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All of Anna and Elsa’s warm hugs in Frozen II (companion to this one from the three preceding films).

Bonus:

Raise Your Voice

In Frozen II, when she is 24 years old, Elsa hears the mysterious voice calling her for the first time one fall afternoon. At this time, she is celebrating the season with her family and kingdom. That same evening, Elsa hears the voice calling again when it is her turn to act out charades while playing it with her family. But during the middle of the night, she (and we the audience) hears the voice being more persistent than before when and after it wakes Elsa up, and she acknowledges it while singing “Into the Unknown”. Although Elsa quickly realizes that she is the only person in her kingdom who can hear this voice, when in the Enchanted Forest, it calls to her again after she meets Bruni, and she discovers that he can hear it, too. He shows Elsa that it’s coming from the north, so she decides she must keep going in that direction to find it. Later, after learning about the existence of a fifth spirit from Honeymaren, and upon discovering that her parents were going to Ahtohallan to learn more about her powers before they perished, Elsa concludes that this is who has been calling her from Ahtohallan. Upon coming to this magical river after taming the Nokk, Elsa starts singing “Show Yourself” and hears the voice calling out to her a couple more times. When she reaches the main chamber of Ahtohallan, Elsa steps into the centerpiece between the diamonds of the four elemental spirits, taking her place as the fifth spirit, and unlocks visual moments of the past. One of these moments is of Iduna as a girl, holding the unconscious Agnarr in her arms the day she rescued him while the battle took place between their respective peoples. Seeing her mother vocalizing during this moment makes Elsa realize that she has finally found the source of the voice. (And yes, the voice that Agnarr said he heard as a boy, as shown when he briefly open his eyes and falls back into unconsciousness, was that same voice of Iduna.)

So once Frozen II ends, I know that, since it doesn’t offer the direct answers, it has brought up the following questions by fans and especially first-time viewers:

If Elsa was always the fifth spirit, why is the voice calling to her now?

Why hasn’t it called her at a much earlier time in her life?

When the battle between the Northuldra and the Arendellians took place, to whom or what was Iduna calling when she saved Agnarr?

And more importantly, why exactly is THIS memory of Iduna vocalizing made to be the source of the voice that calls Elsa to discover her destiny as the fifth spirit?

Considering the fact that there were originally no plans for a sequel, specifically one which would focus on the origin of Elsa’s powers, the fact that the mysterious voice is finally calling out to Elsa when she is 24, and never did so much sooner, may initially seem like a major plot hole within the story. But despite that, I can offer a plausible explanation for it.

In the beginning of Frozen, Elsa is a joyful, playful young child who has a close bond with Anna, and they especially love to play together using the former’s magic. The fact that she is shown as very happy and playful might explain why Elsa appears to have no problem controlling her powers. But after accidentally injuring Anna to the point of nearly killing her with her powers, Elsa becomes so traumatized that she believes they are monstrous, and that they make her a danger to her entire family and her kingdom. Agnarr and Iduna decide the best thing to do is to cut themselves off from the outside world while they help Elsa learn to control her abilities. While the couple do their best to help their daughter, nothing successfully works for too long, if even at all. During this time, Elsa isolates herself from Anna and refuses to play with her anymore, under the presumption that staying away is the best, and pretty much only, choice she has to protect her sister from her powers. Although she maintains contact with Iduna and Agnarr for guidance, when she is 12, Elsa withdraws from her parents by totally banning them from making any kind of physical contact with her.

Over a period of 13 years, Elsa grows up struggling to control her magic with little to no success, as she is too burdened by her own fear, insecurity, guilt, depression, misery, and anxiety; all of which are the very emotions that only hinder her ability to keep her powers in check. Throughout these years, being fearful, isolating herself, and seeing her powers only as destructive is why Elsa never considers seeing them as a gift and what possible good purpose(s) they could offer. By the end of the movie, Anna’s sacrifice finally helps Elsa realize that love is the key to allowing her to be in complete control of her magic. Of course, even with this discovery, it does not mean that Elsa would instantly become 100% confident about herself and her magic. After spending more than a decade of living in fear and isolation, putting everyone else’s safety and other needs before her own, and thinking that her powers were nothing but dangerous, it is only natural that it would take a lot of time for Elsa to feel much more positive and at peace with them. Not to mention by then, while she would no longer fear her powers (at least not in terms of being terrified that she would lose control of them at any moment), Elsa would continue to wonder why she has them in the first place, so she still wouldn’t completely understand them.

Elsa has been and was always meant to be the fifth spirit ever since her birth. But it was due to those years of isolation and fear of her powers that prevented her from learning of her true identity much sooner. If she had not grown up the way she had, then yes, I believe that she would have been able to acknowledge and embrace her destiny far earlier in her life. Probably not while she was still a child, but most likely when she had reached young adulthood.

Moving on to Frozen II, its main events take place three years after the original film. As said by @yumeka36​ in this analysis, when this new story begins, it is a time where Elsa has reconnected with Anna and gained acceptance from her sister and the people of Arendelle, which has allowed her to reach a level of comfort and stability with herself and her magic, enough that she could start thinking about grander things. These things would include wanting to learn the origin of her powers and wondering if there is some greater purpose for which she was meant to use them, although Elsa likely simultaneously believed that she would never be able to find the answers to these questions. Also by this point in her life, Elsa’s powers have grown immensely that she can do things she hadn’t only a few years before, which includes Olaf being made of permanent frost that keeps him melting completely. 😉

While Elsa has not become 100% happy with who she is and her current place in the world even after three years, she has come so far (if you’ll please excuse the pun, but I think it makes for appropriate foreshadowing! 😆) by becoming more confident in herself and her magic, which has grown even stronger (most likely because of her improved confidence and happier emotions). So with having reached these levels of stability and strength, perhaps the magical side of Elsa has begun to take over, allowing her to hear the voice finally calling out to her. And it calls out to her as a way of telling her that she is now ready to take the next big step in discovering who she really is and from where her powers come.

When she realizes that she is the only person who can hear the voice, Elsa initially feels curious, then distressed. Right before and during her number, Elsa tries to ignore the voice’s persistent, continuous calls, but her curiosity ultimately gets the best of her, as she believes it has something important to tell her about her powers. Even though by now she is happy with her family in Arendelle, Elsa is not content with her role as queen because she still desires answers about her magic and wonders if her purpose is really meant to be ruling Arendelle. As @yumeka36​ also said, when Elsa finally decides to follow the voice, the spirits sensed that desire and awoke, then proceeded to evacuate Arendelle, in anticipation that she would discover the truth and choose to do the right thing.

Moving on to the origins of the voice, during “Show Yourself”, when we see the memory of Iduna calling out while she holds Agnarr, a gust of wind, which is obviously Gale, can be seen, albeit very briefly, before the camera shifts back to Elsa. Some fans and viewers probably think that Iduna is either vocalizing to Gale or to something else that isn’t actually there, like the fifth spirit. But I say that, during this flashback, Iduna is indeed calling Gale.

How do I come to this conclusion? Because Gale’s name actually has a few different meanings that presumably reference her role in the film’s story. As a noun, a “gale” is defined as a very strong wind (making her name appropriate as the Wind Spirit) that is more than a breeze and less than a storm, but also as a song. With the latter definition, and as a verb form, “to gale” means “to sing” or “to call”.

Make sense?

I also believe without a doubt that Iduna’s vocalization is, in fact, a special call she had for Gale, which suggests just how strong of a friendship the two had before Iduna was cut out of the forest. Although Gale, along with the other spirits, was shown to be acting out against both groups of people as the battle took place, as shown by the figures in Ahtohallan, she still helped Iduna get Agnarr (and Iduna herself) to safety before the mist covered the forest.

Why? Perhaps it was because Gale had such a strong bond with Iduna that she couldn’t refuse helping her friend. Perhaps it was because she could see that Iduna was so selfless and pure of heart to be rescuing her own enemy that she wanted to help her. Or perhaps it was because Iduna was just an innocent bystander in the battle (like Agnarr himself) who was doing absolutely nothing wrong, so Gale took enough time to help her friend do what was right and got both of them out of the forest before she and the other spirits unleashed the mist.

As for the reason as to why the memory of Iduna vocalizing is the source of the voice calling out to Elsa, here’s what I think about it. Despite being a Northuldran, the enemy to Arendelle, Iduna took the first step in doing what was right by rescuing the Arendellian prince during the battle, and she called out to Gale to help her get Agnarr to safety. Sometime after Agnarr returned home and Iduna also took up residence in Arendelle, the two subsequently became friends and grew up together, ultimately leading to them falling in love, marrying, and giving birth to Elsa, then Anna.

Elsa, the couple’s first-born child, was given magical powers of ice and snow by the other forest spirits as a reward of Iduna’s heroic act. She is, in essence, a chosen one destined to do the next right thing 😉 and finish what her mother started by righting ALL of the past wrongs that were caused by Runeard.

😄 😭 😠 😨 😝 Elsa and her Inside Out emotions throughout Frozen II. 😝 😨 😠 😭 😄

Split Decision

So I think what happens at the end of this particular scene in Frozen II has caused some controversy about Elsa’s actions. I’ve seen fans here on Tumblr displaying anger towards her because they believe that she was only hugging Anna, and then had Olaf join them, in an act of trickery to lure them closer to her so she would make sure that her ice boat creation would surround and hold them before she sent them away.

However, while I agree that Elsa’s move was a bit sneaky and deceptive, I understand why she did it and why she felt it was her only choice, even though she knew Anna would consequently be furious with her over it. And now that I think about it, I look at Elsa’s hug from another perspective and believe that it wasn’t merely a trick to lure Anna and Olaf into her boat trap, but her own way (though a rather forceful and indirect one) of saying goodbye to them.

Before this happens, Elsa has decided to venture to Ahtohallan alone, without Anna, saying that crossing the Dark Sea to reach Ahtohallan would be too dangerous of a trek for both of them to make. Yet Anna adamantly insists on coming to prevent anything from happening to Elsa, which she had earlier promised to Pabbie.

The thing here is, Elsa turns out to be completely right about the Dark Sea. When she tries to cross it, she gets knocked down twice by the waves, struggles to swim in the deep, choppy waters, and has to use her powers to try to overcome the obstacles to get further out and closer to Ahtohallan. Things get more complicated for Elsa when the Nokk appears; several times, it aggressively attacks her and attempts to drown her, forcing her to fight back with all of her might until she finally makes it settle down.

This whole scene reminds me of the earlier scene when Elsa decides to go to the forest and tries to discourage Anna from coming, saying that she (Elsa) has her powers to protect her, while Anna does not. But Anna stubbornly refuses to take no for an answer, given what dangerous feats she overcame on their previous adventure without the use of magical powers.

The entire scene of Elsa against the Dark Sea proves her point about her powers’ use in protecting her perfectly. She would not have been able to take care of herself by working to get past the big waves and fighting the Nokk if she had to do it with Anna, too. Maybe this sounds a little biased, and I don’t mean for it to sound that way, but it’s true that only Elsa could successfully face off against the Nokk since they are both magical beings (and as it turns out, Elsa is an elemental spirit just like it). Okay, yes, we’ve seen how Anna can do a damn great job of taking care of herself in tough situations, and I give her credit for it. I am not at all dismissing her as a weak, inept, incompetent, helpless damsel in distress, because I KNOW she isn’t. She’s tough, plucky, spunky, brave, and fearless. But Anna DOES have her limitations, and I think she sometimes overlooks or underestimates that about herself. Successfully crossing the Dark Sea and taking on the Nokk is NOT something she would have been able to do at all.

Getting back to Elsa’s reasoning that she had to go to Ahtohallan by herself, like I said, the scene of her doing so proves that she was right. Now she probably didn’t anticipate on encountering the Nokk, but I bet Elsa did think that there might be risks about which she didn’t know yet while crossing the Dark Sea, which is another reason why she refused to let Anna come along. 

Another thing here that catches my attention is how Anna doesn’t seem to heed Elsa’s words about the sea being too dangerous if they both tried to go, since she immediately responds to Elsa’s statement with, “No, no. We do this together. Remember the song? ‘Go too far and you’ll be drowned’.” It is crystal clear from these words, and from her earlier scenes where she never wanted to leave her sister’s side, that Anna had a desperate desire to protect Elsa during this journey.

When she adds, “Who will stop you from going too far?”, it sounds like Anna isn’t thoroughly considering that the chances of Elsa dying was much greater, and for herself as well, if they tried to pass the Dark Sea together. Anna wanted to ensure that Elsa didn’t head too far into Ahtohallan’s depths and dying, but they wouldn’t have even made it to Ahtohallan without crossing the sea first. They both could have perished before getting there, and then their mission would remain incomplete. Then again, perhaps Anna did realize the possibility of them both not being able to make it across the sea, but she just didn’t want to accept or even think about it because she was far more afraid of losing her sister if Elsa went all alone.

Obviously, the fact that the two discovered moments earlier that their parents had died trying to reach Ahtohallan in search of answers to her powers is what made Elsa decide that Anna could not go with her. She guiltily felt responsible for Agnarr and Iduna’s deaths, and she didn’t want to carry extra weight on her shoulders by feeling responsible for Anna’s safety and taking the chance of her dying if they went together. Since Anna is the only blood family Elsa has left, she refused to risk losing her, too.

I mean, remember: Elsa briefly lost Anna once before, and at her own hands, so she was determined not to let it happen again. Any chance of losing Anna again on this journey would no doubt be permanent, and Elsa would never forgive herself if that happened. 😔

Like the earlier scene, Anna stubbornly refuses to take no for an answer to Elsa’s decision to go to Ahtohallan alone. While she understands Anna’s fear of the chance that she (Elsa) may die on her trek, Elsa knows that she may have to take that risk just to do what is right for Arendelle and the forest. But successfully crossing the sea is something that is far beyond Anna’s control.

So having made up her mind that crossing the sea would be more dangerous if they both go, Elsa puts her foot down (by LITERALLY doing so when she creates the ice path 😆) with utmost and firm determination that Anna cannot continue the journey by coming to Ahtohallan with her. 

When Anna says that she wants to come because she can’t bear to lose Elsa, Elsa says she can’t lose Anna, either, and pulls her sister in for a hug. Like I said above, I see her hugging Anna, and Olaf, not just as a ruse to ensure that she could send them off to be safe, but to say goodbye. If Elsa thinks that she may die and thus never see them again, then she wanted to embrace them now since it may be for the last time. Despite Anna’s insistence and voicing her fear of losing Elsa, Elsa feels that her fear of losing Anna is even greater since Anna would be in much greater danger with trying to cross the sea. So she resorts to forcing her sister not to accompany her by making the ice boat and sending Anna and Olaf away to make sure that they wouldn’t and couldn’t follow her. Elsa also creates the ice path on which for the boat to slide to ensure that the two would be sent too far away for them to easily follow and catch up with her.

Additionally, I have been wondering if Elsa’s desire to journey to Ahtohallan on her own wasn’t just for the safety measures of her sister, but also because of her introverted nature, because of her independence and desire to do certain things alone (which she clearly demonstrated when she made up her mind to travel to the Enchanted Forest). Additionally, the fact that Elsa is another elemental spirit of the forest, the fifth spirit, means that she had to go to Ahtohallan by herself, as part of her destiny to learn her true identity. She had to be independent, as she likes to be, and discover the whole truth for herself, on her own.

While Elsa is the introvert between the two sisters, Anna is the extrovert, and with this kind of nature, I don’t think she truly understands the ways of introverts. It is with this scene, and even in Frozen, when she insists to Kristoff that “nobody wants to be alone, except maybe you” as a response to him saying “Most people who disappear into the mountains want to be alone” that shows that she doesn’t entirely comprehend their ways. Maybe after three years, Anna understands Elsa and Kristoff’s introverted behaviors a little more. But when considering the big picture, I think she still believes no one ever really wants to be alone, or even do things alone, just because she doesn’t want to. After all, Anna spent nearly all of those 13 years alone and isolated from the outside world, and she wants to make sure she never goes back to that life. And yet despite her tragic childhood and adolescence, Anna grew up to be kind, sweet, loving, and good-hearted, and never hesitates to help others and do what was right. However, it also seems to have made her a bit delusional and unrealistic by thinking everyone else wants to be around people like she does, or that they always need help for every situation. Anna doesn’t appear to fully understand that some people like to be independent and have to do things on their own, nor does she seem willing to accept the fact that she can’t help everyone with everything, especially Elsa. She has to learn that she can’t be by Elsa’s side all the time just to stop every bad thing that might happen. She has to learn to accept and respect the fact that Elsa feels comfortable taking on some challenges all by herself and doesn’t always need help. In the first movie, Anna’s ignorance of Elsa’s secret is part of why she didn’t understand why her sister was so distant and closed in. But even after discovering it, she still disbelieved that Elsa wanted to be alone and that it was a major reason why she ran away. And while she was right in the long run, Anna sometimes seemed to go too far with her optimism since she didn’t really listen to Elsa’s concerns that she couldn’t remove the winter curse. Likewise, when she first met Kristoff, Anna didn’t understand his grumpy, rude, unfriendly behavior towards her and Oaken, or his contemptuous attitude towards people and society.

So now in this scene, Anna seems to be unable, or perhaps just far too stubborn, to comprehend the fact that Elsa MUST do this on her own as part of her destiny, and that her powers could help her through this, while the same could not be said for her (Anna). Again, the tasks of making it across the Dark Sea and simultaneously taming the Nokk are beyond Anna’s control. It would have been far more treacherous than climbing the North Mountain, surviving a frozen heart, and saving Elsa from her ex-boyfriend without powers to aid her. 😉

Moving on, when Anna and Olaf are finally out of sight, the last shot of Elsa in the scene shows her holding herself and looking unhappy at what she did. As I said in “Keep Your Hands to Yourself”, Elsa does feel guilty and unhappy over sending Anna away the way she did, knowing full well that having done so has made her sister angry at her. But right now, Elsa is far more concerned about Anna’s safety than her happiness, and she would rather send her away to be safe than let her come along for the rest of the journey just so Anna can be happy that they are still together.

So again, Anna could not come with Elsa to Ahtohallan because the perils of the Dark Sea could have killed them both. If it didn’t kill both of them, Anna would have been the more susceptible victim because she possesses no magical powers to help her, especially in dealing with the Nokk. With even one of them dead, Elsa and Anna’s mission would never be finished; as I explained in “Girls in the Mist”, they HAD to do it together.

Elsa’s decision to split her and Anna up in this scene means that for now, she has broken her promise that she and Anna would do their mission together. But when Elsa temporarily freezes to death upon going into the most dangerous part of Ahtohallan, Anna manages to lift the mist and free the forest by provoking the Giants into destroying the dam.

Going off the Deep End

In Ahtohallan, Elsa discovers from the snowy ice manifestation of her grandfather that his acts of kindness and friendship to the Northuldra were completely false. The tribe’s connection to magic, something he detested and feared, secretly made Runeard distrust them and wrongly believe that the Northuldra’s alliance with the magical forest spirits served as a threat to his monarchical power.

When the ice figures of him and the second-in-command officer exit the main chamber where all the other figures depicting memories are held, Elsa senses something amiss with Runeard. After quickly recognizing how much his paranoid feelings towards magic molded him into an arrogant, bigoted, tyrannical supremacist and corrupted his judgment on trusting others, she senses there was something more sinister going on with him. She wonders if he may have had dark motives or intentions the day he and his army visited the Northuldra in the forest.

So when the figures depart, Elsa follows them to find out what Runeard said and did next.

Elsa walks behind the figures as they descend a flight of stairs. She overhears her grandfather admit that the dam he constructed and claimed to be a gift to the Northuldra would actually weaken the forest and starve them of their resources; thus forcing them to turn to Runeard in their desperation. After the figures are no longer in sight, Elsa reaches the end of the stairs, then continues walking the way they came, stopping only when she comes to a precipice, which she doesn’t realize until she trips at the very brink and nearly falls off of it.

Halfway through her descent of the stairs, an echo of Iduna’s voice is heard singing the “All is Found” lyrics of “Dive down deep into her sound, but not too far or you’ll be drowned”, with the last line being most prominently heard when Elsa stumbles at the edge.

Once she catches herself, Elsa cannot see the men anymore, but she hears Runeard saying, “They will come in celebration, and then we will know their size and strength.” Then she hears him feigning kindness as he “welcomes” the Northuldra, while also seeing visual images of the Northuldrans and Arendellians as they approach each other. Hearing her mother’s singing voice, especially so when she comes to the tip of the cliff, makes Elsa realize that she is very close to, in fact, right above, the deepest level of Ahtohallan.

Like I said in this analysis, in the aforementioned song, the lyrics that come before the warning are “In her waters deep and true, lie the answers and a path for you.” The cavern where the Runeard and the second-in-command figures go implies that this is THE place in Ahtohallan where all of the deepest memories are stored. By “deepest”, I’m not just referring to their location at the deepest, bottom part of Ahtohallan. I mean that they are the oldest of all memories; ones of events and moments that took place a very long time ago, ones that occurred years before Elsa and Anna were born, and with people that they never knew or met in life, including their grandfather.

But these memories are also called the “deepest” ones because they contain the darkest, most sinister secrets about the past; secrets that very few, if not any, people know or have ever learned. We hear Iduna’s voice singing the lyrics because they serve as a reminder of what risky prices and consequences come with uncovering such secrets.

Once she reaches the cliff and hears the final words of her mother’s warning, Elsa realizes she is now going too far. She realizes that she is approaching the most treacherous part of Ahtohallan. She knows that If she goes any farther, all the way down to the bottom cavern, she will never be able to return.

Elsa hesitates, trying to decide what she should do now, what the next right thing (pun VERY much intended, because I can never resist using them when they are most apropos! 😆) is for her to do now.

Notice that in her hesitation, Elsa looks behind her, back to the chamber above, which is a much safer area. This clearly shows that she is scared, but also torn between returning to where it is safe or moving forward where it is extremely perilous, but also where ALL of the answers about the past are kept.

Then Elsa remembers why she came to Ahtohallan in the first place. She came to Ahtohallan to find out why Arendelle was evacuated and why it was stripped of its natural elements. She came here to discover why the Northuldra and Arendellian soldiers became trapped in the forest, to discover what exactly happened in the forest that lead to the conflict between both groups of people 34 years ago. Elsa also remembers the promises she made, to the Northuldra that she would free the Enchanted Forest, and to the Arendellian soldiers that she would restore Arendelle, and she is determined to keep those promises, no matter what the cost.

Elsa came to Ahtohallan to right a wrong, to resolve the conflicts of the past, and to restore the present so that the forest will be free again and her kingdom will have a future.

So even though Elsa knows she is nearing the most dangerous part of Ahtohallan, her need to find all of the answers she is and has been seeking to help the forest and Arendelle overwhelm her. The urge to fulfill her goals and keep her promises becomes far too great, far too important for her to ignore and turn back.

Kindred Spirits

While in the Enchanted Forest, Elsa squares off against three of the four elemental spirits. The first spirit appears when she is with her family. The second spirit appears when the five characters are in the presence of the Arendellian soldiers and the Northuldra people. Then the third spirit appears to Elsa alone.

It is my theory that the Wind, Fire, and Water Spirits, those being Gale, Bruni, and the Nokk, respectively, appear because they detect Elsa’s powers. They sense the presence of her magic, which makes them suspect she may be a spirit like them. Their “attacks” are actually tests in which they challenge Elsa to see if she IS truly the fifth spirit, and thus one of them, or if she is a fraud.

During her encounters with these spirits, Elsa must pass their tests, one at a time, to prove herself worthy of joining them.

These tests begin when Gale appears as a tornado. She aggressively sweeps up the whole group and swirls them around, but then she lets the others go while Elsa remains in her grasp. This clearly indicates that Gale realizes that Elsa is the ONLY magical being of the five. Elsa successfully stops Gale’s twister by shooting out ice, which leads to the creation of the ice sculptures. Afterwards, Gale reappears as a swirl of leaves (her usual form), and becomes very playful and curious.

After Elsa and her family meet the Northuldra and soldiers, Bruni appears when he starts a fire in one tree, then he jumps around more trees and runs to several other spots, setting much of the forest ablaze. Elsa emits ice from her hands to put out the fires, but she barely extinguishes them before more emerge. When she finally corners Bruni and discovers that he’s just a tiny salamander, Elsa calmly approaches him, then dodges a spew of fire and puts it out after he hisses and spits it at her. Upon seeing what she does to the aforementioned fire, Bruni’s aggression turns to curiosity, and he cocks his head as he looks at Elsa, who does the same gesture. He then cautiously approaches Elsa, and she gently extends her hand, gesturing that she means no harm. After Bruni climbs into her hands and happily settles down, Elsa creates some snowflakes, which he eagerly gobbles up.

When Elsa begins crossing the Dark Sea to go to Ahtohallan, she faces her deadliest spiritual challenge yet when she encounters the Nokk, a water entity shaped like a horse and the guardian of said sea. This test proves to be more difficult for Elsa, not only because she struggles to swim through the choppy water and its huge waves, but also because the Nokk acts more aggressive than the other two spirits did. It repeatedly chases after Elsa and tries to drown her, but she uses her powers to steadily fight back at each of its attempts. After creating reins to hold on to and ride the Nokk, it continues to resist and bucks several times to try and throw her off. But Elsa valiantly keeps her grasp, refusing to be thrown off, and the Nokk finally settles down. Afterwards, it carries her to Ahtohallan, then disappears into the water after she disembarks. Before they part, Elsa and the Nokk bow to each other, displaying a newfound respect that has formed between them.

When Elsa freezes in Ahtohallan after discovering the truth about her grandfather’s crimes, Anna receives the last-minute message from Elsa about the latter’s discovery, and concludes that the dam must be broken in order to free the forest. By this time, the Earth Giants are still the only spirit(s) left to be confronted. With Elsa dead, and Olaf gone due to the loss of Elsa’s magic, Anna alone takes it upon herself to face the Giants. She does this by provoking them into following her to the dam and throwing boulders to break it. Upon being awoken, the Giants react aggressively towards Anna by trying to stomp on her and throwing their boulders as they chase her. But Anna succeeds in luring them to the dam and getting them to destroy it. Once the structure has fallen, Elsa is revived, saves Arendelle, and returns to the forest. With the dam obliterated, the Giants are tame once again.

Now Elsa facing off, or rather, not facing off, against the Giants earlier in the film, as opposed to the other spirits, is a different story. Like Gale and Bruni before, and then the Nokk later, the Giants sensed Elsa’s presence when she was at the Northuldra camp, which is why they appeared there. They were attracted to her magic, which made them think that she may have been one of them. However, while Elsa briefly thinks she can settle them like she did with Gale and Bruni, Anna convinces her that it wouldn’t be smart to confront them now. Realizing that she would put everyone at risk if she stayed since the Giants would likely return and persistently search for her at the camp until they finally found her there, Elsa decides to leave immediately and continue going north.

Unlike the other spirits, I think if Elsa tried to confront the Giants, it would have been harder for her to settle them unlike the others, mainly because there are several Giants and they are all enormous in size.  @mike5579-t3a​ mentioned to me that Elsa confronting 40+ foot tall, heavy Earth Giants along with a group that consisted of the Northuldra, Mattias, the four remaining soldiers, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven would be a lose-lose or win-lose situation. Though Bruni’s fires were dangerous, they were quickly and easily extinguished, without having done significant damage to the forest, once Elsa calmed him down. However, the Giants’ size make them a bigger danger to everyone else, mainly because they and their boulders are capable of doing lots of unrepairable damage to the forest, most especially when they are in angry, aggressive states.

When it comes to other reasons why the Giants had to be confronted last, I think their monstrous size wasn’t the only problem. Keep in mind that in real life, earth is usually regarded as the most physical element in nature since it represents hard, solid objects like rock and stone. For that reason, I think the physical presence of the dam, a firm, stone structure, affected the Giants the most. By this, I mean that it made them the most aggressive of all four spirits because they are made of rock themselves. As long as the dam stood, the Giants could not be easily, if at all, pacified like the Wind, Fire, and Water Spirits. But once the dam was gone, the Giants returned to their original, peaceful state.

By the end of Frozen II, the Wind, Fire, Water, and Earth Spirits have not just reconciled with the Northuldra and Arendellians; they have resumed living in harmony with each other, the Northuldra, and now live alongside Elsa, the fifth spirit, in the Enchanted Forest.

Interestingly enough, earlier in the film, when the ice crystals appear after Elsa finishes singing “Into the Unknown”, she identifies them in the order of air, fire, water, and earth. This turns out to be a subtle foreshadowing of the same sequential order of the spirits that Elsa and Anna face on their adventure.

The Queen of Arendelle, everyone. She became queen the moment Elsa died, and she didn’t have to be animated with her hand holding onto the strap of her satchel in this scene... but they did that. And it sucks.

Anna was holding on to Olaf’s parts that are inside her bag- the closest physical remains that she has of her sister.

This is Anna taking another step. Grief starts to wreak havoc again. But she stands tall. Trying to.

I love this shot. I’m obsessed with this shot.

In the movie, you can visibly see her shut her eyes, open them again, and she takes a deep breath.

What now?

The next thing she has to do is go home and bury the only remains she could bury. And it’s not even an actual body, but they’re decorations of Olaf.

Right this moment, her entire family’s dead and there are no bodies to recover and grieve.

And she starts her reign as queen. Just the same way Elsa did - heartbroken from grief.

So you know what? Anna deserves Kristoff pining over her the entire movie. She deserves to have game nights whenever she wants. She deserves to have all the happiness this world could ever offer.

Queen Anna of Arendelle, the fairy tale character, was just as wounded and broken like Queen Elsa of Arendelle, the mythic character.

That is absolutely true! I think these particularly differences in Anna and Elsa’s gowns are meant to reflect their different personalities.

In both Frozen films, Elsa is occasionally shown as a shy, reserved introvert who doesn’t always show her real, whole self. She is pessimistic, but  simultaneously realistic, too. She is not always very communicative. She is often closed in and very reluctant to open up about her feelings, especially when something bothers her. Elsa also does not like being in the spotlight or having all the attention or focus on her when around people. Having this kind of personality does not always make her feel comfortable being the queen of Arendelle, and that is particularly shown on her coronation day.

Of course, throughout the first film, a major reason why Elsa exhibits an introverted personality is because she is constantly struggling to control her powers. Since the type of ice she creates reflects her feelings and emotions, she suppresses them for years as part of her desperate attempts to maintain control.

Furthermore, besides it reflecting the closed in, withdrawn personality she exhibits, Elsa’s coronation attire reflects her keeping her powers a complete secret from the kingdom. In her childhood, Elsa was given gloves as a way to prevent releasing ice from her hands. But as she grew up, she went further in trying to repress her powers by having her clothes completely cover her body.

So on her coronation, Elsa’s clothing covers her entire body, from the near top of her neck to her shoes, as part of her desperate attempt to conceal her powers and avoid revealing them to Arendelle. In this cover up (no pun intended, of course! 😉), Elsa is not only hiding her powers, but also her real self. She is worried, nervous, and anxious about being the center of attention, and is terrified with thinking about the worst that could happen.

In complete contrast to her sister, Anna is an extrovert, a total people person. She likes to socialize. She likes to chat. She likes to interact with people. She likes to talk to them, listen to them when they discuss their problems, and is always willing to help them out, if she can. Additionally, Anna is always very open about herself and her feelings. She never hides anything and always says whatever is on mind. She always show her true self in any situation and with any person. And above all, she is eternally optimistic in just about anything. Having these kinds of traits help make Anna better suited as queen than Elsa.

So while Anna’s coronation attire does cover up much of her body, which is presumably part of how a royal figure like a queen or king must wear such clothing for special occasions, unlike Elsa’s, the neckline of her dress is uncovered. This is an indication of Anna showing her kingdom the talkative, open extrovert she really is. She is not hiding anything about herself. Anna is being her whole, real self on this day. She is comfortable being in the spotlight and being around her people. She is happy and optimistic, focusing on the positive and is not worried about anything going wrong.