veritas lux mea

Maid of Honor, meet Lincoln Mathis You’re in New York City for your twin sister Emma’s wedding— and you’ve been warned about the charming Best Man. Yet when Lincoln Mathis exceeds expectations, you find yourself irresistibly drawn to him…

Play Someone Like You in Chapters: Interactive Stories to see how the rest of your fateful first meeting unfolds!

iOS: https://app.adjust.com/2leb0qo

“You are the one you’ve been waiting for all of your life.”

Two Songs, One Woman

In my first official analysis about Frozen II following the release of the film, I’d like to start by saying that, while I thought “Into the Unknown” was gonna be the song I would love the most, I have to say that my mind has been changed with my pick now going to “Show Yourself”. Now I did enjoy “Into the Unknown” and all the excerpts of it I heard from ads before the release of the film’s soundtrack. However, I am glad I did not listen to all the songs before watching the movie because I don’t think I would have understood the lyrics to “Show Yourself” and all the spoilers that came with it! My guess is that the promotional campaign focused so much on “Into the Unknown” in order to cover up all of the secrets that would be revealed during “Show Yourself”. And in just three days, I have listened to this song over and over again, and the more I do, the more I have come to realize that THIS is the song that is meant to be equivalent to “Let It Go” from the first Frozen! When I listen to it, it brings me to tears, especially when Elsa starts to sob in joy! 😭 And of course, I can think of just how these two songs relate and contrast to one another that I HAD to write it down for an analysis, so here I go! 😄

I see “Let it Go” and “Show Yourself” being counterparts that complement each other, the two halves of a whole circle about Elsa’s magic and her self-acceptance. “Let It Go” is the starting half of Elsa gaining her freedom and coming to terms with who she really is and her powers, and then “Show Yourself” is the closing half because it not only went further with Elsa fully accepting herself, powers and all, but also her self-discovery and self-realization. So what was started with “Let It Go” has ended with “Show Yourself”.

Going back to the first movie, in “Let It Go,” Elsa sings about how she is free for the first time in her life. She is free to be the person she truly is, the person she wants to be, and so she embraces her powers once again. Elsa becomes happy as she lets it all go (so to speak 😉). In the midst of her singing, she pulls her hair down from the bun she has worn for years (which represented her confinement of her powers and her isolation from people) into a braid, showing her rejection of her past and her return to the happy, carefree person she was as a child. Finally, Elsa creates her Snow Queen dress over her coronation dress (which covered her entire body, another representation of her repression of her powers) as her way of rejecting the past and making a whole new beginning in her life.

However, there is a downside with and after “Let It Go”. Despite what she sings, I don’t think Elsa is TRULY happy with her powers, leaving Arendelle, or about being all by herself. This is because she still has the feelings of anxiety, fear, and self-loathing she has had since childhood. There is no doubt in my mind that Elsa would still be wondering why she was born with magic in the first place, and I’m sure she thought about it the most after she harmed Anna and they were separated from each other. Not knowing why was also the cause of Elsa’s turmoil, so even though she was feeling genuine joy after leaving Arendelle, the negative feelings she had felt for years wouldn’t have just gone away overnight. For another reason, Elsa running away after her powers were discovered wasn’t the best solution to it. In real life, we are taught that running from problems don’t always, if ever, work because they can come back to haunt us unless and until we figure out the best way to resolve them. Elsa knows this, but since her magic makes so different from the rest of the world, it’s easy for her to imagine the worst about it, including how people would react to them. Therefore, she ran away because she didn’t know what else to do; she just didn’t see another way around it. Her line “I’m never going back” reflects that feeling of her only seeing running away as the best option. So while Elsa may have accepted herself, or rather, started to, while singing “Let It Go,” she still wanted to be accepted and not hated or feared by society, but felt that would never happen. Lastly, I don’t think Elsa was entirely joyous about being all by herself. Though she always pushed Anna away out of the fear that she would only harm her again, Elsa still loved Anna deeply and longed to reconnect with her. But again, her fear from the past was too hard for her to forget, which caused her turmoil and anxiety to remain as she continued to resist Anna’s efforts to mend their relationship.

Three years later, upon reaching Ahtohallan, Elsa sings “Show Yourself” and finally learns the whole truth about why she had been born with magic. As a child, Elsa’s mother Iduna was a member of the Northuldra, a tribe of people who resided in the Enchanted Forest, a place of magic and home to the four elemental spirits. During a conflict between Northuldrans and Arendellians in the forest, Iduna rescued Agnarr, who was the prince of Arendelle, before other people who were still in the forest became trapped in it by a mist.

For me, the best part of the song is the lyrics starting with “Where the north wind meets the sea” and ending with “All of my life” because it is during these lines that Elsa finally finds all of the answers to the questions she has had her whole life. She sees the memory of her mother saving her father, and then the memory of adult Iduna singing a lullaby. As these lyrics are sung, Elsa realizes and understands that her powers were a gift granted to her by nature because of Iduna’s heroic act. Upon realizing this, Elsa also discovers that she is the fifth spirit who unites differences. 

So at this point, Elsa finally has all of the answers. She has discovered the purpose of her existence, her true calling in the world, her destiny, and she wholeheartedly embraces it all while crying tears of joy. Like in the original film, she sang her main song about self-acceptance, but in this film, she goes further by singing not only about self-acceptance, but about self-discovery and self-realization. While she wasn’t 100% happy about herself during and after “Let It Go,” this is complemented in “Show Yourself” when she becomes overjoyed at learning the truth of her life’s purpose. Her joy is also because she sees her mother again through the memories, and Iduna is clearly very proud as she looks down at her daughter. And on the side, Elsa not only has Anna in her life again, but also a family with Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, and Sven, so knowing that she has people she loves and who love her in her life adds to her joy.

Furthermore, like in “Let It Go”, during “Show Yourself,” Elsa undergoes a change in her hair and dress to reflect her new major changes. In the former song, she lets down her hair, although it’s in a braid, which is how she wore it as a child, symbolizing the first step she takes in becoming free and who she is as the Snow Queen. Then in “Show Yourself”, her hair is entirely down and loose, showing her final step in being free and learning just who and what she truly is as the fifth spirit.

So back to what I said at the beginning, I see “Let It Go” and “Show Yourself” as being the two halves of a circle that focus on Elsa’s freedom and self-acceptance; “Show Yourself” completes what began with “Let It Go”. In “Let It Go,” Elsa embraced her powers once again and started to become who she is, but she wasn’t entirely at peace with herself because of her desire to be accepted by people, to reconcile with Anna, and to know why she had powers. Then in “Show Yourself,” she realizes that she was given these powers by nature because of her mother’s selfless act and that she is meant to be the fifth spirit. And now that Elsa finally knows the truth, she wholeheartedly embraces her magic, realizes who she is, and is overjoyed.

Okay so I put this together and I really hope it’s helpful to you! It’s actually less of a tutorial and more just a few tips and pointers that I personally find work for me while I’m drawing!

when your superhero date turns out to be your classmate [x]

they call me

1 [ToC] 29 | 30 | 31

One moment, she was watching the clock on the display of the stationary bike. The next-

“Jesus, Mikkel!” Elsa jumped, gripping almost painfully onto the handlebars to keep herself on the small seat. She was sure the heart rate monitor hadn’t hit that high the entire time she’d been cycling. “Please stop doing that.”

“Sorry! You’d… you know, stopped. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Elsa took a few deep breaths, not only to calm herself down, but to ensure she didn’t snap at Mikkel - no matter how much she wanted to. This was the second time that afternoon he’d appeared to check up on her, something he’d started doing ever since the seizure in his car. Ben had accepted her reassurance the first time he’d seen her back in the gym, as had Sonja. Mikkel however…

“Elsa?”

A warm, slightly chalky hand came to rest on her forearm, and she finally opened her eyes. “I’m fine, Mikkel. You really don’t have to keep checking up on me.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she stated, looking him directly in the eyes, as if she might be able to burn the response into his brain, “I’m sure.”

Mikkel looked slightly sheepish, removing his hand from her arm, mumbling an apology for the chalk left behind. “I’m in the weights area if you need anything.” He paused, waiting until she gave an affirmative response, before eventually leaving her alone again.

With a heavy sigh, Elsa looked back up to the bike’s display, briefly catching the gaze of a couple of other gym-goers before they hurriedly looked away. Hitting the stop button instead of resetting her workout, she hopped off the bike, leaving it to countdown the cool down time as she left for the break area.