History Fanfic / SecretPassages

The fic itself is part prequel fic and part {{Interquel}}, and part AdaptationExpansion, as the new story also includes the events of the movie, but it's told from Elsa's perspective instead of Anna's perspective, to fill in plot holes in the story.

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: Anna and Elsa have an argument in the cellars a few months before the coronation about how messed up their lives are, with each sister calling the other out for not understanding the other's problems.

* EyesNeverLie: Despite Elsa's attempts to act stoic, Anna can always read her emotions with her eyes.

* RebelliousPrincess: Being that the sisters are both teenagers, it's inevitable that both of them show shades of this. Anna, being younger, tends to show this more often, but Elsa also tends to act like one.
* {{Retcon}}: Jennifer Lee has said that Elsa's birthday is at the winter solstice, while Anna's birthday is at the summer solstice. This story reverses it so that Elsa's birthday is in the summer while Anna's birthday is right before Christmas.

* MeaningfulEcho: During the coronation ball, the Duke of Weselton approaches Elsa and tries to ask her about raising taxes. Elsa immediately recalls an incident 18 years earlier where, as a child, she'd snuck down to the throne room while her father was arguing with this same Duke about taxes, and doesn't hesitate to remind him of what he'd said to her father:

* NotSoStoic: Despite Elsa attempting to shut down her emotions (since her powers respond to her emotions), there are times where her attempts at staying emotionless and impassive fail.

* PoorCommunicationKills: It's clear that Elsa's inability to explain her powers to Anna, and their parents' refusal to talk about the topic, greatly frustrates Anna.

** As a teenage girl, Elsa resents hate being confined to her room, and lectured for things that aren't her fault. One scene has her venting her rage by throwing icicles and breaking a window in her room. Even though Elsa's trying to bottle her emotions, she reacts like any other teenager would.

** Agdar and Idun decide to keep Anna in the dark about Elsa's powers. Appropriately, it angers Anna that she knows something's wrong with Elsa, but neither Elsa nor their parents want to even tell her what's going on.

** Anna and Elsa play "Jingle Bells" on the piano in chapter 26. The song was first written in 1857, but common consensus is that ''Frozen'' takes place around the 1830s.

** When Hans reveals his true colors to Anna, he mentions that the reason why he pretended to fall for her is because Elsa wasn't getting anywhere with any suitors. It's implied that even after bumping into Anna, Hans still thought he could make a pass at Elsa and found she wasn't exactly open to forming a relationship. Some new material is added to fill in the gap: after Elsa foists Anna onto the Duke of Weselton to avoid dancing with him, Hans approaches Elsa and tries to solicit a dance from her, and when that doesn't work, he tries to offer a courtship. However, Elsa has a sixth sense about Hans and has a sneaking suspicion that he's up to something, so she quickly turns him down. It also explains Elsa's swift rejection of Hans' attempt to get hitched with Anna later. Further explanation for Hans's line is that, during the three years between the deaths of her parents and her coronation, Elsa is shown to receive and turn down multiple marriage proposals from other kingdoms, getting further incensed when a few that are meant for Anna are received.

** In the resulting argument that leads to Elsa's powers being exposed, two things happen that get new context. First, Elsa's insistence on talking to Anna alone is because she wants to explain her powers to Anna and set her straight about Hans, but Anna misinterprets it as solely being about Hans. As things get heated, it's made clear that Anna is just trying to get Elsa to rethink her decision about Hans, and Anna is aware this isn't the appropriate place to be lashing out at Elsa, but her mouth gets ahead of her thinking.

* ShoutOut: Elsa is shown to have an ability to open locks, referencing her doing the same thing in ''Series/OnceUponATime''.

* TemptingFate: In a flashback in Chapter 14, Elsa recalls as a three year old that she once crashed a late night meeting between her father and the Duke of Weselton, and called the Duke out for being sleazy. Agdar quickly takes to Elsa's defense. The Duke replies, "I don't look forward to that little brat on the throne of Arendelle in the future." 18 years later, Elsa becomes Queen and when she runs into the Duke at the coronation ball, they both still very well remember this.

* UnfamiliarCeiling: When Elsa is forced by Gerda to sleep in Anna's bedroom after her suicide attempt, the first thing she says when she wakes up is, "Why am I in Anna's room? Oh...I remember now."
* WellDoneSonGuy: Elsa's "Be the good girl you always have to be" line from "Let It Go" gets some roots to it. We see that a lot of her isolation from Anna is as a result of her parents imposing it on her. This is shown whenever she has dreams about the night she froze Anna's head, and always gets the same disapproval from her parents of "Elsa, what have you done? This is getting out of hand."

** Gerda manages to slip Elsa a warning that Hans is up to no good, which is what gives her the provocation needed to escape. It's also suggested on the fjord that Elsa does hear Hans drawing his sword to slice at her, but she doesn't even know that Anna's come to stop Hans until she hears Anna's BigNo and Anna has frozen solid.
** To get back to the castle after Anna punches out Hans, Elsa creates an ice path across the waters of the fjord (though not before first getting properly introduced to Kristoff.
* {{Adorkable}}: Elsa's just as capable of being this as Anna can be. For example, in one scene, she deliberately freezes her bedroom door so that Kai cannot replace the lock (on her parents' orders). To undo it, Elsa's response is to use her fist to break the ice on her side of the door, which Kai remarks is something Anna would do.

** In the resulting argument that leads to Elsa's powers being exposed, two things happen that get new context. First, Elsa's insistence on talking to Anna alone is because she wants to explain her powers to Anna, which Anna misinterprets as her wanting to set her straight about Hans. As things get heated, it's made clear that Anna is just trying to get Elsa to rethink her decision about Anna's whirlwind courtship with Hans, and Anna is aware this isn't the appropriate place to be lashing out at Elsa, but her mouth gets ahead of her thinking.

* MoralityChain: Anna functions as one to Elsa. It's the thought that Anna might not think highly of Elsa killing people that keeps her from finishing off the Duke of Weselton's bodyguards in the ice palace.

* PerspectiveFlip: The story alternates between Anna's and Elsa's perspectives during the chapters covering the five years before the movie, though skewed more towards Elsa. The chapters covering the events of the movie are told entirely from Elsa's perspective (although part of the scene where Anna and Kristoff meet Olaf is still included). In the final chapter's author's notes, the author explained that the story originally started as an attempt to tell the main plot of the movie from Elsa's point of view, and explain what she did while confined in her room, since all that's obvious from the movie is that Elsa is scared and having a hard time controlling her powers, and the author also notes that in the movie, Elsa is never seen outside of either of her 'extreme' personas; "either she's declaring her freedom as the Snow Queen on the North Mountain or she's terrified".

* {{Retcon}}: The story places Elsa's birthday in the summer and Anna's birthday in the winter, the reverse of how they're normally depicted.

* CallForward[=/=]{{Foreshadowing}}: Many instances of foreshadowing towards the events of the movie are planted throughout the story.

* ContinuityNod: Several are made to the main movie even before the plot happens, often in the form of dialogue.
** The existence of secret tunnels in the castle may be a nod to the ''Frozen'' tie-in book ''Phantoms of Arendelle''.

* MythologyGag: The argument Anna and Elsa have in the cellar a few months before the coronation calls to mind both "For The First Time in Forever (Reprise)" but also the CutSong that it replaced, "Life's Too Short".

* NeatFreak: Elsa always keeps her room very nice and tidy, as imposed by her parents after an accidental loss of control of her powers led to her ruining a dress and several books. This contrasts with Anna, whose room is very much a mess.

* ThePianoPlayer: Elsa is able to play Beethoven's ''Moonlight Sonata'' on the piano just fine.

* YouAreInCommandNow: Elsa is left in charge of Arendelle while her parents are away. When they die, Elsa finds herself saddled with running Arendelle from behind closed doors.

** Anna sees Elsa going outside and always wearing her gloves, and assumes that it's because Elsa's got a thing about dirt, as she remarks to Kristoff in the sled after they leave Wandering Oaken's Trading Post & Sauna.

** A whole new timeline is created to show what Elsa does between the end of "Let It Go" and when Anna shows up at the ice palace with Kristoff and Olaf. From the conclusion of "Let It Go," Elsa finds she's inadvertently created a replica of her bedroom from the castle in the ice palace. She also creates an ice statue of Anna to apologize to for hitting in the head thirteen years earlier. After that, she spends most of the day sleeping, though she does leave at one point to admire the place from outside at the bottom of the stairs. To acknowledge the fact that some wondered if Elsa ate anything during her period in isolation, she leaves the ice palace and venture down the mountain in an effort to forage for berries. However, Elsa is forced to hastily retreat when she sees some wolves nearby. Then, at the moment Anna shows up, Elsa is on the balcony staring off into space.

* WorseWithContext: At the post-coronation ball in the movie, Anna looks nervous when Kai repositions her on the throne dais next to Elsa, explaining why she's babbling, "What, here? Are you sure? Because I don't think I'm supposed to--Oh, okay!" when Kai is moving her. In the movie, all that seems to be suggested is that Anna feels awkward being in Elsa's presence and also in front of a crowd. Here though, Anna's nervousness is because she and Elsa had a fight a few months prior and haven't been on the best of speaking terms until then. This explains why Anna seems surprised when Elsa starts to converse cordially with her.

** When Elsa refuses to bless Anna's impromptu engagement to Hans, she says to Anna, "May I talk to you, please? ''Alone''?!" In the movie, one can tell from the look on her face and her tone of voice that Elsa is both nervous and alarmed by the news. The author thinks Elsa intends to take Anna aside and privately reveal her powers, but Anna's response of "No! Whatever you have to say, you can say to both of us!" forced her to abandon that idea, thus, hence that outburst that happened in the movie.

** Despite the focus on Elsa, we do cut briefly to Anna and Kristoff's journey to the North Mountain. For instance, there's some additional dialogue in the scene where they notice that Arendelle is frozen over.....

** ...and in the next scene, where Anna and Kristoff meet Olaf, Anna recognizes a nearby frozen pond as one she and Elsa swam in as kids.

* GentleGiant: Marshmallow is recharacterized as one. While he only gets mad when provoked by Anna with her snowball, he's shown comforting Elsa and cradling her afterwards in the time between chasing Anna and Kristoff off, and later attacking Hans and his men.

-->'''Queen Elsa:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Why, no…I haven't]] ''[[DeadpanSnarker lost]]'' [[DeadpanSnarker any…]] ''[She let her voice trail off, implying that on the contrary, she had gained some. With a huff, the duke turned and stalked off]'' [[SarcasmMode Well, thank you to you, too!]]

** Even though Elsa does her best to hide her powers around Anna, she's not 100% perfect at doing so and there are several occasions where Anna catches evidence of Elsa's powers (among others, catching Elsa walking around in snow barefoot, incidentally seeing a snowball grow in Elsa's hands by itself, the temperature in the room dropping when Elsa gets upset, puddles being left behind by her ice).

* {{Retcon}}: The story goes with the idea that Elsa's birthday is in the summer and Anna's birthday is in the winter, the opposite of actual continuity.

* SleazyPolitician: In chapter 15, there's a flashback (in the form of a dream that 17 year old Elsa is having) where Elsa, at age three, sneaks down to the throne room and finds her father in the midst of an argument with the Duke of Weselton. Before Elsa happens to interrupt, the Duke is trying to convince Agdar to raise taxes on goods being transferred between Arendelle and Weselton.

* LyingFingerCross: Anna does one to her father when he finds that Elsa has been secretly slipping notes to her.

* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Elsa's reaction to getting sunburn on her face the first time she goes outside.

* {{Crossover}}: Minor one. Like many fanfics, this one takes the idea that, based on her cameo in "For the First Time In Forever", Rapunzel from ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'' is Anna and Elsa's cousin. However, since this story is about how Anna's and Elsa's lives were for the five years prior to the coronation, it's merely touched on.

The fic itself is part {{Continuation}} fic and part {{Interquel}}, but is also an AdaptationExpansion, as the new story also includes the events of the movie, but it's told from Elsa's perspective instead of Anna's perspective, to fill in plot holes in the story.

** In chapter 12, Elsa loses control of her powers during a heated argument with Anna through the door and ends up covering the room with ice. The way her powers manifest themselves is very reminiscent of when she freezes Anna's heart in a similar outburst in "For the First Time In Forever (Reprise)".

* GentleGiant: Marshmallow is recharacterized as one. While he only gets mad when provoked by Anna with her snowball, he's shown comforting Elsa and cradling her afterwards.

* InnerMonologue: Elsa has one for the duration of the story. Anna also has this during her scenes, though to a lesser extent.
* InnerMonologueConversation: After their parents leave, Anna suggests that Elsa switch out her lock so that she doesn't have to have someone let her out.

* JustAFleshWound: Elsa goes out onto her windowsill in one scene. When Gerda tries to help her back in, Elsa inadvertently slips and falls, spraining her wrist. She tries her best to ignore it, with little success.

** When Anna first meets Kristoff, she mentions that she assumed Elsa always wore gloves because [[TerrifiedOfGerms she had a thing about dirt]]. This means that Anna would have had to have seen Elsa wearing gloves at some point. Here, it's shown that Anna came to this conclusion when she sees Elsa frolicking in the woods outside the castle (Elsa having sneaked out of the castle through the secret passages). Later, after Elsa attempts suicide following her parents' deaths, Anna thinks she continues to wear her gloves so as to hide the scars from slitting her wrist.

** When Elsa is receiving the crown, Anna is clearly thinking about wanting to spend more time with Hans, which explains the little wave she gives to Hans.
** When Hans reveals his true colors to Anna, he mentions that the reason why he pretended to fall for her is because Elsa wasn't getting anywhere with any suitors. It's implied that even after bumping into Anna, Hans still thought he could make a pass at Elsa and found she wasn't exactly open to forming a relationship. So, during the coronation, after Elsa foists Anna onto the Duke of Weselton to avoid dancing with him, Hans approaches Elsa and tries to solicit a dance from her, and when that doesn't work, he tries to offer a courtship. However, Elsa doesn't like Hans and has a sneaking suspicion that he's up to something, so she quickly turns him down. It also explains Elsa's swift rejection of Hans' attempt to get hitched with Anna later. Further explanation for Hans's line is that, during the three years between the deaths of her parents and her coronation, Elsa is shown to receive and turn down multiple marriage proposals from other kingdoms, getting further incensed when a few that are meant for Anna are received.

** Furthermore, in the argument that leads to Elsa's powers being exposed, it's made clear that Anna was trying to get Elsa to rethink her decision about Anna's whirlwind courtship with Hans, and it's acknowledged that Anna was aware this wasn't the appropriate place to be lashing out at Elsa but her mouth got ahead of her thinking.

* MundaneLuxury: Elsa is outright delighted when she gets to eat meals with Anna (as opposed to having Gerda bring them to her room). It takes Anna a moment to register that Elsa's sense of normalcy means she's going to get excited about simple things, like spending time with Anna.

* PerspectiveFlip: The story alternates between Anna's and Elsa's perspectives during the chapters covering the five years before the movie, though skewed more towards Elsa. The chapters covering the events of the movie are told entirely from Elsa's perspective. In the final chapter's author's notes, the author explained that the story originally started as an attempt to tell the main plot of the movie from Elsa's point of view, and explain what she did while confined in her room, since all that's obvious from the movie is that Elsa is scared and having a hard time controlling her powers, and the author also notes that in the movie, Elsa is never seen outside of either of her 'extreme' personas; "either she's declaring her freedom as the Snow Queen on the North Mountain or she's terrified".

* PoorCommunicationKills: It's clear that Elsa's inability to explain her powers to Anna has caused some rifts.

** After Elsa accidentally hurt Anna as a kid, their parents took the trolls' advice too far, separated the sisters, and reduced Elsa's contact with other people in the castle, Anna included. By eight years later, when the sisters are in their teens, they hate their parents this living situation, and they both rebel against their parents repeatedly.

* ChildMarriageVeto: As the sisters grow older, Elsa has to turn down several marriage betrothal offers from interested suitors. She's more incensed by two that are intended for Anna, even before her sixteenth birthday.

* DumbassHasAPoint: In chapter 25, Elsa is launched in an angry rant to Anna upon receiving several marriage proposals on her 19th birthday. Despite being naive on the concept of marriage, Anna is right to point out that royalty are often already engaged, married, or betrothed by this age. This is TruthInTelevision, too, since it's common consensus that ''Frozen'' takes place in the early 19th century, when it wasn't uncommon for nobility to be married in their teenage years, with the intention of producing healthy heirs as early as possible.

-->'''Queen Elsa:''' [[IronicEcho It would…give]] ''[[IronicEcho Weselton]]'' [[IronicEcho more income, yes]]. ''[The Duke stared at her as if she were an annoying bug]''
-->'''Duke of Weselton:''' You haven't lost any of your three-year-old self's political savvy, have you? ''[Elsa was beginning to feel very annoyed, but she was determined not to ruin anything]''
-->'''Queen Elsa:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Why, no…I haven't]] ''[[DeadpanSnarker lost]]'' [[DeadpanSnarker any…]] ''[She let her voice trail off, implying that on the contrary, she had gained some. With a huff, the duke turned and stalked off]'' [[DeadpanSnarker Well, thank you to you, too.]]

* TemptingFate: In a flashback in Chapter 14, Elsa recalls as a kid crashing a late night meeting between her father and the Duke of Weselton, and called the Duke out for being sleazy. Agdar quickly takes to Elsa's defense. The Duke replies, "I don't look forward to that little brat on the throne of Arendelle in the future." 18 years later, Elsa becomes Queen and when she runs into the Duke at the coronation ball, they both still very well remember this.
-->'''Queen Elsa:''' I am not [raising taxes in Arendelle].
-->'''Duke of Weselton:''' [[MeaningfulEcho It would give Arendelle more income!]]
-->'''Queen Elsa:''' [[IronicEcho It would…give]] ''[[IronicEcho Weselton]]'' [[IronicEcho more income, yes]]. ''[The Duke stares at Elsa as if she's got a bug on her head]''
-->'''Duke of Weselton:''' You haven't lost any of your three-year-old self's political savvy, have you?
-->'''Queen Elsa:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Why, no…I haven't]] ''[[DeadpanSnarker lost]]'' [[DeadpanSnarker any…]] ''[With a huff, the duke stalks off]'' [[SarcasmMode Well, thank you to you, too!]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:''Secret Passages'']]

* YouAreInCommandNow: Elsa is left in charge of Arendelle while her parents are away. When they die, Elsa finds herself saddled with running Arendelle from behind closed doors.
[[/folder]]

-->'''Princess Anna:''' ''[biting her lip]'' [There's] Arendelle…

** What happens between when Elsa is knocked out by the chandelier and when she wakes up in the dungeon is also explained: after Elsa is knocked out, Hans momentarily is upset that the Duke of Weselton's men tried to shoot Elsa when she was clearly surrendering, thinking that killing Elsa won't undo the eternal winter she's created. It's also suggested that Elsa may have momentarily regained consciousness while Hans's team was taking her back into Arendelle.

* ArtifactTitle: The secret passages in the castle don't exactly play as big a role in the plot as the title suggest, aside from providing Elsa an escape from her room on several occasions. The work is more of a character study for Anna and Elsa.

--->'''Prince Hans:''' [[DeadpanSnarker I'd like to see you just try that.]]

* BothSidesHaveAPoint: In Anna's argument with Elsa in the castle cellars:

* BottleEpisode: Almost the entire work, save for the parts that overlap with the movie timeline, takes place within the castle.
* CallBack: There's a nice callback during the coronation ball when the Duke of Weselton approaches Elsa and tries to ask her about raising taxes. Elsa immediately recalls an incident 18 years earlier where, as a child, she'd snuck down to the throne room while her father was arguing with this same Duke about taxes:
-->'''Queen Elsa:''' I am not [raising taxes in Arendelle].
-->'''Duke of Weselton:''' [[MeaningfulEcho It would give Arendelle more income!]]
-->'''Queen Elsa:''' [[IronicEcho It would…give]] ''[[IronicEcho Weselton]]'' [[IronicEcho more income, yes]]. ''[The Duke stared at her as if she were an annoying bug]''
-->'''Duke of Weselton:''' You haven't lost any of your three-year-old self's political savvy, have you? ''[Elsa was beginning to feel very annoyed, but she was determined not to ruin anything]''
-->'''Queen Elsa:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Why, no…I haven't]] ''[[DeadpanSnarker lost]]'' [[DeadpanSnarker any…]] ''[She let her voice trail off, implying that on the contrary, she had gained some. With a huff, the duke turned and stalked off]'' Well, thank you to you, too.

** Anna does some jumping on furniture in the portrait gallery in Chapter 22, just like she'll do in "For the First Time in Forever".

* DarkerAndEdgier: While the material in the movie is pretty much the same, Hans can come off feeling a little bit creepier. Also, Elsa attempts suicide after her parents' deaths.

* EyesNeverLie: Despite Elsa's attempts to act stoic, Anna can tell from her eyes when she's upset.
* FieryRedhead: Anna is noticeably more anger-prone than suggested by the movie

* FullyClothedNudity: In chapter 12, Elsa receives a new sleeveless Christmas dress. As the author's notes point out, it's a hybrid of the sisters' coronation dresses from the movie: a recolored version of Anna's ballgown with the rosemaling design of Elsa's dress skirt. The first time Elsa puts it on, she feels a bit awkward since she's so used to wearing long-sleeve dresses. She doesn't wear it again until a few years later. This time, Elsa feels a little too exposed with her arms and shoulders, so she wears a cloak over it.
* GentleGiant: Marshmallow appears to be recharacterized as one. While he only gets mad when provoked (as Anna had done with her snowball), he's shown comforting Elsa and cradling her afterwards.

** It was clear in the movie that Elsa's a pretty complicated character with numerous internal conflicts. This story fleshes them out even further. For instance, a dream sequence in Chapter 2 depicts Elsa being confused about her powers, and has a sense of being trapped because of them - that no matter what she does, it's going to be the wrong thing. This is shown from the repetition of having the dream start the same way every time (when Elsa accidentally froze Anna's head), and then have a different effect on Anna, but then the same disapproval from her parents, meaning, Elsa can't please her parents, and on some level she knows that, and doesn't trust them because of it. They aren't really trying to help her, just keep her out of the way.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Due to her memories being wiped, Anna, at times, can be unknowingly insensitive towards Elsa. Such as trying to insist to Elsa that "you're not going to hurt me by touching me", not knowing that Elsa had hurt her as a child.

* LyingFingerCross: Anna does one to her father when he finds that Elsa has been secretly slipping notes to Anna.
* MadwomanInTheAttic: The way Adgar and Idun treat Elsa in this version seems to embody this trope.

* ObfuscatingDisability: Elsa fakes being ill in order to get some time with Anna

* PerspectiveFlip: The story is told from Elsa's perspective instead of Anna's. In the final chapter's author's notes, the author explained that the story originally started as an attempt to tell the main plot of the movie from Elsa's point of view, and explain what she did while confined in her room, since all that's obvious from the movie is that Elsa is scared and having a hard time controlling her powers, and the author also notes that in the movie, Elsa is never seen outside of either of her 'extreme' personas; "either she's declaring her freedom as the Snow Queen on the North Mountain or she's terrified".

** After Elsa accidentally hurt Anna as a kid, their parents separated them and reduced her contact with other people in the castle, Anna included. By eight years later, when the sisters are in their teens, they both hate this living situation, and they both rebel against their parents repeatedly.
** As a teenage girl, Elsa comes to hate being confined to her room, and lectured for things that aren't her fault. One scene has her venting her rage by throwing icicles and breaking a window in her room. Even though Elsa's trying to bottle her emotions, she reacts like any other teenager would.
** Even though Elsa does her best to hide her powers around Anna, she's not 100% perfect at doing so and there are several occasions where Anna comes very close to finding out about Elsa's powers (such as the temperature in the room dropping when Elsa gets upset, or puddles left behind by her ice).

** Getting knocked out by the chandelier is shown to have done a little damage to Elsa's brain, as she develops a noticeable stutter after returning to Arendelle (though it noticeably disappears when she gets angry).

* TookALevelInJerkass: To some extent, Anna and Elsa's parents. Not only do they fail to realize how little control Elsa has of her powers, but there's a heavy suggestion that they've come to resent Elsa for having been born with such powers, based on their response whenever Anna comes close to discovering Elsa's powers. In fact, the story makes clear that most of Elsa's problems were the result of their parents.
* VerbalTic: Elsa develops a stutter after Hans drops the ice chandelier on her. Noticeably, it disappears whenever she gets angry.
* UnfamiliarCeiling: When Elsa is forced by Gerda to sleep in Anna's bedroom after her suicide attempt, the first thing she says when she wakes up is "Why am I in Anna's room? Oh...I remember now."
* WorseWithContext: At the post-coronation ball in the movie, Anna looks nervous when Kai repositions her on the throne dais next to Elsa, explaining why she's babbling, "What, here? Are you sure? Because I don't think I'm supposed to--Oh, okay!" when Kai is moving her. In the movie, all that seems to be suggested is that Anna feels awkward being in Elsa's presence and also in front of a crowd. In ''Secret Passages'' though, Anna's nervousness is because she and Elsa had an argument a few months prior and haven't been on the best of speaking terms until then. This explains why Anna seems so nervous to be standing so close to Elsa, and the reason she seems surprised when Elsa starts to converse cordially with her.

** When Anna first meets Kristoff, she mentions that she assumed Elsa always wore gloves because [[TerrifiedOfGerms she had a thing about dirt]]. Now, this means that Anna would have had to have seen Elsa wearing gloves at some point. Here, it's shown that Anna came to this conclusion when she sees Elsa frolicking in the woods outside the castle (Elsa having sneaked out of the castle through the secret passages). Later, after Elsa attempts suicide following her parents' deaths, Anna thinks she continues to wear her gloves so as to hide the scars from slitting her wrist.

* LyingFingerCross: Anna does one to her father when he finds Elsa has been secretly slipping notes to Anna.

* MundaneLuxury: In chapter 22, Elsa treats actually being able to eat meals with Anna (as opposed to having Gerda bring them to her room) like this. It takes Anna a moment to register that Elsa's sense of normalcy means she's going to get excited about simple things, like spending time with Anna.

* ThePianoPlayer: Elsa is one.

* UnfamiliarCeiling: When Elsa has to sleep in Anna's room after her suicide attempt, the first thing she says when she wakes up is "Why am I in Anna's room? Oh...I remember now."

* YouAreinCommandNow: Elsa is left in charge of Arendelle while her parents are away. When they die, Elsa finds herself saddled with running Arendelle from behind closed doors.

** To get back to the castle after Anna punches out Hans, Elsa creates an ice path across the waters of the fjord (though not before first getting properly introduced to Kristoff).

-->'''Queen Elsa:''' It's not funny! I'm not accepting any ''arranged marriages'' for political reasons! I wouldn't do that even if I were normal and not messed up! "[[SarcasmMode Aw, the poor little girl has lost her parents and needs a shoulder to cry on and help governing her kingdom!]]" Well, I ''don't;'' I'm fine on my own and just because I'm a young single girl does not mean I can't take care of my country! If and when I need help, my sister can give me any assistance I need. So there.
-->'''Princess Anna:''' But Elsa…usually girls from a royal family your age ''are'' already betrothed or married. You're nineteen, not nine…And besides, maybe a romance would be good for you! ''[becoming more animated]'' Yeah, maybe that's a good idea, Elsa! Maybe you could fall in love and live happily ever after!

The author later wrote a sequel called ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11241896/1/The-Coming-Storm The Coming Storm]]'', which is set after the movie. Elsa is still learning how to keep her powers in check when she discovers an assassination plot against both her and Anna within the castle walls. The sisters are baffled at who is trying to harm Elsa. As Elsa navigates her first issue as queen, she also realizes something else that could put all of Arendelle in danger.

* VerbalTic: The events of the movie cause Elsa to develop a stutter. The sequel ''The Coming Storm'' is about Elsa trying to get over her stutter. Noticeably, it disappears whenever she gets angry.

* YouAreinCommandNow:
[[/folder]]

[[folder:''The Coming Storm'']]

* ContinuityNod: It's established that this story is happening before ''FrozenFever'' due to a reference to Anna's upcoming birthday.
* VerbalTic: One of the subplots involves Elsa trying to get over the stutter she's developed as a result of the events of the movie.

** After Elsa accidentally hurt Anna as a kid, their parents separated them and reduced her contact with other people in the castle, Anna included. By eight years later, when the sisters are both teenagers, they both hate this living situation, and they both rebel against their parents repeatedly.
** As a teenage girl, Elsa comes to hate being confined to her room, and lectured for things that aren't her fault. One scene has her venting her rage by throwing icicles and breaking a window in her room. Even though Elsa's trying to bottle her emotions, that still doesn't stop her from occasionally getting angry.

* RoundedCharacter: Elsa is a lot more fleshed out here than in the movie. For instance, her fear of hurting Anna is still present. However, she also has a habit of being [[RebelliousPrincess rebellious against her parents]] and even has her own sense of humor.

** In chapter 8, Elsa loses control of her powers during a heated argument with Anna through the door and ends up covering the room with ice. The way her powers manifest themselves is very reminiscent of when she freezes Anna's heart in a similar outburst in "For the First Time In Forever (Reprise)".

* RageBreakingPoint: Elsa's confrontation with the Duke of Weselton's men gets this trope, but being shown in dialogue rather than on camera, it's clear that when they first shoot, Elsa doesn't want to fight back, but is quickly provoked when they refuse to back off and try to attack her after her ice shields block the first arrow.

** Between "Let It Go" and when Anna shows up, Elsa finds that in her flight from the castle, she didn't consider that she'd need food or liquid to survive on her own. While Elsa is able to solve the liquid problem by creating and eating icicles, food is another matter. At one point, she leaves her IcePalace and attempts to scour around for food. However, her attempt is a failure, as would be expected of someone who's got no hunting experience or knowledge of the area's ecology, and even though Elsa finds some berries, she doesn't pick them because she has no idea which ones are poisonous to people.

* AdaptationExpansion: Plotwise, the events of the movie are unchanged, but many new scenes are added either before or during the events of the movie that add new context.
** During the scene in the sled, Anna explains to Kristoff that she assumed Elsa always wore gloves because [[TerrifiedOfGerms she had a thing about dirt]]. Now, this means that Anna would have had to have seen Elsa wearing gloves at some point. Here, it's shown that Anna came to this conclusion when she sees Elsa frolicking in the woods outside the castle (Elsa having snuck out of the castle through the secret passages). And after Elsa attempts suicide following her parents' deaths, Anna thinks she continues to wear her gloves so as to hide the scars from slitting her wrist.
** A number of scenes happen where Anna comes very close to discovering Elsa's powers, typically in the form of the temperature in the room dropping rapidly when Elsa gets upset or frightened. And a scene shortly before the coronation has Anna discover melted water on the floor outside Elsa's bedroom, making her think Elsa has some sort of elemental magic. These scenes are meant to explain why, in the movie, Anna seems to be so quickly accepting that Elsa has ice powers when they are revealed.
** When Elsa is receiving the crown, Anna is clearly thinking about wanting to spend more time with Hans.
** When Hans reveals his true colors to Anna, he mentions that the reason why he pretended to fall for her is because Elsa wasn't getting anywhere with any suitors. It's implied that even after bumping into Anna, Hans still thought he could make a pass at Elsa and found she wasn't exactly open to forming a relationship. So, during the coronation, after Elsa foists Anna onto the Duke of Weselton to avoid dancing with him, Hans approaches Elsa and tries to solicit a dance from her, and when that doesn't work, he tries to offer a courtship. However, Elsa doesn't like Hans and has a sneaking suspicion that he's up to something, so she quickly turns him down. It also explains Elsa's swift rejection of Hans' attempt to get hitched with Anna later. Further explanation for Hans's line is that, during the three years between the deaths of her parents and her coronation, Elsa is shown to receive and turn down multiple marriage proposals from other kingdoms, getting further incensed when a few that are meant for Anna are received.
** While Anna is off singing "Love is an Open Door" with Hans, Elsa tries to mingle with the guests. This includes a conversation with [[Disney/{{Tangled}} Rapunzel]] (here, like in many fanfics, retconned to be Elsa and Anna's cousin) where Elsa realizes Rapunzel's upbringing (locked away in a tower by Mother Gothel until she was 18) is similar to her own. Before Anna returns with Hans, Elsa converses with a few other dignitaries, even getting Arendelle a few additional trade agreements. She is just finishing up one of these agreements when Anna returns with Hans in tow.

** Furthermore, in the argument that leads to Elsa's powers being exposed, it's made clear that Anna was trying to get Elsa to rethink her decision about Anna's whirlwind courtship with Hans, and it's acknowledged that Anna was aware this wasn't the appropriate place to be lashing out at Elsa but her mouth got ahead of her thinking.
** Elsa is shown to be replying to voices in her head while she's singing "Let it Go"

-->'''Princess Anna:''' ''[huffs]'' I ''said'' I was going to replace it! It's not my fault a bunch of wolves started chasing us! And ok, I don't have a super awesome sense of direction. Sor-ry.

** During a heated argument after Elsa snaps in response to receiving several marriage proposals, Anna points out that in other monarchies, girls of Elsa's age (19 at this point in the story) are very frequently already engaged, married, or betrothed, and, had it not been for their parents' deaths, it's likely that this would be the time when they would start looking for potential suitors for Elsa (in fact, earlier chapters make it clear that they started looking for potential suitors shortly after Elsa turned 16).

* NotSoStoic: Elsa tends to lose her stoic façade whenever she gets angry.

** After Elsa accidentally hurt Anna as a kid, their parents separated them and reduced her contact with other people in the castle, Anna included. As the author's notes in one chapter mention, there is no way that Elsa or Anna would be putting up with this situation with no questions asked. By eight years later, when the sisters are both teenagers, they both resent this living situation, and they both rebel against their parents repeatedly.
** As a teenage girl, it's pretty natural that Elsa would come to hate being confined to her room, and lectured for things that aren't her fault. One scene has her venting her rage by throwing icicles and breaking a window in her room. Even though Elsa's trying to bottle her emotions, that still doesn't stop her from occasionally getting angry.

** In the movie, Elsa refuses to let Anna get engaged to Hans, saying "You can't marry a man you just met!" Here, two other scenes exist where Elsa explains to Anna in more detail why her ideas of fairy tale romance don't work at all: the suitor may be bossy, disagreeable, abusive, and may want to do things that aren't good for the rest of Arendelle; likewise, letting Anna marry a prince from another kingdom would mean declaring Arendelle subordinate to that kingdom.

-->'''The Duke of Weselton:''' It would gain Arendelle more income! You have no proof that I am trying to 'cheat on moneys', as your daughter so eloquently suggested! ''[under his breath]'' [[TemptingFate I don't look forward to that little brat on the throne of Arendelle in the future]].

-->'''The Duke of Weselton:''' [[BlatantLies No! No, of course not!]]

* TemptingFate: In a flashback in Chapter 14, Elsa recalls as a kid crashing a meeting her father was having with the Duke of Weselton (shortly after Anna was born), and called the Duke out for being sleazy. The Duke says to Agdar, "I don't look forward to that little brat on the throne of Arendelle in the future." 18 years later, Elsa becomes Queen and still very well remembers this.