#frozen arc

This chapter covers the events of Once Upon a Time Episode 4x02, "White Out." Hook and David must get along as they race against the clock to free Emma from an ice cave. Afterward, Hook is invited to stay while Emma recovers.

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One of the big problems with Frozen is that this was when “good” became defined as “anything the good guys do” and bad was “anything the bad guys do,” even when they were doing the same thing.

Gold was not coping well with things like having been dead, a year of horrible enslavement, torture, and insanity topped off with the death of his son. He was somehow blocked from fighting Ingrid directly (possibly because of Anna’s command to not harm her “sister”). Although he made some attempts to stop Ingrid from killing everyone in the town, when those fell through, he ruined the attempt being made to counteract Ingrid’s curse as part of his plan to at least save his family. This is clearly not a good thing.

Later in the show, Elsa sabotages an effort being made to counteract Ingrid’s curse so she can find her sister, who she hadn’t seen for 28 years, rather than wait a couple more hours (Anna, as it turned out, had gotten herself into a life or death mess and didn’t have a couple hours. But, neither Elsa nor anyone else knew that).

So, not to save her family. She’s just willing to risk killing thousands of people because, you know, sisters.

Emma comes along and tries to get the magic macguffin that will save everyone but decides to help Elsa instead.

So, she’s just agreed to sacrifice her family--her mother, father, brother, son, evil stepgrandmother--and thousands of other people because . . . I don’t know. She somehow lost her ability to say no while we weren’t looking? Apparently, sitting back and letting mass slaughter happen is one of those things friends do for each other?

At best, if we assume Elsa somehow knew Anna was in trouble (even though nothing in the show suggests that), these actions are morally equivalent. As portrayed in the show, Elsa and Emma’s actions are worse. Gold may be overly cynical and trying to justify his actions, but he makes his choice believing everyone’s going to die. He is trying to save two people from disaster when he knows he believes that’s all he can save. 

Elsa and Emma give every indication of believing the plan will work. Even if Elsa knew Anna was in trouble, this choice, as given in the show, is to try to save one person (Kristoff was a lucky second) at the deliberate sacrifice of everyone else.

But, Gold’s choice is portrayed as evil while Emma and Elsa’s is portrayed as good for no reason except that Emma and Elsa are card carrying members of team Good Guy.

I’m not opposed to Gold being the bad guy if the show had been examining the pressures and moral ambiguities he’s working with. Where’s the line between justification and rationalization? Sometimes, there are no good choices. But, does the lack of good alternatives justify the choices he made? Did he give up hope of a better alternative too soon? Or was he simply facing the inevitable? I would have loved to have seen the show exploring that.

Elsa and Emma make horrifying choices. Is this selfishness or naivete? It could be argued that their being driven by the opposite of what drove Gold, not accepting that choices had to be made and that their decisions had costs. It would have been great to see Emma, at least, realizing what her actions almost cost and weighing what this means about her as a person, recognizing that the savior almost killed everyone.

Related Plot Point: The plot makes it clear Gold can’t directly fight Ingrid (one of his arguments to get her to let him leave with Belle and Henry is that, if she doesn’t, he will spend the rest of his immortal life finding a way to make her pay), but the show is never quite clear why he can’t.

The best answer seems to be that, when Anna commanded Rumple with the dagger not to hurt her sister, the command covered Ingrid (even though Anna never seems to have been onboard with Ingrid’s sister obsession). 

In which case, could we explore the fact that a well-intended wish by a well-intended person nearly killed everyone? I mean, if you’re talking about moral ambiguity and how all magic comes with a price, a massacre triggered by good intentions has got to up there.

I got sucked into rewatching the Frozen arc of OUAT (solely because of a Frozen Swan gifset that I saw a few days ago) and I noticed something that totally shook me. Let’s take a look:

gif from dinneratgrannys

Does that remind you of anything? Any of the following?:

gifs from groovyfoxpeace

I liked the Frozen arc ;_;

yesssss!! I’m so glad some of you liked it as well!

I mean, I totally understand the hate it received, but DAMN the Frozen arc also had its pros and like, it was 9 episodes of pure gold filled with some precious moments that were absolutely in-character and it was hilarious!!

OUAT!Elsa being the sarcastic queen we all dreamt to see

‘I’m not bossy, I’m the Queen’ LIKE HONESTLY, ICONIC

‘Would you prefer a slide or a spiral staircase?’ every time OUAT!Elsa said something magic-related it was either precious or absolutely hilarious omg

every Elsa and Kristoff interaction ever was pure and very realistic tbh

the moment she created that bridge over that pit??? GODS

the absolutely clever relationship between Emma and Elsa

like, never in my life I loved a BROTP more than this one it was utter genius, they have so much in common, and i never realized it, help,

also Emma is Elsa’s only friend apart from Anna and Kristoff OMG HELP

anyway let’s stop talking about Elsa can we please talk about how Elizabeth freaking Lail totally nailed it as Anna

Elizabeth Lail is Anna in a modern AU tbh

or ABC developed a machine that allows Disney characters to come to life and they renamed Anna Elizabeth Lail there’s no other freaking explanation

yeah so Liz was literally perfect as Anna and played her with a genuine love for the character and a perfect balance between naivety and badassery

Anna and Belle being friends for a day??? YES????

That ICONIC moment when Anna ran after Elsa in the woods while wearing a GODDAMN WEDDING DRESS

Oh the whole wedding dress reveal scene between the two sisters was absolutely adorable I could watch it again and again

Anna and Elsa Constantly Supporting Each Other(TM)

Ingrid was annoying but a brilliant villain and Emma and Elsa interactions with her were quite clever + sometimes very funny

most of the main characters treated Elsa and Anna with respect even though they lied to them half of the time lol

THE. TRUNK. SCENE. WHEN. ANNA. MARRIES. KRISTOFF. WHILE. SOBBING. BECAUSESHETHINKSTHEYAREABOUTTODIEHELPPP

and when you think you’ve had your heart crushed enough for the episode...

THAT. REUNION. SCENE. ON. THE. BEACH.

KILL ME IT WAS SO BEAUTIFUL

ELSA AND ANNA BEING SO EXCITED TO SEE THE OTHER IS ALIVE AND HASN’T AGED THEY SCREAM AT THE SAME TIME OH MY HEART

the whole cave scene with Ingrid’s sacrifice - very stupid and hilarious for a villain death but it was a good scene for the other characters

The Final Scene Where They Go Hand In Hand To The Altar(TM)

anyway I’m a little bit obsessed by this arc can you tell

but did anyone else get once upon a time frozen arc vibes during Olaf’s frozen adventure, when Anna and Elsa were looking for stuff in the attic? 

Between Episodes 4x03 and 4x04, Emma talks to her family about her love life. Graham's death is acknowledged, David's conversation with "Prince Charles" is remembered, and Henry faces the reality of his mother dating Captain Hook. Ultimately, Emma accepts her feelings, and her family accepts her relationship with Hook.

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