#helsa hints

Elsa's losing her powers

I've seen a few posts going around theorising and wanting Elsa to lose her powers by Ahotohallan being destroyed. And reading them and understanding their perspective, I start to love the idea more and more to be honest because I honestly feel Elsa is mostly loved by the audience for her powers or at least some of the people who know her in - universe see her for her powers but what we really need to see is who she really is without it too. I think that could be quite important to see. How would she continue to look out for her family, her people, her kingdom and her forest?

Frozen 3 has been debatable since its announcement because of Frozen 2's ending, also quite controversial. I personally am always generally excited for more movement in the franchise because I'll always love Frozen no matter what. Frozen will always be in my heart, especially the first movie. But yes I am unfortunately on that "disappointing ending for Frozen 2" boat but I also see that Frozen 3 could potentially fix some of things that have been bugging some of us as well as adding and keeping the things we love. Frozen 2 was originally going to be the last film I think given Jen Lee's words in one of the interviews back then but looks like they changed their minds and might possibly be listening to us and this new director of Frozen 3 could do just that. Jennifer has recently said that there's a strategy to 'more Frozen' and that is that if there's more to tell for the story, then more Frozen will happen. So they can't keep the sisters separated for too long and will expand on the characters growth which is a good thing because it gives them the opportunity to fix the things we don't like and add things we do want to see.

Some people don't quite understand Elsa's fifth spirit role, why she had become something so unclear to understand, and made a decision to live in the forest instead. I from a perspective can understand it. Though the podcast is non canon, it's still something Elsa would do and act in on a situation given as so. The spirits are quite mythical and powerful but can easily be in evil or someone who doesn't understand magic's eye's catch and make them rage, as we do see in the podcast with Disa. But at the same time as looking after the forest, she is also concerned about her own kingdom. My explanation includes spoilers from the Frozen Podcast so skip to the 'Reasons for powerless Elsa' part. Queen Disa lives in Arendelle after a flood encounters her kingdom. Anna with open arms accepts Disa and all her people to her kingdom while Elsa had her doubts on Disa over time with her uncertainty yet knowledge for magic but respects Anna's decision of course. But actually it's just Elsa who misses being Queen having her schedule, knowing what decisions to make, but she's not at all saying Anna's a bad Queen, she just missed the role. Weird shaped machines are found in the forest that cause the spirits to act up and Elsa deals with them with Anna's help. Disa eventually admits she put the machines there because she wanted to help Arendelle. When Anna tells Disa of her confession, Elsa still feels no good about Disa despite her good intentions. The point is that Elsa is mainly in the forest to keep it out of harm's way such as we see. Also because of the fifth spirit being the bridge between Arendelle and Northuldra. If you look at the scene where the sisters reunite you could say that Elsa actually means that the bridge, the fifth spirit is both her and Anna. While Anna looks after Arendelle, Elsa looks after the forest. But I do also wish to see Elsa return back to Arendelle permanently at some point. I'll expand more on Elsa's fifth spirit role in another post but what this has to do with powerless Elsa is you first have to understand what she is with those powers now to understand how she'll be once they go.

Reason for powerless Elsa

Elsa has recently got a lot of hate - well actually I really wouldn't say hate but rather less love than she used to get because looking at the franchise as a whole Elsa takes up some of the spotlight and her growth through her powers is evident throughout. Why not really show her development in the character she really is, by making her understand not what they're worth but what she's worth with and without them. She's first seen looking at her powers as a curse and feeling fear of accepting her powers completely and seeing it as a gift that it actually was in reward to Iduna's act of saving Agnarr, her people's enemy. She's always been the most popular between the sisters too within fans and stood out more in merchandise too partly because of these powers. You'd even see kids dress more as Elsa than Anna. And that in her iconic icy blue gown. But while Elsa lost some love, Anna has gotten more love. Throughout the franchise, we see Anna's growth through optimism through all her ups and downs, especially her deepest darkest moment in Frozen 2, given she thought she lost everyone and everything at that point. It's not easy being head steady and strong in such a situation but she really showed us that we can do it.

And no I'm not saying Anna had more character growth than Elsa or vice versa in any way - please don't get me wrong here. I love the sisters both equally - it's true! I'm saying we need to see the natural side of Elsa. We need to get to know her for who she is without them too. Just like how Anna was more than just the spare (as it goes in a deleted song for Frozen) and a few years later she became Queen because she did truly earn the role through everything she endured in that sequel, the same way I want to see Elsa being more than just her powers. And while you're at it let's give her another big solo, with most or all of it being without her powers showing her athletic abilities and strong determination that is already there and is enough to survive whatever situation goes on. That moment in the dark sea when Elsa faces the very sea that killed her parents was one of my if not number one favourite moments in Frozen 2. We got to see Elsa run and jump and dive and literally fight and tame at the same time, a water horse. Elsa had been wondering her whole life about her powers origin and now that she's so close to not only seeking the truth about that but about the past that could somehow destroy the future of Arendelle too. That determination to set things right, to find out who she is is what I want to see but extract the literal magical side of it.

And as far as the theory of Anna getting powers goes, I personally don't approve of it because I think it sends the wrong message if Anna becomes like Elsa. That would make people prefer one or another even more and create the typical 'whose more powerful' argument etc. Anna already has powers. It's love. Yes love. It may not be a literal thing she can shoot out her Hans like Elsa but like hers, it's in a way a true force of nature. It's the strongest power there and Anna shares that power with everyone. So instead of giving a character powers they should strip Elsa of her powers temporarily to get those who see her for just her powers, to see her as so much more than that.

The effect of losing her powers

Elsa losing her powers would make Elsa be in an identity crisis, thinking she's nothing without them. In Frozen, her identity crisis was about how she was with her powers, feeling too dangerous for this world. But she's grown since then and has come to terms with them so now instead of feeling relieved as she would've in the first movie, she feels anxiety of not being enough to protect this world. Everyone has mostly relied on her because of her magic, so she would fear everyone loving her less or thinking herself as useless without them or something along those lines. (In Frozen 2 we literally see her taking requests from a few of the citizens to make ice sculptures). Elsa then finds herself back to square one; Hiding from everyone, wanting to be alone or hating herself. And I'm not saying everyone, in Arendelle and around, love for her for her magic only but Elsa, losing her powers, would think that but now that she's embraced her powers, with Arendelle and Northuldra now looking onto her as their saviour, protector, warrior etc, it's natural for her to think so. I mean think about it - girl has been with these powers since she was born, they're literally a part of her. She hated them for most of her life ever since she first hit Anna with them, then she sees let's go of holding it back to finally seeing the beauty in them and then starts questioning it's purpose and if she was meant for more as she feels them growing so she starts to search for answers in a place where she meets other creatures similar to her feeling like she's not alone with being the only known magical being as a call comes from the North which leads her to finally finding the birthplace of her powers and finally embracing them but then.. they just go. Just like that. That would totally cause major trauma and grief and stress. She's relied on them for so long. She finally embraced them. Finally found out she was with them. They even saved her life multiple times. They were the very first gift. She thinks she's everything she is because of her powers; in Frozen, she thinks she can only harm with them, feeling like a monster and here she thinks she can only save and protect lives with them, feeling like a saviour/ protector. But through a journey she could have with Anna or even solo one similar to the journey to the North mountain (or rather to her building her ice castle) in Frozen or the journey to Ahotohallan in Frozen 2, she starts to see that she's more than just her powers. She learns to love herself for her true self, with or without them. That would mean she would learn to be less reliant on her powers and more of her natural elements. It's what's inside the heart that really matters. With everything she's been through so far she thinks she's finally found herself, finally embraced her magic, in Frozen 2, but no she really hasn't. I know she's the Fifth Spirit/ the Snow Queen and that's what her powers are of and that's what she is and you would think that would be her final destination of her journey of growth but no - fact is she is more than just her powers and she needs to see this.

How would she lose them?

Some of you might be wondering well, how would Elsa lose her powers? It would mean something bad happens to Ahotohallan. But no not necessarily because Ahotohallan could be the one testing her. It did give her the gift in the first place so it's much capable of taking it back too. But you also wonder, she finally finds who she is, what her role in life is, so how can she live up to it and fulfil her duties without her powers? Remember that these were a gift to her as a reward for Iduna saving Agnarr when they were younger. Let's not forget the most important part of it all that, Iduna saved Agnarr without any powers. From what we saw of her flashbacks, she had a close relationship with the spirits so they helped her in saving Agnarr. So Elsa should look back to that moment and believe she can still save the forest and her kingdom from any kinds of threats without her powers too. The spirits will obviously keep their bond with Elsa, if they're around depending on how Elsa loses her powers but she could too, like her mother, use the spirits' help but not for things that would take away the whole point of this test. That's one option to stripping Elsa's powers temporarily, a test from Ahotohallan to see her courage and determination to protect her kingdom and forest as well as those she loves, too see if she will still keep what she has learnt of the lessons she has learnt from last experiences. Another option could be a punishment from Ahotohallan. Perhaps Elsa takes her magic too far and gets carried away with it leading Ahotohallan to see Elsa being ungrateful. I mean she was originally in the concept set to be the villain if it wasn't for "Let it go"'s huge success and other reasons too. It would be interesting to see if Elsa takes a dark turn in believing whatever it is she's doing wrong is for the good. But I think the first option is more likely if Elsa were to lose her powers because it really pushes her limits and her character growth and shows everyone that she can be just as naturally strong like her sister and can depend on her one natural abilities and skills too.

The physical change

Speaking of Iduna, losing her powers would mean all those physical features of hers that show her powers would go making her go brunette like her mother, just like Anna has strawberry blonde hair similar to their father's and grandfather's. Her clothes would perish given they're mostly created with her own magic and so she'd have to rely on earth material clothes. Her skin would turn warmer from being as pale as the skin gets when one's cold. Her attire colour pall would de - transform from a bright and pale cool colour bright palette to a darker, desaturated one, still in cool colours to separate it from Anna's wardrobe but also to show that she still loves her cool colours. Anna has the greens and reds and warm pinks but I think Elsa will be similar to how she was locked up in her room with the dark pale blues and blacks representing the trauma and identity crisis within. It'll be a parallel to her trauma when being locked up. While her role-found gown is white, her no power attire should black. Then as she starts to understand the point of all this, starts to learn the lesson from this, her costumes start having more colour and perhaps when she's finally found herself it'll be blue and white showing the two parts of herself she found while struggling on a journey with her powers inn Frozen and Frozen 2.

Hans' role and redemption

Okay I know the very mentioned of Hans will blow some peoples heads off thinking “He's just a one time villain and joke” or “He tried to kill Elsa! Anna won't ever forgive him” or “Elsa mocked him in Frozen 2! She won't forgive him either” etc etc. But I'm not going to waste my time trying to explain why Hans deserves redemption and that he wasn't really evil or the real villain of the story, when the lovely @a13thprincefora13thprincess has taken hours out of her time to write the most beautifully written 13 part analysis on who Hans really is. It's incredible. It's what got me to really push on the call to Redeem Hans.

So while she breaks down Hans' true intention, I'm going to try and explain his return for redemption and his pivotal role in Elsa's identify crisis.

I think Hans would be quite important here and have a good parallel with Elsa's crisis here. How and what's his role in it? Well let me briefly explain Hans true intention first. Anna hates Hans, and everyone does too really for almost killing Elsa and attempting to overthrow Elsa's newly royal status as monarchy of Arendelle. But really if we look at the situation closely, the entire council including the Duke were begging Hans to kill her because she couldn't end it the winter herself and because they fear Elsa's powers could harm others. They wouldn't get off his back. Hans wasn't listening at first because in almost all the scenes Hans has encountered Elsa he's tried to convince her to not be what “they” [Citizens and the council] (not him) fear she is and try and stop this winter. But the more he saw Elsa controlling her powers by making a huge ice castle, a snow beast, a new attire, hurting Anna (seemingly intentional to him as by Anna's words), breaking out of the handcuffs and the prison cell and finally the blizzard having a sudden stop the moment he told Elsa Anna's dead, the more he saw that Elsa lied to him about not being able to control her powers which led to him eventually agreeing to kill Elsa seeing as innocent lives were in danger given the blizzard. Before the final straw, being the handcuff and prison break, he was gentle and kind, he never said anything mean about the sisters nor did anything against them til. Hans was stressed and put under pressure given the citizens of Arendelle freezing to death, the council begging him to execute Elsa, Anna going missing for days in freezing weather, begging Elsa to end this winter and Anna being the case of Elsa going rouge and freezing the kingdom by causing as scene at the coronation party. It was really a misunderstanding and his behalf. As I'm sure you've heard a few times in Disney media, villains aren't evil, just misunderstood. But really the council are the real villains of Frozen, not Hans. But then again seeing that kind of magic and the way her powers came out, one would feel scared and think she's some kind of Sorceress.

Hans' "villainy" reveal scene

When the kingdom was thawed, and Hans was surprised to see Anna alive, he said to her he thought Elsa froze her heart. I just want to go back to the scene where Hans "villainy" is revealed because I want to explain as briefly, as I can, how him being stressed was the cause of his bad decisions from that point after. Hans is surprised to see Anna alive, when she came to him for the kiss, because when his horse, who Anna rode to find Elsa, ran back to him he thought Anna didn't survive the cold and died. But Anna tells him Elsa froze his heart which genuinely surprises him because Anna before had told him Elsa would never hurt her and with such powers that Elsa had making everyone fear her, Hans genuinely believed Anna with that being said. What makes Hans think Elsa did this deliberately, is her lack of explanation, her precise words to Hans, who says she said herself Elsa wouldn't hurt her, being “Nope. I was wrong”. From this point Hans starts feeling confused as to what Elsa's intention is and realises that he has to kill Elsa before she hurts anyone else. As for Anna he starts thinking she deserved it because all of this was all Anna's fault because if she didn't create a scene at the coronation party, Elsa wouldn't have ran and accidentally cause the Kingdom to freeze and wouldn't have had the repetitive suggestions to kill Elsa and Anna too wouldn't have been hurt and Arendelle would've kept their respect for him. So it makes sense for Hans to burst under stress in anger on Anna leading him to go mad. Imagine it like this: You are put in charge of a kingdom. You have to make sure the citizens are warm and safe, but have to reason with the 'gone rouge' Queen and have to find the missing Princess all the while the Kingdom gets colder and people start to freeze to death. Stressful right? Not just for a ruler but anyone put in charge would feel the same kind of pressure in a situation like that.

Swapped roles and intended plot holes

Originally, Hans was supposed to be a good guy while Elsa was the Villain. The good and evil roles were swapped around after Disney heard "Let it Go". That's why Hans' villain reveal felt so sudden and was unexpected. And that's why Hans' is alongside Elsa, Aan, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf I'm some of the movie posters. That confirms that what we saw of Hans before this villain reveal was indeed genuine. They also wanted Hans falling for Elsa too, which is why they have that chemistry, that dynamic, those scenes that get us, Hesla fans, to ship them. That's why the plot holes such as how Hans brought Elsa to the castle and how and why he gave her the blanket in the dungeon etc exist. And speaking of those specific plot holes [events from Elsa's ice palace to the dungeon], we can almost say for certain that it was Hans who carried her to and on his horse and gave her the blanket in the dungeon. The chains could be Hans or either or the guards, believing that the chains would hold back Elsa's powers. What I say it was Hans is because why would the Weselton guards carry her when they hate her and follow the order to kill her, and why would her one Arendellian guards carry her when they fear her. Hans is probably the only one who doesn't fear her. He's really just shown doing his responsibility as the one in charge.

So really we, who want Hans redeemed, are just trying to make sense of Hans' character rather than accept that he's all of a sudden a villain when before he revealed it, it wasn't really shown, hence the twist of the movie.

Feeling the guilt

Back to the Frozen's real villains, the Duke's punishment was cutting off all trades with Weselton and Hans' punishment was being sent back home. When the guards send both of them in the boat (separately), the Duke tried to resist and get out of it making excuses but Hans didn't. He didn't even say nor do anything to resist being sent back home and leave Arendelle. It's like he was already feeling the heavy guilt and regret. So why is going home a cruel enough punishment for Hans whether or not Arendelle knew Hans' backstory? But more so what is Hans' backstory? Let's find out.

Hans' backstory and intention

Hans is a prince from the Southern Isles, a neighbouring kingdom to Arendelle. His family consists of both his parents, and 13 older brothers. Being the youngest and least important in a large family would be difficult for anyone, royal or not. He is the youngest of 13 brothers. In the book 'A Frozen heart', it's revealed that Hans' father and brothers excluding the third oldest, Lars, treated him harshly and disrespectfully both emotionally and physically because he was the youngest son and last in line throne and hence to their eyes, useless. To add to it, all of his brothers including Lars, are married excluding Hans making him more vulnerable to his father's and brothers despise for him. His mother however, loves Hans' nonetheless just like any mother would love her son. His father had a saying to him that goes something like “The strong should pick on the weak”, which was his excuse of treating Hans like so. Hans wanted to prove to his father and brothers that they are wrong about him, and in fact is capable of ruling a kingdom, of respect, of love. He had to face it; he's never going to get the throne of his own and feel loved, whether his brothers have offspring or not and as much as he tried he just felt neglected, so he decided to squeeze into a throne somewhere else. Lars was the youngest child for a while so he knows somewhat how Hans is feeling. With his help, Hans found out that he could fit into the throne of Arendelle hearing upon Elsa's coronation. While his brothers and father could care less about where or what Hans' was doing, I'm assuming he told his mother that he was going to Arendelle for the coronation as a guest on behalf of his kingdom.

So when he got to Arendelle, after Anna ran off to find Elsa after the incident and the coronation party, she left him in charge and that led the the kingdom and the council to rely on him and that is what made Hans feel important and feel like this is his chance to prove himself worthy of love and respect by giving the same to the people. But being put in charge of the kingdom also came with pressure of holding the responsibility such as making sure the princess and Queen are safe, making sure the people are looked after, etc. Having sent back home, after attempting to kill Elsa, instead of receiving respect and love from his family he originally thought he would do so by gaining or rather stealing the throne and proving his worthiness of love and attention, he instead will be recieving more despise and disappointment from them along with other punishments of their own too like we see in Frozen Fever. And as he faces punishment he would regret more and more giving in to the council's manipulation to attempt to murder Elsa and most of all for letting the people of Arendelle, who looked up to him and relied on him for care and warmth (metaphorically and literally), down. In fact no; the worst of punishments is his mother's disappointment in him. He let his own respect down from the eyes of everyone down.

Hans' role in Elsa's identity crisis

So now we can finally answer the question, 'How and what's Hans' role in Elsa's identity crisis?'. Given all that said about Hans' intention, a way for him to seek forgiveness would be doing the exact opposite of what he was going to do, which would be saving Elsa's life. He won't have this idea come to mind when going ot seek forgiveness but a situation may arise in which he does do so and rectifies his past mistake. Now many have theorised and hoped for Elsa's powers to disappear temporally leading Elsa to go on an identity crisis, given she's had her whole life with them, fearing them loving them and for them to go would cause chaos within her as I've explained above. If Hans returns for redemption, he would also be finding himself while trying to seek that forgiveness. Hans will never be king and he may not feel himself worthy to be king anyways after what he's done. He's the spare of all the spares. So what his purpose in life? All he can do to start the road to redemption is ask for forgiveness to Elsa and Anna by helping them somehow perhaps..? So while Hans has his identity crisis (his own redemption arc), Elsa begins hers too. Elsa is now just a regular girl and she would think everyone hates but Hans would tell her that no, she's more than just her powers as he knows what it feels like not being important anymore and feeling like you've let people down, losing everything of which you claimed as your identity. They'd share a moment of heart felt talks and understandings but perhaps before this moment he saves her from doing something that would kill her and he saves her knowing he might die instead because saving Elsa without a risk to himself would make Elsa not buy it as he has saved her once, before he trusted to kill her, which would rectify his crime in attempted murder of Elsa. Why would Hans want to die? Well as I just explained on what I believe Hans backstory to be of, and given the outcome the situation in Frozen, Hans' would have to accept that he will never be loved by anyone. So upon trying to see forgiveness from Elsa (and Anna), he doesn't think they'll accept it and just sarafices himself for Elsa because he now knows Anna can't live without her. He knows that they have a stronger sibling bond than he had with his brothers. But when they're both safe, they sit somewhere and have a conversation in the situation they're in, like mini conversation in the dungeon in Frozen, but more impactful and meaningful. It would make Elsa begin to see that there really is more to Hans than just his mistakes and he starts to grow on her. She has no reason to believe he's still after the throne or any kind of power because she's not Queen anymore and doesn't even have her powers but is instead just a regular girl (and Anna is taken anyways). Their interaction could go something like this: “I'm nothing. I'm not the Queen anymore, I don't been have my powers. I'm just.. a regular girl”/ “A regular girl who is a Princess who gave up her crown to someone who you thought deserved it more because you didn't want to take away the attention of being the 5th spirit and Queen from someone who loved so much, she save your life twice. That's a true nobility of a Queen.”. Those wondering how Hans would know what went down in Frozen 2, well, given that Arendelle has made peace with the Southern Isles (as written in a newsletter in the new Arendelle theme park in Japan), the King and Queen would be talking about it and Hans would know from them. If Elsa was still Queen there would be doubts that he is still after the throne or if Elsa has her powers, some might say he wouldn't love her without them or he's trying to study Elsa's magic etc. We know her own family, Anna, Kristoff, Sven and Olaf would love her with or without powers and I'm sure the people of Arendelle and Northulra do but we need someone who would cause some doubts to people in order for Elsa to find herself. So that's why it's so perfect for Hans to come into the picture when Elsa loses her powers temporarily.

Learning from the situation

If Hans returns, which I believe is possible with all the hints lately, and if the writers feel like taking Elsa's powers away for some time, in the movie, then there you have it - my theory comes true.

After she regains her powers, the lesson she would have learnt is that she is more than just her powers. And Hans would be the king to his Queen and gain her respect and love without actually being the king and having respect through being a monarch. And I think it fits in well with the story, making that part of the reason why Elsa gave up the throne to Anna; So that Hans would love her for who she is, with or without her powers, with or without the crown because love shouldn't come in conditions.

Some might say Elsa is better off alone but I think not because one, love can happen to anyone even if they're an independent person, and two, I personally find it necessary for Elsa's partner to be one who loves her with or without the crown and her powers and as I just explained Hans is a perfect example of that. Just because Elsa seems alone doesn't mean she's not interested in men or isn't attracted to anyone. I believe she was just focusing on self discovery through her powers and family through Anna. Now that she's found herself and is assuming that Anna is well and about to enter a new life with marriage to Kristoff, it would be a great time to get Elsa to unintentionally explore romantic love. But anyways I think this theory, of Elsa having a love interest whose no longer after status, would fit in well because Anna deserves the crown for everything she is and has done for others with or without the crown and Elsa would be loved with or without her powers and the crown and by someone too. It would fit in with their individual arcs perfectly! Elsa and Hans need unconditional love from each other. Hans' biological family don't give him enough of that and Elsa needs it from someone other than family.

Plus further reasons why Elsa and Hans are soulmates are these; Elsa is a North girl, while Hans is south. Elsa is born in winter and given Hans' hair colour and some people associate him with fire, but imma take that as an Autumn guy.