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Fanfic / Daughter Of A Harsh Winter

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Daughter of a Harsh Winter is a modern AU/Fantasy Fanfiction of the 2013 film Frozen written by author LockAndKey989. It follows Elsa Snow and Anna Summers as they try to let go of their rough past to try and face the future. Made even more difficult by the discovery that Elsa is actually the daughter of the Norse goddess Skadi and that all of Asgard is after her head.

Elsa Snow was always an outsider, bullied, called a freak by some and a monster by others ever since childhood. Then she runs into an old tormentor from the past by the name of Anna Summers who wants more than anything to make things right. But ends up uncovering Elsa's secret and more than either of them could believe.

Read it here.


This fic contains examples of:

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Marcy Hanson, Anna's former Manipulative Bitch friend turned bully is noted to have a thing for large muscular men, including Kristoff. But Kristoff is completely aware of her selfish, bullying personality and rejects her.
  • Abusive Parents: Anna's father disowns Anna after she comes out of the closet. Elsa's mother left her on her father's doorstep when she was born; the whole reason her mother even conceived Elsa was in hopes that she would be able to repopulate the Jotun race, but Elsa wasn't born a giant. Also Anna's False Friends Kevin and Marcy are hinted to have a very abusive father, and their mother is often too drunk to pay attention to them. A old associate of Elsa's from middle school, Dorian, has a father who constantly rags on him for his lack of social interest and has made him very bitter.
  • Adaptational Wimp: In Norse mythology, Thor is able to take on multiple giants effortlessly. Here, he is beaten by the combined efforts of Elsa and Joan. Lampshaded by Vidar. Though in retrospect most of the Jotun were wiped out during World War 2 so he may just be out of practice.
  • Adaptational Heroism: In mythology, Jormungandr is a monster doomed to bring about Ragnarok. Here she ( as Kitty) is fairly kind with Anna and decides she wants to kill Thor and his granddaughter after finding out their role in her friend's death.
  • Adaptational Personality Change: Also Adaptational Jerkass. In mythology Vidar is known as the silent god. Here he openly mocks his brother and is quite talkative.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Thor, in Norse mythology, is the protector of humanity from the frost giants, and everytime you see lightning in the sky, that is Thor fighting them off. Here, his role is revealed to have been exaggerated and he tries to kill the two main characters.
    • Anna at the beginning of the story.
  • Adapted Out: Hans is not in this story; instead, he is replaced with two OC's, Kevin and Marcy Hanson.
  • All Myths Are True: Subverted. Joan reveals to Elsa and Anna that Asgard and the Norse gods are real (and that her mother is one of them), but she also says that some of the stories surrounding them are either fabricated or exaggerated.
    • Namely:
      • Jormungandr is not large enough to wrap around the world ( it's the Loch Ness monster).
      • Odin did not create the earth from the body of Ymir ( that's just something the Asgardians tell the realm they visit to help their God Guise).
      • The moon and the sun are NOT giants being chased by wolves.
      • Heimdallr is actually a woman, though she is a Brawn Hilda. Loki simply told everyone she was a man as a joke.
      • In response to the above, Heimdallr spread a rumor that Loki gave birth to a horse, meaning he didnt actually birth Selphir in this story.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: Elsa was this in every school she went to before high school, due to lack of social skills and odd behaviors due to her powers.
  • Annoying Younger Sibling: Vidar to Thor, so much so that the latter laments that Vidar is going to survive Ragnarok.
  • Blessed with Suck: As an einherjar, Joan has a immortal life span, will heal from any wound and is incredibly strong. But she can still be injured with Asgardian metals ( such as Thor's hammer, a Valkyrie's sword, etc), and if she is injured beyond her body can heal, she will cease to be.
  • Canon Welding: In addition to having the main Frozen cast: Elsa, Anna and Kristoff, we also have Lewis in human form from The Princess and the Frog. And we have Flynn Ryder from Tangled. We also have mentions of Claude Frollo and Esmerelda from The Hunchback of Notre Dame as well as Maleficent at Elsa's college. Joan ( an Einherjar who died and went to Valhalla during World War 1) was good friends with Mulan, Shen and Li from Western Animation/Mulan. Elsa also mentions she was friends with girls named Elphalba and Galinda, the same characters from Theatre/Wicked. Elsa was also taught math when she was little by Ms. De Vil, obviously a reference to 101 Dalmatians. In Asgard, some of the dwarves have multicolored hats, and are even referred to as "Grumpy" and "Dopey" on some occasions.
  • Composite Character: According to his profile on the author's DeviantArt page, Vidar was conceived by Odin to kill Hode to avenge Baldr's death, which makes him one of Vidar and Valli (who in Norse mythos was born to do the task, not Vidar).
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Heimdall's reasons for not telling Odin that Elsa failed at killing Kitty/Jormungandr. She had apparently met with the norns and they have "plans" for them.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Asgardians, which is why Elsa rightfully doesn't trust them.
  • Deader than Dead: Joan, an Einherjar, claims that while she is virtually immortal, IF she is damaged beyond her bodies healing capability she will CEASE. No Valhalla, no Hel, nothing. She also says this is the fate of everything if Ragnarok comes to pass.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Elsa has one of these after she is betrayed by Bulda (a Valkyrie) and left to take the blame for multiple murders and arson, and Anna is in the hospital and is about to be dragged back to America to face trial for her other actions. She is so upset with how her life turned out that she can't even talk to the police and tell them of her innocence.
  • Even the Girls Want Her: Joan is considered attractive by her boyfriend Kristoff, his friend Flynn, and Elsa and Anna.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Kevin is a complete jerk to everyone and a violent bully, but he does care about his twin sister. Loki was a psychopathic murderer, but he showed real terror when his sons were being killed.
  • Easily Forgiven: Averted. Elsa herself isn't very big on forgiveness unless she's sure you're really sorry, and even then it takes her a while to open up. She resented Anna for years due to her bullying her as a child, and still held resentment for a while even after Anna apologized years later. When she found out that her friend Joan had been keeping secrets from her, including who her mother was, Elsa was irritated.
  • Exact Words: Elsa is told by Odin that she must kill the Midgard serpent with her own hand. So they attempt to con Elsa by having one of their Valkyries do it. When Elsa does kill it, Thor tries to reason that Elsa used a sword, but Tyr helps her out.
  • Expy: Elsa is one of Percy Jackson. They were both extremely powerful demigods who were wanted dead by most of the other gods due to their parentage, Percy because his father is Poseidon, who took an oath never to have any more demigods, and Elsa because her mother is Skadi, so in addition to being part Jotun, she is also in danger of freezing the earth and starting Ragnarok. She also has similarities to Marvel Comics Loki, both of them being frost giants ( half in Elsa's case) who were abandoned by their respective parent Laufey to Loki, Skadi to Elsa because they were too small. However, while Laufey did it out of shame and left Loki as a baby to die Skadi did so because she wanted to help repopulate her species and at least had the decency to give Elsa to her father, as well as warn him about the other gods.
  • Fan Art: The author has his own page on Deviantart.
  • Friend to All Living Things: Iduna tries to reason against killing Elsa; she also gives some of her apples to her friends to help them heal.
  • The Ghost: Loki, Skadi and Odin have all been mentioned multiple times throughout the story, but so far the only gods we've seen are Thor and Vidar.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Elsa tells Anna that when she was a little girl she used to pretend her mother was Skadi from norse mythology. A few chapters later it turns out she is.
    • When Joan is talking to Thunder/Thor, their conversation implies that she is decades older than Elsa, despite looking the same age. Turns out she's an immortal Einherjar.
    • Thunder refers to Elsa as the daughter of winter.
    • When Elsa talks about her mom to Joan, she thinks "you should be lucky you don't know that, icy bitch," implying that Elsa already knows her.
    • Anna has a dream involving Loki's binding.
    • Elsa has recurring dreams of a icy city being destroyed by nuclear bombs. Thats how the gods wiped out the Jotuns.
  • Fantastic Racism: The Asgardians despise Jotun (giants); in addition to being a potential cause of Ragnarok, they also despise Elsa for being half-Jotun.
  • God Guise: The Asgardians are a race of interdimensional beings that have traveled to at least 9 different "realms", and convinced most of them that they were the gods that created their worlds. Though to be fair, they are still very godlike.
  • Has a Type: Anna definitely has a thing for blondes. Elsa likes redheads with freckles.
  • It's All About Me: Kevin and Marcy Hanson dont give two shits about anyone but themselves. Even Anna, who had been their friend since childhood, was instantly thrown aside and bullied as soon as her father lost the election, although Kevin decided to keep her around as a plaything. Skadi also; when talking to Elsa, she is completely unapologetic for her actions, and even tells her she should be grateful just for taking her to her father.
  • Interspecies Romance: Anna is a human, Elsa is half-Jotun, and their friend Joan is an Einherjar. Joan and Kristoff also used to date but Kristoff broke up with her after finding out her secrets.
  • Invincible Hero: Averted with Anna, who is always being beaten by Vidar and Bulda notably.
  • Ice Queen: Skadi and Elsa, both physically. Skadi also counts mentally due to her cold attitude towards Elsa.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Jormungandr is impaled by Elsa in the head by her mother's sword, though she survives by taking cat form before freezing over.
  • Lack of Empathy: Word of God is that due to the reasons for his birth, Vidar, the god of vengeance, is without empathy and the only person he cares about is Odin.
    • Kevin and Marcy Hanson also qualify.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: If the mayor makes homophobic statements on TV, he will face serious criticism and most likely not be elected next year.
  • Last Episode, New Character: Heimdallr appears unexpectedly at the end of the last chapter of the first "book", specifically to help cover the fact that Jormungandr is still alive and to help Anna and Elsa go back to their old lives.
  • Older Than They Look: Joan is this as an Einherjar. She fought in World War One and hasn't aged a day.
  • Our Giants Are Bigger: Here, Jotuns can change their size from being just a foot taller than average humans to "mountain size", although Jotun/human hybrids like Elsa can't and are human-sized. It is implied that the Asgardians can do this too, since when Elsa is brought before them, they are gigantic, then approach her human-sized sized.
  • Techno Wizard: While magic is still present in this universe, the Asgardians also use technology with their magic, such as Thor having a flying car, or Joan's communication mirror working like Skype.
  • Mayfly–December Romance: Kristoff broke up with Joan because this is what their relationship would have been. At the end of the first "book", they decide to make their relationship work, especially since Joan will be sent to Helheim once Elsa is dead anyways.
  • Meaningful Name: Elsa's last name is Snow; in the original story, she is called the Snow Queen. Anna's former False Friends are named Kevin and Marcy Hanson, and are based off of different aspects of Hans'a personality. Their father also has traits of Hans's father.
  • Pet the Dog: Thor gives his hammer to hidgranddaughter Bulda when she is selected to go against the Midgard Serpent ( the Loch Ness monster). Skadi also apologized to Elsa for her father's death, saying that he was a good man. In the end, Skadi helps her daughter and Anna defeat Jormungandr by giving the latter a sword and a strength-enhancing belt.
  • Rich Bitch: Marcy and her brother were only friends with Anna because her father was the mayor; as soon as he lost the election, they started bullying her.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Tyr convinces the other gods to let Elsa live for keeping her end of the deal.
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Played Straight and averted. Joan specifically states that some, not all, but some of the myths revolving the Asgardians are either exaggerated or entirely fabricated to make them seem more godlike; such includes Odin not being responsible for the creation of the nine realms, but simply going to each of them and making himself look like a god by claiming that he did, Heimdallr actually being a very masculine looking girl, and Loki giving birth to a horse being a joke, although the story actually gets some facts right that modern media doesn't, such as Thor is actually a red-head. Loki is Odin's blood brother, not Thor's adoptive brother, and a fire giant, and that the "gods" stay immortal by eating Iduna's apples. Joan also confirms that Thor once dressed as a girl to get his hammer back.
  • Shout-Out: Anna was a fan of Marvel's Thor comics, but lost interest after Elsa told her true mythology. Lord of the Rings, Peter Pan, Percy Jackson and Twilight, among others, are actual books in this universe.
  • Sociopath: All the gods to an extent ( presumably except for Idunna and Tyr, possibly Heimdallr). It is also implied that Elsa's old classmate Dorian lobotomized Kevin.
  • Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear: Though "evil" is up for debate, Jormungandr is left trapped in cat form at the end of the first "book".
  • Some Nutty Publicity Stunt: Despite Elsa's powers being captured on camera, everyone else believes it was just special effects or some other scientific explanation.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: After Elsa presumably kills the Midgard Serpent, which is destined to kill him during Ragnarok, Thor still tries to have Elsa executed.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: The Asgardians, thanks to Marvel comics.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Everything Odin and the gods do is to prevent Ragnarok, which, according to Joan, will not only result in the destruction of Earth and Asgard, but also the afterlife.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Anna asks Bulda why the gods don't just kill Loki.

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