#..playlist

(this is such a disjointed ramble, have fun y'all)

This may have been a bit of an obvious one, but one of the things I really love about Elsa and how she's changed and grown since I picked her up is the way she thinks about her magic and how she personifies it to herself.

Her perception of her magic is something that started out as heavily influenced by others; she had it tied so closely to her worth -- thanks to being the tribe's prodigy with this incredibly rare ability and responsibility put on her so early in life -- that any loss of control was seen as a personal failing. When The Incident occurred, her magic went from a beautiful gift and responsibility to something violent and dangerous and out of her control. It transformed from something that was hers to control to something that possessed and trapped her.

This was when her magic became a storm that she was barely containing -- a life-threatening force of nature that didn't obey reason, blustering instead through life with no regard of the lives it destroyed. This in turn affected Elsa's ability to control her magic. Fear is a huge part of Elsa's story (both in the RP and in the canon, I've been reading the Frozen novels and it's fascinating) and that fear became this storm that raged inside her, sharp and cutting. Turning it inwards was how she attempted to protect the world and those she loved from that storm, but in turn it tore her up inside.

As she began to understand and appreciate her magic again, conquering her fear and learning how to let go of her guilt, the way that she viewed her magic softened and changed. The actual change happened when she was inside of Ahtohallan, recovering the memories of her mother, when she was not only closest to the source of her magic but when she finally forgave herself.

This is when her perception of her magic changed; from a storm to a river -- still a force greater than herself, but no longer the antagonistic force it was before. The river can be smooth or rough, shallow or deep, but it always moves on in its familiar path, and it keeps her connected to the world instead of isolated from it. It moves through her instead of staying trapped inside, lashing out.

There's something to be said as well about the fact that Elsa has 'thawed'; rivers are running water after all, and Elsa has opened up and allowed herself to make so many important connections as she grows more confident.

Waters and rivers have always been a part of Elsa's world. From the Arenfjord to the river that flows through Solensby, these are features that have always been present in her life (Yes i know fjords aren't technically rivers work w/ me here). In that sense, the river of her magic keeps her connected to her childhood home even as she makes her new home and life in Swynlake.

And obviously we can't overstate the Ahtohallan of it all. I have a lot of opinions about the canon development of Elsa as the Fifth Spirit and how that changed her life, but the idea of Ahtohallan was the whole reason why I picked up Elsa in the first place and I'm so happy with the way I've been able to interpret that in the RP. Elsa's deepening understanding of her magic and the ways she's connected to the 'river of memories' is something I'm so excited to explore with her -- which has started with the 'dives' she's been taking with Mena into trying to recover her lost memories. I'm really looking forward to develop that more in 2026.

Also it means I get to give Elsa glowing magic eyes and y'all know how much I am a sucker for glowing magic eyes lmao.

As she's grown, her magic has gone from a cage full of sharp ice to a soft drift of snow cradling and protecting her. The storm that lashed at her and kept knocking her down to the river that carries her on the current and keeps her head above water.