Frozen Character Cheat Sheet

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Obviously, with how Elsa and Anna get very excited and animated in the movie whenever they have a chance to bond, we can safely know that they have a strong desire to be close and bond (a trait common to both romantic and platonic relationships). Elsa and Anna spent some of their formative years together. Due to the Westermarck effect, this hinders but does not eliminate the chances of a romantic/incestuous relationship (supports non-romance). At the post-coronation party, Elsa compliments Anna's beauty, and Anna nearly spills her spaghetti over it. Now, normally this would be the same as two normal girls being nice to each other except for the extreme exaggeration in responses to positive interactions. They stare deeply into each other's eyes and in general, try getting as much euphoria out of the interactions as possible, much in the way that infatuated teenagers do when they first start dating (supports both romantic and platonic, with a slight romantic bias). Anna's reaction to seeing Elsa run away is dramatic and immediate. As though pulled by an incredible force, she throws caution to the wind and immediately tries to comfort the person she loves (this is the kind of thing you don't really see in platonic relationships as much. Yes you do things to help the people you care about, but blatant and immediate self-sacrifice is more common to [infatuated relationships], which makes this low-platonic, high romantic).

Anna gives up a chance at life, stepping in front of a sword and freezing to death to protect someone who, from her perspective, hasn't reciprocated any affection. Even in families, siblings don't usually do this unless they view their relationship as somewhat equal. Maybe Anna's just an aberration in how loving she is though. The biggest pro-romance interactions occur at the very end of the movie. The level of physical closeness between them is extreme, but for family members the metric is a bit different. For family members it's 'especially close'. Still, if you were to hang off your sister in public like that, you'd get strange looks. Also, the merchandise and other stories show that this high level of intimacy continues long after the thaw, so there's that going for it as well.

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Things we know about Onion Elsa: 1. One of her original goals was revenge against her sister out of jealousy This tells us a lot about her. But jealousy of what? I suspect based on some of the songs and this set of pics that it's because Anna got to grow up with no responsibilities or worries. 2. She was evil/bad This is obvious. 3. She was redeemed This isn't necessarily absolute because there might have been versions where this wasn't the case. But it does tell you that she isn't completely lost. 4. As children, she got along well with Anna, much like Elsa and Anna in the movie. Proof is in the concept art. Possibly some of the songs. Also the whole redeeming at the end kind of suggests it. 5. At some point, Anna and Elsa drifted apart. This is going along with the two points above. 6. She's more confident with her powers, at least once she starts letting it go. Not sure if she was always confident with her powers or only until after her “Let it Go” moment. You can see her in the storyboard create a whole army of snow golems. This point can be contested, however, it's undeniable that she's at least more confident than movie Elsa with her powers. 7. She seems to be more playful/mischievous, especially with her powers and post coronation. This is based on some of the concept art found in the Art of Frozen book. Also she always seems to drawn with a devilish/wicked look and demeanor.

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On a discussion of “how do you view *Onion Elsa’s character…?”

*Onion Elsa, so named because of her hair, is also known as Early or Concept Elsa; she was one of the early drafts of Elsa that was left by the wayside when canon Elsa came into the scene. She has become popular enough in fanart/fics to allow for discussion of her character. For more information on her, see three-links page on her here.

  Own character, pre-Elsa. I consider the whole slew of deleted songs: “Life's Too Short”, the play thingy, etc. to be either by Onion or about Onion. Especially the play. Sword-sacrifice and prophecies and all.

- Anon A

  The prophecy, yes, but not “Life's Too Short” for me. Elsa's too nice in the beginning for me to think of her as Onion. I view Onion as more…brusque and amoral (not necessarily immoral, just that she follows her own code and cares only for a select few).

I do see Onion as being fiercely possessive, but only for the things that matter. If she doesn't care for Anna then she won't be protective of her at all.

- Anon B

  Pulled this off of the Disney wiki's “Life's Too Short” page: “This song was then replaced by “For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)” as soon as “Let It Go” was made, because this song was originally going to go with the original story Disney was going to make, in which Elsa was the villain.” http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Life%27s_Too_Short#WikiaArticleComments That was in there since March 28th, but don't take it the much because it was added by someone who described herself as a fangirl and only joined the site on March 18th.

- Anon A

    I just have a hard time picturing Onion being so immature ("la la la"; "bye-bye!") and having diction that reminds me more of Anna than Elsa ("sis", "'cause", etc.). I mean, if that's their intention then I guess it's…canon that would have been canon? That's the problem with interpreting characters that didn't come to fruition; what constitutes canon for them?

- Anon B

I can see this coming from Onion Elsa more likely than from Elsa though. Or at least a version of Onion Elsa. The thing about Onion Elsa is that she'll never be set in stone even if we find out every single detail about the development of Frozen. There is and never will be a final version of her, unlike canon Elsa. There are probably varying levels of maturity within her development as well as varying levels of many other features.

- Anon A

For me, I see her character as being vague. Mostly because she doesn't exist in canon, but also because it allows you to fiddle with her character to fit what you desire from her as a character. She's really like a semi-OC in a sense. We really know nothing about her, except that she was the antagonist. You could say that she's like Elsa but with a shorter fuse, but we don't know that for sure, we don't know how much of Elsa's character existed before the transition away from Onion Elsa. We do know that Onion Elsa was at one point redeemed (which means she's not absolutely evil) and we also know that Onion Elsa was fueled by jealousy.

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The scene where Hans brings men up to Elsa’s ice castle is a very telling scene for both of them.

Consider how often we’ve seen this exact scene before; a hero comes charging up to the lair of the evil witch, the monster, and fights against them to save the day. It’s a classic tale of the hero vanquishing an evil foe, and it’s repeated over and over again.

Except in this case, we see things from the perspective of the monster (Elsa), not the hero (Hans). It’s not a valiant charge into righteous battle; it’s an invasion, and one that’s frightening. Elsa gasps and flees until she can run no more. She begs her attackers, Weselton’s men, not to hurt her, but they see only the monster, only their orders, and not the frightened woman in front of them.

She’s cornered like an animal, and she loses the ability to think things through because of her fear. She’s the monster caught between two hunters, and yet the audience empathizes with her, and therefore we don’t see her as one (even if Hans’ very carefully worded statement indicates that he’s aware of and using her fear of herself as a monster implies that’s how Elsa sees herself).

In a classic tale, there are three types of people: victims/bystanders/the innocent, villains, and heroes. The first are hurt by the second and saved by the third. A monster may serve the purpose of a villain, or at least as something for the hero to struggle valiantly against in service to others.

In a classic tale, Hans would be the hero who would rescue the victim Anna from the clutches of her villainous sister. Or perhaps Anna would assist or save him, like was the case in Enchanted. The point is that the antagonistic force is most often the villain, who has some sort of power that the hero must overcome.

Frozen turns this script around. The Disney prince is the smiling villain. The innocent girl sacrifices all and becomes the hero. And the antagonist throughout the majority of the film, the one with the greatest amount of shear power, is the victim, both emotionally and at the hands of other characters.

The ice castle invasion scene illustrates this by setting things from Elsa’s perspective. It suggests to the audience that we need to shift our view of things, that maybe the opposite of what things seem to be is closer to the truth, and this thereby foreshadows Hans’ betrayal.

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I've always liked the idea that Olaf is Elsa's love for Anna. It all comes full circle in the third act when Anna is dying and Olaf is the one to unlock the door (this is also important to the movie's theme of doors) and save her from freezing to death.

As we know Anna goes on to save Elsa and also herself, but without Olaf, (Elsa's love) both Anna and Elsa would have died. And as for the doors. The movie is rife with closed/open doors, both physical and metaphorical. But in the end, Anna escapes the castle by going out a window and Elsa by destroying a wall, not by a door. It's definitely highly symbolic.

- Anon A

That's why he's both childish AND wise. The former is because Elsa and Anna's love is immature, since they became estranged, and the latter because despite that they still changed as individuals and so their love deepened.

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On a discussion of Anna’s running off to search for Elsa…

While I definitely agree that she was foolish as hell to not take [supplies], from her perspective, Elsa is on foot: she not only couldn't have gone very far, but she wasn't going to be climbing any mountains. Also, I don't think it's so much the case that Anna never left the castle, in the same way it wasn't the case that Elsa never left her room. It was moreso that the castle was secretive and the people that entered and left it were watched carefully and allowed only in certain areas, depending on how much people trusted them, and the number of foreign visitors was kept to a very small number, perhaps none. Look at the way Anna talks to the crowd and Elsa addresses her subject in the ballroom: it's not that neither girl has never seen outsiders, it's that they've never seen them in such numbers and variety. The castle gates open for a huge influx that would be the norm for a coronation, and it's the first party both have seen in a long, long time, but they likely have interacted with outsiders before. How else would Anna know how to mount and ride a horse if she never left the castle? It's pretty unlikely she'd just be trotting in circles around the courtyard. How about the places she brought Hans during their song: that waterfall was clearly outside the castle. Instead, it's probably the case that Anna was heavily escorted when she did leave and wasn't allowed to roam far, but she didn't because she didn't have anyone to share her adventures with and she wanted to remain close to Elsa, both in the hopes that Elsa would one day accept her and to monitor her sister for signs of problems.

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Here are a few observations about about the eternal winter Elsa accidentally set off in Arendelle:

1. It never once snows hard enough to blanket the ground as thickly as seen in the movie.  This means that the snow was simply growing from the ground like some icy weed.

2. Despite the lack of wind in the movie, the icicles that form on many of the surfaces all point in one direction: away from the North Mountain or, more precisely, Elsa’s ice palace.

3. Half of the trees at the base of the North Mountain are encased with snow on one side, causing them to bow away from the ice palace.

Headcanon: While Elsa’s ice palace was the first time she had ever let it go and cut loose, it was also her fortress, a place of sanctuary to protect her. Her own power obeyed this unconscious desire to defend herself from everyone’s ridicule, fear, and hate.  Thick snow made it difficult for people to get to her, while ice formed sharp spikes as a warning to others: “Keep Out.”

- elsannaheadcanon

Admin Note: It doesn't snow hard onscreen, though we don't know how long Anna was searching for Elsa (although we do know that it changes from nighttime to daytime by the time she's seen calling on her horse for Elsa. Neither of them are covered in snow, but it's possible she took shelter somewhere). Kristoff himself is covered in snow when he enters Oaken's shed, though his full sled suggests he's been at higher climes. It's possible that Elsa's snowflakes followed behind her at a lag, which would explain it snowing in the courtyard but not when Anna is searching for her, and that, like her stepping on the fjord and freezing it, her powers did essentially cause the snow to simply appear.

There was wind, enough of it to blow Elsa's cloak away when she tossed it aside, though she didn't appear to be struggling against it at all. Another side effect of her powers? But then we see her being blown about by her storm at the climax. Of course, the difference in emotion between those two scenes is staggering, and since we know that a positive emotional state allows Elsa greater power and control than a negative one, it could be that her feelings during the climax were wearing her down, both emotionally and physically, while during "Let it Go" she was buoyed by her power.

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Kristoff sees the beauty in [Elsa’s] powers when others saw danger and fear. He admires her powers, and would probably encourage her to use them instead of teaching her to hid and fear them, like her parents did.

[…]

Kristoff and Elsa also have similar views, like “you can’t marry a man you just met” or “people who run into the mountains want to be alone”. […] He also encouraged Anna to leave when he realized Elsa was uncomfortable with their presence. Kristoff respects Elsa’s space and feelings. He also understands Elsa’s perspectives, and he usually share them. Since they’re both the same age [21] their maturity level is pretty much equal, and they’re slightly more collected, sensible, levelheaded, and serious than Anna. No that Anna can’t be when she wants to be, [but] I feel like Anna’s bubbly, energetic, sort of look-after-you-leap personality would sometimes annoy Kristoff, and sometimes he would enjoy talking to Elsa a wee bit more because she’s a little more poised and composed.

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Anna rides astride her horse, not sidesaddle. There’s not a moment of hesitation from her, either. When she calls for her horse, she doesn’t wait to change into more appropriate attire. She simply mounts up and goes. […] Plus, her horse has a standard saddle, which indicates she normally rides astride.

Now, what about Elsa?  Let’s assume she has little to no skill in riding (which makes sense, considering her isolation).  […] Would Elsa wear a riding habit and ride sidesaddle?  Or would Anna convince her to change into breeches and ride astride?

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Special saddles were invented in the 1830s to help facilitate women to ride aside a horse, to help maintain fashion/decorum/decency/etc.

I can easily see our rambunctious Anna in breeches riding astride her horse, with our more subdued Elsa dressed in a riding habit, riding sidesaddle.

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It’s pretty much common knowledge that the only times it actually snows in Frozen is when Elsa is truly upset. […] It snows twice over the course of the movie. The first time it starts to snow is when Elsa flees from Arendelle. And when does it stop?

When Elsa lets it go.  All the snow in the air vanishes in this moment.  Everywhere.  Check out the scenes of Anna on her horse, the wolf chase scene, and the climb up the mountain.  No snow to be seen anywhere.  The only snowflakes that appear are the ones Elsa creates…

…until Anna appears at her ice palace and informs her of the Eternal Winter.

The snowfall returns.  It’s present as Kristoff and Anna travel to the trolls, when Hans arrives at the ice palace to recover Elsa, and when Hans’ true nature is revealed.  The snowfall remains until the end, disappearing only after Anna thaws and Elsa discovers Love Will Thaw.

- elsannaheadcanon

Admin Note: There are three other times it snows in the movie; when Elsa makes it snow inside as a child, when Elsa makes it snow in the courtyard as an adult, and when Elsa is sitting in her room, distraught at the death of her parents.

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Did anyone else notice the wood-carved trolls outside of the Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post?  It makes me wonder what sort of folklore the people of Arendelle have about the trolls.  I can see the ice harvesters that work in the mountains heading to town to sell their wares, sharing stories of troll sightings.  I can imagine children playing in the woods, trying to see if they can spot one.  I can picture a grandmother telling a story of her youth to her grandchildren of being lost and scared in the woods, only to be led home by a kindhearted troll.

Of course, actual folklore of trolls is far from kind.  Any random search on- or offline will reveal countless tales of trolls being hurtful and dangerous to humans.  And who’s to say that Arendelle’s folklore won’t have a story or three of trolls that kidnap misbehaving children in their sleep?  Still, I’d like to think their stories would lean more towards trolls being benevolent, similar to the Germanic kobold, specifically the house spirit variant.

- elsannaheadcanon

Admin Note: Though in Norwegian/Scandinavian literature the troll is often considered a useful, but still terrible creature at best (there are several tales of Saint Olav, who introduced Christianity to Norway, asking trolls to build churches for him, promising them impossible things should they finish within an allotted time, and defeating them by calling them by their true name) and an evil man-eater/stealer at worst, in the movie they serve as purely good forces (and walking plot devices).

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On the subject of Kristoff’s intentions when we first meet him…

In [one deleted] scene, we are introduced to Kristoff, scaling the cliffs of Arendelle.

Once he reaches the top, he hauls up Sven with a rope and proudly announces, “Here we are buddy: our summer oasis!”

Obviously, our Kristoff is quite strong and skilled, able to scale a mountain side and haul up his reindeer companion. Though the scene was deleted, I’m certain it, like the deleted scenes with Anna, was used to help formulate Kristoff’s character.

Now, let’s look at another scene, this one from the actual movie. Kristoff arrives at Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and Sauna, covered in snow, and hunting for supplies.

Oaken asks, “Where ever could it be coming from?” in reference to the sudden winter.

Kristoff answers, “From the North Mountain,” as he gathers a pickaxe and rope.

What is our experienced mountain man doing here? He’s purchasing supplies to scale the North Mountain himself and discover what caused the winter and perhaps put a stop to it. He isn’t intimidated by the sudden winter; he’s irritated that he and Sven lost their summer oasis. There’s no way he’s going to take the loss of his summer oasis lying down, not when he can do something.

Food for thought: if Kristoff had enough money and had been 15 minutes earlier or later arriving at Oaken’s, he would have gone up that mountain without Anna and met Elsa by himself. He would have been the one to reveal the Eternal Winter to her, not Anna. And the music number that followed would have been completely different.

- elsannaheadcanon

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Let’s talk about Elsa’s magic here.  Ability to create ice and snow?  Check.  Immunity to cold?  Check.  Able to create sentient life?  Check.  So powerful she accidentally freezes an entire kingdom and doesn’t even need to consciously maintain it?  Check.

Now, how about this: does Elsa destroy matter and replace it with ice, or does she convert normal matter to an icy replacement?

Check out the dress.  That high-collared coronation dress had no exposed front but her ice dress does, and we see the top of her chest and collar bone.  In addition, she has completely new shoes (with heels instead of flats) and a noticeable lack of leggings/stockings.  What happened to those?

Now, look at Anna’s boots [in the scene where Elsa creates ice skates for her].  You would think it’d be simple to add the skate blades onto the soles of the boots and encase the heel for support.  Instead, the heel completely disappears, replaced by blades of ice.

Destruction or conversion?  The evidence can go either way.  Personally, I lean towards conversion.  Perhaps this is a way that some of Elsa’s ice creations can survive in the heat of summer without her concentrating on them.

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On the subject of Elsa’s kissing Anna when holding her after striking her as a child…

"You’re okay, Anna.  I got you."

[…]

Right before the King and Queen step into the ballroom […] it sounds like Elsa gives Anna two quick kisses (pecks on the forehead and lips, perhaps) while desperately trying to comfort her.

[…]

This is when both Elsa and Anna were full of love for one another, that big, innocent love that children always have in abundance.  And the kiss didn’t help.

- elsannaheadcanon

Admin Note: Good catch, and allow me to add my interpretation. The reason that this kiss, and, as the directors confirmed of a potential Kristoff-Anna kiss during the climax, doesn’t/wouldn’t work is because it is not an act of true love. It is certainly the act of a child who loves her sister, but in this movie “true love” has a particular meaning: sacrificial love, without the hope of receiving anything in return (one might be right to argue that this truly is the essence of love, to give one’s all and not expect anything in return, but rather to give for the sheer joy of giving).

Elsa had not, at that time, given up anything for Anna. Over the course of the movie, she sacrifices a good deal for Anna (not just her, because she has a responsibility to the safety of her people, but the initial event that sparks her retreat from society is her inadvertently hurting her sister; her father's "this has gone too far" indicates that other situations like this have occurred). The climax involves Anna taking on her sister’s role and giving up her life for the mere chance that Elsa will live. That is why, though Anna undertakes the traditional hero’s journey, it is Elsa who changes as well, because the sisters mirror one another over the course of their lives and the movie; Elsa, who retreats and denies herself for the sake of her sister’s life before the movie and Anna, who advances and blames herself for the loss of their relationship, become Elsa, who tries to search for Anna and blames herself for the loss of their relationship, and Anna, who finds her sister and denies herself for the sake of her sister.

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On a discussion of post-canon, infidelity driven Kristelsa...

I just don't see Elsa stealing Kristoff from Anna. Elsa gave her childhood, her sanity, and her happiness up for Anna; what's a little crush against that? I could only see Kristelsa happening if Anna gave Elsa her blessing/it's an AU.

Elsa retreats when she is threatened (until she can't) both emotionally and physically, and her feelings would be threatening to her and her sister's relationship. She would retreat, Anna would follow, the truth would come out, and Elsa would remain passive because she has always feared doing things would cause greater harm, leaving Anna to make the difficult decision (which is why, in some ways, Anna is more mature than Elsa is).

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He really has a huge thirst for being seen as relevant, worthy and capable, as the admired hero.

I'm assuming that the eldest of the Southern Isles princes would have at least 13-16 years on him (I can't believe there's been a new child every single year), so the eldest would be close to 40. So Hans came to the scene far too late to be taken seriously for anything, and has a burning desire to prove everyone wrong. I also think that he just showed up hoping to charm Elsa and then just reacted to every turn with the end goal of marrying as close to the throne as possible in mind. He’s got a lot of bitterness and anger, and he's really ambitious and ruthless, an ends-justify-all-means kind of guy - but he didn't show up plotting to kill the princesses and take over himself. How could he have done? No-one could have anticipated the events of the film.

- Anon

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On a discussion of "why didn't Hans kill Anna...?"

That scene just shows that Hans follows some sort of honor code, even if it's twisted - he won't get involved in his fiancee's death, even if it would benefit him. Anna will die only as a result of Elsa's curse, no one can lay her death at his feet. Then he can honestly say that he just did what anyone else would have done in the situation, it wasn't his fault that Anna died, which is sort of true - it seems that Anna will die because Elsa cursed her to death, and Elsa has to die because she cursed the land and murdered the remaining ruler, her own sister, and besides it's the only way to stop the winter. So even without Hans, both sisters would end up dead anyway, as someone else would certainly go after the Queen. Leaving Anna alive is sloppy and a bad move on Hans' part, but it's sort of moral, it keeps his hands clean. Also his downfall, so nice lesson there, Disney.

- Anon A

He still could've smothered her. What if the ambassadors/servants had asked to see her body? What if she was still alive? He knew she was sure to die, but he didn't know when. He could have easily smothered her with a pillow and then gone off and tell people that she had died because of Elsa's curse: see, her hair is all white!

He flat out told Anna that he was planning on killing Elsa right from the beginning when he realized that she wasn't receptive to romantic advances. The man does not have an honor code when it comes to killing those in between himself and power.

- Anon B

I think he does, it's just twisted. Also arranging for an accident and killing someone with your own hands is a bit different. In any case, we see in many instances during the film that Hans is quite competent and doesn't shy away from killing. I think it's just crossing some final line in his mind - arranging for the throne to be empty, fine, smothering your own fiancee with your own hands when she's already dying, not so fine. Hitman's honor or something like that

- Anon A

At the very least he should've just sat there and watched her die. Leaving her to not be dead yet and claiming her death to the people who may or may not go and check her body was stupid. That is a seriously twisted honor code. Killing someone who is already dying is a bit different from arranging the assassination of a perfectly healthy person. Hell, it's probably better to do the former. I don't think it had anything to do with honor. It was about him wanting someone to gloat to. It was all about his ego and over-confidence, a classic trait of villains.

- Anon B

This is true, but since it's Disney Anna can't die so he had to leave to give her a last chance. But the gloating has nothing to do with him not killing her. He could just as well gloated first and then choked her.