Tear Jerker / A Frozen Heart

• While what he does in Frozen is morally wrong, the Tie-In Novel gives reveals why Hans ends up being a messed-up person that's heartrending. He often gets the short end of the stick in his family, as they dismiss him for being too ineffectual. Note that much of it also involves Nightmare Fuel and Paranoia Fuel as well:
  • For starters, during the family gathering, some of his brothers toss food and glassware just for daydreaming, while his father chides him for being a weakling and showing up late. Plus, one of the scenes shows Hans blatantly self-harming himself by running his fingers along the rough wood of an old table but finding the physical pain to be oddly better than the constant abuse his family heaps on him. When Hans attempts not to rise to his brothers' bait, the king declares that Hans should "learn a thing or two" from his brothers and "stop acting like he's better than them." From his father's perspective, Hans will always be second best compared to his older sons. It causes him to develop an obsessive need to prove himself worthy to his family and be recognized by becoming the king's gofer. As he grows up, the neglect slowly corrupts Hans and hardens his heart to the point of thinking Love Is a Weakness, but it also leaves him incapable of reciprocating love when Anna asks him for a True Love's Kiss. That he downplays the abuse as "what brothers do" reveals the psychological damage that's been done. By the time he's a young adult, Hans not only suffers from clinical depression, PTSD, and possible Self-Harm, he believes that the abuse is normal. He even doesn't seek outside help to cope with the family issues, having chosen to accept the suffering for its sake. While talking to Anna about the "Hans is invisible" prank, it's clear he despises them. He gets along with Lars and his mother, but neither of them are close enough to help him get through life.
  • Most of his fantasies about his father always involve the king taking him out to hunting, valuing his input during meetings, naming him heir to the kingdom, and most of all, recognizing him as The Dutiful Son. However, those dreams end with Hans realizing he'll always be the "throwaway" spare.
  • When Hans makes Self-Deprecating Humor on his lowly status in the familial pecking order with Lars, only Lars knows the truth behind his deadpan jokes. Hans even speculates that the king plans to have him become a monk for the Brotherhood of the Isles instead of marrying off. Also as time passed by, it's implied that Lars and Hans became distant with each other after the latter decides to become the king's gofer.
  • At times, Hans feels he's a stranger to his own people, especially when he notices how Arendelle's citizens become deeply concerned with their missing queen and princess after Anna's horse returns without its owner, briefly musing that his family won't even rescue him if he were stuck in a similar situation. His line to Anna about whether she can trust Elsa also indicates he does have trouble comprehending positive familial relationships.
  • His thoughts after being ordered to do the king's dirty tasks imply he detests his father for his wanton violence. But he also fears the repercussions of ignoring the king's orders, including the prospect of losing his father's respect and his brothers mocking him for "not having the guts to do anything." Also, after spending time being the king's errand boy, Hans gets to attend Elsa's coronation and secure a trade deal and it seems he has won his father's trust, but the king immediately tells him to come back soon so that Hans can babysit his brothers' children. This shows that no matter what Hans did for him, his father only barely trusts him and still severely restricts his freedom. Hans is also clearly terrified of his family's wrath as he's being deported back, having been denied an opportunity to explain his actions.
  • As he's being sent back home, he's baffled to see that while the sisters have reconciled with one another despite years of separation, neither he nor his brothers won't have any opportunity to get along with each other as their father abhors such actions. Coming from an abusive household, Hans ends up clueless on what an actual happy relationship would be. While it may seem funny how Hans reacts to the Great Thaw before he's deported, one should note that such things are all alien to him.
  • The ending. Once the kind of man Anna or Elsa would have probably accepted, Hans turned into a cruel and desperate man like his family. And after his crimes, he's sent back to them be judged and sentenced.
  • Except for Lars, most of Hans's brothers are pricks who take sadistic joy in punishing him in whatever methods they can, ranging from pranks to downright physical abuse. It's also implied the reason why the queen's older sons bully Hans is that he gets the lion's share of her attention compared to them, just as they resent Caleb for being their father's favorite. For example:
    • He's lost countless fistfights and shouting matches, been thrown off moving carts, and repeatedly shoved in the mud numerous times despite trying multiple times to find a peaceful way out and pleading with his brothers to stop the abuse.
    • Three of his brothers pretended he was invisible for two straight years.
    • Hans believed it when he received a phony "ransom note" from a certain "King Gotya" who will "release" one of his brothers, but only if he ran around the entire castle three times in just his underwear. He was only four years old at the time.
    • He even fell for the "there's a special present for you in that oddly scary room down in the catacombs" prank.
    • At one point, he even woke up with ink all over his face after one of his brothers dipped his hands in an inkpot while he slept.
    • He hates family and diplomatic gatherings, given that he ends up being the laughing stock. For example, he's nervous at attending his mother's birthday, and as such, he stands outside the door for 20 minutes. His father scolds him for being late, while his brothers throw objects at him just for daydreaming and make harsh jabs about being a Momma's Boy.
  • Hans is a Shadow Archetype to Anna, Kristoff and Elsa:
    • With Anna: used to being friendless and feeling inadequate, but he grows up to be a selfish man who thinks Love Is a Weakness and assumes competition makes him more successful to compensate for his insecurities. Sadly, he doesn't reconcile with his own family and remains friendless at the end.
    • With Elsa: someone who shuns relationships and emotional bonds, but embraces harming others and has no Living Emotional Crutch. Because of this, he accepts villainy.
    • With Kristoff: in contrast to Kristoff, he grew up in a human family that never cared for him, causing him to become ruthless and power-hungry. Kristoff has the warm love of family that Anna needs (and gets after she and Elsa are able to be together), while Hans has the cold family relationship that Anna doesn't want.
  • From how he's shown in the novel, what keeps Hans from the goals he seeks isn't anyone but himself. Sure, he would have been second-best again, but he could've found happiness by courting the sisters or by pursuing a different interest altogether, yet his desperation to win his father's approval undermines everything he worked so hard for. It ended up becoming self-destructive, as he is deported back home in disgrace.
• Hans's older brothers are also darker versions of Elsa as well in that they shut out their siblings but have no chance to bond with each other as their father hates such actions. As with Hans, they embrace harming others and refuse to even reconcile with each other. The king's emotional manipulation also caused them to develop serious mental health issues. It shows the relationship Anna and Elsa could have embraced if they didn't get along, causing Anna to become The Unfettered like Hans while Elsa's fear of her own powers would've led her to stop caring about Anna and sink further into despair.
• The royals of the Southern Isles tend to have unhappy marriages, but keep a Happy Marriage Charade for convenience's sake. The women of the household even cope with their abusive spouses by drinking wine.
  • The king has blatantly ignored his wife for almost 30 years. It's implied she tried to object to his actions at some point in the past, but the repercussions were so severe that she gave up. One can only imagine the immense trauma she is still undergoing after accepting being neglected, giving birth to so many children, and being forced to watch her sons develop serious psychological issues. It's implied she wants to stop the abuse but can't do anything and gives small smiles to Hans as he's mocked and ridiculed his whole life.
    • During her birthday, the king even makes a rude jab about Hans's status as a Momma's Boy, stating that the queen "will be the only one who would have even noticed that [he was] missing." Also, after they toss objects at Hans, the twins tease him, rudely asking if he's going to "run to mommy" so she can "kiss his boo-boo to make it all better." Based on this, it's implied that when he was younger, the queen was The Confidant for Hans, but as he grew older and more knowledgeable of his brothers' tactics, he distanced himself from her, knowing that his father and brothers would only mock him even more for running to her when in need. Worse still, no one knows how she or Lars reacted to Hans's crimes in Arendelle.
  • Caleb blatantly ignores his pregnant wife in favor of seeking his father's attention. He is repeating the psychological neglect his father had done to his mother from the time they've been married.
  • Most of the sons think of their wives as baby-producing objects.
  • Lars's wife Helga despises her parents for shipping her off to the Isles and doesn't get along with Lars despite his repeated attempts. When Hans asks if his child will make them get along, Lars states Helga would want to keep the baby to herself.
• Hans's human family is a foil to both the Arendellian royal family and Kristoff's adoptive troll family. While the other two families are misguided and inappropriate respectively when it comes to raising their children, both families genuinely care for each other. However, the Westergaards are highly dysfunctional and the 13 brothers try to out-compete each other with dubious means (including violence) to obtain their father's respect. Hans's thoughts indicate that he even planned to rub his achievements in their faces.
• Anna's "I'm going to die" speech near the end:
  Tell my sister, if she ever comes back, that I didn’t mean for any of this to happen. Tell her I didn’t know that Hans was just using me to get the throne. Tell her I never meant to hurt her. I just wanted my sister back. I wanted the doors to stop slamming in my face. I just wanted her to love me. That’s all I ever wanted. For someone to love me.