getting a petty little revenge against the sisters who foiled his master plan.

• Actually, in Real Life Andersen claimed to have modelled the Snow Queen on the very famous (and very emotionally troubled) Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind (the 'Swedish Nightingale'), who rejected him romantically. If you look up Lind's life and character: ashamed all her life of being illegitimate, rather lost her childhood at about seven when she was pushed out to perform as a child prodigy, upsetting family upheavals in her teens, too shy to be happy in the opera, a Heroic BSoD at 23 when she had to pull out of public life for a year... that the Snow Queen gets an adaptational rehabilitation as Elsa is a hilarious Genius Bonus.
• Or he wrote The Snow Queen to get a little revenge against his brothers for ignoring him. He was the mirror and the school of trolls who created the mirror were his brothers.

Hans's The Wise Prince act isn't entirely an act.

He's a backstabbing manipulator, sure, but that's all politics and business. Outside of his efforts to seduce Anna, his various Pet the Dog moments are all genuine because he's that sort of guy. Which of course, still leaves him plotting to seize the throne of Arendelle because he wants his own kingdom and he knows he won't get it being the 12th Spare to the Throne back in the Southern Isles. Compare to the Duke of Weselton, who is a greedy fear mongering miser, but has no intentions of trying to launch a coup of a sovereign nation. Assuming these to be true in both cases, they make for a very interesting set of foils for each other.

• I suppose that he still has a shred of humanity in him. He also wants to be an adored ruler, so he certainly won't be launching wars unless otherwise. And of course he could finally have the power he craved, the respect he never had and the love that he never got in the first place.
  • In A Frozen Heart, Hans does have some humanity within him, as he genuinely does care for his mother and his brother Lars. But he lets his Daddy Issues poison his mind.
• Hans seems to have a thing about wearing other, better, perhaps more balanced personalities (like his method-acting at his first meeting with Anna, carrying on the act behind her back.) Living his fantasies of various ideal selves- but maybe especially the one of being a Beowulf-esque hero king- means so much to him he's prepared to do horrifying things to build a world where he doesn't have to step out of them. It does tie in with the Word of God that Hans has serious rejection issues (that is the usual pattern for someone who wants massive public adulation).
  • To take this further, it's entirely possible that had Anna's heart not been struck by ice, Hans would have played the perfect prince for the rest of his life, and never betrayed Arendelle. Even if he is a psychopath, he is still capable of intellectually understanding right and wrong, and he could easily be smart enough to realize that playing The Wise Prince would have netted him the best possible outcome. So up until the almost-kiss, he was genuinely planning to be a good suitor and husband to Anna. But then he ran up against the one thing that he could not fool: magic itself. He could fake love brilliantly, but he could not genuinely feel it. And so, as he could not save Anna, he rewrote his entire plan on the spot (that's why his plan seemed somewhat sloppy thereafter, he was making it up in seconds). Being a psychopath, he might very well not have seen why his plans thereafter were wrong.

Hans was acting on orders from his parents/brothers/the primary political power of the Southern Isles.

A fairly-prosperous, politically-vulnerable kingdom with important stakes in trade is always nice to have, and the Southern Isles are either successful enough to harbor imperial aspirations or sufficiently-taxed to deem usurping a sovereign nation an acceptable risk. (With thirteen male heirs, they're going to run out of land and titles fast.) As the youngest son, Hans is the least likely to gain a legitimate inheritance, and the most expendable when shit hits the fan; when the Isles heard about Arendelle's only royals, two very attractive and unattached young women in their late teens/early twenties, Hans was the natural representative. This doesn't change anything about Hans' own goals or character, and he would almost definitely have tried to make Arendelle his base of power instead of just part of the Southern Isles hegemony; it just means that while he might be jailed or executed, his brothers won't be surprised by his attempted coup.

Hans is a distant but estranged cousin of Anna and Elsa

Check out any shot that shows Anna and Hans together in profile. Sure, his features are heavier - men's usually are - but there's definitely something of the same basic structure of the nose and forehead. Additionally, Hans has some physical similarities to King Adgar.

• As their countries definitely seem to be next-door neighbors (for a start, English seems to be the first language of Arendelle, Weselton, and the Southern Isles), it wouldn't be surprising if the families had intermarried many generations ago.
• Them being even first cousins probably wouldn't in itself be an obstacle to their marriage, for royal families of this period, though it's the kind of detail they should probably have at least checked first.
• More importantly it actually gives a bit more strength to the authority he assumes when Anna leaves him as regent (which is otherwise extremely tenuous - they haven't even established or announced the engagement yet and even if they were married, Prince Consorts don't automatically have most of the rights he seems to think he has.) If he's related to the established family, even tenuously, it makes a little more sense of why the country seems to accept him so readily.

Elsa never liked Hans from the start

She instantly had him tagged as a Gold Digger, or at least someone who was mostly interested in Anna for the wrong reasons. Maybe she's less pissed by what she suspects are his motives than the fact that she suspects he's misled Anna about them.

• She's extremely short with him at the coronation, to the point of very un-regal rudeness, when she finds out he proposed to Anna behind her back. Later, when stuff got serious and he has her in shackles in prison, she still doesn't want to talk to him - despite wanting Anna kept away, whatever she does have to say she only wants to say to Anna, not the man she still assumes is her sister's lover.
• Sure, the fact that she tells him to 'take care of' Anna at the end - more or less consent to the marriage - means she has no idea quite how bad he is - but then, in their circles a politically-motivated marriage is probably only a morally grey thing, and many people who marry for money or status of both sexes can make reasonably dutiful spouses and yet not be the least bit murderous.
• Perhaps, as a cryomancer, Elsa could sense the frozen heart under Han's mask. But since she was still inexperienced with her powers (and hadn't encountered a frozen heart in a long time), she didn't realize what it was she was sensing. So she knew there was something wrong with Hans, but not what it was.

Hans is at least in part a heroism addict

Doesn't excuse, or even explain, all of his behaviour, at least not towards Anna, but at least explains why his The Wise Prince act is so effective. And many features of the trope actually sound strikingly like Hans.

Hans is... whatever he is because he's Royally Screwed Up, and the rest of the family are just as bad if not worse

Why is he the sole delegate of the Southern Isles? (There's a Headscratchers entry to this effect.) Perhaps he's one of the few Westergards who's sufficiently high-functioning to pass as normal for quite a while.

• The business of 'pretending he was invisible'- it wasn't systematic bullying, it was psychosis.

Hans is a Time Lord.

As Big Hero 6 reveals in a Freeze-Frame Bonus, he's wanted by the San Fransokyo Police Department. Clearly, he is a time-traveling maniac out to cause chaos in as many points in time as he can.

Hans is a member of SPECTRE.

He manipulated Anna into thinking that she was in love, but in actuality, only wanted to control Arendelle's throne. Ernst Stavro Blofeld, hearing of his exploits, offers him to join SPECTRE (after he was imprisoned and stripped of his noble privileges) as a way to extract revenge on his own family and come up with a new scheme to take over Arendelle. Hans readily joins him but is slightly weary, knowing how ruthless Number One is in terms of dealing with problem employees, but nevertheless accepts Blofeld's offer to get his revenge and seize control of Arendelle.

Hans has serious sewing skills.

Regardless of royalty, thirteen kids is thirteen kids, meaning Hans was probably stuck in hand-me-downs for several years. As a kid with lots of time alone, Hans learned how to customize what he had to work with, and he translated that into how to modify his scheme against the throne of Arendelle accordingly when the entire eternal winter thing started.

• Fits with a wide assumption that Hans is or has been in the Navy. Sailors at the time usually learned to look after their clothes, and Hans is a Sharp-Dressed Man for most of his scenes.
• Seemingly confirmed by one of the official coloring books.

It was decided that it was inappropriate for the target demographic to actually see Hans' face after Anna hit him

That punch was hard- frame-by-frame animation reveals that Hans' face was madly distorted to get it to look right, and he arced backwards- impressive as Anna's several inches shorter than him. It doesn't make sense that it wouldn't leave some nasty bruising- there's even the sound effect of a crunch that sounds very much like a breaking nose- but we never see Hans face-on after it happens- in the epilogue he noticeably keeps his back to the camera.

• For a heroic character- or any other- to hit someone like that without it being in immediate self-defence is rare in a Disney film. It might have only got a pass because it's the only obvious comeuppance Hans gets (his actual fate is left open to interpretation). To show whether Anna inflicted actual injury or not might have been felt to be too much emphasis on violence for kids.

Hans was screwed up not by his parents, but by whoever was responsible for educating him

This was pointed out on the Headscratchers page that Hans was probably raised by a nanny or governess given that wealthy people normally did not have much contact with their children in this movie's time period (Anna and Elsa's parents being a possible exception to this rule, but only because Elsa is a human snow machine gun). And at the time, many of the people who got these particular job occupations tended to only get the job due to family status and not due to competence. And there are many records of incompetent, neglectful, abusive or downright crazy governesses holding their positions in respectable homes because the charge's parents paid them to just keep the children out of their hair until they were teenagers and never really checked what was going on. If anything, there's a good reason to assume whoever was responsible for raising Hans in his childhood may have been one of these incompetent or abusive caretakers.

Hans is a serial killer, and not a real prince.

He actually comes from San Fransokyo and he goes by the name Westerguard. However, due to creating a high publicity for himself, he used a time travel device to escape to the past. But his bloodlust was still active, so he decided to target two royal sisters For the Evulz. Unfortunately, when his plan failed, he used the time travel device to get back to his own time. When he did, he discovered a new challenge for him in the form of six new superheroes...

Hans has witnessed a deconstruction of Living Emotional Crutch.

My money's on with his own parents. One of them (I picture the father, but it can work either way) was emotionally unstable, while the other kept his/her spouse in check. Unfortunately, the crutch parent died, so the unstable one went off the deep end and became abusive and/or neglectful to Hans and his older brothers. From this experience, Hans developed a negative outlook on love, though not exactly "Love Is a Weakness." More like "Love can make you strong, but can destroy your mind just as easily."

Hans' personality in the betrayal scene is not his real self.

Specifically, he was still mirroring someone else, but instead of present company, it was someone from his memories. The person (or at least one of the people) who shaped his selfish viewpoint, and taught him that it's every man for himself.

• My money is on one of his brothers, probably the eldest, who's likely a Magnificent Bastard. His brothers are more present than their parents, and it's not uncommon for siblings to play larger roles than parents in the lives of younger siblings, especially if the parents are distant, busy, or otherwise absent, ex. royals. While his famous line could come from an abusive parent, it sounds a lot like something an elder sibling might say to a younger sibling, a crueler version of the "You're really adopted!" taunt. It wasn't his mother he heard it from, it was his oldest brother.
  "Oh, Hans... If only there was someone out there who loved you."
• Supported by the fact that he only took off one of his gloves in that scene. If we take "removing gloves" as "revealing one's true self" symbolism, then we've only seen one layer below his mask and there's another side to him we still haven't seen yet. Also when Elsa lost one glove she revealed the "monstrous" side of herself to everyone at the party and she didn't truly become herself until she took off the other glove and let go of her fears. In the sequel Hans will lose both his gloves and we'll finally see his real self.
  • Considering Hans has been compared to the mirror from the Snow Queen and he simply reflects what people want to see, he's probably doing the same for himself. He's reflecting his brothers or possibly his father, someone he thinks is the ideal king. Should someone point this out to him, he'd probably comment on how when he looks at his own reflection and doesn't know what he sees.

Some of Hans's older brothers are actually half-brothers.

See above the theory on Hans's birth.

In addition to his 12 older brothers, Hans has at least one sister.

Hans' only interest in his brothers is that they are obstacles to the throne. Assuming that only males are eligible to succeed the king, his sister would not be an obstacle to the throne. As such, she might be beneath Hans' notice and he doesn't bother mentioning her.

Hans has some sort of latent Medium Awareness

Which is why in the scene where he meets Anna, he keeps that goofy smile on even after she turns around: he's fooling the audience as well as Anna.

Hans's betrayal was not caused by lust for power, but being horrified at the realization of how irresponsible Elsa and Anna would be as rulers.

The troubles begin, when Elsa freaks out and starts the ice age in her own kingdom and runs away. We don't learn about the consequences of Elsa's freezing spree, because of No Endor Holocaust, but there is no way an entire city being plunged from the middle of summer into an ice age in an instant doesn't kill thousands of people. How many people get caught outside in a freezing weather in their summer clothes? How many of those homes have their windows open? How many people have firewood stocked? How many children were playing in the beaches with their feet in the water when it froze over? Even running to the home and digging up some winter clothing could take such a long time that there had to be dozens of casualties.

Elsa freaks out after being touched and responds by plunging her own kingdom into an ice age. Then, instead of helping her own subjects in their hour of need she abandons them in a massive tantrum. Anna is almost as bad. After Elsa froze up her own kingdom and bolted, the responsibility over the people transfers to Princess Anna, but what does she do? She runs off to try to talk Elsa into thawing the kingdom after spending barely a minute thinking about immediate problems, dumping the crown on a stranger she just met that day. Just about any other person in the city would have made a more responsible choice to guide the kingdom through this recent crisis.

Prince Hans is left with the responsibility of helping the citizens of the kingdom not die horribly in this instant Ice age and for what we know, he does this job with admirable responsibility and swiftness. He is acting with the kind of care a responsible ruler should act. How many people did he save from a freezing death? Then Prince Hans becomes worried about Anna and mounts a rescue mission. He still acts all fine and heroic, even talks Elsa out of becoming a monster - in full contradiction to the opportunistic-throne-snatcher-story. It is only after Hans returns to the city that he reveals he wants both Anna and Elsa dead and himself on the throne.

What if Hans changing his act had nothing to do with being power hungry usurper? Maybe he just learned the true extent of the death toll of Elsa's Endless Winter to the kingdom, saw the mountains of frozen corpses people had dug up from the snow in the mean time and decided that Elsa and Anna were thoroughly incompetent as rulers. Maybe he thought that Elsa and Anna were both uncaring, neglectful narcissists who didn't care about their own subjects' suffering one bit and decided that the kingdom would be better off without them. Hans's claim to Anna that he wanted the throne may have been simply his attempt to spare dying Anna's feelings before she died. There was no need for him to reveal her, what a horrible ruler he thought she was. Let her die thinking that he was just being a selfish jerk after the throne. Let her think that she is just an innocent victim rather than a terrible threat to the kingdom that needs to be eliminated for the good of the people. She doesn't need to know, how many mothers cry in the city over their corpsicle children. This also explains why Hans neglects to get married with Anna and thus insert himself to the succession of the crown before her death. He doesn't really care about the throne at this point.

Once Anna is dead, Hans can put Elsa on trial for her atrocities counting on her guilt to prevent her from murdering the court. For all we know Hans might not even have cared for the throne for himself, although saving the kingdom from a mass-murdering ice witch may have led to the noblemen to elect him to the throne. However, when Anna and Elsa break free and defeat Hans, the budding revolution withers. Anyone wishing for revolution quiets down in fear and no one dares to protest further the continuation of Elsa's reign of terror, happy songs and casual mass murder.

Theories on why Hans was abused.

Word of God confirmed that Hans really did grow up without love. Could there be a sinister and dark reason as to why he was abused in the first place?

• A common theory is that he was born with hidden magical powers. Many fanfics depict him having Pyrokinesis as a stark contrast to Elsa's cryokinesis, and as a result, his family treated him like a monster.
• Maternal Death? Blame the Child! is also common in many fanfics, as Hans is usually blamed by his family for being responsible for the queen's death despite the fact that it was not.
• It's also possible that they bullied him for no reason other than being ineffectual. This is the reason in A Frozen Heart.
• Another theory is that his father was cursed by a sorceress, foretelling that his 13th child will be responsible for his downfall, causing him and his 12 older sons to endlessly bully Hans.
  • A way to make greater use of this theory is if there is a surprise via Prophecy Twist. The prediction did not outright declare Hans would cause his father's downfall, but vaguely warn how "one of his sons would betray him," which would ruin the king. When Hans did something as a boy — rebel with serious repercussions, manifest powers, be involved in his mother's death, etc. — the king believed he had found the future traitor and instigated the bullying of his youngest in retribution. During the climax of Frozen 2, it will be revealed that he was mistaken: The abuse he suffered ensured Hans was never on the king's side to begin with, and therefore cannot "betray" him. One of Hans' older brothers double-crosses their father and ends his tyranny for good.
  • Perhaps that traitor could be Lars?
• What if Hans's birthday was marred by a bad incident, such as famines, a poor harvest, or an invasion by a neighboring kingdom? Though not responsible for said incident, he was tagged with it for the rest of his life. As a result, his family despised and ill-treated him until he decided to become a villain. Being 13th in line, his father's subjects thought he was Born Unlucky, as everything went wrong when he was born.
  • Being that his people believed in superstitions despite changing times, it's possible they assumed Hans' birth was a bad omen, one that would serve as the catalyst for a dark chain of events.
• Some fanfics depict his family and possibly his kingdom's subjects wanting to have a baby girl after 12 sons, but instead, they got a baby boy, causing them to tag him as the "mistake who wasn't meant to be born" or an "extra mouth they did not want to feed."
• A combination of these factors?

Hans did not understand why Elsa rejected him.

If you leave out all issues of love and personal happiness, Hans is a pretty good match from a purely utilitarian point of view. He comes from the royal family of what we may assume to be a fairly powerful and influential kingdom (since it's one of the few that sent an envoy to Elsa's coronation), yet he's simultaneously far enough down the line of succession that there's virtually no risk of hi, ending up as the king of both nations and subjecting Arendelle to become a vassal state for the Southern Isles and rely on them for economic and military aid. He's young, physically fit, healthy, smart, and since he comes from a marriage that produced thirteen children, he has a better than average chance of siring heirs. Even if Elsa wanted someone better for herself, he'd be more than good enough to spend Anna's marriage on. So to Hans, who probably couldn't understand love, there seemed no imaginable reason for Elsa to reject his suit.

Hans' real name is Johannes.

Hans is a shortened version of his actual name, but he prefers to be called by his nickname, which is actually a diminutive of his name.

The Southern Isles

The Southern Isles will erupt into civil war when the king dies.

Word of God has confirmed that Hans' older brothers were not so different from Hans, combined with the fact that A Frozen Heart revealed that their father has turned the Southern Isles into a corrupt and totalitarian dictatorship. Once the king dies or steps down, even if he named Caleb, his oldest son, as his heir, that legitimacy will be challenged and before long, the kingdom will end up looking like Westeros. As the brothers fight among themselves, Hans will secretly offer his services to the highest bidder, changing loyalties as different factions gain the upper hand, until one of his brothers runs a sword through him. Elsa will end up deploying her navy to defend the neighboring kingdom of Corona as some of the brothers attempt to conquer nearby countries to consolidate their base. In the end, the entire Westergaard clan will end in bloodshed, Elsa will annex the Southern Isles into Arendelle and the people of the Southern Isles will enjoy a new age of peace and prosperity, heralding Elsa and Anna as the liberators who overthrew the hated Westergaard line.

• Alternate theory: Hans's entire reason for wanting to marry into the Arendelle family line was to secretly escape the inevitable uprising.
• Another theory: Hans, realizing his actions in Arendelle became the catalyst for a civil war in the Southern Isles, secretly slips to the United States after breaking out of prison, as the insurrection in his homeland has created great political instability in Europe, becomes wealthy thanks to the gold mining rush in California, and his descendants eventually became prominent in the development of San Fransokyo in later years - leading to the theory that Fred of Big Hero 6 descended from him. Elsa and company are unaware of his whereabouts, as it's possible he may have died or became Karma Houdini.

The Westergaards are not of the Southern Isles' ancient line of kings.

In Denmark, the country which the Southern Isles is based on, "Westergaard" is a reasonably common family name. It is possible that Hans' paternal ancestry arose from a lesser noble lineage, and became the ruling family when a past king chose a member of it as heir. Either Hans' father, or a couple of generations before.

• This could be an explanation for the King's temperament. He feels the need to compensate for his lack of "pure royal blood" by ruling the Southern Isles and his family as an iron-fisted authoritarian.
• Another theory is that he was spoiled too much by his parents, thinking that he decided he wanted a better life because of his ego, and so, he betrayed everyone he knew and manipulated his way to being a ruler so he can have the riches and power he thinks he deserves. If the king had any siblings, it's possible he may have rubbed them out so there won't be any obstacle to his power-hungry quest to success.
  • It's possible that his siblings were favored by their parents, which causes him to be Driven by Envy and jealousy, and so, he killed them in various ways so he'll be elevated to the throne much quicker.

Hans' eldest brother has already become King of the Southern Isles.

While A Frozen Heart says otherwise, the book is not indisputably canon to the films. The dignitary escorting him home did say they would see, "what [Hans'] twelve big brothers think of his behaviour." He strangely does not mention their parents.

Two of Hans' older brothers...

...realized that they were not likely to be in line for the throne of the Southern Isles, so they struck out on their own as thieves and hired thugs. They became known as the Stabbington Brothers.

Hans’ brothers are all deconstructions of the Prince Charming trope.

There’s twelve of them (sans the heir apparent); it’s unlikely that Hans was the only one vying for recognition growing up. Desperate to "find their own place," the twelve older princes of the Southern Isles dedicated themselves wholly to reaching perfection in their occupations (royal navy, council member) or an individual talent. This has reduced them to shallow stereotypes, e.g. The Smart Guy, the lothario, the Jerk Jock. Yes, there’s little to back this up, but that is why it’s Wild Mass Guessing.

The Southern Isles is Denmark redesigned as an archipelago.

The geography is virtually the same, except "Jutland" is an island rather than a peninsula.

The Southern Isles' palace will be inspired by Frederiksborg Castle.

To hammer down how the Southern Isles is Denmark's Fantasy Counterpart Culture.

The king's first name

It might be Anders. Reason? Hans is named after the author of the Snow Queen, Hans Christian Anderson. Maybe Hans will have Christian as a middle name. So then he will be Hans Christian, Anders' son.

The Southern Isles aren't Denmark, but the Scottish Hebrides

In Old Norse, the Hebrides were referred to as the "Suthreyjar", or Southern Isles. They were also ruled by a king, and were culturally and linguistically Norse as opposed to Gaelic. Hence, in the world of Frozen, the Suthreyar may have remained culturally and politically independent from Scotland and kept its Scandinavian ties.

The Duke of Weselton

Prince Hans and the Duke of Weselton are related.

It has been revealed that Hans has twelve older brothers. The Duke has two bodyguards◊ that somewhat resemble Hans, albeit much older. The Duke could be Hans's father, uncle, grandfather, or even an older but authoritative cousin. In addition, Hans grew up "feeling practically invisible", which could suggest that the Duke forgot Hans existed, and therefore never bothered using Hans as his yes-man.

• That either of the bodyguards is one Hans' family would be odd, unless they're bastard descendants of the Southern Isles' ruling family or distant cousins.
• It would hardly be surprising if most, if not all, of the major royal characters have some common ancestry, if the kingdoms are implied to be close together and share some common language and heritage. It was usually the way for monarchies of states thus connected to constantly marry their children to one another, when they weren't actually at war with each other- by the start of WWI most of the monarchs of Protestant Europe were at least distant cousins. And remember how many of Queen Victoria's children married into other ruling families. Another WMG entry also suggested that Hans could be distantly related to Anna and Elsa as a second or even third cousin.

The Duke is a Control Freak

People born with magic is obviously a well-known (if rare) phenomenon, so clearly, his mistrust of Elsa after she's outted isn't due to irrational hatred, but because he has no magic of his own, and given how he is focused solely on the acquisition of wealth (and status if manageable), it stands to reason that he wouldn't appreciate anything not under his control.

The Duke is as much a sovereign as Elsa, and her father before her

While it's true that a Duke is a noble rank, it can also be a monarchical one. See The Other Wiki for more details.

• Well he would have to be, he's after trade, not taxes.
  • Both highly ranked noblemen and sovereigns would have good reasons to care about trade.
  • If not the monarch himself, 'Duke' is often a title bestowed on the monarch's close family: a king's younger brother, or a Queen Regent's husband (or given his advanced years, the monarch's uncle, or widower of a Queen Regent whose adult son is now king).

The Duke is actually present in his capacity as Prime Minister of a state that runs on slightly more modern lines than Arendelle

• This is almost certainly coincidence (only spotted due to a verbal slip) but the Duke of Weselton is probably very close in age to the The Duke of Wellington, who was Prime Minister of England for a short time within a reasonable timeframe for Frozen. (Not that apart from his age, rank and taste in uniforms and boots does this Duke have anything else in common with said six-foot stoic.)
  • Not for long, given how badly he screwed up relations with Arendelle at the worst possible time. If he were merely the foreign minister he could be thrown under the wagon to avoid a no-confidence vote, but with him in charge, his party is a write-off for the next decade at best.

Fred Best is the lost heir to Weselton.

The man we know as Fred was misplaced as a child (or deliberately pilfered by one of his father's trading rivals?) and left in a basket on the front steps of a printshop; he grew up an ink-streaked urchin unaware of his true birthright. Pointy features, slight stature, devious and resourceful nature, and magnificent mustache — how clearly he bears these signs of his heritage!

Weselton doesn't just have bad blood with Arendelle, but also with the Southern Isles

Hans disagrees with the Duke when the Duke accosts him for giving away "tradable goods" to Arendelle's public, who really need said blankets badly. Hans seems noticeably irritated and does sound a bit harsh when he tells the Duke off by saying "Do not question the Princess. She left me in charge, and I will not hesitate to protect Arendelle from treason!" Now, some note that it seems to show the cruelty Hans hides beneath his public persona, but I'd also reasonably imagine that Hans's feelings toward the Duke's condescending attitude were genuine. It's entirely possible that Weselton tends to end up losing trade agreements with other countries pretty easily, and maybe the Southern Isles cut trade off with Weselton for reasons unexplained during the current Duke's time in his job.

The Duke of Weselton's prejudice against those who use magic stems from unfortunate incidents involving other members of Arendelle's royal family with ice powers

If the Once Upon a Time episode "The Snow Queen" is taken as canon, the Duke of Weselton had a girlfriend who was accidentally murdered by her ice-power equipped sister because of his manipulations, and some of his memories of the incident survived Grand Pabbie's memory wiping.

The reason the Duke was so close and nearly got got hit when Elsa's powers misfired during Anna and Elsa's argument at the coronation afterparty, was that he was deliberately staying close to them to eavesdrop on their conversation.

Although afterwards his main role is the "burn the witch!" guy, his initial reason for being there was to try and see if his visit could be used to glean information that would give him economic/trade advantage. He probably was paying very close attention to the queen and her sister to see if any useful secrets would be let slip.

The Trolls

The trolls' prophecy wasn't referring to Anna and Elsa...

...but rather, to the infamous Saint Seiya anime scene involving Andromeda Shun warming up Cygnus Hyoga with his Cosmo at the Libra Temple.

Also related to Saint Seiya: Elsa is an ancestor of the Crystal Saint, and the first ever user of ice Cosmo.

A stone/earth mage used to live in Arendelle.

That's how the trolls were created, and why they have so much knowledge of magic - their creator taught them about it. The speed with which Anna's parents realize, 'Oh, our daughter has been wounded by magic, we must take her to the trolls' implies that magic powers, though rare, are not unprecedented in the film's universe.

The Trolls are psychic

Okay so, since I saw Frozen I've more or less been listening to the soundtrack on repeat in my car, and I've discovered something:

The trolls have the power to know everything about you by looking at you. And they give super cryptic hints about everything.

In the opening of the movie, King Agdar takes young Anna and Elsa to the trolls, and Grand Pabbie immediately knew that he was the king, Anna had a shard of ice in her brain, and Elsa had ice powers. There was no questioning done, he just knew these things. He then told the King that fear was going to be Elsa's worst enemy, which the king takes to mean other people being afraid of Elsa, but what the troll meant was Elsa's fear of her own powers.

Which brings us to later in the film, and "Fixer Upper". At the start of the song the trolls just assume that Kristoff brought Anna home to meet them so they go into the tradition of families everywhere by embarrassing him in front of his date.

That is, UNTIL he tells them she's engaged to someone else. Then they all use their power to look at her for the first time to figure out what she's doing there.

The next verse is about how Anna needs to Murder the Hypotenuse, which would be a SUPER rude thing to say to someone, especially someone you just met. But the trolls know he's evil, so they're telling her to get rid of him "Get the fiancé out of the way and the whole thing will be fixed". Sure, Elsa refused to let Anna marry someone she just met and Kristoff was outright incredulous that Anna got engaged to someone she just met, but they seemed to be telling her 'get to know him better' where the trolls outright say 'dump this guy right now'.

The next line is 'We're not saying you can change him 'cuz people don't really change' sung to Anna. At first it would seem that this line is about Kristoff, but why would Anna want to change anything about Kristoff? I think this line is about Hans, and it’s the trolls way of saying 'Don't stay in a relationship with him after you learn he's evil, it won't do any good'. The trolls can't see the future, just everything about your own past.

After that you get the lines 'We're only saying that love's a force that's powerful and strange. People make bad choices if they're mad or scared or stressed, throw a little love their way and you'll bring out their best'. This and the next verse is their advice about Elsa. Anna needs to forgive her for being a jerk on top of the mountain, and the only way to end the eternal winter is to make Elsa feel love - the selfless act of love Anna does for her at the end.

Finally the song ends with a rushed marriage between Kristoff and Anna. The trolls were never serious about this; they just wanted to drive home the point of how silly it is to marry someone you just met to Anna.

Then Grand Pabbie comes out again and gives Anna some more cryptic advice because they can never tell things straight. But they know things.

• I always thought (and Headscratchers has more) that Grand Pabbie and the other trolls recognized Agdar because his face is plastered all over Arendelle's currency, currency that people might have given the trolls as payment for spells or something they dropped while running away in pants-pissing terror after the rocks came to life.
• This would also explain why that troll immediately took in Kristoff at first glance without asking if he has parents; upon looking at him, she could tell he was an orphan.

The rock trolls can see the Red String of Fate

Kristoff says his family is made of "love experts" yet they try to force him and Anna into marriage immediately. This is because they can tell that the two are soulmates, and so whoever Anna is engaged to is obviously not the right guy for her. They don't bother explaining this because they think that everyone can do it and Anna is simply turned off by some minor flaw. The fact that Kristoff can't do this is one more reason they think he is "socially impaired".

King Agnarr and Queen Idun didn't misinterpret Grand Pabbie's advice

Grand Pabbie wants Elsa to repress her powers. Think about it: Out of all the images he could have shown Elsa, why would he show her an angry mob attacking her? He was trying to convey that Elsa needed to learn to control her powers. Why not show her an image of her losing control? His treatment for Anna was to remove all memories of Elsa's magic. So he wanted Elsa to keep her powers a secret, at least from her sister. Also, the King discussed his plans to keep Elsa cut off from the world in earshot of Grand Pabbie. Grand Pabbie could have set the King straight right there, but he didn't. Either he didn't realize what Agdar was planning to do, or he agreed with him.

• I agree, King Agdar and Queen Idun respond by going to a very logical starting place. Their first instinct is, "We've got to minimize the number of people who have knowledge of Elsa's powers, and minimize Elsa's exposure to other people, especially Anna, until she learns to control her powers." Elsa losing control of her powers and the people turning against her is a pretty legitimate and very risky threat and, as the individual actions that the Duke of Weselton and Hans take during the main plot, one that almost happens for real when she's exposed. It just isn't the only problem. No one intends for Elsa to remain locked away living in fear and self loathing. That is Elsa's own doing, by misunderstanding herself and her powers and her parents dying before they really can figure things out. Agdar is even shown trying to help her contain her powers, but even he is eventually pushed away by Elsa.
  • While Agdar and Idun take the logical first step, it is because of the rapid deterioration of Elsa's mental health, as a result of her horror and trauma from what happened to Anna, that that first step forward turns into a hundred steps backwards. They create a 'safe space' for Elsa to learn in; unfortunately for everyone else, Elsa barricades herself into that safe space, mentally and, as much as she can, physically.
    • This explains a lot of new subtext for "Do You Want To Build a Snowman," such as the "I'm scared! It's getting stronger!" scene: notice how Agdar tries to reach out to Elsa to comfort her, but her instinctive reaction is to back away, saying, "No! Don't touch me! Please. I don't want to hurt you!"

Oaken

Oaken, the trading post owner, and the guy we see with his kids in the sauna are married.

Hoo-hoo! Hey Family!

Oaken is gay.

When he waves to his family in the spa, we get a quick shot of them waving back. Oaken's family seems to be comprised of a big blond guy who's a match for Oaken in size and assorted children and teenagers.

• Dey grow em big up dere doncha know. Could easily be his eldest son.
• Well we don't see a wife. And note that it isn't unusual for a family to go to the sauna all together in Scandinavia, both male and female members of the family (at least where this troper lives) so that isn't a definite reason for her not to be there. (Of course it could be that it was just too crowded in the sauna. It seems to be a large family.)
• There's plausible deniability in genetics; since Oaken is blonde (or at least dirty strawberry blonde), he can have a blonde kid (the large fellow) if the mother is brunette (with a blonde recessive gene - there is a smaller lady at the side of the tub who is a brunette). This leads to a fascinating WMG, which is that Disney put this in there to troll the inevitable culture-warriors with nothing better to do by putting a family in there that would cater to *any* interpretation, thematic, logical, scientific, or "I'm batshit desperate for copy and need talking points for Fox News by five this afternoon."

Oaken told Olaf about Summer

Oaken was making a huge fuss about his "Big Summer Blowout", and just absolutely needed to sell the idea to anybody. It could be possible that before meeting up with Anna and Kristoff, Olaf came across Oaken's trading post and Oaken told him all about the joys of Summer, but not about what heat does to snow. He was hoping to finally sell away his summer items, but couldn't since Olaf obviously doesn't have any money.

Oaken is a Time Lord.

Wandering Oaken's Trading Post and Sauna is his TARDIS!

Oaken has met Grand Pabbie in the past

He has some troll figurines on his counter. Also, he has two rock troll statues positioned on either side of his front door, like they're standing guard.

Frozen / Tangled Connections

Frozen will subvert several Tangled plot lines and tropes.

• Zig-zagged. Like Rapunzel, Anna is very naive, enlists an attractive loner to help her (with whom she falls in love), and talks in an anachronistic manner. However, her naiveté has harsher consequences.

Kristoff was robbed by Flynn and his gang, explaining why he hates people.

"People will beat you and curse you and cheat you!"

The King and Queen died en-route to the celebration of the return of Rapunzel seen at the end of Tangled

Since Rapunzel and Eugene's appearances show that the two share a universe and the two had to travel there by ship, probably the King and Queen went to celebrate the return of Princess Rapunzel, but then got caught in a freak storm. The timeline certainly lines up: Elsa's coronation is when she turns twenty-one, three years after her parent's deaths. Assume that she and Rapunzel are the same age- Rapunzel returned to her rightful place at eighteen years old.

Also, "See you in two weeks."

The Queen of Corona and the Queen of Arendelle are sisters, and Rapunzel is Anna and Elsa's cousin.

Many have commented that the girls look similar. Some complained that this was laziness on the animators part, but since it takes place in the Tangled-verse, it stands to reason that everyone is part of one big happy royal family.

• Given that this is clearly Europe, and how European royalty went, even if they're not sisters there is inevitably a tremendous degree of relation. They're just lucky that their physical trademark of royalty is prettier than a Habsburg Chin.

Alternatively, the Queen of Corona and the King of Arendelle are siblings

• As seen here.
  • Probably jossed as of Tangled: The Series, where it's revealed that Queen Arianna has a sister and it's clear that they don't have any other siblings. Although the writers of the movies aren't obligated to stick to what the show establishes.

Alternatively alternatively, both parents are related to Rapunzel's parents

• It's 19th century monarchy in the Germanic-language speaking part of Europe, in real life a lot of the royalty of that region were related multiple times.

Alternatively, for those bothered by the fact that Tangled is set in the late 18th century and Frozen mostly in the mid-19th century... Rapunzel is Anna and Elsa's grandmother

The Queen looks very like Rapunzel and, given she looks quite young when the girls are teenagers (if she gave birth to Elsa in her late teens- quite feasible in that class at that time- she's in her mid to late-thirties when she dies) she'd be born in about the first decade of the 19th century- now, that's a while after Tangled but Rapunzel is only 18 when she is discovered, and Flynn vaguely suggests it was a while before they married- if that's in the 1780s she'd still be able to have a child 20 years later- Idunn. (Presumably that means the couple we see in the cameo are Anna's cousins but they're actually siblings and are Rapunzel and Eugene's Identical Grandson and granddaughter.)

• Even though the creators of Tangled initially said it takes place in the late 18th-century, the presence of books such as The Little Mermaid actually do suggest that the movie takes place more in the timeline of Frozen. So maybe that initial 1700's time-period statement has been Retconned?

Because of Rapunzel and Eugene's cameo during the coronation this will lead too....

An Avengers style cross over where Snow White assembles Belle, Elsa, Cinderella, Merida, Princess Aurora, and Ariel to fight against some insidious threat.

Frozen and Tangled occur in the same universe as Shrek

They all take place in fairytale-type settings filled with mythical creatures and magic spells. How cool would that be?

This universe's version of the Hapsburg Lip is the condition known as Anime Eyes.

The girls' eyes are larger than normal and spaced far apart. They are also royalty, and Rapunzel and their mothers share the trait. No other human character, not even Kristoff, seems to have this trait. It's a good thing we consider it attractive rather than, well, what the Habsburg Lip looks like.

Rapunzel and Elsa are sisters, Separated at Birth.

But hey, that's just a theory...

The Original Tale

Frozen is set after the events of "The Snow Queen"

In the script, a pair of characters named Gerda and Kai are prominent members of the royal court. It could very well be they decided to live with their friends the Princess and Prince (now the rulers of Arendelle) of the original story at some point, only for history to repeat itself in a new generation.

• Addition to this:
  • Gerda and Kai took it upon themselves to look after Elsa and Anna after the King and Queen drowned.
    • Actually Kai is visible in the background of a shot just before the King and Queen's deaths. But he could have been hired because he'd met an ice-witch before and so he and his wife Gerda were in the family's confidence about Elsa's condition. He certainly seems to have a broad and flexible brief (though this might just be because there are so few staff).
  • Bae (the reindeer who took Gerda to the Snow Queen's palace) is Sven's father.
  • The evil troll who made the magic mirror is an outcast from the troll group after using evil magic (probably as a result of a Deal with the Devil, one version of the original tale has the mirror been made by the Devil). Which would explain why they seem to know a lot about Elsa's powers. The grandfather troll could even be the evil troll's brother.
    • Related to this, the troll was the one who gave Elsa's power, but unintentionally. The troll originally meant to use a spell on Gerda and Kai, but the Prince and Princess got in the way, and somehow gave Elsa her abilities.
• Kristoff is the son of the Robber Girl. She abandoned/left him with the Trolls as she and her family were on the run from the law and wanted her son to have a better life.

Frozen is happening simultaneously with a version of the original Snow Queen story.

In the original, Kai is affected by the mirror's shards and given a task by the Snow Queen, who promises to 'make him his own master' and 'give him the world,' both of which seem like just the kind of thing Hans is after. The Snow Queen made him the same promise, sans the fairytale's skates, but instead of solving a puzzle, Hans was tasked with killing Elsa: The Snow Queen could sense Elsa's power and didn't want such a powerful rival, but was barred from acting directly due to her status as a supernatural (not human-with-magic) being, plus she likely didn't want to risk herself. Since Hans failed, of course, the Snow Queen has probably lost interest in him, though that might not stop her from trying again.

The story of "The Snow Queen" will still take place, just differently now that Elsa is good.

If Elsa had remained in her ice palace, she would have become the Snow Queen from the story. Since she came back though, it will play out differently.

Kai and Gerda live somewhere on the outskirts of the kingdom, or in a neighboring kingdom. One day, the mysterious Snow Queen Elsa comes and takes Kai away. Gerda sees this happening but is too late to stop it, and nobody will tell her why this has happened. She comes to the conclusion that Queen Elsa must be evil and has kidnapped Kai, so she sets out to rescue him. Along the way she encounters the trolls, Olaf, Rapunzel and Flynn, and others who help her on her way. She eventually runs into Kristoff and Sven. Kristoff knows that Elsa isn't really evil, but plays along and brings Gerda to the palace anyway so she can find her friend. When they get there, Kai is there but he's acting cold and stoic instead of like a normal boy. It turns out that he was under some kind of wintery spell - maybe he developed the same powers as Elsa, maybe he got hit by a frost spell, maybe he got a shard of ice stuck in his heart - and Elsa took him away because she wanted to try and help him. Gerda's love and devotion ends up being the key to finally curing him, and they go home together.

A bad end would result in "The Snow Queen"

Distraught by her sister's death, Elsa locks herself away in her ice castle. Years later she takes a boy named Kai up there...

• Disturbingly likely. Loneliness can make people do terrible things.

Frozen is the sequel to "The Snow Queen".

The Greta and Kai extras are actually the Greta and Kai from the story, and the Queen of Arendelle is... somehow, the snow queen? But somehow stripped of her powers because they went into her firstborn. Or something.

• Alternatively, the King and Queen were the Prince and Princess from the original story. See the theory way above.
  • This could tie into the reason the King and Queen feared Elsa's powers; given prior experience with a snow-controlling woman, everyone may assume that Elsa's powers are in some way from the Snow Queen, either through an explicit curse or something more subtle, hence why everyone was so afraid of them (aside from Elsa and Anna) when there was no sign of Elsa being dangerous before Anna's accident.

"The Snow Queen" story happened long ago, and it became a legend to the people of Arendelle.

Kai and Gerda were named after the two in the original legend, and the ice harvesters singing "Beware the frozen heart" could also be a reference to the mirror shards in the eye and heart that happened long ago, especially because some of those shard pieces could still be out there. It is also possible that due to the Snow Queen's influence, some people are born with ice powers as she was. Hence Elsa. Perhaps the legendary Snow Queen is still alive?

The Snow Queen was the previous child "born under an alignment of Saturn" as Elsa was, over 1000 years earlier.

Several millenniums difference is plenty of time to have the original story happen and it to become legend later, tying in with the above.

Story is result of manipulation of Snow Queen, one of The Old Gods of Arrendelle.

Snow Queen is either goddess, elemental or one of fair folk. When Christianity came-or maybe even Vikings, she could be one of remaining Jotun or Eldritch Abomination- that was driven out, either because of Gods Need Prayers Badly, loss of source of her power, man's new ways to protect themselves from cold, fought off by new deities, bargained with them or she simply didn't care. However, after some time, new mortals got disrespectful. So, every 1000 years, When the Planets Align she chooses a child, whom she curses/blesses-thank Blue-and-Orange Morality for that-to be her representative, her Chosen One among men to remind them she is still out there and they better beware from upsetting her. Reason why she choose Elsa is because Kai-whom she once took in as child-worked there, and she wished to see him, and by way laid curse/ blessing on Elsa.

The Snow Queen had an army of snowmen resembling Marshmallow.

They were melted away when the Snow Queen was defeated/redeemed.

Hans' family have the mirror shards.

Which would explain a lot.

Other Disney Properties

Ariel and Eric are the monarchs of the Southern Isles.

Let's say that the human city seen in The Little Mermaid (1989) is Copenhagen (where Hans Christian Andersen lived, and which has a statue of the Little Mermaid in its harbor.) Copenhagen is located on the island of Zealand, part of the archipelago that makes up the eastern half of Denmark. Denmark is south of Norway, so the Danish Archipelago is the Southern Isles. (Presumably, in this universe Denmark became partitioned so that the Southern Isles and Jutland are separate countries.) And Hans has red hair, so either:

• He's Ariel and Eric's son, but why wouldn't he mention that he has one sister in addition to twelve brothers, unless it's because he's a sexist Jerkass? And what does it say about Ariel's parenting skills that he turned out to be a bad seed? Or —
  • Maybe he did mention his older sister but Anna missed that because of the huge number of brothers, or he never got a chance to before Anna cut him off? It doesn't say anything about Ariel's parenting skills if a few of her kids turns out to be a bit jerky, since including Melody, there's 13 of them. Unlike Anna, he didn't take this in stride because he had several big brother bullies. If Ariel and Eric don't know their sons are tormenting one another, there's nothing they can do, and if Hans doesn't voice his bitterness, it just consumes him.
• He's Eric's youngest brother. He got his red hair from his mother, and Eric was attracted to Ariel because of Like Parent, Like Spouse.
• This is (somewhat) backed up by the fact that Ariel herself comes from a huge family of 7 sisters and comes from a place where huge families are commonplace (fish). She could very well have wanted a huge family herself. The only snare is that Melody would be significantly older than the oldest brother because she doesn't have any during her movie.
  • Also that The Little Mermaid takes place about three centuries earlier.
    • Whoa. As soon as you look at Hans with the idea that there's a bit more fish in him than the average person... you can't un-see it...

Elsa knows of Ariel and Eric

The Little Mermaid probably takes place 10 - 20 years before Frozen.

• Both of these movies (Frozen and The Little Mermaid) are based on stories written by Hans Christian Anderson, after all...
• There's no reason Ariel and Eric can't be part of this universe if Rapunzel and Eugene have cameos, especially since The Little Mermaid is also a HCA story like what Frozen is based on.
• Since The Little Mermaid take place in the 1500's, and Frozen takes place in the 1800's, maybe Elsa could know of them as distant ancestors.

Ariel and Eric ruled over what eventually became the kingdom of the Southern Isles.

Seeing as The Little Mermaid takes place about three centuries before Frozen, Ariel and Eric's kingdom expanded over the generations. It eventually led to The Southern Isles becoming a kingdom.

Atlantica is the sunken Jutland Peninsula.

The map seen in Frozen Fever shows that the Southern Isles looks similar to Denmark if the Jutland Peninsula didn't exist. Maybe the merpeople sank the peninsula and turned it into their kingdom of Atlantica.

The next Disney Princess movie will include a mention of the "weird blizzard last July".

Just to tie it in with this movie like this one gets linked with Tangled.

This movie takes place in the same universe as The Incredibles.

• So Frozone's powers are magic-based?
• Alternatively, Elsa is the first waterbender
  • Or the last.

The movie was written to gel well with Kingdom Hearts

Hearts play a significant role (to the extent of true love being defined in terms of the heart rather than its own context as usual), villains are sufficiently minor and unrelated to events that Xehanort can be squeezed in into quite a large role with minor fuss, and the Anna/Elsa pair appears so startlingly similar to Sora/Riku that interacting with them may well serve a character development role for the latter pair by showing them where they/the other were/was pre-character development and that not having a 'Sora and Riku are split and each follow one sister for this world' would practically be a plot twist.
The similarity and fit seems too great to be an accident. Thus, it must be by design. They knew it'd show up eventually, so they made it work well for it.

• Corrupted!Elsa would make for an awesome boss battle.
  • Or even just Ice Queen Elsa. She was quite unstable already, and then she went over the edge because of the assassination attempt. Besides, Beast was a boss fight in Kingdom Hearts II because of his Xaldin-induced freak-out.
  • Hell, if Elsa mistakenly thinks Sora's going to pull a trick like Hans's gold-digging, she is not going to put up with anyone trying that on her kingdom or her sister. Heck, Anna could be a terrifying boss battle or the sisters as a Dual Boss could also work.
    • Bonus points if Anna is weak to the Blizzard element, having been nearly killed by it twice.
    • Why go small? Maleficent recruits Hans. Since Hans is a sociopath, he can control the Heartless with ease. And if we want to throw in Tangled as well, have Maleficent revive Gothel and Sora has to deal with both of them.
    • More bonus points if, during an Elsa boss fight, she has an attack that, if it hits Sora, doesn't actually do damage, but if Sora doesn't get healed within a few seconds, instant popsicle Game Over!
• A Boss Battle against a Heartless manifested by Elsa's fears would be awesome!
• It's pretty much a shoo-in for Kingdom Hearts III at this point. There's two reasons why a Frozen world would be beneficial for both franchises:
  • Pandering to the Japanese fanbase. Frozen is enjoying Titanic-like success in Japan, which is also Kingdom Hearts' country of origin. This almost guarantees it a spot in the game.
  • Helping to introduce more male fans to Frozen. Even if it's a Cast Full of Pretty Boys, an RPG video game has a much higher proportion of male fans than a Disney princess movie, so if Arendelle as a world is done awesomely then it'd succeed in winning them over.

If Frozen appears in Kingdom Hearts 3 and D-links return from Birth by Sleep, Elsa will be one.

She'll basically grant every Ice ability in the game, with the "limit break" being, what else, "Let it go".

Likewise, we're going to see an alternate universe version of the sisters in Once Upon a Time.

Elsa's abilities are very dangerous, and have the steep price tag of social isolation. Anna was saved by Troll magic, but at the cost of her memories. First rule of Horwitz and Kitiss's take on Disney canon? Magic always comes with a price. The feminist themes of Frozen and Hans's nasty subversion of Disney Prince also would fit right into a universe where Alice is swinging a sword, Snow White is a deadly archer, Red Riding Hood is a werewolf, and the "wicked stepmother" is a deeply screwed up mess under all the grandstanding, murder, and sorcery.

• Status: CONFIRMED!!! Storybrooke, Maine is in for one nasty winter come Season 4
  • Knowing the series Anna died and Elsa became closer to the Snow Queen of the book as a result.

If all the other Disney Princesses had their own Elemental Powers...

(If anyone else has any ideas, please add them)

• Snow White: Extra-ore-dinary. Her connection with dwarves.
• Cinderella: More than one. The Beastmaster, Casting a Shadow (most of wonders happen to her at night and spell ends on midnight) or Light'emUp- because Light Is Good and magic in first film is associated with stars.
• Aurora: Green Thumb and Fertile Feet.
• Ariel: Water because she's a mermaid and her father is a powerful sea king.
• Belle: Control over force-not Star Wars, but as in hit them extra strong.
• Jasmine: Sand because of her movie's desert theme.
• Pocahontas: Wind because of her free spirit and the wind motif throughout her movie.
• Mulan: Metal or Fire to represent her role in the military.
• Tiana: Earth because of her down-to-earth personality.
• Rapunzel: Sun, implied in the film itself with the sun flower.
• Merida: Fire because she's a rebellious Fiery Redhead.
• Anna: Fire/Summer or Plants/Spring because of her warm personality and to contrast her sister's Ice/Winter powers.
• Elsa: Ice/Winter. Obviously.

The trolls are related to Te Fiti.

Both are made of earth (rocks/land), and when they are asleep, they both look like the rocks or island that they are made of.

Disney, the Polar Vortex and Reality

Disney has been pursuing a long-term strategy to sabotage Universal's chances of making Wicked into a movie.

Universal bought the adaptation rights to Wicked and funded the production of the stage musical with the intent of making it into a film. It's taken them so long to do this that Disney has now co-opted the setting and timeframe of Wicked in Oz the Great and Powerful, and co-opted the plot, character arcs and star (Idina Menzel) of Wicked in Frozen, so if a Wicked movie does come out, audiences will feel like they've seen it all before.

• Maleficent takes this further, co-opted the basic story idea of telling a famous tale from a villain's perspective and making the villain, who previously was unsympathetic, a misunderstood heroine. So now Disney has leveled a triple whammy against Wicked; unfortunately for them, "Let it Go" increased Idina Menzel's popularity to the point where audiences crave more, and a Wicked film starring her could easily take advantage of that.
• Maybe Disney took its inexplicable vendetta against Wicked so far that it invented a time machine and created a bunch of other adaptions of classic fantasy and fairy tale stories that explored the perspective of a previously villainous or antagonistic character and/or gave them a more heroic personality, which it published years before Wicked or even any version of The Wizard of Oz was released. That way, people seeing not just the film adaption, but the mega-popular stage musical or even reading the 1995 book will feel they've seen it before.

There is no coincidence that Frozen was released before the 2014 Arctic blast.

• Detailed here.
  • And the first teaser for the sequel was released during the 2019 polar vortex... hmm...

Frozen is meant to subtly encourage people to stop Global Warming.

• There's a long tradition in European-derived literature and thought of cold as evil and warm as good (for example, "cold-hearted" vs. "warm-hearted"), of which the villainous Snow Queen in the original story was an example. This makes sense for people who lived on a continent where nothing grew in the winter and the cold could be dangerous, but in the modern world, it can make it kind of strange to talk about warming temperatures and an end to winter as bad things. Frozen is an attempt to show that ice and winter can be beautiful and important if people can only accept them and realize their value. And instead of a villainous Snow Queen, the cold is associated with the sympathetic and positive character of Elsa.

Art Imitates Life

It takes inspiration from the actual princesses of Sweden, Victoria and Madeleine. Crown Princess Victoria, the eldest, had anorexia, and at age 20, the same age as Elsa, she left Sweden to get treatment. She then returned later, and resumed her princess duties. So, both Victoria and Elsa had emotional problems they needed to resolve, left their kingdoms to recover, and returned later to resume their duties.

On the other hand, Madeline fell in love and married a foreign commoner, Christopher O'Neill. As a Saami, Kristoff is technically a foreigner to Arendelle, and definitely a commoner; Christopher is born in England holds dual citizenship of US and UK and hence also a foreigner, refused the Swedish nationality and royal title when married the princess. And notice the similarity of their names yet?

Disney executives made a pact with Satan for this movie to have the success it has

Not that it doesn't deserve it, but damn this has achieved far more than even The Lion King (1994). Also possibly as means to justify their decision to extinguish traditional animation. Because of this, all characters in the movie are doomed to go to Hell when they die.

• And when Elsa reaches the fiery gates, the time will finally come for Hell to literally freeze over!
  • Except that the lowest level of Hell is frozen over.

Disney knew...

Disney used their psychic powers to see Winter Storm Titan before it happened. Knowing that it would increase viewership of a fitting movie, they made Frozen.

The Nature of Magic

Every planetary alignment in a set number of years ends up granting someone powers at birth.

With Word of God stating that Elsa's powers are due to being born 1,000 years after an alignment of Saturn, maybe each of the planets have a sort of elemental power that activates during certain alignments at certain years? Jupiter, for instance, often represents thunder and lightning, and Io, one of its primary moons, is really hot and has volcanos—maybe an alignment at the right time grants someone lightning/fire/heat powers?

All the celestial bodies of the Frozen universe (or at least in the solar system) are Physical Gods.

Seeing an alignment of Saturn's icy attributes plus 1,000 years gave Elsa ice powers, and a drop of sunlight gave Rapunzel healing/reversal abilities, maybe the planetary bodies are in fact sentient entities who have the ability to grant magic to specific individuals?

The icy attributes of the Saturn alignment takes 1,000 to effect someone on Earth because Saturn, Enceladus, etc. are so far away...

... In contrast to the "drop of sunlight" with Rapunzel, which physically landed on the Earth and thus took effect immediately.

Celestial Bodies and the Powers they give

We already know that the Sun gives Life Power and Saturn gives Ice Power. The top WMG in this folder suggests that Jupiter gives Storm Power. As for the other celestial bodies:

• The Moon has a connection to the tides, so it gives Sea Power.
• Mars is a desert planet, so it gives Sand Power.
• Mercury is a barren world, so it would give Stone Power.
• Venus is basically uber-Mordor, so it gives Fire Power.
• Neptune might give Rain Power.
• Uranus might give Wind Power. And I just realised what I've done.
• Comets, meteors and mayne dwarf planets might give Metal Power because they're a promising source of metal ores.
• And the stars and constellations themselves probably give some sort of undefined Star Power that's either All Your Powers Combined or a random one of the other Powers turned up to eleven.

Meta (Merch, Cultural Impact, etc.)

The US 3D Blu-ray release will be less of a Vanilla Edition than the standard 2D Blu-ray release that came out in March,2014

Just hear me out; now I own the standard 2D release because I neither own a 3D-TV or a 3D Blu-ray player and while I am perfectly content with what I paid for, I know a lot of fans in the US wished Disney had released the 3D version simultaneously. Now that being said, I am a little disappointed in the Extras department for not including more behind-the-scenes features; true, there's a small seven minute documentary on the company's 75 year journey with trying to make the film and there's a neat little music video, but that's it. There's no optional commentary by the directors/producers/anyone involved with the making of this film or an art gallery (though, thankfully, the iTunes release does include this).

Now with the upcoming 3D Blu-ray release, I wouldn't be surprised if they transferred all the extras from the standard release while adding in the commentary, art gallery, and even the ABC documentary "The Story of Frozen".

Somebody on the Frozen direction or production team was or is a big Sense and Sensibility fan.

In addition to the fact that Jane Austen fan fiction, sequels, and parodies are rampant these days, the Frozen story has many parallels to Sense and Sensibility, whether the writers meant that to be true or not. The stories don't have a perfect 1:1 relationship, but consider these similarities:

• Elsa = Elinor Dashwood. They have similar names and similar personalities. Elsa is the least emotion-driven of the two Frozen sisters, and arguably the more intelligent. (A deleted song has Anna describing her as "the scholar, athlete, [and] poet.") Both Elsa and Elinor are accused of being cold and unfeeling even though they feel deeply; they just don't feel safe expressing those emotions. With Elinor, it's because her time period restricts her expression, but with Elsa, it's because she knows becoming emotional unleashes hurtful ice powers. Elinor, like Elsa, also chastises sister Marianne for improper behavior such as becoming quickly romantically attached to a man she barely knows.

• Anna = Marianne Dashwood. Anna, like Marianne, is more emotion-driven, reckless, and sanguine. Like Marianne, she is desperate to be loved and experience all the headiness of romance, but sometimes at the expense of good sense or even her health. Anna doesn't understand why Elsa would shut her out, just as Marianne doesn't understand why Elinor won't reveal anything she's feeling.

• Kristoff = Colonel Brandon. He's quieter and less flashy than Prince Hans, but he's also reliable and steady. His presence helps Anna mature, just as Colonel Brandon's presence helps Marianne mature.

• Prince Hans = Willoughby. Anna believes she loves him, and he is quite romantic and dashing. Yet, he ends up breaking her heart and nearly causing her death.

• Duke of Weaselton (WESSELTON!) = John Dashwood Jr. He is determined to take Arendelle from Elsa and Anna, just as Elinor and Marianne's half-brother John was determined to keep them bankrupt after their father's death.

At least one major plot point matches up as well:

• Marianne's disastrous walk in the garden, which lands her with a serious fever and nearly kills her, matches up with Anna's nearly fatal frozen heart. It also matches up because like Marianne, it is not until Anna is deathly ill that she discovers Hans, her Willoughby, is a real cad. Of course, in Sense and Sensibility, Marianne discovered this earlier, but her illness really helped her get over Willoughby.

There will be an animated tv series produced after the sequel.

Since the franchise is still crazy-popular, and since they're also making a Tangled series, it'd be nuts for them to not be thinking about making a Frozen series as well. But they are going to wait until after Frozen 2 comes out so as not to create a Continuity Snarl with the new movie.

• If Hans does make a Heel–Face Turn and stays in Arendelle, he'd be a good Audience Surrogate for learning about the country and it's traditions.
• They could adapt some of the stories from the chapter books.
• Maybe they could even have a crossover special with Tangled: The Series like Aladdin: The Series and Hercules: The Animated Series did!

Other

"Let it go" is about flatulence

• Works on SO many levels:
  • "The wind is howling like the swirling storm inside..." (TMI?)
  • "Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried."
  • "Can't hold it back anymore."
  • "Turn away and slam the door!" (i.e. "clear the room, people!")
  • "I don't care what they're going to say!"
  • "Let the storm rage on..."
  • "I am one with the wind..."
  • "The perfect girl is gone!" (maybe she got blown away?)

Everyone is gay

• Yes, even Olaf.
  • Actually, that does make sense, given he was born from Elsa's desires (the sun, Summer, be close to her sister, et cetera)
• Well, that's just basic literary analysis, isn't it? (Speaking as the guy who posted the Oaken instance of this.)
• Why "even Olaf"? There's no indication that he'd be straight so it's not really a weird suggestion. Anna and Kristoff, on the other hand, seem rather heterosexual (although they could be bi too), so they are the ones who are harder to argue being gay. (Though not impossible! They could be heteroromantic, for example. Or confusing friendship with romance due to social expectations.) The former King and Queen are easier to explain, since theirs could easily have been a marriage of convenience: they seem to be a happy family and to love each other but we can't know if they were in love with each other.

Frozen is the birth of Disney Princess Theory

This isn't at all a concrete theory, but rather a pretty large series of coincidences. Disney has gone through some pretty interesting lengths to keep the Disney Princess franchise fresh in people's minds lately. Consider these points:

1. Tiana is the first African American princess, the most modern Disney princess, and the first official Disney Princess since 1998. Disney wants to draw in a new target demographic, and expressed regret that they did not draw in a good male audience, leading to an effort to capitalize on branding Flynn in Tangled.

2. The last four princesses have all been animated in CGI rather than Disney's typical style of 2D animation. Disney has played a lot recently with special effects in these movies, and the result is pretty good. The fact that Brave is a Pixar movie, however, may or may not mean that Merida will be left out of this new direction.

3. The princes in The Princess and the Frog, Tangled and Brave all started out as being jerks. This could be some type of theme, or it could not be. Besides the fact that this goes directly against Disney's past standards, Hans is a subversion of this line of thinking, so this isn't my strongest argument. At least until the end of course!

4. Disney has two live action movies slated for the next two years, Maleficent and Cinderella, both of which are reduxes of Princesses they've already covered. These movies will probably retcon in events tying together the older set of Disney Princess movies. Maleficent will be told from the POV of the villain as well, which may prove to be good in terms of theory storytelling. They may also prove to be a good chance to tie in with the movie Enchanted.

5. See the WMG above on the Rapunzel cameo, as well as this link to the site, current home of Pixar Theory discussion. This is why I believe Frozen to be the birth of Princess theory, because it is the first obvious effort to tie multiple princesses to the same universe. The fact that they are so close together in the timeline also hints that they may be part of a certain subset.

6. Pixar Theory itself seems to be waning. Monsters University was a prequel that lent nothing to the greater timeline. Planes was created by John Lassiter, but was handed off to Disney Toon Studios. There is no Pixar movie slated for this year, and the next two, from what we know so far, just don't seem to fit. The Good Dinosaur is explicitly stated to be in an alternate dimension, which actually may hurt Pixar Theory in general. Unless they do work out, I think we can safely assume that Brave was the last of Pixar's great vision (which makes sense, seeing as it was decided to be the first and last movie in the timeline).

Elsa's Ice Palace will be properly refurbished, and there will be a Snow Queen there 24/7/365.

The ruse will not draw off all the adventurers wandering in to "Free Arendelle From The Ice Witch's Grasp" (the Incident is bound to get severely distorted in the retelling without steamships and telegraphs in wide use); but the more gullible ones that bypass the capital to head straight for a lair in ice-bound reaches where snow is permanent 24/7/365 can chase some simulacra around a bit, smash something vaguely female & menacing heroically, and head home none the wiser as 'she' pulls herself together.

• If Elsa does not reshape 'Marshmallow' into her decoy, then he/she/it gets to be The Dragon.
• And yes, all the citizenry will be in on it. There will be some disappointment when Elsa has to remove the ice skating rink in time for Arendelle's population to hold a parade in "honor" of the hero, and keeping straight faces will be a challenge.

Frozen takes place later then we thought

Not in the 21st century but sometime in the early-to-mid 20th. It's set in an AU universe which explains the Anachronism Stew.

The prison cell which Elsa is thrown into was built on her parents' orders years ago as a precaution in case their daughter ever went out of control

Many fan fiction writers point to the manacles she's made to wear as proof that the room was designed especially for her.

• According to a tweet of Jennifer Lee's, it was Hans who had the manacles made.
  • Why would they be custom-made manacles? Prisoners come in all different sizes and you can't predict the hand-size of a difficult one- it makes more sense for them to be adjustable when unlocked. Ordinary handcuffs can adjust to fit almost any human wrist.
  • If anyone made those manacles for Elsa they weren't very good at the job, seeing as they warped and broke almost immediately under... pretty much exactly the conditions they would have been intended for.
• The "prison cell" was aboard a boat. Most likely Han's boat.
  • No it wasn't. Ever seen a boat made out of stone?
• It was probably just a regular cell that she was thrown into, not custom made for her unlike the manacles. Which is probably why she managed to escape so quickly after getting out of said manacles.
• It was a regular cell where political prisoners are most likely held.
• It may not have been built for Elsa, but for someone earlier in her family's lineage who had similar powers.

Alternatively, it was a regular cell

• Jennifer Lee said "personally, I think Hans had them made, 'just in case.'"
  • There's no indication they're custom-made. Prisoners come in all different sizes and you can't predict the hand-size of a difficult one- it makes more sense for them to be adjustable when unlocked. Ordinary handcuffs can adjust to fit almost any human wrist.
  • If anyone made those manacles for Elsa they weren't very good at the job, seeing as they warped and broke almost immediately under... pretty much exactly the conditions they would have been intended for.
• It was probably just a regular cell that she was thrown into, not custom made for her unlike the manacles. Which is probably why she managed to escape so quickly after getting out of said manacles.
• It was a regular cell where political prisoners are most likely held.
• It may not have been built for Elsa, but for someone earlier in her family's lineage who had similar powers.

Elsa is a Conduit, and a very powerful one at that

Like her eventual successors Cole Macgrath and Delsin Rowe, Elsa is one of the small percentage of humans with the Conduit gene that allows for amazing abilities. Her abilities manifest as Ice/Snow, much like Lucy Kuo, though she seems to have a wider range of abilities.

The only problem is that she seems to have a wide range of abilities even after suppressing them for more than a decade. As Augustine tells Delsin during their final battle, right after he copies her concrete powers, it takes years to focus and strengthen a Conduit's powers; Delsin (and Cole, incidently, at least in this timeline) only developed their powers due to their exposure to Ray Field energy (Cole's powers were activated specifically BECAUSE of his exposure, Delsin's manifested naturally but were never seen because he'd never met another Conduit). It's entirely possible that Elsa was exposed to a large amount of Ray Field energy when she was a child (it would have to be, as she already expresses an amazing amount of control over her powers that early) or she could just be a gifted Conduit like the Cole from the original timeline (alias Kessler). It would certainly explain how she got her powers if no one else in her family has any abilities, as the Conduit gene's distribution is seemingly random.

• And not just any Conduit, she's the ancestor of Lucy Kuo.

Frozen was very controversial when it was released in the Marvel Universe

A positive depiction of a mutant in a film aimed toward children? Never mind that Elsa wasn't the main character and was a reluctant villain for 2/3rds of the film, the overall message to mutants was "Don't isolate or repress your powers, but share them with the world" and the message to humans was "Don't fear or be prejudiced against mutants, but accept them for who they are." Friends of Humanity must have had a field day picketing the premiere!

• Well, it obviously serves as a push towards metahuman openess: Look at all the harm that came from Elsa hiding her powers! She meant well, and her parents just wanted to protect her, but it ultimately put Elsa and everyone around her in even more danger; wouldn't it have been better for everyone to know about Elsa's power from the start? And shouldn't the people around her have the right to know about her abilities? Boy, it sure makes anyone who'd try to keep their special powers secret look like they really have something to hide...
• When the movie came out, Rogue ruined her chair by gripping the armrests too hard. Thor just bawled through the entire movie, then went to find Loki, hug him, and never let go.

In the Marvel Universe, Frozen was a live-action film without a very big special effects budget.

Because they had an actual mutant play Elsa.

Elsa is the reason the Mushroom War happened

Because her army of "feminist water elemental warrior lesbians" took over Scandinavia, and Finn went back in time to stop her.

Elsa's ice blast gave Anna magic.

Elsa hits Anna with the ice blast, Anna freezes, does her act of true love, and thaws. But does that mean the ice, let alone the magic, is out of her system? Not to mention that Grand Pabbie and King Agdar had a conversation communicated that ice powers could be cursed onto someone. Anna has been cursed with Elsa's powers, but it's not a big deal because they know how to thaw most accidental freezes (and Anna's rarely scared anyway). The last scene of the film could be before or after that revelation.

At least one of Hans’s brothers was/is trying to invoke All Girls Want Bad Boys.

Too bad for him, he missed how exactly how to do it: He acts like a Wangst-y goth who peppers his speech with random depressing poetry. Naturally, keeping up this act prevents him from getting into a serious relationship.

Elsa's parents did the right thing

Ok, they died before she came to adulthood, and I don't believe they ever told her to keep her powers concealed forever. I kind of suspect that when they thought she was old enough to be responsible (we'd already seen the damage a small child could do), they would have let her gradually start using them again. But, since they died, Elsa kept trying to conceal them, and that created the problem.

• The same logic is applicable to say that they probably intended to tell Anna about Elsa's powers once they thought Anna had come of age.

Those women Elsa walks past in "For the First Time in Forever" are supposed to be her ladies in waiting

Ladies-in-waiting were perfectly normal for many queens (either as a single queen, queen regent or queen consort^note like Anna and Elsa's mother) in Europe to have during the pre-20th century time period. Their pose is also suggestive of this.

You're allowed to wear more rosemaling in Arendelle the older you get

Notice that Anna wears the same style of nightgown both as a five year old and as an eighteen year old. But there are subtle differences: Anna's nightgown as an adult has longer sleeves and also has two bands of rosemaling.

• It's logical that her adult clothes are more elaborate than her childhood clothes- she's going to have them for longer now that her physical growth has stopped.

The world of Arendelle is inside a video game

There are several factors that imply that the setting of the movie takes place in a video game.

1. Anna, Sven, and Kristoff surviving the fall off the cliff, implying that they live in a world without fall damage, much like Sugar Rush.

2. The sudden cold weather seems to have no impact upon the health or well-being of any of the citizens of Arendelle, perhaps because they are NPCs that lack health to lose.

3. Hans is seemingly immune to fire, which is often not too devastating to many video game characters, and is even wielded as a weapon by certain ones.

4. The designs of the characters seem to have a style slightly resembling Nintendo characters, with the big heads and big eyes (so much so that people often mistake Elsa and Rosalina for each other).

5. Elsa undoing all the snow and ice is very similar to the Reset Button at the end of Wreck-It Ralph.

Just too many video game tropes exist in this movie for the possibility not to exist that it is indeed a video game. Not saying it is definite or even probable, but it's not impossible.

Frozen is the distant future of the new Ra Ciela.

• Elsa's magic comes from her being an Incarnate, and the trolls are a subspecies of Sharl. Olaf and Marshmallow are like Prims created by Elsa.

There will be a Frozen TV series on Disney Junior sometime in the future

So far there's already been Jake And The Neverland Pirates and The Lion Guard (respectively spin-offs of Peter Pan and The Lion King (1994)). Considering its wide popularity and bringing big bucks to Disney, Frozen has the likelihood of being given a television spin-off at some point.

Hans will be back in Frozen Ever After

Frozen is set in the world of Dragon Age.

Perhaps it's in the northern continent rather than Thedas, perhaps in a distant future where Tevinter, the Chantry and magic are all but forgotten and whatever scraps of it are offhandedly taught to nobles, but Elsa is a mage, the first mage born in Arendelle in centuries, and those faint, scattered records of what happened in the Dragon Age franchise are the only source of information about her nature. And it's why the King, Queen and the Duke of Weselton were utterly terrified of her even though nobody has any idea what's going on.The trolls possess a potent connection to the Fade and are therefore more familiar with Elsa's condition.

Frozen is set in the same universe as Undertale.

1000 years after the monsters were sealed underground, humans started using magic less, to the point that magic users could only be born under certain celestial conditions. Elsa happened to be born during the event associated with ice magic. Alternatively, only people with magic-wielding ancestors can use it; Elsa and Anna's great great great great etc. grandparent helped make the barrier. The trolls in the film are actually monsters; when all the other monsters went underground, the trolls hid.

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